Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.  Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. Joan Armatrading, Tom Robinson and the great music meltdown of Summer ‘76

    2 dgn geleden

    Joan Armatrading, Tom Robinson and the great music meltdown of Summer ‘76

    The blistering heat of 1976 burnt various things onto the memory – standpipes, strikes, Entebbe, ‘Confessions’ movies, Jeremy Thorpe – but most of all the records that became its soundtrack, some of them revolutionary, others begging for extinction. John L Williams captures the moment in ‘Heatwave: the Summer of 1976, Britain at Boiling Point’ and a paints of picture of a country on the brink of a vast pop-cultural shift. We talk to him here about …   … violence at gigs and football and on Derek & Clive albums   … dumb people pretending to be clever (prog rock) and clever people pretending to be dumb (Ramones)   … the rise of Joan Armatrading in the days before ‘identity’ marketing   … how ‘funny’ t-shirts were the memes of their day   … when Tom Robinson saw the future in Scarborough   … “mainstream culture gave you things to both love and hate”   ... how Rock Follies featured an imaginary Blitz Club where people danced in military uniforms   … Andy Summers (with Kevin Ayers) and Stewart Copeland (Curved Air) on the same bill a year before the Police   … why anyone with a Sensational Alex Harvey Band scarf got a wide berth    … Time Out’s headline: "It's the Buzz, Cock!"   … Tom Waits, aged 25, unconvincing hobo-hipster   … and Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Emmanuelle and the lowest point of the Radio One Roadshow.   Order copies of ‘Heatwave’ here: https://tinyurl.com/2kudc6xr Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min.
  2. Prefab Sprout - a tale of mystery, eccentricity and pop’s most famous motorbike

    3 dgn geleden

    Prefab Sprout - a tale of mystery, eccentricity and pop’s most famous motorbike

    Nige Tassell fell in love with the literary allusions of Prefab Sprout when at school and his new book ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ tells their unique and inscrutable story – and involves some delightfully off-road “deerstalker” investigation. You’ll find self-sabotage, square pegs in round holes, the eternal pressure to have hits, and a devoted portrait of ringmaster Paddy McAloon that leaves you convinced there’s never been anyone quite like him before or since. This sparks off in a million directions, these among them …   … the lure of bands who'd clearly been to the library and were unlikely to have a huge hit   ... Paddy’s stoic defence of their name   … his distaste for “diary songwriting” of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen   … Jesse James, Elvis, Hey Manhattan: the obsession with the romance of America   … the archive of unrecorded songs (one box labelled ‘For Rod Stewart’)   … how the success of The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll came to haunt them   … the inconceivable moment they appeared on the National Lottery with Bob Monkhouse and Mystic Meg   … pop tribalism on the school bus   … the dreadful circumstance that lead to I Trawl the Megahertz   … Paddy’s visual transformation from tousled pop star to hermetic semi-reclusive Gandalf   … and the fate of the Steve McQueen motorbike.   Order ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ here … https://linktr.ee/newmodern_books?lt_utm_source=lt_share_link#566128608. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    42 min.
  3. Gary Numan’s reality check – ‘I’m essentially a guy who wears make-up for a living’

    26 jun

    Gary Numan’s reality check – ‘I’m essentially a guy who wears make-up for a living’

    Seven hundred fans have contributed to ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’, a lavishly published compendium of memories of discovering, hearing and watching him over the 50 years he’s been making music. As you might imagine, he’s immensely touched, not least because – in this honest and extremely modest conversation – he feels his roller-coaster career was down to “perseverance not God-given talent” and that if he hadn’t come along, that devotional space in his fans’ lives would have been filled by someone else. He talks to us here from his home in Los Angeles and touches on …   … the extent of what music can mean to people   … how careers pan out – “huge highs then you fall off a cliff for a while”   … ‘I made though perseverance more than God-given talent’   … meetings with upstarts and superstars   … why he doesn’t listen to new music   … ‘Don’t call me, the Gothfather!’   … the press he got in the early ‘80s “that made fans hide their Gary Numan albums”   … how hip-hop and Afrika Bambaataa absorbed his music   … ‘I’m not unique, I simply supply a service”   ... and having your Gary Numan tattoo sketched for you … by Gary Numan!   Order copies of ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’ here: https://burningshed.com/richard-bowes_gary-numan-a-peoples-history_book Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    39 min.
  4. David Gray’s priceless memories of lessons learned the hard way

    23 jun

    David Gray’s priceless memories of lessons learned the hard way

    David Gray went through the roof with his White Ladder album in 2000 and he’s toured and recorded ever since, ending this summer’s loop at Latitude. He talks to us here about the rigours of seeing bands when you lived in rural Wales and the hilarious, hard-won lessons of the first gigs he played himself and every possible shade of crowd reaction. It’s an absolute whirlwind from start to finish and features ...   ... playing weddings, clubs, festivals and a Welsh village regatta   … the role of music in the construction of your character   … the turning point: “I arrived onstage to more applause than I’d ever had when leaving”   … the time gave Morrissey his string of beads   … the emotional architecture of live performance and how Elvis programmed his shows   … vivid memories of seeing the Cult (“bloody nose”), the Mission (“headbutted”) and the Stranglers (“we left terrified”)   … running from stage to stage at Glastonbury in ‘86 and the insular genius of the Cure   … his Liverpool punk band in their perishing “Joycean” flat   … the unbeatable sound of a crowd singing one of your songs     … Nick Drake’s frail sensibility and the value of growing a hard skin.   David Gray tickets here: davidgray.com David Gray’s new album Nightjar, a companion to his 2005 No.1 record Life in Slow Motion, is out now via Bella Figura. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min.
  5. Peter Frampton – ‘the Face of 1968’ looks back!

    19 jun

    Peter Frampton – ‘the Face of 1968’ looks back!

    Peter Frampton, for goodness sake! Part of our lives at Word In Your Ear since we were teenagers. Played guitar on national telly when he was 14. Joined the Herd at 16 and Humble Pie two years later. Had the biggest-selling album in American history in 1976 and now releasing his first new record in 16 years. From his home in Nashville, he looks back here – with great modesty, humour and affection - at how he adjusted to such mountainous success and to “when it all came crashing down” while throwing in a winning impression of George Harrison. This too …     … the Herd pursued by screaming girls across Streatham Ice Rink   … when “the Face of 1968” (Frampton) joined “the Face of 1967” (Marriott)   … recording with George, Ringo, Billy Preston, Steve Stills and Phil Spector (aged 20) - “where the hell am I and how did I get here?”   … “I’d fallen off the radar and Bowie gave me the biggest gift anyone could give me”   … the petrifying success of Frampton Comes Alive! - “I felt I’d be like a Rubik’s Cube, here today, gone tomorrow”   … the Scout Club gig (aged 12) that lit the fuse and playing Ready Steady Go! when he was 14 (same show as the Stones)   … when his father met Mick Jagger   … making the doomed Sgt Pepper film with the Bee Gees   … working with Sheryl Crow who’d had a poster of him when she was 14   … and revisiting his childhood home in Beckenham.   Order ‘Carry The Light’ here: https://www.frampton.com/ Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min.

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Info

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.  Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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