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. Adele Bertei, New York’s art-rock explosion and Eno’s shopping list

    23H AGO

    Adele Bertei, New York’s art-rock explosion and Eno’s shopping list

    Adele Bertei got a Greyhound to New York in 1977 intent on joining a band. James Chance thought she “looked like a pimp” and hired her as the organist in the Contortions, an instrument she couldn’t play. Her memoir No New York captures the most intoxicating times imaginable, the rise of Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Madonna and her fellow raft of No Wave cheerleaders in pursuit of dismantling music. Highlights include …   … the local priest recommending the Velvet Underground when she was 11   … “imbibe and dream”: her weekend with Lester Bangs   … the rubble-filled New York wasteland of 1977, landlords setting fire to property just to claim the insurance   … the No Wave circuit: crowd violence and singers who either talked or screamed     .. her rivalry with Madonna: “our labels didn’t want people to know we were white”   … the local Cleveland “Rust Belt” - Pere Ubu, Chrissie Hynde, Devo   … why Warhol, Ginsberg and Burroughs seemed laughably outmoded   … Brian Eno’s shopping list   … the power of Tina Weymouth, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry (“sexy but with a snarl”) and why New York’s venues are internationally mythical.   Order Adele Bertei’s ‘No New York’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571386154-no-new-york/?srsltid=AfmBOor2IKVLRyzzZDisLz_8cTGDYIjDXphZVU9Lw5drAd4CdKR1KVhs   Adele with Thomas Dolby on Whistle Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3bGioFCXU Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    36 min
  2. Steve Lillywhite produced the Stones, U2, Siouxsie, XTC - ‘the last leg of the relay’

    1D AGO

    Steve Lillywhite produced the Stones, U2, Siouxsie, XTC - ‘the last leg of the relay’

    Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The job involves being a lightning-rod, cheer-leader, editor, finisher and “as diplomatic as Henry Kissinger”. He looks back here from his ‘Lillypad’ in Bali at the milestones along the way, among them …   … “I’d done my 10,000 hours by the age of 22”   ... “If it ain’t broke, break it!”   … when he screwed up as a tape-op: “you only do it once”   … why bands never want to leave the studio   … breakthrough hits with Johnny Thunders, Siouxsie and the Psychedelic Furs   … “there’s been no new technology in the last ten years”   … the radio plugger who heard Sunday Bloody Sunday and said “sounds like a hit but you’ll have to lose the word Bloody”   … “when Mick and Keith weren’t talking they communicated through me”   … why Muff Winwood wanted to fire Larry Mullen   … why producers can’t hear a hit     … Adam Clayton and Nick Rhodes “aren’t musicians”   … “make the drums less Huntley & Palmers!”   … the Wrecking Crew versus the “One-Man Show" production of today    … and memories of making Vertigo, Fairytale of New York and Making Plans for Nigel. Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    54 min
  3. Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention, back in the van with a bag of toffees

    6D AGO

    Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention, back in the van with a bag of toffees

    Fairport tour again in 2026 and are playing their annual Cropredy Convention in August, its 50th year. The rolling Kent landscape behind him, co-founder Simon Nicol looks back at almost six decades in the line-up, the first shows he ever saw and played, why he can’t wait to get back on the tour bus again, and …     … the intoxication of live music – “lost in a moment that’s never happened before and won’t be repeated”   … Count Basie at the Astoria, aged 7 – “the moulded Turkish ottomans! The massed ranks of brass!”   … December 4 1972, the day he left the band (and why)   … “we’ve been self-governing since we were kicked out in 1979”   … the Ravens in Muswell Hill the night they became the Kinks: “frock coats and hunting boots”   … Professor Bruce Lacey, the mad scientist-inventor celebrated in a Fairport song   … Ashley Hutchings’ Little Black Book where band line-ups were assembled: “like an executive chef who chose the ingredients but didn’t wash up”   … playing Mississippi Fred McDowell and country blues in the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra   … narrative songs and the “shoulders-down” rhythms on Music From Big Pink and how Fairport found their identity   … finding obscure Phil Ochs, David Ackles and Joni Mitchell songs for early Fairport   … and the first Cropredy in the village hall in 1976: you can still arrive by barge!   Fairport Convention tour tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/gigs-tours/   Cropredy 2026 tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/tickets/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min
  4. Kenney Jones remembers the Small Faces’ masterpiece

    JAN 20

    Kenney Jones remembers the Small Faces’ masterpiece

    Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake is being reissued on Kenney Jones’ Nice Records, along with unheard outtakes discovered when the original master was found in one of his battered old drum cases. He talks to us here – with the compiler Rob Caiger – about the chaotic construction of the Small Faces’ 1968 masterpiece and his mission to “carry on the legacy”. Are you all sitting comftybold two-square on your botty? Then we’ll begin. Among the highlights …   … the Thames boating accident that inspired the album   … booking Stanley Unwin when Spike Milligan turned them down – and the day Stanley invented ‘Unwinese’   … insomniac days in the band’s Westmoreland Terrace flat   … the value of Marriott’s stage school background: “he could always ham things up”   … hidden treasures on the original tape – “you hear Steve and Ronnie talking”   … the magic of that fragile tobacco-tin artwork   … possession is nine-tenths of the law!   … Marriott’s wall-banging Chiswick neighbours that inspired Lazy Sunday   … “I’m the only one left and want to carry on the legacy”   … other lost Immediate sessions to be released on Nice Records   Order the Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake expanded 3CD set here, direct from Kenney’s Nice Records imprint: https://www.nicerecords.co.uk/collections/ogdens-nut-gone-flake Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    26 min
  5. Steve Cradock on Ocean Colour Scene, Mod hair & the ghost of Ronnie Lane

    JAN 16

    Steve Cradock on Ocean Colour Scene, Mod hair & the ghost of Ronnie Lane

    Steve Cradock’s touring with Ocean Colour Scene in 2026 and in his own show, Travellers Tunes, with his wife and son Steve – “we’re like the Von Trapps!” This highly original night involves them “living like gypsies in the spirit of Ronnie Lane”. He looks back here, from his psychedelic Mod-shrine converted garage in Totnes, at the first shows he ever saw and played, which touches on …   …seeing UB40 at Birmingham Odeon, aged 13 – “I was bruised for days”   … an after-school Duran Duran video shoot   … “three 45-minute sets a night”: doing J Geils Band and Lennon covers pre-Bingo in working men’s clubs, aged 15   … playing Scooter Rallies in Gorleston-on-Sea in pilled-up homage to the Purple Hearts, the Jam and Secret Affair   … the imperishable sound of the early Small Faces – “the tone, the feedback, Plonk smashing his bass”   … an intense love of Northern Soul, Soft Cell, the Pretenders, Costello and the La’s   … the Stones Roses, “the most important show I ever saw – the hair, the clothes, the songs, the guitars”    … supporting Oasis at Knebworth   … “musicians’ books bore me”   …. three days in a pub with Chris Evans and regrets about “the double-edged sword” of the Riverboat Song on TGI Friday   … and Paul Weller with love beads   Buy Steve Cradock tickets here: https://www.stevecradock.com/tour/ Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    28 min
4.5
out of 5
66 Ratings

About

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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