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. Ringo and why the Beatles wouldn’t have worked without him

    3 DAYS AGO

    Ringo and why the Beatles wouldn’t have worked without him

    The look, sound, story and dynamic of the Beatles can’t be imagined without him. Nor can their success. Tom Doyle, author and drummer, examines the unexplored depths of the one at the back from 70 different angles, one per chapter, in his new memoir ‘Ringo: A Fab Life’ and talks to us here about ….   … how he learnt to read by looking at his Dad’s Beatles singles and the one that first made him notice the drumming   ... what you learn re-watching him in Peter Jackson’s Get Back   … why Ringo gave them universal appeal and his key role in their conquest of America   … supernatural brilliance: exceptional moments such as the un-slowed original Rain and “the way he makes the sound of the holes in Blackburn, Lancashire”   … the delicious Britishness of comparing Rishikesh to Butlins and the mantra the Maharishi gave him he still uses every day   … the pre-Beatles time he applied to emigrate to Texas and what stopped him doing it   … the only Beatle who could dance: the proof!   … the Lost Years and the day he had his head and eyebrows shaved   … the mortifying fate of the first recording of the four Beatles together (in 1960)   … how all four spent the rest of their lives in recovery   … what Sam Mendes might accentuate in his upcoming portrait of Ringo   ... and the clip that’ll be all over the news on the day he bows out.   Plus our campaign to buy the Sentimental Journey pub starts here!   Order Tom Doyle’s ‘Ringo: A Fab Life’ here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Ringo/Tom-Doyle/9781917923132 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.

    38 min
  2. Bowie, Boy George and the rise of the riotous Blitz club with Robert Elms

    3 OCT

    Bowie, Boy George and the rise of the riotous Blitz club with Robert Elms

    London’s Blitz club in 1980 had a huge impact on the way the decade looked and sounded, the launchpad for Boy George, Spandau Ballet, a new age of electro-pop and many writers, designers and photographers. The author and broadcaster Robert Elms was one of its cornerstones, “a place for people who’d outgrown the 20th Century”. We talk here about his book ‘Blitz: the Club That Created the ‘80s’ with all of this on the dancefloor …     … the Blitz Club rules, “unspoken until Steve Strange spoke them”. And the door policy: “Look at yourself, darling. Would YOU let yourself in?”   … first nights “with a Space Cossack shirt and asymmetric wedge” and the origin of the term New Romantic   … the rise of the “home-made Macaronis” (dictionary definition: “over-dressed popinjays of dubious sexuality”)   … Bowie’s Starman, Roxy, soul, disco, Weimar, Max Ernst, Otto Dix, Edith Piaf, Swinging London, Andy Warhol and other keys strands of Blitz DNA   … its anti-rock stance and impact on the mid-‘80s American charts   … the news-friendly night Mick Jagger was barred entry   … “I was spat at by an old lady at a bus stop for wearing eyeliner and a kilt”   … when Island offered Spandau a deal after just three numbers     … the role of the Face, Smash Hits and the new full-colour media   … the author’s “dilettante” passage through skinhead, suedehead, soul boy and punk   … and the night Bowie appeared, “like Jesus walking into your local church and sitting in a pew”.   Order ‘Blitz: The Club That Created the 80s’ here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/blitz-the-club-that-created-the-eighties-robert-elms/e672041a84e0cde9?ean=9780571394180&next=t&next=t Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    32 min
  3. The Prince story by 200 people who knew him - and John McKie

    1 OCT

    The Prince story by 200 people who knew him - and John McKie

    Prince’s commercial peak was Purple Rain but John McKie thinks Sign O’ The Times was his creative masterpiece and tracked down over 200 collaborators, girlfriends, “Prince whisperers”, assistants and admirers to piece together the story of its construction (without allowing himself to use the word “genius”). Which leads us up some colourful, spot-lit alleys, among them …   … “a man in suspenders playing funk”: why a disastrous support slot on the ‘81 Stones tour was pivotal moment     … Mozart/Salieri levels of rivalry: he once told a Paisley Park engineer to stop singing Culture Club “as that’s the competition”   ... battles with Warners president Lenny Waronker: “he believed he was right and the rest were wrong”   … “creative incontinence”: an autocrat in need of an editor   … bodyguard “Big Chick” Huntsberry, performative stunts and the BRITS moment that immortalised him   … the controlling, manipulative nature of anyone who can play 27 instruments   … “he changed his cars to match the colour of his album campaigns”   … artistic parallels with his hero Joni Mitchell   … why he loved comedians in the way he loved jazz musicians   … what we know about his “secret” wives Mayte Garcia and Manuela Testolini   … and the four acts with eternal mystery – Prince, Bowie, Dylan, Dolly Parton.   Order ‘Prince: A Sign O’ The Times here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/prince-a-sign-o-the-times/john-mckie/9781785121944 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    39 min
  4. The three London kids who invented rock style

    30 SEPT

    The three London kids who invented rock style

    Paul Gorman, biographer of Malcolm McLaren and friend of the pod, tells the extraordinary story of the three young hipsters behind Granny Takes A Trip, the Kings Road store that was a magnet for rock’s glitterati in the late 60s. •⁠ ⁠Sheila Cohen, the first queen of cool; she invented the whole idea of vintage •⁠ ⁠Nigel Waymouth, who never went to art school but changed the face of London with his posters •⁠ ⁠John Pearse, who could make a jacket out of anything - and did •⁠ ⁠The days of aatering to the 200 fashionable people in London •⁠ ⁠Why the Beatles, Stones and Pink Floyd beat a path to Granny’s door •⁠ ⁠How the three walked away in 1969, the shops were exported to the USA •⁠ ⁠How GTAT became the outfitter of choice for the rock aristocracy •⁠ ⁠Some of its clothes are immortal thanks to album covers from Lou Reed, the Isleys and Todd Rundgren •⁠ ⁠All the rest are in secure storage Paul’s book, which is lavishly illustrated and contains a pictorial catalogue of the wardrobe of the Rolling Stones, is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Granny-Takes-Trip-Fashion-Boutique/dp/1399623613 You can read a preview here: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Granny_Takes_a_Trip/_SZSEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT6&printsec=frontcover The Rolling Stones London 1962-71 map can be found at: https://www.herblester.com/products/down-the-road-apiece-the-rolling-stones-london Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
  5. Thea Gilmore on Joan Baez, Jake Thackray and Dave Pegg’s dog starting her career

    24 SEPT

    Thea Gilmore on Joan Baez, Jake Thackray and Dave Pegg’s dog starting her career

    We’ve always liked Thea Gilmore who once crossed America with Joan Baez in a pre-Election campaign tour and has released 21 albums (“I’ve got musical ADHD!)”. She looks back here at the first shows she ever saw and played which involves …     … a deep dive into Jake Thackray – “Last Will And Testament still makes me cry”   … spotting her dad in the crowd in the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival movie and why “My dad treated Dave Pegg’s dog” jump-started her career…   … what Joan Baez did on their pre-Election American tour the night George W Bush won a second term   … “Thea Gilmore looks Borstal-bound”: her first review, in Mojo in 1998   … two weeks’ life-changing work experience at Fairport’s Wormwood studios   … “there’s no point writing songs if you don’t perform them”   … which are easier, small gigs or big ones?   … Ani DiFranco getting the audience to harmonise on When Doves Cry, “an epiphany”   … intense stage fright versus the “precocious teenage belief that I was interesting”   … the impact of first hearing It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)   … and when someone leaving “reduces your audience by a fifth”   Tickets for Thea Gilmore’s tour here: https://www.theagilmore.net/live   Order ‘Thea Gilmore - My Own Private Riot 2008-2015,' 7CD Box Set here: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/thea-gilmore-my-own-private-riot-2008-2015-7cd-box-set Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    26 min

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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