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. 41m ago

    Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Gir

    Pauline Black was seen singing Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell songs in Coventry folk clubs and recruited by a local reggae band. Then converted to ska and joined the Selecter - back on tour this summer and with a box-set of live recordings, ‘The Selecter at the BBC’. She looks back here at …   … their first gig with Madness for 47 years in Brighton – “very red fezzy!”   … her Sliding Doors moment supporting Bert Jansch   ... discovering the Pioneers, Prince Buster and the Skatalites through white skinheads in Coventry   … the famous 2-Tone Brighton Beach photo of 1979 with the Specials and Madness   … “there were three looks for a black girl singer back then – Tina Turner, the I-Threes Earth Mother … or invent something new. So I invented the Rude Girl”   … seeing Pentangle playing the theme from ‘Take Three Girls’ in 1971 and then the MC5 and Arthur Brown with his “papier-mâché brain”   … training as a bio-chemist and radiographer – “there isn’t an orifice I haven’t inspected”   … the first Selecter gig – “flares, safari suits and me in pink spandex trousers like the girls from Chic”   .. how Jerry Dammers created the cartoon 2-Tone look and the night radio played the first single   … and “a black man with a gun and a stage invasion” on the BBC’s Pebble Mill.   Order copies of ‘The Selecter At The BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981’ here: https://theselecter.lnk.to/AtTheBBC   Tickets here: https://theselecter.net/live-dates/ 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.

    Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Gir
  2. 15h ago

    Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion

    Tony Fletcher launched Jamming! when he was 13, wrote for the Face at 16, ran a label with Paul Weller at 17 and a year later was presenting the Tube. And was in a band signed to EMI. If anyone did more as a teenager, we want to meet them. It’s all in his coming-of-age memoir ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ - discussed here - which touches on …   …the speed, the possibilities and the riches of success in the early ‘80s – and how it felt to be at the heart of it   … “I knew nothing about running a label – and then discovered Paul Weller didn’t either”   … Madness being interviewed by “spiky-haired, Harrington-jacketed, Ben-Sherman-shirted me”   … when confidence meets ignorance   … when bands went from selling 2,000 records to 20,000 and, in America, 200,000: “Phil Oakey always carried £500 in cash”   … the research meetings that launched the Tube and his two-minute audition   … the day Leslie Ash called in sick and he covered for her on live TV   … Pete Townshend, 35, convinced the Who were finished   ... discovering the inner circle within the inner circle   … “to the Rainbow for the Mod Revival all-dayer!”   … and memories of Wham!, Paula Yates and Pete Wylie and what he learnt from running labels and magazines.     Order copies of ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ here: US: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com/pow   UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pow-when-uk-punk-went-pop-1980-84-tony-fletcher/74b193de4c1dee68 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.

    Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion
  3. Jul 23

    Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho

    Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers …   … the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic   … the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends   … why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity    ... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary”   … GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club   … how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him   … and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.     Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: https://www.equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues 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.

    Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho
  4. Jul 22

    Steve Hackett remembers batwings, blues clubs and Genesis on £15 a week

    Steve Hackett’s seven years in Genesis get re-explored when he tours in October, along with ‘solo gems’ from the records he’s made since, the latest ‘the Roaring Waves’, a collaboration with old pal Steve Rothery. He looks back here at defining moments in the Genesis story such as the stage props, the early American tours and Phil Collins when he met him having just auditioned for Zeffirelli and being “all fur coats and girlfriends”. Along with …   … when bands stood on fishboxes if there wasn’t a stage   … playing harmonica through his nose and “open wounds” from American guitars   .. Cream, John Mayall and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on Eel Pie Island    ... what Lennon said about Genesis “in the days before we could tweet it, sadly”   … Apache, Man Of Mystery and the guitarists Hank Marvin inspired   … how Phil Collins got to be the band’s singer and the days when Phil and Peter Gabriel did Alan Whicker impressions onstage   ... Guy Garvey at the Prog Proms   … the last time the five of them were together and the chance of a reunion   … and the new album with Steve Rothery, inspired by Whitby and the legend of Dracula.   Order copies of ‘The Roaring Wave’ here: https://stevehackettsteverothery.lnk.to/TheRoaringWaves-Album   Order Steve Hackett tickets here: https://myticket.co.uk/artists/steve-hackett   and https://www.hackettsongs.com/tours 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.

    Steve Hackett remembers batwings, blues clubs and Genesis on £15 a week
4.5
out of 5
74 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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