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

    52M 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
  2. Kenney Jones remembers the Small Faces’ masterpiece

    1D AGO

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

    6D AGO

    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. Mary Coughlan, onstage from the age of five - ‘Applause and lemonade!’

    JAN 12

    Mary Coughlan, onstage from the age of five - ‘Applause and lemonade!’

    Mary Coughlan – aka “Ireland’s Billie Holiday”, adored by Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan and Elvis Costello - is on tour again in 2026. This warm, funny and circuitous conversation looks back from her home in Wicklow at the first shows she ever saw and played and various milestones along the road, among them …   … singing Two Little Orphans (aged 5) at a Christmas party: “The adrenaline rush! Applause and lemonade!”   … escaping down ladders from school to see Rory Gallagher in Galway and the nuns waiting when she returned   … seeing Donovan on the Aran Islands in 1969, a trip from the mainland by currach   … meeting Mike Stoller and re-recording Peggy Lee’s savaged Mirrors album: “more relevant now than ever” … Elton John (dressed as a hornet) at Watford Stadium and the embroidered floral skirt she’d made to watch him   … her love of cabaret and old 78s and the songs she and Erik Visser chose to launch her career   … her transformative slot on the Late Late Show in 1984: “I played to four people the night before; a week later they were queuing round the block”   … Frank Sinatra’s mysterious autocue and sitting next to Roger Moore in his audience (“very orange”)   … “I adored St Dominic’s Preview and 15 years later Van Morrison was in my dressing-room”   … her cure for insomnia   … why Joe Strummer meant so much to her   … and her 200-song live repertoire – from Meet Me Where They Play The Blues and Don’t Smoke In Bed to Love Will Tear Us Apart.   Order Mary Coughlan tickets here: https://www.marycoughlan.ie/upcoming-shows Help us keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    25 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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