Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

You’ll always find us in the kitchen at parties, near the hoppy summer ale and sausage rolls and, and this week discussing …
 
… he hasn't changed his look or sound for 30 years: is there a more conservative concept than Liam Gallagher? And how he became the one-man Oasis.
 
… the eye-watering sum Kevin Hart made from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
 
… Loudermilk, Rob Gordon in High Fidelity and other Rock Snob stereotypes in fiction - “I’m a Rock Snob? It comes with the territory being right!” And how rock critics are always cast as cynical, joyless curmudgeons.  
… why Courteney Cox was chosen for the Dancing In The Dark video and how Springsteen turned live performance into spectacle.
 
… the diplomatic skills of A&R men in pursuit of hit singles.
 
… why Born In The USA was a masterclass in branding.
 
… the Word in Your Ear podcast and Taylor Swift, both up and running since 2006!
 
… plus Abba, Peter ‘King Mod’ Meaden, Jon Savage’s book on LGBTQ pop culture, Liam Gallagher’s hair and Springsteen’s dancing lessons.
 
Great clip of Steve Harley on Australian TV sent by listener Brian Nankervis …
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154289171249235
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“I thought Dave Davies of the Kinks was a girl. When I discovered he was a boy, that’s when I got interested.” Jon’s an old friend of the podcast and the author of some highly regarded and influential books about pop and its repercussions, ‘England’s Dreaming’ and ‘1966: the Year The Decade Exploded’ among them. His latest is ‘The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture 1955-1979’ which looks at five particular moments and the pivotal people in the mix at the time. We couldn’t recommend it more highly and cover seven decades in this conversation, stopping off at …
 
… how “homosexuality was a career-killer” until Bowie’s spectacular Melody Maker interview in 1972.
 
… new male identities - Valentino, Nureyev, Sinatra and the “subversive” stage act of Johnnie Ray.
 
… does pop drive change or reflect it?
 
… Andrew Loog Oldham, Kit Lambert, Simon Napier-Bell and the supposed “gay managers mafia” and how Oldham used camp as a weapon.
 
… Dusty Springfield and the Gateway Club.
 
… how Brian Epstein invented a new type of manager.
 
... Andy Warhol at the Factory, pop art, the launch of the Velvet Underground and his jukebox time-capsule of ‘60s gay pop taste.
 
… was Tom Robinson the first out gay British pop star?
 
… Mary Whitehouse v the Gay Times.
 
… the Clash (“hurt, vulnerable boys”), Siouxsie, Poly Styrene, the Slits, Vic Godard and punk’s other new stage identities.
 
Order ‘the Secret Public’ here …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Public-Resistance-Popular-1955-1979/dp/0571358373
 
… and Jon’s 2-CD soundtrack here …
https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/various/jon-savages-the-secret-public-how-the-lgbtq-aesthetic-shaped-pop-culture-1955-1979?channable=409d9269640032313931333434ec&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvIWzBhAlEiwAHHWgvQetjeRXO03PVnpFYq75PMG_pmDd42hKBO8VytbDerJqZw3ycIY7pxoCFxIQAvD_BwE#cd-x2
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Giles was 12 when he watched Abba win Eurovision in 1974 and was instantly besotted – and thus required to spend the next 20 years wrestling with The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. His thunderingly funny, fond and illuminating book – My My!: Abba Through The Years – traces their story, looks at the snobbery and critical mauling they endured and figures out how they made records so universally popular and which still move him to tears 50 years later. It’s also the best example of any book we’ve read that can explain the mechanics of music to a non-musician. It’s highly recommended, as is this podcast which alights upon …
 
… a 50 year-old story – “for 42 of which they haven’t existed”.
 
.. the vicious early press reaction - “calculatingly commercial”, “dispassionate” …
 
… the divine clunkiness of their early TV appearances.
 
… the sense of the melancholy we’ve attached to their music - and why.
 
... the immense value of splitting up early and never reforming or publicly falling out.  
 
… the immaculate construction of Dancing Queen (which opens with the second half of the chorus) and why “there are two types of wedding disco – ones that start with Dancing Queen and terrible ones.”
 
… the maturity of Abba’s lyrics – about marriages, relationships, children and other subjects pop music rarely tackles.
 … why Abba Voyage is so affecting that he’s seen it three times.
 
… and Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and other key factors in The Comeback.
 
Order Giles Smith’s My My!: Abba Through The Ages here …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-ABBA-Through-Ages-ebook/dp/B0CF73GNN4
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Peter Meaden was a key figure in the Mod movement. He changed the world view of Andrew Loog Oldham, which shaped the early Stones, and he managed the Who, remodelling their look and sound, writing their first single and turning them into Mod figureheads. Steve Turner interviewed him in 1975, an exchange that's now the centrepiece of his new book 'King Mod: the Story of Peter Meaden, the Who and the Birth of a British Subculture', and the NME's published extract in 1978 paved the way for the Mod Revival. It's an extraordinary story that would make a movie, discussed here with Steve and including ... 
... the Scene Club in Windmill Street "when a band was a way of life".
... Angus McGill and the first press mention of 'the Modernists'.
… the tale of Sandra Blackstone, the DJ who vanished into thin air.
... the lifelong values of Mod culture for teenagers like Eric Clapton, Marc Bolan and David Bowie. 
 ... the single Meaden wrote for the Who - Zoot Suit/I'm The Face - and where he stole the music from. 
... police raids in Soho. 
... doing press for Bob Dylan at the time of Madhouse on Castle Street. 
 
... the Flamingo Club's dress policy, French and Italian film and fashion, boxing boots, cycle jackets and the origins of Mod style. 
 ... Chuck Berry in suburban Edmonton! 
... Meaden's disastrous attempt to bring Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band to London. 
... and a typical weekend in 1964, a sleepless, Drinamyl-powered 48 hours from the Ready Steady Go! green room to the Scene Club via Carnaby Street. 
£5 off copies of ‘King Mod’ here. Just type in the discount code which is:-
Podcast offer
https://redplanetmusicbooks.com/collections/full-catalogue/products/king-mod
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This week the conversational Super-Trouper of Enquiry lights up the following …
... why care when "rock critics get it wrong"? 
... the dreadful death of the Allman brothers' dad. 
... is there any other branch of entertainment where you can be two hours late onstage?
... has any show got worse reviews than Eddie Izzard's one-woman Hamlet?
... the unlikely tale of how Iron Butterfly changed the course of Atlantic Records. 
... three, the magic number: the accidental album trilogies of Scott Walker, Steely Dan, Blur, the Beatles, Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Nick Lowe ...
... the Deadhead who saw them 1,000 times.
... U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, the Kings of Leon ... bands who've never changed their line-up.
... Yes, Thin Lizzy, the Hollies ... bands with no original members. 
... why it's less demanding seeing bands than solo acts. 
... and Madonna being sued for lateness, lip-syncing and a "pornographic stage-act that was emotionally triggering".
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Tuning into this week's rock and roll soundwave to filter signal from noise, we cranked up the volume on the following ...
... 'Zuma Nester Rock' and the eternal curse of rock stars' kids' names. 
... Bowie's spat with Robbie Williams at Netaid. 
... celebrating awkward sods like Kevin Rowland.
... why Paul Carrack has seen it all.
... 'Lewis' Armstrong, 'Hoosker Doo' and others we've been pronouncing wrong. 
... AI does David Hepworth and Mark Ellen!
... the Underground/Overground albums/singles divide of 1974: the Wombles and Paper Lace v Tubular Bells and Journey To The Centre of The Earth.
... Guy Chambers - a string quartet aged 11! - and other early achievers.
... the Stones' and Bowie's race to have a Guy Peeleart record cover and the 50th anniversary of Diamond Dogs. 
... how the Dead & Co turned a stage show into a movie experience and bands - Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys? - who should play the Las Vegas Sphere.
 ... and "the wally with the brolly" and other fresh political PR catastrophes.
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