Word In Your Ear

Men kicking stars! Smoking on TV! Having to introduce music you didn't like! Getting picked on in public! All this and more in our Whispering Bobcast in which the great man plays 70s Rock Bingo, recalls cramped sessions with the Wailers in tiny continuity studios, the years when he couldn't go out for fear of being set upon by punk rockers, his memories of eating celery with Van Dyke Parks and making friends with John Lennon, his sacking from Radio One, his re-hiring by Radio Two and the launch of a new compilation of live sessions from Old Grey Whistle Test. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're joined by Jude Rogers and Eamonn Forde to kick around the following subjects: the stylistic chasm between Grace Jones and Ed Sheeran at the Jubilee concert, the desirability of Macca finishing with Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, whether Madness playing Our House on top of the Palace was the most spectacular bit of staging ever seen at a pop show, what we have learned from Twitter about Nick Heyward, Richard Coles and "the girls side of the playground", the sounds and smells our children will never know and the big question - do records smell? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined in the pod by Chas Hodges, who you'll know from such hits as "Gertcha" and "Ain't No Pleasing You". But you ought to also know him from his time in Joe Meek's house band, his stint on tour with the Beatles as a member of Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers, his time with pioneering country-rock band Heads, Hands and Feet and his manifold and honourable contributions to sessions galore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham Gouldman wrote For Your Love for The Yardbirds, Bus Stop for The Hollies, Tallyman for Jeff Beck, No Milk Today for Herman's Hermits and I"m Not In Love and lots of others for 10cc. He has worked with Kirsty MacColl, Kasenetz-Katz, Andrew Gold, Gary Barlow, The Ramones, Mickie Most, John Paul Jones, Neil Sedaka and the Manchester City FA Cup squad of 1972. He's got a new record coming out called Love & Work. You think we ran out of things to talk about? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chaz Jankel - co-author of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Sweet Gene Vincent and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - looks back at the rollicking rise of the Blockheads, and Derek "The Draw" Hussey contemplates Ian Dury, the man whose shoes he fills in the current Blockheads line-up. Contains their charming performance of A Little Knowledge, the greatest piece of music recording in Word podcast history, we're saying. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Mossman, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry go through John Peel's Record Collection and ponder what you can tell about personality type from flicking through anyone's accumulated spines. We also wonder whether Alabama Shakes anxiety indicates the impossibility of trying to like things just because other people do, discuss rock's vanishing instruments, and attempt to come up with preferable alternatives to the big Duran Duran/Stereophonics/Paolo Nutini/Snow Patrol Olympic showdown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the last week we've welcomed three authors into the pod: Stanley Booth went on the road and down to Muscle Shoals with the Rolling Stones in 1969 and eventually wrote all about it in the ultimate access all areas on tour book, The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones; Paul Charles is one of the UK's leading live music agents and he's also the author of The Last Dance, a new novel set against the background of the Irish showband scene of the 60s; Andrew Martin is a journalist and author who's taken his fascination with railways of all kinds into fiction as well as fact. His new book is Underground Overground, a passenger's history of the tube. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This bumper edition covers: the only other person called Levon, why celebrities always feel the need to put one over on interviewers in public forums, who Record Store Day is supposed to be benefiting, the upsides and downsides of travelling in south-east Asia and podcasts about farming and Shakespeare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things we've been talking about this week include the great NME mis-selling scandal of the 90s, the grisly details of MC Hammer's 1998 bankruptcy, and the days when you could see Neil Young and have enough change to buy a bag of chips on the way home. Also: Pugwash drop in to talk about getting fan mail from Jeff Lynne and play a song from their new album, and we discuss an amazing documentary called Dreams Of A Life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latitude and Reading/Leeds promoter Melvin Benn remembers his first event - an anti-Thatcher gig in ’79 - while elsewhere there’s the unadulterated chaos of Axl Rose and girlfriend at Reading (the festival he helped save from bankruptcy), memories of Nirvana, the time he and Michael Eavis defended Worthy Farm against anarchists with petrol bombs, and the revelation that promoters can “play God” with the weather conditions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry debate whether there really is such a thing as a ropey Beatles record, the best food they've ever had at a gig, and the ethics of flying in samples during live performances. Plus Mike Doughty, talking about his career and his extraordinary memoir The Book Of Drugs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The UK’s premier crime-thriller writer Mark Billingham enters the pod and subjects his obsessions to forensic enquiry - among them The Smiths, Genesis, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. There’s some sound advice – "if you get caught shoplifting, at least nick something fashionable". There’s his four minutes dancing onstage with Elvis Costello and the time Morrissey let him to use some Smiths lyrics in one of his novels. And the fatwa from furious Phil Collins supporters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk about great unexpected shows. David Hepworth goes to see Randy Newman and finds himself sitting behind some people who are clinically incapable of resisting the temptation to talk. Plus Green Gartside and Rhodri Marsden of Scritti Politti drop in to sing a couple of songs and talk about buying old Little Feat albums in the 70s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The wildly prolific songwriter – and leader of The Soft Boys, Egyptians, Venus 3 and, currently, The Floating Palace collective – tackles life’s big issues. Such as why The Beatles were doomed as solo projects, the magic twin poles of the Syd Barrett lyric method, and the rigours of playing an entire set of David Bowie classics. Plus some riveting stuff on the ‘78 gig circuit and the Battle Of The Somme. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nige Tassell comes up from Somerset and (fatally) brings us something to drink. Before it takes effect we cover the following stuff: David Hepworth wonders why the best venues for rock and roll are always the ones built long before rock and roll was ever thought of. We ask when did school choirs start singing Adele songs and is this entirely a good idea? We have a quick chat and a song from Band Of Skulls, and Nige shares some of his most treasured old cassettes with us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On February 27th Eliza Carthy plays the pub across the road in one of our Word In Your Ear series of live shows. In this special shortcast she tells David Hepworth what kind of music was playing in the house when she was growing up, how she had a thing for Rick Astley and how her boyfriend made her give her Barbies away to the charity shop. Bastard. A few tickets for the show, which features Eliza plus full five piece band, supported by Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo plus Left With Pictures, are still available. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast has lots in it: Mark Ellen taking a blunt instrument to his phone, the debt Madonna’s half-time Superbowl show owed to Elizabeth Taylor’s quiet entrance into Rome in the movie Cleopatra, the feminizing of pop, the people who’ve made more than one great album, how we know Lady Gaga isn’t a real blonde and the likelihood of a movement like punk getting swallowed up by Facebook. Plus a visit from Dodgy to talk up their new record Stand Upright In A Cool Place, Fraser’s recipe for a warming soup and the cat on the pitch at Anfield. Should be enough to get you home through the snow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast features interviews with two fascinating guests: Nick Coleman talks to David Hepworth about his excellent new book The Train in The Night, which touches on all kinds of things: why boys feel the need to define themselves by their tastes, what it’s like listening to a Nazareth album with your dad, how the brain eventually rewires itself to make up for the information it’s missing and the fact that people like us actually have far more records in our heads than even the biggest jukeboxes. We’ve also been visited by Yolanda Quartey, the sensational singer with Bristol’s Phantom Limb, whose new album The Pines is out now and who will be featured in the CD with the next issue. She brought with her a couple of live recordings made especially for the Word podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In celebration of James Medd’s stupendous piece in Word 108 on the secret world of the bass guitarist, Medd and Mark Ellen present a podcast with session wizard and bon viveur Guy Pratt – who tells tales of working with Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Jimmy Page, the dictatorial Madonna and David Coverdale (who he impersonates immaculately). And explains the correct pronunciation of “Whitesnake” and how he did a Sophie Ellis-Bextor hit in 17 minutes. He also peels off the world’s greatest bottom lines on the office bass guitar. Our story starts on an aeroplane piloted by Floyd drummer Nick Mason experiencing strange and artificial turbulence... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil Cowley dropped by the office the other day to talk about the Neil Cowley Trio, their new album The Face Of Mount Molehill, his time as a sideman with everyone from The Pasadenas to the Brand New Heavies, his part in the musical career of Sue Perkins and how the best place to learn to play jazz is in your local garden centre. We liked him so much we’ve put it out as a short podcast on its own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We celebrate 200 editions of the Word Podcast in the room upstairs in The King and Queen in Foley Street, W1, scene of Bob Dylan's first ever appearance in the UK. Subjects covered included: the on and off wedding arrangements of Sinead O'Connor; Kate Mossman being pursued the house Benny Hill-style by Kevin Ayers and Fraser's legendary misdirection of the Princess Of Wales. The audience lines up to compete in our legendary Rock and Roll Spelling test and plays thirty seconds of a rock classic on an unusual instrument. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Word helicopter takes off from just the battlements of Graeme Thomson’s castle in Edinburgh, hugs the coastline on its way south, dropping off at the massive Victorian folly occupied by Mark Hodkinson on the borders or Yorkshire and Lancashire and then makes a detour into Berkshire where it lands on the vast rolling lawns of John Naughton’s massive country seat. Finally it hovers over Cast Iron Studios in Caledonian Road to record two tunes and some chat with The Miserable Rich. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a seasonal departure from our usual routine we bring you at this special time the voices of some of our valued contributors from all over the country, picking the books, DVDs and records that they have found most interesting this year. In this first instalment David Hepworth talks to Jim Irvin, Andrew Collins and Jude Rogers. In addition we've got The Rifles in the pod, performing songs from and talking about their new album Long Walk Home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry range across: a star-studded carol service, what Verdi could do that Dylan couldn't, and story of "Wally!" In addition Kate Mossman joins us to talk to folkie Jackie Oates who also plays a couple of songs from her new record "Saturnine". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we welcome to the pod Renaissance Man, art rock avatar, club pioneer, movie actor and very tall man Richard Strange. As Kid Strange he fronted the 70s rock band the Doctors of Madness, who were supported by everyone from the Sex Pistols to Joy Division. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast: the legit release of the Rolling Stones’ “Brussels Affair”, the things that Jimmy Savile did and did not do, Paul Du Noyer remembering Jackie Leven, your misinterpreted songs thread, Fraser explaining why he features on a Guns N’Roses b-side, the Black Sabbath reunion(s) and a couple of songs from Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nile Rodgers enters the pod to talk us through his story: the man who created the only triple platinum single in the history of Atlantic Records, led Chic through the ups and downs of disco and went on to produce Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran and Madonna. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andy Gill joins us to recount the full story of The Beach Boys' Smile, recounting Brian Wilson's odd partnership with the ever-voluble Van Dyke Parks, the stubbornness and luxuriant chest hair of Mike Love, the underwater misadventures of Dennis Wilson, the often misrepresented Dr Eugene Landy and the trans-Atlantic battle for supremacy between the former Pendletons and the Beatles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sitting in the home studio where he recorded the vocals for Fairy Tale Of New York, Steve Lillywhite talks about working with Eddie & The Hot Rods, the Pretenders, U2, Simple Minds, Brian Eno and Jared Leto and almost everybody else. He also advances his case as the judge that American Idol really needs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Hepworth and Mark Ellen remember the Tom Hibbert cookery course, talk about what was in the George Harrison film and what should have been in it, what Tony Bennett does that rock bands don't and the correct way to pronounce Yngwie Malmsteen. Plus we're announcing how you'll be able to get the full podcast in future only if you're a subscriber to the magazine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our own Andrew Harrison and celebrated food photographer Patrice de Villiers join us to talk about Love Music Love Food: The Rock Star Cookbook, a mammoth undertaking published in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It features the likes of Brett Anderson, Noel Gallagher, Mick Hucknall, Cliff Richard, Tinie Tempah, Paul Weller and many others talking about and being photographed with their favourite food. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined in the pod by author Jonathan Coe, he of The Rotter's Club. We talk prog in riveting detail, look back at his days as a rock hack at The Wire, explain the use of music in Billy Wilder movies, and hear a a newly recorded track from his reformed college loungecore act The Peer Group. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined in the pod by two card-carrying Bowie experts – Peter Doggett - author of the superb new book "The Man Who Sold The World: David Bowie And The ‘70" and Word’s long-serving associate editor Paul Du Noyer. On the way we learn Bowie’s tortuously complicated childhood, his unproduced rock opera, the lost recordings and the four times Paul got to interview him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rhodri Marsden visits us in the cupboard to talk about his "40 Noises That Built Pop" feature, to reveal how some of the sounds in the list were arrived at and the instruments that gave birth to them. Also up for discussion: Rhodri's first date hell Twitter sensation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Mossman joins us in the pod to talk about being obsessed with Queen when her classmates were into Nirvana, and how you can never assume that young people go along with what their generation appears to be going along with. Plus: is picking the music for your own funeral the poor man's Desert Island Discs? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thomas Dolby joins us to talk about working with Trevor Horn, David Bowie, Prefab Sprout and Joni Mitchell; operating as musical director of TED, spending an evening at Michael Jackson's, making money through polyphonic ringtones and just generally trying to do things in a different way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Ford joins us in the podcast to talk about his terrific new book, I Choose This, which proves there's no success like failure, and to reveal how Jeff Buckley's influence on an entire generation of musicians wasn't entirely benign. Also: Kate Mossman introduces Amy LaVere. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jude Rogers and Kate Mossman join us in the podcast to talk about the short life and sad death of Amy Winehouse. Also in this edition: our Sunday afternoon cruise down the Thames with Neil Finn & C.W. Stoneking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our final Latitude recording: Andrew Harrison is joined by Stuart Maconie and Louise Wener to look back at Britpop: why it happened, what is was like, and where it all went wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robin Ince joins us in the Word lounge to talk about Mills & Boon and why Robert Smith should never be a crowd marshall, and the chaps from They Might Be Giants talk to David Hepworth and answer audience questions about set lists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the third of this year's Latitude podcasts, Absolute Radio's Geoff Lloyd talks David Hepworth and Mark Ellen through the pain of losing his record collection and reveals a genuine piece of backsgage gossip, and we hear from I Am Kloot and C.W. Stoneking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first of a few podcasts recorded in the Word "Lounge" at Latitude, Britain's premier poet Simon Armitage talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about why Bob Dylan is not actually a poet, and K.T. Tunstall talks about the challenges of playing festivals and her time as Anne Frank. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 40 Noises That Made Pop, our upcoming riverboat cruise featuring C.W. Stoneking and his Primitive Horn Orchestra, what's going on in The Word Lounge at this weekend's Latitude Festival, and the great John Hiatt joins David Hepworth to talk and sing songs from his new album. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined by Peter Doggett, author of "You Never Give Me Your Money" to discuss discuss what the Beatles wanted after the Beatles, why they could never get it, and how the four young men who shook the world turned into four middle-aged men who had to deal with the aftermath. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this podcast Tony Wadsworth reviews his career at EMI, from the days when older employees still recalled visits from "Mr Lennon" through the reformation of the Parlophone label and the high noon of Britpop to 360-degree deals with Robbie Williams up to the uncertain future faced by traditional record labels today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suede's Brett Anderson clambers into the pod with Andrew Harrison and Eamonn Forde to discuss the band's successful return, how rehearsals can be difficult when your drummer lives in Thailand, why locking your 17-year-old guitarist in a room until he comes up with a song is a good idea, and the truth about the small role played by Ricky Gervais. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Danny Baker returns to the pod – with David Hepworth and Mark Ellen – having just got “the green light” after months of particularly unsavoury hospitalisation. Discover how he celebrated this news, marvel at his rant against the "pinheads, nitwits and souless creeps" at the BBC, and remembers John Mayall’s tight-fitting loin-cloth and his almost-encounter with Bob Dylan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adrift in the pod this week are Mark Ellen, Kate Mossman and Fraser Lewry, who discuss a night out at Desert Island Discs, interviews that went wrong, and take Qs from The Massive about 100 issues of Word. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now Bob Dylan's seventy so it seems only decent to dedicate a podcast to him, his enduring fascination and his work. In this we're joined by Andy Gill, our resident Dylan scholar, author of Bob Dylan: Stories Behind The Songs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The magnificent Van Dyke Parks enters the pod to deliver wry and extremely fond and funny memories of working with Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Randy Newman, Brian Wilson, Joanna Newsom and his brief membership of Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.