Word In Your Ear

Neil Storey is an old pal from our magazine days who worked in the press office at Island. He looked after U2, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, the B-52’s and many others. About 15 years ago he began the mammoth task of compiling a series of books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history, tracking down and talking to all those involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. The book’s almost a foot square so LP sleeves can be reproduced ‘actual size’. The first volume is just out, The Island Book Of Records 1959-1968, a thing of very great beauty. As David says, “it’s like entering the record shop of your dreams.” We talked to Neil at his home in France about this and much else besides …   … Chris Blackwell’s involvement in the making of Dr No and the single Jamaican beach shot that told them they had a hit movie. … the album they released that no-one involved could remember. … Shotgun Wedding by Roy ‘C’, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, Lance Hayward, Millie Small’s ‘My Boy Lollipop’ … … the letter Blackwell sent to the workshy Spooky Tooth with threats of wage deductions. … the lucrative ascent of Jethro Tull. … the little-known compilations of Rugby songs, ‘Bawdy British Ballads’ and risqué adult comedy that “saved the label’s bacon” in the mid-‘60s. … the time Neil stumbled across Traffic’s fabled Aston Tirrold cottage on a school camping trip. … the highly collectable “Birth of Ska’ album that was never released.   … one immortal week at the Marquee Club. … and why Island were banned for Olympic Studios. Order the Island Book of Records Vol 1 here …https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/neil-storey/the-island-book-of-records-volume-i-1959-68?channable=409d926964003230353632383608&gclid=Cj0KCQjw06-oBhC6ARIsAGuzdw1pbKtxLGkjgkiJfcAll84H65dVQ1r_h7obky-QWlVtpr21UgiQP54aAk1BEALw_wcB#hardback-signed-plusTickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFaeSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyouear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Both of us were involved in the launch of Mojo 30 years ago in the autumn of 1993 and we dug out our copies of the first issue. As editor Paul Du Noyer said on page 3, it was “our confirmed intention to pitch a wang-dang-doodle – all night long, if necessary.” The cover story was about a sequence from Eat The Document, the film by DA Pennebaker of Bob Dylan’s ’66 tour that was never released and could only be seen on bootleg VHS cassettes. And this bit was so rare and controversial it had even been deleted from most of the bootlegs - none more niche! – and featured Dylan and John Lennon’s stoned ramblings in a black cab after Bob had played the Albert Hall in May ‘66. The piece by Richard Williams also focused on 10 days in the life of Dylan and the Beatles at the time, the kind of specific, deep-end trawl that helped start a whole new wing of rock book publishing. You can see the seeds of the emerging ‘heritage rock’ in that first edition too. Mojo have a wonderful 30th anniversary issue out now, by the way. Further logs on this week’s conversational fire include … .. why people buy ‘vinyls’ when they don’t own a record player. … David’s story about the HMV security guard who built a shrine to James Last. … the brilliant – and fiercely competitive - mixtapes made and played in music magazines offices. ... the dreadful allegations about Russell Brand and the media rush to cut ties with him. … the band t-shirt favoured by well-heeled businessmen to signify they were once a ‘wild card’. … the Clones Roses, A Band Called Malice … the Dutiful South? … mentioned in despatches: Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys. … and birthday guest Steve Way on the avenues of discovery encouraged by his love of Paul Weller (including the ruinous pursuit of being a Blue Note completist). Ps Dizzying pop facts: go back 30 years from the launch of Mojo and it’s ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. There are copies of that first issue on eBay for £44.99 amazingly.Get your exclusive NordVPN deal here: https://nordvpn.com/yourearIt's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee.Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFaeSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s pod was recorded just after we saw ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ at London’s National Portrait Gallery, a warm and winning show that starts with him as a wide-eyed fan trying to take pictures of his heroes and soon switches to his shots of the whole world trying to photograph him. We talk about his pictures of French jazzers, Paris boulevards, backstage rooms at TV shows, models, paparazzi, light entertainment stars, screaming fans, American police guns, Miami beaches, billboards, views from plane windows, hotel rooms, cocktails and a New York theatre showing “Christine Keeler Goes Nudist plus Playgirls”. And wonder how it feels to discover 60 years later you had your photo taken by a Beatle. PLUS … … the top-flight rock and roll star we passed in Soho. … the record David tries every year to force himself to like. … the wonderful Geoff Davies of Probe Records, the much-loved Liverpool figurehead who signed the Farm and Half Man Half Biscuit.   … bands who’ve had the most members. … ‘Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times”. What’s not to love about the Human League’s Dare? … the new U2 parlour game. … why CDs sales are on the up. … and what the police would know about you if they found your phone.Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKGet your exclusive NordVPN deal here - it's risk-free with Nord's 30-day-money-back guarantee!: https://nordvpn.com/yourearSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of music’s legends during their final acts, some of which is gathered in “Holding The Note”, a collection of his writings on music. From his ill-lit Manhattan eyrie he talks to David Hepworth of many matters, including:….what was in the handbag which remained on the piano during Aretha Franklin shows….what it was like being on the receiving end of an almighty dressing-down from the elderly Leonard Cohen….how Bruce Springsteen learned nothing at school but has picked up a great deal since….how Bob Dylan reckons he’s in a “post-interview” phase of life - or is he?….how his father took him to see Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and he has taken his own kids to see Radiohead….how Keith Richards found a ghost writer who could throw his voice….what was really the last good Stones album.…why you should never try to get rock stars to like you.Pre-order Holding The Note here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-remnick/holding-the-note/9781035023974Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded together in Mark Ellen’s attic! Among the conversational footballs booted round the park this week you’ll find:- … Freddie’s “exquisite clutter”: would YOU buy one of his bonzai plant-holders, his catsuit with ballet shoes and a $0.5m silver bangle? … when did the story change from “the Stones are old, knackered and ought to give up!” to “the Stones are old, brilliant and should carry on forever!”? ... do all enduring legacies need an element of tragedy? … who calls the Ezra Collective “a jazz band”? … who’s been married the longest … Bono, Alice Cooper or Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits? … 1984 was the annus mirabilis of the album? Birthday guest Matthew North has the records to prove it. … the perils of celebrities chairing press conferences (QED Jimmy Fallon). ... how they’ve only gone and wrecked the Rugby World Cup anthems.   … and useful phrases to deploy when you didn’t much care for your mate’s band but don’t want to hurt their feelings – eg You’ve done it again! Only YOU could have put in a show like that! You took it to a whole new level!Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fired by the rock and roll revival of 1970 and a post-Easy Rider taste for American music, a circuit of some 35 London pubs filled with bands playing fizzing, small-scale shows that never sounded quite the same on record, bands whose moment in the sun was ultimately wrecked by the arrival of punk rock. This pod – and Simon’s book ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ – raises a dimple jug to some of its forgotten heroes including Meal Ticket, Roogalator, Ducks Deluxe, the Winkies and the Kursaal Flyers. Be honest, when did YOU last hear mention of the Count Bishops or GT Moore & the Reggae Guitars? So what was it about Southend? How did Eggs Over Easy play such a pivotal role in it all? And Creedence Clearwater Revival? And Dave Edmunds? Why was this the perfect launchpad for Ian Dury? And what was the final nail in the pub rock coffin? Order ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Went-Rotten-Londons-1972-1976/dp/0857305743/ref=sr_1_11?qid=1693561624&refinements=p_27%3ASimon+Matthews&s=books&sr=1-11Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kevin Armstrong was the guitarist in the band David Bowie asked him to assemble for Live Aid and toured and recorded with him many times. Playing the guitar intro to Rebel Rebel in a stadium, he says, is “like lighting a match”. Start the Passenger with Iggy Pop and you’re greeted with “a great mass of love”. His memoir, Absolute Beginner, is “a window onto the high table of rock and roll” and full of insights into life in studios and on the road and the fathomless levels of diplomacy often required to collaborate. This entertaining pod expands upon … … why he turned down the offer to join the Smiths. … how Jim Osterberg transforms himself into Iggy Pop. … the Sinead O’Connor’s tour manager’s trick to speed the band through security.   … the song Bowie dropped from the Live Aid set. … why Michael Hutchence is “terrified of small crowds”. … Bowie’s ex-Navy Seal minder and the old decoys-under-blankets ruse. … why Morrissey is “thin-skinned”. … and the eternal curse of “Imposter Syndrome”.  Order ‘Absolute Beginner’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Beginner-Memoirs-least-known-guitarist/dp/1911036173Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We dipped the shrimping net of curiosity in the rock and roll rockpool this week and transferred the following items to the podcast bucket … … who now regrets being the “little tyrant” that broke up their band 30 years ago? … who was the real Bungalow Bill and how did the song about him change his life? … Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman are almost forgotten. Are the Doors and the Kinks heading the same way? … the unique and extraordinary Bill Wyman, “more a witness to the Rolling Stones than a member”, plus Nellcôte and the Birds’ Custard. … is the ice finally melting in the Talking Heads camp? … an everyday tale of Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash” on the mean streets of North London’s garden suburbs.   … was Lennon v the Maharishi an early example of “career cancelling”? … is Life During Wartime from Stop Making Sense the greatest live performance ever filmed? … the curse of the Budokan. … and birthday guests Avi Chaudhuri and Jelltex (who strongly recommends The Mood Elevator's second album, Married Alive).Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ray Padgett lives in Vermont, first discovered Dylan when he was 16 in the 21st Century and was fascinated and besotted, later launching the newsletter ‘Flagging Down the Double E’s’ and now publishing the enthralling ‘Pledging My Time’, a collection of his interviews with over 40 people who’ve worked, performed and recorded with the inscrutable old rogue. Both the book and this fast-moving, whip-smart and very funny conversation are revelatory and highly recommended, the podcast shedding light on … … the daily life of Bob Dylan – eg the piles of gifts he routinely receives and the security men who scour his vacated hotel rooms to remove anything that could be nicked and put on eBay. … the only friend who seemed to co-exist with him on “an equal footing”. ... an eye-witness account of his first performance (aged 13) at a Jewish summer camp in Minnesota. … the childhood friend who owned a fish business in Duluth and ended up running the Rolling Thunder Revue - as Dylan enigmatically put it, “if you can sell fish, you can sell tickets”. ... the time he went to a business conference and nobody recognised him. … how he tells musicians to “never play the same thing twice”. … the chance meeting with Scarlet Rivera – two hours later she was onstage as “my violinist” with Dylan and Muddy Waters. … multiple examples of his love of spontaneity and the extraordinary way he hires musicians.   … a rare moment when his career seemed to stall. … and honourable mentions of Richard Thompson, Paul Stookey, Jim Keltner, Stan Lynch and Jeff Bridges. Pledging My Time …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pledging-My-Time-Conversations-Members/dp/B0C6VRBZQC Flagging Down the Double E’s newsletter …https://dylanlive.substack.com/aboutTickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/woridinyourear https://www.covermesongs.com/about-ray-padgett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Its tyres pumped, its engine tuned, its air-con still on the blink, the rock and roll charabanc trundles off on its circuit which, this week, makes the following stops … … the singer who sold vials of her tears as part of a merchandise range. … when Billy Bragg entered a Paul Simon lyric in his school poetry contest and only got 7 out of 10. … why our favourite music still tends to be the stuff we heard in our teens. … how Bill Graham’s “Electric Ballroom Experience” changed the landscape – “we were out there with no compass”. … former Kursaal Flyers drummer Will Birch re-watches their ’76 TV film documentary: “There are only two good things about Scotland - the whisky and the road out of there.” “Five autographs? Wasn’t like this at the Carnegie Hall!” … “creamy mousse with ripe stone fruits, bright citrus and a biscuity length”: home-brewing with Alex James.   … and how Wreckless Eric’s made a living for 46 years out of just one song.  That Bill Graham interview …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVeuDS0n3XI Melvyn Bragg introduces the Kursaal Flyers on the BBC’s 2nd House in 1976 …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQKNeWlQzdI&t=11sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even podcasts take “annual leave” but we’re back and once again propelling the two-man Pedalo of Enquiry down the rock and roll seafront stopping off at sundry wave-rippled spots, among them … … what Chuck Berry said about the Clash. … a band whose keyboard player is the King’s second cousin. … the song Art Garfunkel sang for years without realising it was about him. … Billy Connolly’s bicycle gag and other things you couldn’t get away with now. … Ian Hunter remembering “that little bloke from Beckenham”. … why Punk was like a religious movement. Guest Paul Burke claims it was a “passing fad and its over-cooked legacy was fashioned by the middle-class media”. … the Shakespearian echoes of ‘The Boxer’. … what Bowie would have done if the Laughing Gnome had been a hit. … how Robbie Robertson lived the life Bob Dylan claimed to have lived and never recaptured the spirit of the first two Band albums. … Earl Shilton, Norbert Putnam … American session player or remote place in Leicestershire?… lost TV documentaries about Gene Vincent and the Global Village Trucking Company.  That Global Village Trucking Company doc …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNrBey7yQI Punk’s fake history, Spectator column by Paul Burke …https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/punks-fake-history/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

 The mellifluous melody and soaring counterpoint of this week’s podcast were comprised of the following notes … … Morrissey’s broadside on the treatment of Sinead O’Connor – and her electrifying moment at Dylan’s 30th Anniversary tribute two weeks after she’d torn up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live. … two unsettling events in the later life of Randy Meisner. … Adele revives the old Las Vegas business model (at about £8m a night). … the eternal mystery of Bob Dylan’s motorcycle crash and his Shea Stadium and Russian shows that never happened. … how long news took to travel: the Battle of Waterloo (three days), the death of Jim Morrison (two weeks). … Oppenheimer and why so many films are so long. … Things It’s Almost Impossible To Accept, No 97: Mick Jagger is 80! … in 2006 BBC viewers voted Morrissey second in a Greatest Living British Icons poll (Sir David Attenborough was first, McCartney third). Where would he be if they ran they voted tomorrow? … that photo of Pulp and their 57-strong entourage. … the time the Troggs turned psychedelic.… the endless value of the mantra “never apologise, never explain”. … TV clips from the Lost World of Rock And Roll – Hush tour Australia in 1997 (and pay their road crew $1 an hour);Quintessence in 1970, ‘the sound of Notting Hill Gate’.  ------------- Clips:- Sinead O’Connor at Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert two weeks after she tore up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeJifOXAnA Glam-rock roadhogs Hush in 1977 …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Iyytr1AJ4 Getting It Straight In Notting Hill Gate …https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-getting-it-straight-in-notting-hill-gate-1970-onlineSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Blips on the rock and roll radar this week include …   … Things You No Longer See, No 97: the celebrity airport arrival shot. .. do we, in all honesty, need Roger Waters’ re-interpretation of the Dark Side Of The Moon for it is upon us on October 6?  … is there really an Edinburgh Fringe show called ‘Bald Man Sings Rihanna”, ‘A Shark Ate My Penis’ or ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Ting: Prog Rock in A Reggae Style’? … a 1976 clip of Elton John as the jobbing pianist on the Morecambe & Wise Show. “Elton John? Sounds like an exit on the motorway.  … the poignant story of 1968’s lost psych-rock voyagers the Mike Stuart Span and what happened when they became Leviathan. … the time Hipgnosis put a sheep on a psychiatrists’ couch in the Hawaiian surf and landed a chopper in the Alps to photograph a statue. … the Scottish stately pile Bob Dylan’s just put on the market. .. and – with birthday guest Patrick Butler - six theories as to why Steely Dan are hipper now than ever.  The Mike Stuart Span TV clip …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufD0e8tE-UY Elton with Eric & Ernie …https://twitter.com/eric_ernie_col/status/1673207024702636033 Roger Waters’ Money redux …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVmeYgo1IwSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat “PP” Arnold was hired as an Ikette by Ike & Tina’s Revue in 1965 and set off a 2,000 mile tour of America, coming to London a year later to support the Rolling Stones. Offered a record deal by Andrew Oldham, she lived in England for many years becoming “the First Lady Of Immediate” with a wide circle of friends and collaborators including the Small Faces, Cat Stevens, Hendrix, Rod Stewart, Nick Drake and the Bee Gees, all recorded in her memoir 'Soul Survivor'. Here she looks back at:- … the rigours of the Ike & Tina tours where she was once fined $50 for crying onstage. … the contrast between “the Chiltin’ Circuit and the Albert Hall. ... supporting the Stones in ’66 and her romance with Mick Jagger “who wanted to walk and talk like a black man”. She taught him how to do the Pony and the Mashed Potato. … the success of The First Cut Is The Deepest.   … her unique American take on the Swinging London of the mid-‘60s and quaint English expressions like “taking the piss”, and how an “unsophisticated” girl from the Watts district of Los Angeles saw the bohemian world (eg Chelsea restaurants where you got three sets of cutlery). … her time with “my brothers” the Small Faces who were “a lot more ghetto than the Stones”. … and a mention of recent collaborations with Paul Weller and Ocean Colour Scene. Order Soul Survivor here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soul-Survivor-Autobiography-P-P-Arnold/dp/1788705785Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Mark Ellen had taken his shrimping net to the coast Alex Gold steps into the breach to talk to David Hepworth about….how solo acts like Bing Crosby and Bruce Springsteen get to play the common man in a way they never could if they were in a band….the extraordinary sight and sound of the band called Punch trying to make their name on “Opportunity Knocks” in the vanished land of 1976….what to do with your wedding ring if you find yourself on the world’s largest cruise liner….Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son” and a few less exalted things that Dads say.Don’t miss the amazing Punch dochttp://youtu.be/_DxLtuK3pD4Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his new biography “Nick Drake: The Life”, Richard Morton Jack set out to correct the misconceptions spread by magazines and former biographies, some ending up on Wikipedia. This involved talking to as many people as he could track down who’d met and remembered him, from key players like Joe Boyd, Francoise Hardy and Drake’s sister Gabrielle to the girl who played the cello on ‘Cello Song and a childhood friend who wrote a poem about him in the school magazine. The result is, by some margin, the clearest and most comprehensive picture of him to date, far more accelerated and self-promotional in the early days than we’d been lead to believe – “not just sitting in his ivory tower singing to the moon” – though it’s still hard to think of a musician worse equipped for the rigours of the music business and having, as Richard perfectly puts it, “a personality fundamentally ill-suited to display”. This covers a wide landscape from his lack of support (no real manager, no agent, no proper PR), the unusual and often disastrous gigs he played, the luckless timing of his record releases (Five Leaves Left out the day Brian Jones died), the mysteries of his love life, his time with John Cale, playing for Mick Jagger in Marrakesh, an awkward Parisian dinner with Francoise Hardy and his eventual decline and withdrawal from the outside world. It’s also a charming portrait of what real life was like in the late ‘60s when evenings revolved around a record deck, overflowing ashtrays and games of Monopoly. You can order Richard Morton Jack’s book here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Drake-Richard-Morton-Jack/dp/1529308089Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Growing up in remote rural Norfolk, crime writer Cathi Unsworth had a Goth conversion, a condition from which, she happily admits, you never fully recover. And never want to. She discovered Dennis Wheatley’s ‘To The Devil A Daughter’, heard Siouxsie & the Banshees on the Peel Show and saw a picture of Robert Smith in a magazine which she stuck by her bedroom mirror to help her construct his spectacular dishevelment. She’s just published ‘Season Of The Witch: the Book of Goth’, a highly entertaining account of the dark side of rock starting out with the Brontes, Edgar Allan Poe and Aubrey Beardsley and heading, via Jim Morrison, Jacques Brel and Nico, to Joy Division, the Cure and the Sisters of Mercy. This is a very funny and self-mocking pod in which you’ll find the following … … why Yorkshire is “Goth’s Own Country”. … the secret ingredient in Mac McCulloch’s vertical hair. … Nick Cave - “the Dark Lord of Goth Music” (©️ the Daily Mail) – at the Coronation. … Lee Hazlewood’s advice to Nancy Sinatra when recording Goth staple These Boots Are Made For Walking. … “changing into fishnet tights in the bogs at school”, rival pop gangs, mooching about in graveyards and a mate “who used to sit up trees reading Dennis Wheatley and summoning Satan”. .. the joy of crimpers and backcombing. … “spreading the virus” at the Batcave. … the inventor of the term Goth and the key Gothmothers and Gothfathers. … local folklore about hellhounds in Norfolk. … her first gig, the York Rock Festival in 1984 featuring the Bunnymen, Sisters of Mercy, Spear of Destiny and the Redskins: “Gothtopia”! … “Beer Girls and Beer Boys” and why it was best to avoid them. … dark Satanic mills. … and the greatest Goth record ever made. Order ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Season-Witch-Book-Cathi-Unsworth/dp/1788706242Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Filling the spinnaker of enquiry on the careering, two-mast schooner of rock and roll this week you will find … … the prog drummer who made a fortune. ... did Brian Wilson bring a horse into a recording studio? Or write a symphony for drums? Or have an idea involving a hen in tennis shoes? … why the New York Times review of the new Wham! documentary is ridiculous and wrong. ... the eternal allure of The Larry Sanders Show – “Madam, I killed a man like you in Korea!” … the curse of identity journalism. … the most influential British DJ of all time. … Kenneth Tynan’s exquisite profile of Johnny Carson in the New Yorker and the dark art of being a TV chat show producer. … the mathematical certainty that every review you ever write will eventually resurface. “Nothing will be forgotten - the afterlife is always longer than the first flush of success.” … was there ever a briefer ‘fashionable’ moment than that of Guns N’ Roses? … the great new expression for being drunk – “overserved”.  Watch that deathless Renia clip here …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv0VyHHEj2s&t=11sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we paddle the two-man kayak of curiosity across the rock and roll seafront and make a few stops on the way, among them … … “the future is always in the past”. … the pure theatre of the E Street Band and its cast of characters – “our lives are repaired by the fact that they’re still together”. … the growing appeal of Country & Western - and even “shronking” jazz – as you get older. … Bless the Barn, Featherwash and Franny Wisp, Portlandia’s low-volume crowd-pleasers. … the ‘Barry’ TV series (starring Bill Hader): that rare beast, a contract killer who’s a nice bloke. … the 60th anniversary of the recording of She Loves You, why engineer Norman Smith predicted a flop and the fan break-in at Abbey Road that energised the session. … is the success of Nick Drake partly an antidote to the age of technology? … how our concept of ‘old’ has changed: McCartney at Live Aid was a coffin-dodging 43, same age as Kelis at Glastonbury. … is cricket now the drunkest spectator sport? And which is the greater agony, seeing England doing badly when you’re there or watching at home with the commentary? … and the Elton John Band have been together 53 years – but that’s only six years longer than Madness. … plus birthday guests Andrew Stocks and Patrick Cleasby and a roll-call of new patreon supporters.Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …… the republishing of Giles Smith’s Lost In Music, one of the funniest books ever written about our real life relationship with pop stars, records and being in bands. Giles – and Nick Hornby – kick-started a whole new literary vogue. … has Cate Blanchett won Glastonbury? … why do we update book jackets but never change a record cover? … how the Stones’ Steel Wheels tour changed the gig economy. … the Stackwaddy game: song titles - George Formby or Frank Zappa? … how gigs became a status symbol and tickets a statement purchase. ... did a record sleeve ever put you off buying the album? … what are YOU going to do with your vinyl collection? Original new “estate plans” considered. … amusing things said by George Melly (and who was Mucky Alice?). … Recession? What recession? 650,000 people bought arena/stadium tickets in London last weekend. Plus Toe Fat, Blind Faith, “the Larynx on Legs”, author Giles Smith and birthday guests Blaine Allen and Richard Lewis.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aged 21 in 1963, Harvey Lisberg wanted to be the next Brian Epstein and ended up managing Herman’s Hermits and 10cc, among others, before relaunching the snooker stars Jimmy White and Hurricane Higgins. We thoroughly recommend his just-published memoir ‘I’m Into Something Good’ and this wide-ranging encounter takes in … ... the unique division of labour in 10cc and the magnificently doomed invention of ‘the Gizmo’. … the perils of $100,000’s credit in Las Vegas casinos. … life for the wives of rock stars “in love with music”. … his friendship with Colonel Tom Parker and a day spent with Elvis in Honolulu. … a prickly relationship with Mickie Most. … why America fell in love with Peter Noone. … Herman’s Hermits’ US tours with the Stones and the Who. … and how he changed the snooker world by remodelling the “Artful Dodger” Jimmy White.  Buy Harvey’s memoir here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-Into-Something-Good-Managing-ebook/dp/B0BSHGRN5VSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s pod veers off the conversational highway to break out its picnic hamper at the following leafy locations …. … the Stackwaddy game: metal band or clawed demon from Dante’s Inferno? … when bands stopped being good-looking. … Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms: how long can you give a record before it clicks? … Tony ‘TS’ McPhee of the Groundhogs (RIP) and the great British blues underground: cue the scent of damp greatcoats. … does anything capture the time better than a record shop in a movie? … the hard-fought life of Glenda Jackson plus “All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got”. … eternally recommended: the crestfallen, poignant, melancholy world of the Fountains of Wayne. … the moment in A Clockwork Orange that gave us Heaven 17 and Fuzzy Warbles. … streaming services are now editing the movies they carry (eg the French Connection): Doesn’t this infantilize the audience? … We Are Family. Are Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh related? Is Suzi Quatro Sherilyn Fenn’s aunt? … a unique literary double-act: Robert Caro and the late Bob Gottlieb. … how subtitles change the way we watch. … Paul McCartney, consummate press-wrangler. … and the lost appeal of late-night movie screenings.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The super-trouper of gentle enquiry alights this week upon … … why bands are at their biggest when they’re over the hill. … Fats Waller v Morrissey song titles: can YOU tell your Waller from your Wallower? … how could Dylan have written Queen Jane Approximately aged only 24? … why you should hear Pieces Of Treasure by Rickie Lee Jones, particularly the track All The Way. … the social media bin-fire that’s shredding the reputation of Bobby Gillespie and how Twitter loves a character assassination - “Pound shop Mick Jagger! Always a charlatan!” … was anyone worse equipped for the rigours of the pop circus than Nick Drake? … “big” 20-album record collections, board games and no telly: fond memories of real life in late ‘60s London.   … Richard Thompson and Nick Drake’s painfully awkward tube journey. … what risible sum Astrud Gilberto was paid for The Girl From Ipanema. … and why Springsteen was called “the Boss”.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forty years ago Clare Grogan was on the cover of Smash Hits yet again and was the fourth guest at our garden party on June 3. Here she remembers the key events that have happened since which include meeting Bill Forsyth and the success of Gregory’s Girl (and why she only saw it for the first time recently), touring with Siouxsie & the Banshees when still at school, life as a pop star in the golden age, being Kristine Kochanski in Red Dwarf and its obsessive fans, her time in Father Ted, Kim Wilde’s call to get her to join the Here And Now ‘80s pop package tour and a great story about Nik Kershaw and John Taylor. Listen to what happened when she told the audience how she loves and needs applause – and loves “loud cheering” even more. Spoiler alert: contains both laughter and tears. Order the new Altered Images CD here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mascara-Streakz-Altered-Images/dp/B0B29LG9B3/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=altered+images+mascara+streakz+cd&qid=1686041285&sr=8-3Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early (and ad-free!) access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first record by the Beatles came out on the same day as the first James Bond film. Over sixty years later they still send their differing forms of Britishness out into the world. John Higgs has written a book, “Love And Let Die”, about how closely they have been intertwined over the years, about how they stood for very different sorts of masculinity, how they changed the way we wanted to dress and behave and how they have, between them, shaped the British psyche of today.Love And Let Die: https://www.waterstones.com/book/love-and-let-die/john-higgs/9781399600163Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author, DJ, member of St Etienne and a regular on our podcasts, Bob Stanley was the second guest at our sun-baked garden party in the auditorium of Opera Holland Park on June 3 talking about his new book “Bee Gees: Children Of the World”. He feels – and very rightly – that in some quarters they’re still the punchline to a heartless joke and deserve infinitely more critical respect. This illuminating conversation touches on the “teenage delinquent” years in Manchester, their struggles in Australia, signing with Robert Stigwood, success and how badly they handled it, what the press made of them, how they invented the sound of Jive Talkin’ and Night Fever, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, why they were known as “Pilly, Potty and Boozy” and the various people who’ve loudly sung their praises – Diana Ross, Pet Shop Boys, Take That and Noel Gallagher among them. Order Bob's book ‘Bee Gees: Children of the World’ here … https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bee-Gees-Children-Bob-Stanley/dp/1788705424/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=]2502&hvtargid=pla-1945216255331&psc=1&th=1&psc=1Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a barely believable sixty years since the Rolling Stones put out their first single, “Come On”, so we asked Lesley-Ann Jones, the author of “The Stone Age", along to talk about them and how they have related to the women in their lives, from Brian Jones’s strange relationships with his Cheltenham girlfriends, Mick Jagger’s powerful attraction to women who look like him, the sexual competition that raged between him and Keith Richards and the mid-life crises of Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. As they say on the disclaimers this podcast contains adult themes.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s rock and roll gumbo includes the following spicy and nutritious ingredients … … “the internet is designed to let middle-aged men think they’ve had the last word”. … will the Royal Blood storm-in-a-teacup do them more good than harm? … Barry Gibbs’ beard. … what ‘Three Lions’ did to the Lightning Seeds’ Scottish, Welsh and Irish fanbase. … old memories of Kevin Coyne and Marjory Razorblade. … why no band is ever “forgotten”. … what’s so sacred about Love Will Tear Us Apart? … can AI music ever work if you don’t feel a connection with the person making it?   … why are the Doors fading from view? … there are only two degrees of adulation: too little or too much. Plus Birthdays guests Ray Roscoe and Paul Thompson.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fond and appraising enquiry of recent events, this week featuring … … we now feel we have to approve of artists/musicians/writers before we can say we like what they do. When did all this start? … a new Stackwaddy game – Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon? Starchelle Chicago Bear? Flaming Lips song title or exotically named winner of Crufts’ Best In Show? … in defence of men with bad reputations eg Evelyn Waugh, Martin Amis, John Lennon … … re-pressed versions of albums that were 70p in the late ‘60s now sell for £29.99. What fresh madness is this? … Liam Gallagher’s son Lennon and Paul Weller’s daughter Dylan ‘toast the 20th anniversary of an iconic Mulberry bag’: an ‘It’s like punk never happened’ special! .. how the Silicon Valley TV series tells the truth. … Noel Gallagher’s magnificent use of the word ‘disingenuous’ (possibly to wrong-foot and baffle his brother). And why he wrote Acquiesce. … the now comically over-the-top Cannes standing ovations and what’s behind them. … and the weaselly worlds of film and daytime telly.Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special extra podcast recorded just after hearing the news. We can barely remember a time when we weren’t aware of her. This looks back at the Ike & Tina R&B hits of the ‘60s, the Ikettes dance routines and how he copyrighted her stage name, the story of the recording of River Deep Mountain High with Phil Spector, Proud Mary on the Ed Sullivan Show, supporting the Rolling Stones, her unique vocal style and the way she sold the drama of the songs … and then the greatest comeback imaginable: the arrival of manager Roger Davies, the B.E.F.’s recording of Ball Of Confusion at Abbey Road (and the impossible demands of James Brown), Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome, Private Dancer (and Bowie’s 1984) and the record-breaking 180,000-crowd show at Brazil’s Maracana Stadium in 1988. And the fine art of dancing in high heels.Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Put through the boil-wash of enquiry and hung upon the washing line of truth this week you’ll find the following one-size-fits-all garments … … which acts are fading from memory and who’ll be remembered in 50 years’ time? … how Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Warren Zevon addressed mortality – (‘My Ride’s Here', ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich’ ...). … actors who’ve made albums. … the photo that changed the perception of Johnny Cash. … why you should watch the Pet Shop Boys’ new BBC interview, Reel Stories. … the prog star who stage-invaded Jacob Rees Mogg’s speech at the Conservative conference. … “Nothing will ever beat the first time you hear yourself on the radio”: Sting and the law of diminishing returns. .. how Will Self capsized his own career. … how Shakespeare and Robert Johnson’s reputations were both made by a ‘Greatest Hits’. … Brian Jones’s fall from grace. ... who invented the term ‘goth’? .. and the genius of Andy Rourke.Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Further nutritious items on the pod’s tasting menu this week include … … the story of Tubular Bells and how the Exorcist sent its sales through the roof. … beneath the surface of every band is a drama waiting to kick off: the View’s reunion gig was “a brotherly bust-up that went too far”.   … one of the following didn’t endorse a credit card, but which? – Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Kiss, the Wu-Tang Clan, U2 and the Sex Pistols. … crimes in rhyme perpetrated by Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Boney M - plus do YOU know a better one than ‘You told me love was too plebeian/ Told me you were through with me an’ …”? … Beyoncé’s tour is “a celebration of black queer dance music” but that didn’t stop her playing a private gig in Dubai for $24m. … plus stadium tour profits, singing bassists and 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Blue Danube.Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where the Gold Bracelets of Sincerity and Wisdom and the Rod of Equity and Mercy meet the piping hot music news agenda in a weekly podcast and alight upon the following …. … the greatest singer of sad songs we’ve ever heard. … the extraordinary tale of the B-side of ‘13 Women And Only One Man’. … songs you couldn’t record these days. … Rufus Wainwright’s re-recording of Neil Young’s Harvest – but CAN modern technology possibly make it sound any better? … Noel Coward in the Italian Job.  ... the mystifying UK pop charts at the time of the last Coronation. … old records we’ve re-discovered: this week, Bonnie Raitt’s magnificent Give It Up (and especially Love Has No Pride). … John Prine’s Angel From Montgomery. … Gordon Lightfoot: why Dylan adored him and the tale of The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald. … the return of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the excellent current occupation of Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash.------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377------Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Encountering the cheerful ping-pong bats of conversation this week you’ll find … … the most unprepossessing rock band on God’s green earth. … Ed Sheeran v Marvin Gaye – “the case continues”. But does anybody genuinely copy anyone else these days? … Springsteen and Michelle Obama and their irresistible thirst for publicity.   … the return of the Stack Waddy game: Spencer Birtwistle? Wilfred Mott? … Bernard Cribbins sitcom character or former member of the Fall? … Santana’s Caravanserai still sounds like it was made yesterday. … what Paul McCartney and Coldplay were paid to play Glastonbury. … if you tell people they’ll like things they tend to look for reasons to disagree but can we (cautiously) recommend the Australian comedy Colin From Accounts? … Happy 70th, Bill Drummond. We remember his deafening ‘retirement’ exit at the BRITS in 1992 and his exotic activities since. … the delicate rhythms of the funniest lines by PG Wodehouse.   … a chilling stat involving football academies. … Harry Belafonte, the original “singer and activist”, and the time he was in a drama class with Walter Matthau and Marlon Brando. … plus Shakespeare, a light-fingered Noel Gallagher and amplified busking.------------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377------------Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!------------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Items run up the flagpole this week include … … our memories of the exquisite agony of teenage dances, especially Dave’s at the Mecca Ballroom in Wakefield, 1965. ... unforgettable things said and done by Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. … rock stars with Brian Jones’s hair. … do we care more about the people who make music than the music itself?… a point from Massive Attack – “is the discussion ‘should AI recreate music?’ or is it ‘Why is contemporary music so homogenised & formulaic that it’s really easy to copy?’” … songs that never fail to fill dancefloors. … a “Ladies’ Prosecco Afternoon” with a Robbie Williams impersonator. … what’ll be the next music revival? … when did you last see a Teddy Boy? … Dave’s story about why Take It Easy by the Eagles meant so much to him. … and the eternal appeal of Mod. … plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury – “was We Can Work It Out the Beatles’ tipping point?”Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dipping our shrimping nets this week into the ever-bountiful rock and roll rock pool we find … … Dylan, Madonna, Pharrell Williams, Michael Jackson, Nick Cave and Keith Richards – which one didn’t write a children’s book? … S Club 7, Miles Davis’s sessionmen and others apparently ripped off by the heartless, skinflint music industry. … the unsung story of Jack Nitzsche, “the man with the golden touch”, his part in the Stones’ baroque period and the recordings he made in Barking Town Hall and St Giles Cripplegate. … when Sly Stone got married onstage and the couple who got hitched at a Taylor Swift show. … a “short-fingered vulgarian” and a “beaky, crow-coiffed, pleat-faced” guitarist. … the Gershwin score to Woody Allen’s Manhattan. … how two thirds of NBA players are bankrupt in 10 years. ... Jimmy Page’s Shirley Bassey session.  … Rlchard Branson picking up women. … how Jay Craydon’s still living off a Steely Dan guitar solo. … can any musician hope to make it if they start aged 37? … and somewhat irritatingly Jamie Oliver attaches himself to the celebrity children’s author gravy train. Plus birthday guests Stephen Lambe –“that adolescent moment when pop music stops being just a nice noise and becomes Something Important: discuss”. And Chuck Loncon recommends Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs’ Under The Covers compilations and the Stay Awake album of songs from Disney films.Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377 Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The “bargain basement Baudelaire” is setting out on a UK tour in April and tells Mark Ellen here about the earliest shows he saw and played, memories which happily include … … the subtle art of crowd control. … seeing Bob Hope when he was 9 and the strange impression of the adult world that suggested. … the dress code that barred him from a Hendrix gig. … auditioning for Bernard Manning at the Embassy Club and what he learnt from him.  … “I was Little Richard’s gear carrier (aged 11)”. … why he based his look on Ronnie Wood. … the perfect song for the hopeless bass player. … the deathless advice his Dad gave him. … why punk rock audiences were a breeze. … the desperate fashion-chasing changes of tack of the Mafia, the band he formed in the ’60s. Who became the Vendettas. Who became the Lovely Flowers. … “the last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it” and other comedy circuit one-liners. … the life-changing inclusion of "Evidently Chickentown" in the Sopranos’ credits. … and the greatest gig he ever saw “which may well have been cooked up in the playground of my imagination”.   John’s tour dates here ….https://johncooperclarke.com/gigs/ And this is his highly recommended memoir, I Wanna Be Yours … https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Yours-John-Cooper-Clarke/dp/1509896104Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s trawl of the rock and roll outer limits alights, among others, on the following sizzling hot topics … ... a lost Beatles tape and the night they played Stowe School 60 years ago. … the return of the Stackwaddy game: were there really ‘60s New Zealand pop groups called the Chapta, Hi-Revving Tongues and the Kal-Q-Lated Risk? … Todd Haynes’ brilliant Velvet Underground documentary and how the band spawned pop’s greatest look- and sound-alike movement. And could Lou Reed have made it without Andy Warhol, John Cale or Nico? … Tracie, Bowie, Bonnie Tyler, Tracey Ullman, the JoBoxers, Kenny Everett and other top-notch components of the singles chart in April ‘83. … did A Hard Day’s Night invent the word “grotty” and Steely Dan the word “scam”? … who was the mysterious “Fred Flange”? The story of the Goons, George Martin , Peter Sellers and Matt Monro.   … … and birthday guest Al Hearton remembers records you’d heard about before you heard them – eg Don’t Fear the Reaper, Bat Out Of Hell, Mother’s Little Helper, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite and Eve Of Destruction.Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Being on tour with King Crimson,” in the words of their film director, “is like being with the school rugby team and, at the last minute, the games teacher falls ill so they send them out with the maths master. But the team starts winning ...” Is there another band remotely like them? Their leader believes in discipline and cold showers in the morning. He practices four hours a day. Life in the group was “wretched” from 1969 to 2013. Adrian Belew says it made his hair fall out. The running gag among its 22 one-time members is “you’re irreplaceable, just like the last bloke”. With great bravery and patience, Toby Amies has made a documentary about them, ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson at 50’, and talks to us here about what he discovered. There’s much to be enjoyed, not least… … the fact that Robert Fripp commissioned the film and for months refused to take part in it. … the encounter with Sister Dana, the prog rock nun from Norway. … the film’s reflections upon “the metronome of mortality”. .. the thoughts and perspectives of current and former band members, particularly Bill Bruford, Bill Reiflin, Jakko Jakszyk and Ian McDonald who “broke Robert’s heart” in 1969 and is still touchingly apologetic. … the religious ecstasy pursued by their audience. … how King Crimson’s music feels like a deep-body tissue massage. … and the extraordinary two-minute pause that a motionless Fripp leaves before answering one of the film’s questions. It’s very entertaining, not least because it was made by someone who wasn’t a fan but simply curious and had questions he wanted answered. This original and idiosyncratic film suits them perfectly. Screenings here …https://www.itcotck.com/screenings @TobyAmieshttps://linktr.ee/tobyamies@itcotckdoc@ITCOTCKfilmhttps://linktr.ee/itcotckTickets for Word In The Park, in London on Saturday June 3rd, available here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Weller’s been writing songs for 50 years now and he’s chosen over 100 of his lyrics for the new and gorgeous, picture-packed publication ‘Paul Weller: Magic – A Journal Of Song’, each accompanied by his memories of how and why he wrote it compiled from interviews with long-time admirer, multiple author and old pal of the podcast, Dylan Jones. No-one was better qualified for the job. The teenage Dylan saw the Jam countless times in London pubs and has followed Weller closely ever since, a songwriter, he says, “who’s proved he’s beyond reproach and, in some senses, possibly without equal”. This is full of stories and insights, among them … … “you don’t tell Paul Weller what to do”. … his unease about the sentimentality of English Rose.   … “the Style Council were a better group than the Jam”. … the teenage Weller travelling to London to make cassette recordings of the traffic. … his love of tabloid song titles and unrhyming lyrics.   … what saved him from being dropped by Polydor. … Steve Winwood, the Liverpool Poets, the Beatles, Kinks and other key influences.   … the burden of being a hero. … and the likelihood of a Jam reunion.  Order Paul Weller – Magic: A Journal Of Song here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Journal-Song-Paul-Weller/dp/1905662742Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Manfreds start their 60th Anniversary Tour in September with Paul, Mike D’Abo and Tom McGuinnness in the line-up. He talks to us here about the first and best shows he’s seen and …   … being told “there’s a soul/R&B singer in Birmingham and if he ever comes to London you’re finished”. … how Brian Jones “opened up a secret door”. ... “stealing from Tennyson” for the lyrics of 5-4-3-2-1. … being with Mick Jagger and Long John Baldry watching Alexis Korner calling up guest “shouters” and all thinking “pick me!” … what T-Bone Walker taught him. … seeing Lonnie Donegan at the Kings Theatre, Southampton, and the absurdity of doing ‘It Takes A Worried Man’ in your skiffle band when you’re only 15. … Bob Dylan at Earl’s Court. … the earth-shifting impact of the Modern Jazz Quartet. … and the early adventures of ‘Blues Boy’ Jones.   Tickets for the Manfreds’ 60 Anniversary tour here …https://myticket.co.uk/artists/the-manfredsTickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In which we cast a warm but appraising glance in the direction of the week’s news and alight upon the following sizzling topics … … the best media job in the world. … the most played record in the history of the BBC. … the Avengers franchise “is just a giant ATM for Marvel and produces argument-proof movies”. … the most influential thing about John Peel wasn’t the music he liked. … found: the owner of the VW van on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. … Seymour Stein, the man who signed the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna - and met Buddy Holly. And only signed musicians if they had enough drive - “Ambition is basically dissatisfaction with where and who you are. You’re born with demons that you have to harness before they kill you.” … Ben Sidran’s 34 albums and how Spotify saves everyone from disappearing. … the return of the Stackwaddy game – Crushed Butler, Clog, Highly Inflammable and other deathless 1971 support acts. … the attractively unfathomable lyrics of Keith Reid and the ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale’ court case. … why AO Scott left the New York Times. … and birthday guest Chris Lintott nominates his “prawn cocktail DJ”. Our Seymour Stein podcast in 2018 …https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee8319657 The campervan on the cover of the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan …https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/24/bob-dylan-iconic-vw-van-blue-camper-freewheelin-new-york--------Fancy a free case of beer? Celebrate the warmer days with a free case of exceptional beers from Beer52! Simply go to www.beer52.com/WORD and cover the meagre postage cost of £5.95 to claim your free case now.--------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377---------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrew Lauder started the Radar, F-Beat and Demon labels, worked at Liberty, Stiff and United Artists and signed (or licensed) and helped shape the careers of countess acts we’ve loved over the years, among them the Bonzos, Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, JJ Cale, Nick Lowe, Creedence Clearwater, Elvis Costello, Can, Dr Feelgood, Stranglers and the Stone Roses. He was one of the main architects of the whole world of independent labels. Mick Houghton has written his memoir – Happy Trails – and talked to us here about … … the Denmark Street days when the music business was just a village. … the complete list of journalists on Brinsley Schwarz’s famously catastrophic press trip to the Fillmore East in 1970. … why ‘the Beat Merchants’ album was the UK Nuggets. … the old world of the ‘70s rock and roll when the record industry was part of the packaged goods business and gigs got stopped for 20 minutes because of a power cut.  … the golden age of rock samplers – Gutbucket, Greasy Truckers Party etc.  … and the LIBERTY WANTS TALENT! ad that brought us the Bonzos, the Idle Race, Family and Elton John & Bernie Taupin.    Order Happy Trails here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Good-Clean-Mick-Houghton/dp/147462359XSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whistling, clicking our heels, swinging round lampposts and lobbing the odd shiny florin to a flaxen-haired child, this week’s free-wheeling navigation of the rock and roll boulevard alights upon the following hot topics … … why Indie music is like student drama. … what the Beatles achieved in “the 585 most productive minutes in the history of recorded music" (aka the recording of Please Please Me) and the albums released the same day every decade after.  … Death & Vanilla, Frightened Rabbit and – to deafening applause – the welcome return of the Stackwaddy game. … albums performed as ‘plays’ (by musicians who didn’t make them). A band featuring Clem Burke and Glen Matlock has just toured playing Lust For Life in its entirety. What others would work as well? The Band’s second album? Liege & Lief? The Ramones? Hot Rats? … unappetising song titles. … what Bob Dylan did so “my mother would finally think I'm somebody”. And how his Mum reacted to his success.   … and why bands end sets with Country Roads, Mustang Sally and Twist And Shout.Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!-----------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive early and ad-free access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teenage Fanclub are touring the UK in November. Norman tells us here about some of the first and best shows he’s seen and played and life in the group's early days. Which involves … … the band that made him want to start a band. … the Wombles at a YMCA when he was 12. … selling a fridge and a washing machine to buy recording time. … the bouncing balcony of the Glasgow Apollo when the Clash played in ‘78. … having a wee next to Steve Cropper. … the age at which audiences “appreciate having a seat”. … busking etiquette.   ... his mum taking him to see the Kinks and Tom Jones.   … serving John Martyn at McCormack’s Music Shop – “Thanks, wee man!" … a sweet story about a trombone, Terry Hall and the Specials. … Neil Young with Booker T & the MGs. … the fine art of “sprinkling” new material in a set list. … watching the Smiths play the greatest show he’s ever seen, “the stage strewn with flowers”. Dates and tickets here … https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/teenage-fanclub-tickets/artist/736268Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every Word Podcast early and ad-free!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whistling, clicking our heels, swinging round lampposts and lobbing the odd shiny florin to a flaxen-haired child, this week’s free-wheeling navigation of the rock and roll boulevard alights upon the following hot topics … … why Indie music is like student drama. … what the Beatles achieved in “the 585 most productive minutes in the history of recorded music" (aka the recording of Please Please Me) and the albums released the same day every decade after.  … Death & Vanilla, Frightened Rabbit and – to deafening applause – the welcome return of the Stackwaddy game. … albums performed as ‘plays’ (by musicians who didn’t make them). A band featuring Clem Burke and Glen Matlock has just toured playing Lust For Life in its entirety. What others would work as well? The Band’s second album? Liege & Lief? The Ramones? Hot Rats? … unappetising song titles. … what Bob Dylan did so “my mother would finally think I'm somebody”. And how his Mum reacted to his success.   … and why bands end sets with Country Roads, Mustang Sally and Twist And Shout.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to every future Word Podcast!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sauntering in carefree, conversational mode down the rock and roll bridleway this week, pausing briefly to lean against a tree and tootle upon a mouth-organ, we came across the following … … bands with no original members left - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Motorhead, the Crickets, the Ramones, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Drifters … any more? … things musicians are obsessed with. … albums by acts we love without a single redeeming feature – Blondie’s The Hunter? Bob Dylan’s Saved? The Dead’s Built To Last? It’s Hard by The Who? … the night – exactly 20 years ago – we saw the Dixie Chicks make their career-capsizing comment about George Bush. … the hilarious left-right shift in Russell Brand’s brand values.   … the main reason some people go to Glastonbury. … can you love an act as much if you don’t own their records or CDs and just stream them? … a Northern Soul DJ’s £250,000 box of singles being stolen from his home after a gig. … and Mr Inbetween, the Australian crime drama that’s like Saxondale meets Reservoir Dogs.Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!----Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast early, and ad-free!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Things in the crosshairs this week include … … why it took 34 years to get De La Soul on a streaming service. … Radio 2’s ham-fisted handling of the departure of Ken Bruce – and are R2 and Greatest Hits Radio two bald men fighting over a comb if music radio seems doomed to die? … the new fun-sized Axl Rose. … U2’s stand-in drummer Bram van den Berg is like “Jimmie Nicol on stilts”. … the BBC and Glastonbury re John Peel: never name anything after a celebrity! ... “Jackson Browne would never have been anything without David Lindley”. … what made the Spice Girls successful? … Steely Dan’s Aja, Joni Mitchell’s Paprika Plains and other places to hear Wayne Shorter’s divine embroideries.   … comedy skits on records. … plus David Lindley’s effortless fashion statements – “Jackson Browne could emerge from a plane crash looking like Cary Grant but Lindley could have had stylists working round the clock for three days and still looked like an unmade bed”.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon to receive every future Word Podcast early and ad-free!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Karen Carpenter died 40 years ago at the age of 32, a life mapped out in a new biography by Lucy O’Brien called Lead Sister. It’s a chilling, cautionary tale of how she and her brother became international stars and the devastating personal repercussions that were the consequence. Our conversation with Lucy covers the waterfront and includes … … the perils of “helicopter parents”.  … why Richard was “The Chosen One”. … a disastrous association with Nixon. … destabilising press comments about weight issues and her “milksop presence”. … what Hal Blaine said about her mother.... the night she met Elvis. … what singers need to survive. … the private bebop language she invented. … “Drummers are like hockey goalies. No-one knows how to talk to them apart from another drummer.”… the howling disaster of her solo album. … and what she discovered about her husband three days before she was due to marry him.  Lead Sister by Lucy O’Brien …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lead-Sister-Story-Karen-Carpenter/dp/1788708245 The Carpenters’ first TV appearance, 1968 …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cz60nGaopMSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to every Word Podcast!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The teenage Michael Cragg was obsessed with the “glorious shiny ludicrous pop” of the period that began with the Spice Girls, included Hear’Say, Five, Steps, Atomic Kitten, Blue and countless others and ended with the closure of Popworld and Smash Hits ten years later, a tale less about music than the media that covered it and the machinations of the industry. All the key leading players – bands, managers, songwriters, critics – are interviewed in his sparkling and soon-to-be-published account of it all, Reach For the Stars, and our conversation with him includes … ….. why Chris Morris should make a film about it. … why there are no groups anymore. … Russell Brand auditioning for Five. … the secret of the Spice Girls’ success. … which is more cynical, the worlds of TV or music. … why pop stars needed “bullet-proof exteriors”. ... the band that couldn’t go to gigs or football matches without security to protect them. … why Blue would never have survived in the age of social media. … why pop stars were like contract players in 1930s movies. … how TV drained the fun and frivolity. … whether girl groups appeal to 100 per cent of the audience and boybands to only 50? … the extraordinary fall and rise of Whole Again by Atomic Kitten. … and the band mistakenly delivered by private jet to Donatella Versace. @MichaelCragg Reach For The Stars …https://www.waterstones.com/book/reach-for-the-stars/michael-cragg/9781788707244Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive early access to every future Word Podcast!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.