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PODCAST

Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those

music music commentary

All Episodes

1:02:05

The transformational role of the bus in ‘60s pop:...

Word In Your Ear ·

2023/01/01

Things explored this week in pursuit of entertainment and diversion …… Neil Tennant interviews Malcolm McLaren and other delights in Smash Hits, January 1983.… “there’s no such thing as a finished record!”… the link between Cliff & the Shadows and the Merry Pranksters.… a touching interview with Jim Morrison’s father and sister about the son/brother who cut them off completely - plus would Jim Morrison have made it in the age of social media?… pop stars’ school reports.… when did the ‘60s turn from

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30:44

The deliciously eccentric life and art of Ivor Cutler...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/28

The full and extraordinary story of “the Zelig-like” Cutler – poet, performer, broadcaster, playwright, surrealist, humorist – is mapped out in Bruce Lindsay’s exceptional new book, ‘Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Living Room’. Most of us discovered him through the patronage of fans like John Peel – or first saw him as part of the Magical Mystery Tour cast – but this fascinating conversation covers the early years too, his time as a progressive schoolteacher, the formative influence of Kafka and

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1:02:38

The things rock made us wear

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/21

Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.Also in the crosshairs this week …… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote.… Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought’.… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.… falling though a wormhole

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37:26

Strokes producer Gordon Raphael on the serendipitous...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/20

Gordon Raphael was the sonic architect of arguably the two most important and influential albums of the noughties - The Strokes' 'Is This It' and its follow-up 'Room On Fire', and in this special Word In Your Ear chat with 'Magic' Alex Gold he talks about the creation of those seminal records alongside other key moments in his life as told in his memoir 'The World Is Going To Love This: Up From The Basement With The Strokes', including working with Regina Spektor and the impact of seeing her perform

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43:15

Jet Black, exotic Americans and Oscar Hammerstein’s joke

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/12

In which we boldly tackle the burning issues des nos jours in our restless forage for entertainment. Nutritious items on the tasting menu this week include …… albums whose cover was over half the sell.… was Jet Black older than all the Beatles and Stones? Dave Greenfield and Edgar Allan Poe – separated at birth.… that brief moment when Creedence Clearwater were the biggest thing on the planet.… what people paid for the wooden balls on the Rumours cover and one of Christine McVie’s dresses.…

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28:32

Word Down Your Way: Danny Baker with a taste of his...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/11

Danny’s done two hysterically funny, cartwheeling canters round the UK in the last few years and sets out again in February for 49 nights with ‘At Last …The Sausage Sandwich Tour’, another ‘panjandrum of unstoppable anecdote’. His memories of old rock and roll and theatre shows are high in the mix in this crackling exchange. Among the highlights …… Anita Harris at the ABC in Yarmouth.… appearing with the Millwall squad and Jimmy Tarbuck singing ‘New York New York’ in top hat and tails.… the joy of

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34:12

Stories Christine McVie told us - including “Freddie...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/05

In which the piercing searchlight of conversational scrutiny points in the direction of …… Christine McVie’s early adventures, our burning love for Chicken Shack’s ‘40 Blue Fingers’, her Sliding Doors moment in a Dickins & Jones window display, supporting the Shadows at the 2I’s coffee bar in ‘59, writing Songbird, the forgotten years of Kiln House and two film clips that point up Fleetwood Mac’s luckless mid-‘70s slog with the bank-breaking success to come.… records you never connected with that

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46:41

Phil Jump tells the story of the legendary Badlands -...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/12/03

Phil and his brother Steven started a market stall in Cheltenham in the mid-‘80s and made enough money selling rare records to open the world-famous Badlands (now occupying three floors of an old coach house). It’s been thriving ever since specialising in Springsteen and Dylan, collectible vinyl, books and box-sets and branching out into concert package tours all over Europe. Here he talks about the first records he ever bought, XTC at Cheltenham Town Hall, the cassette and CD booms, the return of

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53:52

A farewell to Wilko – “Dr Feelgood didn’t play the...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/28

… in which we remember watching and talking to the magnificent Wilko Johnson and look back at extraordinary moments in his life – the hippie trail to India, his appearance on Question Time, the three albums the Feelgoods made in a year, how they discovered what made them unique and the effect on everyone from Television to the Clash, Gang of Four, Blur and Franz Ferdinand of the band “who could start a fight in an empty room”.Plus … Pet Shop Boys on the Archers.… the 40th anniversary of Thriller and

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39:37

Kenneth Womack – author of 12 Beatles books – dives...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/27

Ken’s a world authority and he’s been on the pod twice before, talking about his books about George Martin and the last days of John Lennon. He’s just revised and updated the one he wrote in 2007, ‘Long And Winding Roads’, partly to add new observations and material, especially in the light of Peter Jackson’s Get Back, and partly because the beleaguered world now needs the Beatles more than ever. It’s written like a literary biography, as much about the art as the story. This covers the waterfront -

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57:48

If you could only listen to one act all week who...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/23

Further free-wheeling conversational detours include …… “like the consequences of mating Patti Smith with a Hoover vacuum cleaner”: barbed reviews in the Rolling Stone Record Guide.… ‘Bowie and Bing in a bauble’? The Taylor Swift ‘Merry Swiftmas’ t-shirt? Real or fictional Christmas accessories.… the four tracks by women - and there are only four! – among the 66 records Bob Dylan considers in The Philosophy Of Modern Song. … “and any eye for detail caught a little lace along the seams”: exquisite

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1:00:45

Dylan’s love letters and the one album that never...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/17

Things run up the flagpole this week in pursuit of entertainment …… Irish/American punk rock group or 19th Century criminal gang?… the eternal dependability of the first Stones album.… does ANYONE not like ska?…. seven “legends” you can still see for under £30.... the now-for-sale cache of ‘50s love letters by a besotted Bob Dylan (and would you want anyone reading your teenage correspondence?).… the story of Bill Wyman trying to leave the Stones 30 years ago and the rest of them refusing to take

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36:21

Twitter and World Cup chaos, Jaco Pastorius, gruesome...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/09

On the radar this week in an enquiring, celebratory or goat-getting capacity …… has the World Cup balloon already been unmendably punctured?… and is the same thing happening to Twitter?… “if social media had come along earlier would Sergeant Pepper exist?”… Richard Osman-created fictional sleuth or rock stars’ real names: you decide.… a chance meeting with Jaco Pastorius.… speaker-testing moments of bass guitar brilliance.… the general public armed with a mouse are infinitely crueller and more

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33:37

Trevor Horn’s adventures in modern recording with...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/04

The teenage Trevor Horn could be found playing bass in dance bands on the Top Rank circuit supporting acts like Tommy Cooper (and singing Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and Hi-Ho Silver Lining). He began writing songs for Tina Charles, had a worldwide hit with Buggles and went on to produce Dollar, ABC, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Malcolm McLaren, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys and countless others. In this terrific exchange he talks about life in covers bands (“big money, £150 a week”), how the

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50:35

Farewell Jerry Lee Lewis and is ‘Talking Book’ the...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/11/01

… in which we remember the luminous music and diabolical life of the last of the old rock and roll guard standing. And this includes … the weird old America he came from (backwoods country, religious sects with their transporting songs), the career-cancelling British tour in 1958, the electrifying Live at The Star Club album, the Steve Allen Show breakthrough and the Seven Wives of Jerry Lee Lewis. Much to applaud, much to deplore.… and some of his deathless lyrics eg ‘39 And Holding’ – ‘Dim lights

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29:08

Why did Sheila Rock walk out of a New Order shoot?

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/10/28

Sheila’s portraits of ‘80s musicians and the club circuit filled the pages of magazines like the Face and Smash Hits at the time and now feature in her book ‘80s: Sound And Vision’. You’ll know a few from album sleeves too. She talks here about some favourites – Nick Logan in the Face office, Bryan Ferry, Bowie with Marc Bolan, Martin Fry in the famous gold lamé suit, Siouxsie in ‘Japanese chic’, Steve Strange and the day Frankie Goes To Hollywood turned up dressed as cowboys and swinging a lasso

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33:46

What’s the connection between Liz Truss, Bruce...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/10/27

In the crosshairs this week …Sampha, Skepta? Mercury Prize winner or Italian sports-shoe brand?Was Revolver really the Beatles’ most “consequential” album?James Corden v Balthazar: fame in the age of social media.Liz Truss, Steven Gerrard, Bruce Springsteen and knowing “what it’s like to have failed with the whole world looking on”.Danny Baker’s selling 12,000 records: unsettling life-stage moments when you put your foot on the ball and look around the pitch.The joy of old books and finding pencil

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28:36

Craig Brown - our greatest living satirist – has a...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/10/26

Craig was on the pod last year talking about his glorious Beatles book ‘One Two Three Four’ and he’s just published a collection of his writing called ‘Haywire: the Best of Craig Brown’ – Private Eye diaries, columns, reviews, essays and other assorted comic gems. It’s very good indeed. “Satirists,” he reminds you, “are on the side of things going wrong.” Here are just a few of the topics that stumble into view in this very funny and illuminating ramble – John Stonehouse, the strange life of Arthur

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25:19

Simon Sebag Montefiore knows the five best songs...

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/10/24

One of them is Sympathy For The Devil. The Stranglers are in the Top Five too, as are the Strawbs. The best-selling historian and documentary-maker has spent the last three years working on his monumental, all-encompassing new book, ‘The World: A Family History’, much of it hammered out to the sound of very loud music. And he’s made a playlist to accompany it that connects with this vast human drama – Billie Holiday, Billy Bragg, Ava Max and Elvis Costello all in the mix.He talks here about

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40:20

All of your rock heroes have had work done

Word In Your Ear ·

2022/10/19

In which we waspishly suggest the odd nip and tuck is now standard practice - and name a few obvious suspects. And alight upon …… Nick Hornby’s new book and the connections he’s found between Dickens and Prince.… support acts we’ve seen who became household names.… David’s dinner with Jess Phillips MP and what happened the day JK Rowling got a tour of the House of Commons.… the former hospital orderly who walked into Muscle Shoals studios and had a worldwide hit with his first recording.… the real

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