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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

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All Episodes

29:14

Daryl Hall - ‘60s soul session work, the right shoes...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/04/21

We like to think of Daryl Hall as a kindred spirit, his home-recorded Live At Daryl’s House series with its magnificent roster of guests now racking up 90 episodes. He’s about to tour in May and talks to us here from his house in the Bahamas – straw hat, roosters crowing! – looking back at the first gigs he ever saw and played and other delights such as …… travelling with his mother’s Broadway dance band when he was three.… seeing the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle and the Bluetones in

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42:53

Dave Pegg, Fairport’s “longest-serving member”...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/04/17

Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They’re playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves …… the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork.… an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis.… memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine.… the fine art of getting it together in the

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52:55

Withering reviews of famous albums, Jaws versus...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/04/15

Boldly pursuing tariff-free trade in rock and roll news, nostalgia, gossip and old hokum since 2007 and, this week, featuring …… the romantic allure of life as a critic.… Sting’s part in the success of ‘Adolescence’.… Mick Jagger’s long engagement to Melanie Hamrick (born when Steel Wheels came out!)… "Contained within these grooves are twelve convincing arguments against the capitalist system" and other vicious reviews revisited.… when Bob Marley recorded ‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies.… Al Bowlly’s

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24:56

Why Sparks’ Russell Mael preferred British acts to...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/04/08

Sparks are touring – playing dates in the UK and Ireland in June and July – and with a new (and 28th) album, Mad!. Russell Mael looks back at the first shows he ever saw and played which entails …… sitting on the floors of LA clubs watching Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Move, the Faces, the Who and Tyrannosaurus Rex.… his Mum taking him to see the Beatles in the Hollywood Bowl among “10,000 screaming girls”.… “there was a faux honesty about the Laurel Canyon bands – ‘it’s just me and my guitar’ –

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38:09

Seven ‘lost’ Springsteen albums, romance in sitcoms...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/04/08

The runners and riders in the rock and roll steeplechase first past the post this week include …… how Ed Sheeran protects himself against song theft claims.… ‘lost’ Hendrix, Beach Boys, Amy Winehouse and Jeff Buckley records: is anything unfinished ever any good?… “The Unauthorised Breakfast Item”: can YOU tell a Bob Newhart sketch title from a Caravan song?… US Office versus the UK original and the genius of Steve Carrell.… The West Wing, Frasier, the Good Life and how romance is the root of all

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42:56

What Kate Mossman discovered about rock’s elder...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/21

Kate’s an old pal from our days at Word magazine. She was on the staff for six years before heading off to the New Statesman and has just put out a collection of the sizzling and revelatory profiles she wrote for us, them and the Observer about a particular sector of the musical landscape for whom she’s always carried a torch. As she wonders in ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters with Rock Royalty’, “how is it that in the presence of wrinkly rock stars twice my age I sometimes think I’m meeting …

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51:31

How John Harris and his son found a life-changing...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/20

John Harris is an old pal from our days in the music press. You might remember him from Sounds, the NME and Select (which he edited) and he’s been one of the mainstays of the Guardian ever since, writing mostly about pop culture and politics. When his son James was diagnosed with autism and, looking for ways to connect with him and help his development, John began playing him various types of music. The results were life-changing for the family and recorded in his moving and revelatory book ‘Maybe

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26:00

Mike Rutherford looks back at 60 years onstage and...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/18

This one starts with memories of Genesis at Farnborough Tech in 1972 – Batwings? Fox heads? - looks back at school bands and the early ‘70s and ends with the current Mike & the Mechanics tour. But it mostly centres on the first live shows Mike Rutherford ever saw and played which features …… his mum making him wash the Brylcreem from his hair before seeing Cliff & the Shadows when he was 17.… buying an electric guitar before you realised it needed an amplifier.… playing the same theatres he played

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16:08

Mike Scott of the Waterboys remembers the shows that...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/17

The Waterboys’ new album comes with the magnificent title ‘Life, Death & Dennis Hopper’ and the band start touring in May. Mike Scott looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played and the performers he watched closely, which involves … the Stones “when they were still dangerous” and the connective genius of Mick Jagger, Dennis Hopper’s lost decade, Nazareth and Emerson Lake & Palmer at the Glasgow Apollo, a love affair with microphones, how not to look at the audience, the days when he

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47:16

The lost world of teenage love songs – and the best...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/16

In eager pursuit of dance and merriment, we dust down the current events. Which this week involves ….… are teenagers no longer in love? And what does this mean for pop music?… are people better musicians now than 40 years ago? And is that because you can get online tutorials explaining how to play everything?… Paul McCartney taking two buses across Liverpool just to learn the chord of B7.… how the best pop songs start with someone walking into a room.… Ghana! India! New Zealand! The Caribbean! The

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27:04

Nik Kershaw remembers Live Aid, snoods, fingerless...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/15

Someone else we put on the cover of Smash Hits 40 years ago who’s touring in 2025! He’s playing European festivals, ‘80s packages, dates with his band and a string of solo shows billed as ‘Musings & Lyrics With Nik Kershaw’, and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves …… a bad case of Imposter Syndrome.… how the relationship with your audience changes over 40 years.… “it all seemed so important back then. I was in this little bubble where I thought the world was

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52:24

Gang Of Four’s Jon King now sees the comedy in their...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/03/13

Gang Of Four’s moment was dramatic but brief. It was littered with times when the future seemed impossibly bright before disaster crept up with a cosh in their relentless “refusal to do the obvious”. Being a musician, he points out, is a ridiculous life best not taken seriously. His memoir ‘To Hell With Poverty!’ rightly describes itself as “rich with stories”, many remembered in this spirited exchange with David and Mark, among them …… the transformational effect of a scholarship to the boarding

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45:21

Bob Marley in London, Chappell Roan’s outburst &...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/02/10

Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them …… how Bob Marley, the Walker Brothers, the Byrds, Hendrix, Ramones, Blondie and Nirvana “got the dust of England on their boots”.… Chappell Roan’s demands for “a living wage” in a business built on inequity.… why audio books surprise you in ways the print edition can’t.… Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure?… “separate immediately”: Marsha Hunt and

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37:25

Did Britain invent the rock band? - plus our new laws...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/01/30

When we get off of this mountain, you know where we want to go? Straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. While surveying the week’s events as we paddle, which involves …… the genius of Garth Hudson and the magnificent way he looked - “part lumberjack, part Old Testament prophet, part Brahms.”… how Glyn Johns invented the sound of the Eagles.… Carrie Underwood’s Inauguration catastrophe.… only male voice choirs or gospel groups should be allowed to perform National Anthems!… fiery,

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20:49

Howard Jones has ‘the best job in the world’

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/01/28

We put Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1983 billed as ‘the Most Promising New Act’ and, 15 albums and 42 years later, he’s about to set out on another tour, a double-bill with ABC. He looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played which involves …… rehearsing his Live Aid slot backstage to an audience of one: David Bowie.… pioneering the “one-man show” in the early days of Moogs and drum machines.… Emerson Lake & Palmer firing cannons onstage at the Isle of Wight in 1970 (his

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33:21

The unstoppable Francis Rossi – open the fridge door...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/01/18

Something happens when he walks out under the lights. He can never predict what but he’s programmed to perform. As he has for over 60 years and will again when he sets out on a 63-date tour in April peppered with stories of an extravagant life and billed as ‘an evening of Francis Rossi songs from the Status Quo songbook and more’.He looks back here at the acts that showed him the way (Gene Pitney, Slade, ZZ Top, Mott the Hoople and “my uncles, the Stones”), Butlins in Clacton, the “elfin” David

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13:14

Graham Nash beat the Beatles in a talent contest

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/01/14

We both first heard Graham Nash just over 60 years ago when the Hollies’ Just One Look was on the BBC’s swinging Light Programme and we’ve followed him ever since, not least his transformational shift in the late-‘60s from suburban Salford to the wood cabins of Laurel Canyon. He’s touring the UK in October, An Evening of Songs and Stories with Peter Asher in support, and looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played, which involves …… Bill Haley in 1958 – “he opened the curtains and said

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45:48

The Dylan biopic, Sam & Dave and why 2025 is the most...

Word In Your Ear ·

2025/01/13

Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun, it is in fact just two old lags reviewing the current events, which this week include …… the made-up scene in A Complete Unknown which Dylan apparently insisted was included.… the Day of the Locust: do the LA fires spell the end of the Hollywood Dream?… why does no-one write songs about world events anymore?… the unwelcome return of AJ Weberman.… can you date records made between 2000 and 2025?… Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs,

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40:22

Why we have enough Christmas hits plus the greatest...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/12/23

Deck the halls with beers and Stoli! The nutcracker of scrutiny was applied to this week’s noisettes of news and the following discussed over a glass of port …... are a lot of new song catalogues just blogs set to music?… can any actor be convincing playing someone really famous?… Robbie Williams’ Better Man: it’s the way forward! Who can his CGI’s monkey play next?… why no-one writes songs with opinions anymore.… Lola Young’s ‘charming’ press release.... when Elvis met Nixon (and was “crackling

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30:07

Bill Bailey celebrates “the things that make us human”.

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/12/21

The tremendous Bill Bailey is staging “a magical, musical mystery tour of the mind, along with other pressing matters” for 42 nights in London from December 28, a celebration of what makes us human in an age threatened by AI. There'll be “a laser harp”. There’ll be electronic drum balls played by audience members. There'll be extracts from Kraftwerk’s lost album of children’s songs. He talks to Mark here about the first live entertainment he ever saw and first shows he played himself, which happily

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