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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

48:44

In the studio with Nick Drake, Fairport, John Martyn...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/10/02

“There was no Command-Zed back then!” John Wood engineered or produced some of the most magical, timeless and affecting records ever made - by Nick Drake, John Martyn, the McGarrigles, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, John Cale, Squeeze and many more. He’s 85 now and looks back here at a luminous career that started with mastering singles at Decca and transferred to Sound Techniques, the mecca he co-founded in an old cowshed in Chelsea when takes were spontaneous and even the tape-op was part of

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31:19

Ian Hunter – joining Mott The Hoople, Bowie, Hamburg...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/10/01

Ian Hunter – an image so familiar you’d recognise his silhouette - now lives in Connecticut and he’s just released expanded versions of two of his best-selling solo albums, You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and Short Back N' Sides. He’s 85, born before any of the Beatles. We talk to him here about life growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s when your father’s a copper and “music wasn’t allowed in the house”, and touch upon …… the debt he owes Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee.… café jukeboxes full of Little

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46:44

Bryan Ferry, Maggie Smith and why Ian Hunter is a...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/30

As the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness draws in, we poke the embers of this week’s rock and roll bonfire and rake out the following chestnuts …… Maggie Smith on ‘70s chat shows.… when Radiohead meets Shakespeare.… the strange, circuitous and downright disgraceful launch of Francis Ford Coppola’s majestically bonkers Megalopolis.… Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter: the slow ascent of two ‘overnight sensations’.… is it big events anymore or just a low-level hum of distraction?… Bryan Ferry

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45:10

When Cocteau Twins followed the Ramones onstage and...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/27

Simon Raymonde’s affecting and beautifully written memoir ‘In One Ear’ records life in the ‘60s growing up with a father who wrote and arranged for Dusty Springfield, Helen Shapiro and the Walker Brothers, the impossibly shy promotional activities of the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and the struggles and eventual jackpot of the Bella Union record label he founded. He’s so perceptive, observant and self-mocking and we loved this energetic podcast which, among much else, lands upon …... why 1979

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30:10

Swinging London & the Wombles seen from an...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/20

Mike Batt still wrestles with the emotional legacy of the Wombles, the act that simultaneously made him and cast a shadow over the rest of his career, not least his early days as a songwriter at Liberty Records, discussed here, hired after he’d answered the same ad as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, a time when A&R men wore kipper ties and had Picassos on their wall. He forged a path through psychedelia and into TV and films, taking huge financial risks with musicals, orchestral works and big-selling

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46:11

Screaming Jay Hawkins 75, Dave Grohl 1

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/16

With Mark Ellen rambling in the West Country it’s left to David Hepworth to talk Alex Gold down from the ledge in the light of the Dave Grohl news and discuss:•⁠⁠just how many offers come the way of rich and famous rock stars•⁠⁠whether his recent admission will in any way detract from the most winning smile in rock•⁠⁠is this an opportunity for Jon Bon Jovi to step up?•⁠⁠how a quick word from Taylor Swift is worth all the five star reviews in the world•⁠⁠Nick Lowe’s infallibly entertaining story of

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35:11

One Day author David Nicholls – prog rock, Live Aid...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/13

The Netflix series of David Nicholls’ worldwide hit novel One Day was Top Ten in 89 countries and he’s been heavily involved in its soundtrack album, a process as enjoyable, he says, as devising the compilation tape the fictional Emma made for Dexter in 1989 featuring the Smiths, Prefab Sprout and Public Enemy. We talk to him here about the glorious pitfalls of using pop music to broadcast your personality. All bases covered, from the Geoff Love Orchestra to Joy Orbison, along with …… prog rock

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32:27

Nick Lowe – war stories, wise decisions and the event...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/12

Old friend of the podcast, Nick Lowe has just released his 15th solo album, Indoor Safari, and he’s about to tour with Los Straitjackets. This absorbing conversation looks back at 60 years onstage and takes in the following …… the secret of a long career.… why he resolved “not to get that famous again”.… touring Germany aged 15 in Brinsley Schwarz’s dad’s Dormobile.… the Small Faces at the village hall in Hornchurch.… to the Six Bells for seven pints with “photographer for all occasions” Jet

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53:13

David Hepworth on the glory, comedy and tragedy of...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/09/04

David’s seventh book in his ‘orange series’ is just out and you’re guaranteed to love it. He and Mark discussed ‘Hope I Get Old Before I Die’ at a sold-out launch event at Waterstones in Piccadilly on the evening of September 3, recorded here. Among the highlights you’ll find …… the rock career as a three-act play.… the tour that started the Age Of Spectacle.… why Live Aid was the dawn of pop nostalgia.… the rock star who retired from retirement.… Woodstock – “the Somme with Santana”.… the terrible

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45:55

Johnny Beatle’, early Blondie, Led Zeppelin’s plane...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/08/22

Rock journalism as an occupation is rapidly heading in the direction of the watch-mender or lamplighter so Chris Charlesworth’s account of life at the Melody Maker in the ‘70s is already starting to feel like an historic document. ‘Just Backdated’ covers a time when the rock press set the agenda, sold over half a million copies a week and was courted by attention-seeking musicians of every rank, a lost world remembered in this conversation with Mark Ellen which includes …… the unwritten rules of

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38:43

Who is Lawrence and why did Will Hodgkinson write a...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/07/18

There’s something romantic about glorious failure and Will nails it perfectly in ‘Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence’. Over 40 years plagued by bad luck and self-sabotage with Felt, Denim and Mozart Estate, Lawrence has pursued fame and success while refusing to do what’s required to achieve them. Will spent 12 months wandering the streets of London with him to paint a fond, touching and extremely entertaining portrait of the worst-equipped pop star attempting a comeback, a man on a holy,

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46:21

How Joni Mitchell joined the boys’ club and why we...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/07/12

Broadcaster and music writer Ann Powers lives in Nashville and grew up listening to Kate Bush and Blondie. The siren call of Blue sparked a life-long and deep-rooted devotion and her new book Travelling: On The Path Of Joni Mitchell takes a different tack from the standard biographies, mapping the context of the songs, the forces that drove her, the steel will it took to succeed and the love affairs that shaped her and her music. All discussed here. As is this ...… the scale of your ambition when

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38:51

Twist And Shout? Spiral Scratch? Corey duBrowa...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/07/08

The first EPs appeared in the late ‘40s and ‘50s (Frank Sinatra, Elvis) hitting a magical sweet spot between the album and the single and they’ve cast a spell ever since, an exotic reminder that record labels are part of the packaged goods business. Music writer Corey duBrowa stumbled across one by Oingo Boingo in the original Licorice Pizza store in Long Beach, California, when he was 13 and began a lifelong collection that eventually led to ‘An Ideal For Living: a Celebration of the EP’, a book

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45:26

What songs should be longer or shorter?

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/07/07

The rock and roll ballot-box is stuffed with votes and the exit polls suggest how this week’s debate might play out. Along these lines …… is there still such a thing as British music?… John Lennon as a lavatory attendant.… Pink Floyd’s miming lessons... how Neil Finn cheered up the All Blacks.… the staggering difference in the UK album charts in the weeks the last two Labour Prime Ministers were elected (1997 and 2024) - male British bands v international female solo acts.… ‘Starman’ on Top Of The

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49:32

Happy accidents, whooping at gigs and why the album...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/06/30

In which we hoof a few balls round the rock and roll pitch and try to stick some in the net. Extracts from the live match commentary include ….… “Whipping Post!” “Paint it black, you devil!”: when did the audience become part of the show?… the special, unrepeatable thing about Bill Evans At The Village Vanguard.… GambleGate and the most we’ve ever bet on anything.… why young musicians today are so good. And why most Americans could outplay the British.… ‘60s Jamaican ska, 2-Tone and other imperfect

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51:39

Pop football chants, Reg ‘Reg’ Snipton sings Joni...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/06/24

The two-man tandem of curiosity wobbles its way down the rock and roll cyclepath pausing here to admire the view …… “We’re captive on the carousel of TIME-AH!!”: tuneless Northern club singer Reg “Reg” Snipton performs Ver Greats.… is going to gigs alone becoming a thing?... why Phil Oakey was a better musician than any of ELP.… Seven Nation Army in football stadiums - and does Jack White make any money from it?… what rock stars spend their fortunes on.… people who are ‘jewellery-blind’ (eg D

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38:36

Only Clare Grogan knows how it feels to burst onstage...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/06/21

Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more

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48:50

Stewart Lee knows the rigours of ‘animal costume...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/06/15

Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we’ve been praying for an excuse to get him back since. And it’s here! - he’s on tour again and his ‘Basic Lee’ show is on Sky/Now TV on July 20. This covers his first memories of live entertainment - in the audience and as a performer – and the people who influenced him and stops off at the following stations …… why the Wombles were just

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46:24

How Springsteen went “six deep”, fictional rock hacks...

Word In Your Ear ·

2024/06/11

You’ll always find us in the kitchen at parties, near the hoppy summer ale and sausage rolls and, and this week discussing …… he hasn't changed his look or sound for 30 years: is there a more conservative concept than Liam Gallagher? And how he became the one-man Oasis.… the eye-watering sum Kevin Hart made from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.… Loudermilk, Rob Gordon in High Fidelity and other Rock Snob stereotypes in fiction - “I’m a Rock Snob? It comes with the territory being right!” And how rock

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Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold