Word In Your Ear

In which we consider the melancholy of Abba (and find a 45 year-old bar of Abba soap), applaud the hidden message in Lee Perry's Cow Thief Skank, wonder how Judee Sill would be marketed today, remember the Beach Boys' purple patch and note the only two things of any worth ever achieved by Iron Butterfly. Support Word In Your Ear on Patreon and gain access to each Word Podcast early... and in full...

In which we wonder if it's the Stones without the drummer, tell the whole story of the "work five years and 20 years hanging around" interview, salute the great Charlie album sleeve moments and investigate "the Rolling Stones wobble". And there's Reading Festival '79, the Nirvana Nevermind saga and other random folk on record sleeves (the US marine on a Smiths cover, the Russian presidential candi...

‘I Wanna Be Yours’, the superb memoir by “the bargain basement Baudelaire”, is now out in paperback, much of it an account of growing up in Salford. Here he looks back at the days when “the Rialto cinema was my babysitter”, seeing Little Richard aged 11, the fine details of the Beatles’ tailoring, old TV ads, Stanley Holloway, Joe Loss, “Woodman, Spare That Tree”, the Mecca ballrooms, the Bernard...

Topics this week given a vigorous shakedown include ... the magical story-telling of the late Tom T Hall, best-preserved '80s rock stars, the construction of John Cooper Clarke's pickled onion "pork pie doorstep", the line-up and health risk of the 1971 Weeley Festival (Gnidrolog! Tir Na Nog! Castle!), a chance meeting with Una Stubbs, how Spotify changes your Greatest Hit, best opening songs on a...

The fourth and last guest at our sun-roasted live event in Holland Park on July 17 was the ever-supercharged Danny Baker. Straw-hatted, drink-toting and delighted audience members were treated to a series of superb comic monologues which featured his idea for a Beatles movie, the South London promoter who locked himself in a portakabin to evade the wrath of his acts and a magnificent riff about ho...

Topics subjected to the usual forensic scrutiny this week include ... Jan & Dean's role in the kidnap of Frank Sinatra Jnr, is it still the Stones without Charlie?, the Offspring drummer kicked out for being an anti-vaxxer, buying Revolver 55 years ago, Bobby Whitlock's roasting of the All Things Must Pass remix, how Tot Taylor gatecrashed the music industry in '73 and the least rock and roll...

We staged our first live event for 18 months on July 17, a sun-baked day at a spectacular outdoor venue kindly lent us by Opera Holland Park. A vast amount of fun was had. We’re putting up podcasts of all four of our guests, this one featuring the world’s pre-eminent fount of all Beatles knowledge and wisdom, the great Mark Lewisohn and including his thoughts about Peter Jackson’s upcoming Get Bac...

Topics plumbed to their very depths this week include .... are tears for Olympic athletes now compulsory? The absurd names of Usain Bolt's children. The backstage chaos of the Concert For Bangladesh. Dusty Hill's mid-ZZ Top job at an airport. Can Ryan Adams ever get another record deal? Why the Sparks story is unique and extraordinary. Can you ever feel as attached to music you don't own in physic...

Matters of high import thrashed out this week include Dylan's Shadow Kingdom livestream, the Thunder Road lyric farrago, Apple Venus and Wasp Star - separated at birth!, the best reggae album ever, laughter on records, underwhelming follow-up albums and why Hot Rats makes the perfect crime thriller soundtrack. Supporting cast includes Kevin Turvey, Philip Glass, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express and...

We had our first live event for 18 months on a fabulous, sun-baked afternoon in Holland Park on July 17 and the writer and former Fleet Street columnist Lesley-Ann Jones was one of the four guests (there’ll be a podcast of each of them). These are her crowd-pleasing, colourful memories of Queen backstage at Live Aid, living with Raquel Welch and tea with Bowie at Haddon Hall. The Stones are in the...

In our sun-baked return to live events on July 17, we had four guests onstage at a spectacular outdoor venue kindly lent us by Opera Holland Park in West London, the first our old pal the shy, retiring, hard-to-prise-a-word-out-of-him broadcaster Gary Crowley. Stories here include the time he was invited round to the Clash HQ for an interview (when still at school), the giddying sensation of meeti...

Sports writer and old pal Nige Tassell traces the story of Sweet Caroline, You’ll Never Walk Alone and Yes Sir I Can Boogie – with fond memories of the Tranmere Rovers’ spontaneous vegan chant moment. Other piping hot topics include Dua Lipa and the stolen photo, have you ever booed a band?, the exact number of onstage hours Dylan’s played All Along The Watchtower, the magic of Freddie King and th...

In which we salute Frogspawn Candy, Lord Snooty & his Pals and Steppenwolf, rejoice in the Onion's coverage of Lorde, applaud the return of the Siffleur and pop tunes that feature whistling, back Elvis Costello on song-stealing, have a CD Date Night with the Decemberists and A Tribe Called Quest (while unravelling their Lou Reed court case), and inspect a new theory about the Manson murders.&n...

Nobody is better qualified to talk about music as he's seen it from every angle. Bob Geldof broke into the Beatles' hotel room aged 12. He saw Dylan and the Stones when he was 13. Radio Luxembourg sent him messages from the ether. He worked out why the great lyrics work ("and the best opening line"). He studied the stagecraft of a host of musicians and formed a band of his own. He felt the lure of...

Matters of high import discussed this week include ... having a 'date night' with your old CDs. Can the one-piece jumpsuit ever return? The whole Billie Eilish apology saga. Do all first girlfriends have names like Deidre Birchwood? What pop location deserves a blue plaque? Why Court And Spark outranks Blue. The Foo Fighters' Bee Gees moment. Rock's second best year. And would you pay $998 to...

In which we shake down the piping hot topics du jour, among them ... the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury, the genius of Miles Copeland's management method, the new six-hour Beatles movie, Bob Geldof on what it takes to be a rock star, would Oasis have worked in the '70s, why current songwriters are afraid to experiment, and whatever happened to Terry Reid?  Terry Reid at the first Glastonbury...

In this week's pod we explore whether Apple's new spatial audio is actually worth it, ponder urgent listener questions such as "is pop music all about cymbals?" and "should we be paying attention to Van Morrison right now?" and chat to old pal Paul Burke about advertising in music and why the art of discotheque DJing is a little bit like foreplay. http://www.paulburkecreative.com/ Tickets for Word...

This week's burning hot topics include .... the 50th birthday of Joni Mitchell's 'Blue’. Songs about the joy of spending "a bankroll big enough to choke a donkey". When Whistle Test went all Tomorrow's World. Books or records: which could you survive without? Is there the Who without Pete Townshend? Films we've watched the most. Music that's unfailingly cheerful. Is "Play Loud" the daftest thing e...

In which we salute some much-loved writers (Clive James on Rod Stewart: "he was hopping about like a bifurcated marrow"), investigate the Friends Reunion, predict the next pop acts on postage stamps (a round of Stamp Waddy, anyone?) and tackle the burning issues of the day - aka What's the longest you've ever waited for a band to appear? And who's best: Britney Spears or Taylor Swift (and which wo...

Bernie's memoir - 'Where's My Guitar?' - is just out in paperback and this highly entertaining encounter with the old rock and roll trouper features his early bands (Clockwork Mousetrap, Skinny Cat), Cream and Fleetwood Mac at Dunstable's California Ballroom, auditioning for Renaissance and East Of Eden (then turning the job down), 'secret police' on the Wild Turkey tour, thumping Phil Mogg, Micki...

In which three old lags who've been following Dylan most of their lives - David Hepworth, Sid Griffin and Mark Ellen - offload a passionate personal theory and fly the flag for a favourite track. As Sid points, "How many times do you find yourself saying, 'Who does that? Only Bob Dylan!'" Includes 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' as a quiz and the three albums sleeves where he wears the same jacket....

In which the beloved entertainer talks about his memoir 'Beeswing: Fairport, Folk and Finding My Voice 1967-1975', a rich and circuitous ramble that features Jimmy Shand, Louis Armstrong, a school band with Hugh Cornwell, sitar lessons with Andy Summers, the word game that invented 'Unhalfbricking', the genius of Sandy Denny, the 'backstabbing' folk community, the perils of the British stiff upper...

In which we look at the light-fingered early lives of Camden's Magnificent Seven and the soundtrack of the Pursuit of Love, note the collapse of the BRITs and the Oscars and tell the extraordinary tale of the writer who thinks Bob Dylan's his dad. Plus ... Never Mind The Quality, Feel the Length (long things that only work because they're long - eg the Irishman, the Dead's Dark Star, Lawrence Of A...

The great Joel Selvin has just published 'Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars and the Myth of the California Paradise', a thumping account of the West Coast pop revolution between 1958-1968 beginning with the rise of Jan & Dean and ending with "the greatest record ever made", Good Vibrations. He beams in from San Francisco, a substantial cigar on the go, to talk about the shamefully un...

In which we remember the Wailers' London shows and what made them unique, salute the fond but sceptical rock photographs of our old friend Ken Sharp, unravel the brilliant mechanics of Jerry Seinfeld's 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee', discover why Steve Martin gave up comedy, tell an old Barry Cryer gag and play a bracing round of 'Irritating Electoral Candidate or Fun-Loving Calypso Songbird?'...