Word In Your Ear

Acts that wrote songs about themselves (Animals, Monkees, Manfreds, Devo, NWA, Ants etc), Lloyd Cole does handwritten lyrics to order, the welding of Bob Dylan, Des O'Connor's UK tour with Buddy Holly, the West Wing v The Thick Of It, amusingly named skate-punk bands and does Terminator X own a black ostrich stud farm in North Carolina? Want to receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast...

Acts that wrote songs about themselves (Animals, Monkees, Manfreds, Devo, NWA, Ants etc), Lloyd Cole does handwritten lyrics to order, the welding of Bob Dylan, Des O'Connor's UK tour with Buddy Holly, the West Wing v The Thick Of It, amusingly named skate-punk bands and does Terminator X own a black ostrich stud farm in North Carolina? Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n...

On the menu this week - the genius of the late Geoffrey Palmer in the Kipper And The Corpse and Reginald Perrin ('rum cove, Johnny Woman' etc), four anniversary albums - Badfinger's No Dice (Nov '70), Prince's Dirty Mind ('80), the Traveling Wilburys' Vol 3 ('90) and the Beatles' #1 (2000), pop careers that kicked off early, fictitious new age groups, pseudonymous secret gigs, the joy of CNN and t...

On the menu this week - the genius of the late Geoffrey Palmer in the Kipper And The Corpse and Reginald Perrin ('rum cove, Johnny Woman' etc), four anniversary albums - Badfinger's No Dice (Nov '70), Prince's Dirty Mind ('80), the Traveling Wilburys' Vol 3 ('90) and the Beatles' #1 (2000), pop careers that kicked off early, fictitious new age groups, pseudonymous secret gigs, the joy of CNN and t...

In which the author of 'Ready Steady Go!: the Weekend Starts Here' talks about the show that revolutionised pop TV - the people who made it, the acts that appeared, the dancers, the clothes, the James Brown shock-the-nation-special, the Troggs auditioning in reception, the '60s scene-makers packing its Green Room and how it captured what Mick Jagger calls "the wonderful chaos of the times". Andy's...

In which we tell the real story of Stardust (the new Bowie biopic), lampoon Kanye West's Kardashian hologram, brace ourselves for the arrival of 'synthetic media', dream up the fictional indie band generator, name some great autumnal albums (eg the Finn Brothers' Everyone Is Here) and remember Roger Moore and Dorothy Squires' cavalier mistreatment of records. The Kardashian hologram ...https://www...

In which we tell the real story of Stardust (the new Bowie biopic), lampoon Kanye West's Kardashian hologram, brace ourselves for the arrival of 'synthetic media', dream up the fictional indie band generator, name some great autumnal albums (eg the Finn Brothers' Everyone Is Here) and remember Roger Moore and Dorothy Squires' cavalier mistreatment of records. The Kardashian hologram ... https://ww...

In which we salute Jerry Jeff 'Mr Bojangles' Walker and Spencer Davis (at the ABC in Wakefield!), comedians with catchphrase singles, the marketing genius of Lily Allen and the grand tradition of pop songs about - how can we put this? - "self-love".Want to receive this - and every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole load of other ex...

In which we salute Jerry Jeff 'Mr Bojangles' Walker and Spencer Davis (at the ABC in Wakefield!), comedians with catchphrase singles, the marketing genius of Lily Allen and the grand tradition of pop songs about - how can we put this? - "self-love". Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

Rob Halford - still proudly "a big daft kid" - remembers old music hall acts at the Wolverhampton Grand, wearing polyester suits and kipper ties when the manager of Harry Fenton's, slogging round Europe in a Transit van, booze, drugs, bullwhips, "being head-to-toe in leather", standing in for Ozzy, coming out on MTV and "wearing my sister's purple top Old Grey Whistle Test". Rob's memoir Confess ....

In which we remember Peter Frampton and the second golden age of the Scream Idols (and his hard-nosed manager Dee Anthony), are weirdly gripped by the recent screening of Cliff's Summer Holiday, look at rock stars' cars, Krautrock acts and rejected album titles, and name "the shabbiest sleeve notes ever written".Want to receive this - and indeed every future - Word podcast before the rest of the w...

In which we remember Peter Frampton and the second golden age of the Scream Idols (and his hard-nosed manager Dee Anthony), are weirdly gripped by the recent screening of Cliff's Summer Holiday, look at rock stars' cars, Krautrock acts and rejected album titles, and name "the shabbiest sleeve notes ever written". Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www...

In which we salute National Album Day by digging out some much loved '80s LPs, the Telegraph’s Neil McCormick tells us about the tyranny critics now endure from aggrieved pop fans and we invent fictitious Emo bands and live album titles. To receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in glorious audio-visual magnificence - make sure you're subscribed to...

In which we salute National Album Day by digging out some much loved '80s LPs, the Telegraph’s Neil McCormick tells us about the tyranny critics now endure from aggrieved pop fans and we invent fictitious Emo bands and live album titles. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...

In which we unearth NME's best albums and singles polls from the '70s (Jethro Tull? Spirit? Country Joe?), invent fictitious Calypso and Blues stars, rave about Call My Agent, remember Lennon's Aunt Mimi and Steve Strange versus Mick Jagger, wonder if it's curtains for the age of the movie star and hear our producer Magic Alex on the joys of "flying and explosions" as he binge-watches all 23 Marve...

In which we unearth NME's best albums and singles polls from the '70s (Jethro Tull? Spirit? Country Joe?), invent fictitious Calypso and Blues stars, rave about Call My Agent, remember Lennon's Aunt Mimi and Steve Strange versus Mick Jagger, wonder if it's curtains for the age of the movie star and hear our producer Magic Alex on the joys of "flying and explosions" as he binge-watches all 23 Marve...

We look at Rolling Stone's new Best 500 Albums update and think ... where's the 80s? Where's the British stuff? Where's the jazz, country, dance music, electronic, heavy metal? Is it just the classics plus hip-hop? Is it as useful as Elvis Costello's Best 500 albums in Vanity Fair or Dave Marsh's 1001 singles? Plus Michael Kiwanuka, the Mercury Prize and the Booker. And '80s Peel Show acts with am...

We look at Rolling Stone's new Best 500 Albums update and think ... where's the 80s? Where's the British stuff? Where's the jazz, country, dance music, electronic, heavy metal? Is it just the classics plus hip-hop? Is it as useful as Elvis Costello's Best 500 albums in Vanity Fair or Dave Marsh's 1001 singles? Plus Michael Kiwanuka, the Mercury Prize and the Booker. And '80s Peel Show acts with am...

Old pal Owen Parker on Street Life, Message In A Bottle, Superstition and other recordings that accelerate and the nightmarish complexity of playing stadiums to a click-track. Plus we predict the fate of CDs, invent 'record collection wallpaper' and look at Vertigo label landfill prog bands and the songs of John Shuttleworth. If you'd like to receive this - and indeed every future - Word podcast b...

Old pal Owen Parker on Street Life, Message In A Bottle, Superstition and other recordings that accelerate and the nightmarish complexity of playing stadiums to a click-track. Plus we predict the fate of CDs, invent 'record collection wallpaper' and look at Vertigo label landfill prog bands and the songs of John Shuttleworth. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going...

Mark Ellen talks to David Hepworth about his new book "Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There" which describes how British imitations came out from under the shadow of American originators in the early 60s, how a handful of acts from the UK went on to command the heights of the worldwide music industry, the things they learned, the things they taught and the transatlantic traffic in sounds and styles...

In which we rope in a real musician – aka our producer Magic Alex – to discover why bands always play their big hits too fast (‘are you a dragger or a pusher?’), decode stage names (Perry Farrell, Lipps Inc, Fay Fife ...), delight in Trump’s recent campaign trail faux pas with John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son and remember pop exploitation films (Gonks Go Beat!) and ill-advised rock star advertising ca...

In which we rope in a real musician – aka our producer Magic Alex – to discover why bands always play their big hits too fast (‘are you a dragger or a pusher?’), decode stage names (Perry Farrell, Lipps Inc, Fay Fife ...), delight in Trump’s recent campaign trail faux pas with John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son and remember pop exploitation films (Gonks Go Beat!) and ill-advised rock star advertising ca...

In which we dig out a Smash Hits from ‘79 (entirely written by D Hepworth), wonder if Ian Brown’s gone stir crazy, watch it kick off between Dylan and the Beatles (in ’66), navigate the enriching waters of NTS Radio, remember when Kevin and Perry went Mancunian and stage a stand-off between ‘60s folk revivalists and punning rock memoir titles (‘Kiss And Make-Up’ – Gene Simmons’; ‘I Did It Otway!’...

In which we dig out a Smash Hits from ‘79 (entirely written by D Hepworth), wonder if Ian Brown’s gone stir crazy, watch it kick off between Dylan and the Beatles (in ’66), navigate the enriching waters of NTS Radio, remember when Kevin and Perry went Mancunian and stage a stand-off between ‘60s folk revivalists and punning rock memoir titles (‘Kiss And Make-Up’ – Gene Simmons’; ‘I Did It Otway!’...