Word In Your Ear

We're joined in the pod by Chas Hodges, who you'll know from such hits as "Gertcha" and "Ain't No Pleasing You". But you ought to also know him from his time in Joe Meek's house band, his stint on tour with the Beatles as a member of Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers, his time with pioneering country-rock band Heads, Hands and Feet and his manifold and honourable contributions to sessions galore. Help...

Graham Gouldman wrote For Your Love for The Yardbirds, Bus Stop for The Hollies, Tallyman for Jeff Beck, No Milk Today for Herman's Hermits and I"m Not In Love and lots of others for 10cc. He has worked with Kirsty MacColl, Kasenetz-Katz, Andrew Gold, Gary Barlow, The Ramones, Mickie Most, John Paul Jones, Neil Sedaka and the Manchester City FA Cup squad of 1972. He's got a new record coming out c...

Chaz Jankel - co-author of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Sweet Gene Vincent and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - looks back at the rollicking rise of the Blockheads, and Derek "The Draw" Hussey contemplates Ian Dury, the man whose shoes he fills in the current Blockheads line-up. Contains their charming performance of A Little Knowledge, the greatest piece of music recording in Word podcast history, w...

Kate Mossman, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry go through John Peel's Record Collection and ponder what you can tell about personality type from flicking through anyone's accumulated spines. We also wonder whether Alabama Shakes anxiety indicates the impossibility of trying to like things just because other people do, discuss rock's vanishing instruments, and attempt to come up with preferable alte...

Over the last week we've welcomed three authors into the pod: Stanley Booth went on the road and down to Muscle Shoals with the Rolling Stones in 1969 and eventually wrote all about it in the ultimate access all areas on tour book, The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones; Paul Charles is one of the UK's leading live music agents and he's also the author of The Last Dance, a new novel set against...

This bumper edition covers: the only other person called Levon, why celebrities always feel the need to put one over on interviewers in public forums, who Record Store Day is supposed to be benefiting, the upsides and downsides of travelling in south-east Asia and podcasts about farming and Shakespeare. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.c...

Things we've been talking about this week include the great NME mis-selling scandal of the 90s, the grisly details of MC Hammer's 1998 bankruptcy, and the days when you could see Neil Young and have enough change to buy a bag of chips on the way home. Also: Pugwash drop in to talk about getting fan mail from Jeff Lynne and play a song from their new album, and we discuss an amazing documentary cal...

Latitude and Reading/Leeds promoter Melvin Benn remembers his first event - an anti-Thatcher gig in ’79 - while elsewhere there’s the unadulterated chaos of Axl Rose and girlfriend at Reading (the festival he helped save from bankruptcy), memories of Nirvana, the time he and Michael Eavis defended Worthy Farm against anarchists with petrol bombs, and the revelation that promoters can “play God” wi...

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry debate whether there really is such a thing as a ropey Beatles record, the best food they've ever had at a gig, and the ethics of flying in samples during live performances. Plus Mike Doughty, talking about his career and his extraordinary memoir The Book Of Drugs. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patr...

The UK’s premier crime-thriller writer Mark Billingham enters the pod and subjects his obsessions to forensic enquiry - among them The Smiths, Genesis, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. There’s some sound advice – "if you get caught shoplifting, at least nick something fashionable". There’s his four minutes dancing onstage with Elvis Costello and the time Morrissey let him to use some Smiths lyrics i...

We talk about great unexpected shows. David Hepworth goes to see Randy Newman and finds himself sitting behind some people who are clinically incapable of resisting the temptation to talk. Plus Green Gartside and Rhodri Marsden of Scritti Politti drop in to sing a couple of songs and talk about buying old Little Feat albums in the 70s. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'...

The wildly prolific songwriter – and leader of The Soft Boys, Egyptians, Venus 3 and, currently, The Floating Palace collective – tackles life’s big issues. Such as why The Beatles were doomed as solo projects, the magic twin poles of the Syd Barrett lyric method, and the rigours of playing an entire set of David Bowie classics. Plus some riveting stuff on the ‘78 gig circuit and the Battle Of The...

Nige Tassell comes up from Somerset and (fatally) brings us something to drink. Before it takes effect we cover the following stuff: David Hepworth wonders why the best venues for rock and roll are always the ones built long before rock and roll was ever thought of. We ask when did school choirs start singing Adele songs and is this entirely a good idea? We have a quick chat and a song from Band O...

On February 27th Eliza Carthy plays the pub across the road in one of our Word In Your Ear series of live shows. In this special shortcast she tells David Hepworth what kind of music was playing in the house when she was growing up, how she had a thing for Rick Astley and how her boyfriend made her give her Barbies away to the charity shop. Bastard. A few tickets for the show, which features Eliza...

This podcast has lots in it: Mark Ellen taking a blunt instrument to his phone, the debt Madonna’s half-time Superbowl show owed to Elizabeth Taylor’s quiet entrance into Rome in the movie Cleopatra, the feminizing of pop, the people who’ve made more than one great album, how we know Lady Gaga isn’t a real blonde and the likelihood of a movement like punk getting swallowed up by Facebook. Plus a v...

This podcast features interviews with two fascinating guests: Nick Coleman talks to David Hepworth about his excellent new book The Train in The Night, which touches on all kinds of things: why boys feel the need to define themselves by their tastes, what it’s like listening to a Nazareth album with your dad, how the brain eventually rewires itself to make up for the information it’s missing and t...

In celebration of James Medd’s stupendous piece in Word 108 on the secret world of the bass guitarist, Medd and Mark Ellen present a podcast with session wizard and bon viveur Guy Pratt – who tells tales of working with Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Jimmy Page, the dictatorial Madonna and David Coverdale (who he impersonates immaculately). And explains the correct pronunciation of “Whitesnake” and how h...

Neil Cowley dropped by the office the other day to talk about the Neil Cowley Trio, their new album The Face Of Mount Molehill, his time as a sideman with everyone from The Pasadenas to the Brand New Heavies, his part in the musical career of Sue Perkins and how the best place to learn to play jazz is in your local garden centre. We liked him so much we’ve put it out as a short podcast on its own....

We celebrate 200 editions of the Word Podcast in the room upstairs in The King and Queen in Foley Street, W1, scene of Bob Dylan's first ever appearance in the UK. Subjects covered included: the on and off wedding arrangements of Sinead O'Connor; Kate Mossman being pursued the house Benny Hill-style by Kevin Ayers and Fraser's legendary misdirection of the Princess Of Wales. The audience lines up...

The Word helicopter takes off from just the battlements of Graeme Thomson’s castle in Edinburgh, hugs the coastline on its way south, dropping off at the massive Victorian folly occupied by Mark Hodkinson on the borders or Yorkshire and Lancashire and then makes a detour into Berkshire where it lands on the vast rolling lawns of John Naughton’s massive country seat. Finally it hovers over Cast Iro...

In a seasonal departure from our usual routine we bring you at this special time the voices of some of our valued contributors from all over the country, picking the books, DVDs and records that they have found most interesting this year. In this first instalment David Hepworth talks to Jim Irvin, Andrew Collins and Jude Rogers. In addition we've got The Rifles in the pod, performing songs from an...

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry range across: a star-studded carol service, what Verdi could do that Dylan couldn't, and story of "Wally!" In addition Kate Mossman joins us to talk to folkie Jackie Oates who also plays a couple of songs from her new record "Saturnine". Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted...

This week we welcome to the pod Renaissance Man, art rock avatar, club pioneer, movie actor and very tall man Richard Strange. As Kid Strange he fronted the 70s rock band the Doctors of Madness, who were supported by everyone from the Sex Pistols to Joy Division. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See aca...

In this podcast: the legit release of the Rolling Stones’ “Brussels Affair”, the things that Jimmy Savile did and did not do, Paul Du Noyer remembering Jackie Leven, your misinterpreted songs thread, Fraser explaining why he features on a Guns N’Roses b-side, the Black Sabbath reunion(s) and a couple of songs from Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversat...

Nile Rodgers enters the pod to talk us through his story: the man who created the only triple platinum single in the history of Atlantic Records, led Chic through the ups and downs of disco and went on to produce Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran and Madonna. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acas...