Word In Your Ear

All the leaves are brown and the sky’s a bit unruly but mellow fruitfulness abounds in this week’s pick of the rock and roll news. Add to basket …     … is Morrissey hacked off, broke or just desperate for attention?   … are stadium gigs the new tourism?   … bucket hats, Man City, lads culture … how did America finally ‘get’ Oasis?   … singles that weren’t on albums &...

Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe’ had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In Your Hand’, and talks to us here about the miracles that allowed it to happen and the sad fate of Billy Roberts, the man who claimed he wrote it. Along with …   … “all pop records are built...

Maddy Prior – folk royalty, an absolute hero of ours – is touring with Steeleye Span again this autumn 66 years after they started, a life someone should make into a movie. She talks to us here about her undimmed love of live performance and …     … when the height of your ambition is a £3 ticket to Blackpool Pleasure Beach   … “Rod Argent, the first boy I ever kissed”   …...

Our pencil-chewing, critical assessment of this week’s news gets mainly * and *** reviews, among them …   …. Sting v Summers & Copeland over Every Breath You Take, the goose that laid the golden egg   … what John Lennon would have thought about the ‘cancelled’ track on Some Time In New York City   … when did “critically acclaimed” come to mean unpopular?   … the knock-about...

Debsey Wykes was in Dolly Mixture, one of the very few all-girl groups in post-punk London, a time when bands with charisma won the battle for attention and you promoted singles on the back of a truck. Her memoir Teenage Daydream perfectly captures a slice of late ‘70s life, the thrill of playing the pub circuit and trying to storm Radio One. Along with …   … the agony of re-reading teenage d...

A tub-thumping, snare-cracking, cymbal-simmering, two-way backbeat to this week’s rock and roll news, the on-beats including …   … “Trauma-bonding?” Why being ‘a fan’ is like a love affair   … Ian Brown, Morrissey, Siouxsie, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison … why singers who don’t play an instrument are a different species   … the stadium-rock drummer transfer window   … Sigourney We...

How can you not love the Divine Comedy whose inspirations include Tom Lehrer and “Landfill Indie”? And Neil Hannon wrote music for Wonka, Father Ted and the IT Crowd. There’s a new album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, and a tour in October and all bases are covered in this conversation from Kildare, these among them …    … seeing U2 at Croke Park “and feeling as though I’d won the Wonka Golden...

Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train home.” She was 17. In this podcast she tells us the story of the one of the fastest career ascents on record which stops off at …   … an open-mic night with a girl who cut up newspaper – “what happen...

Bob Mould, whose records with Hüsker Dü had such impact on Nirvana and Pixies, is back on tour again, both solo and with a band. “I’ve built this tiny soap box - and if you don’t like it, it’s been nice knowing you!” He talks to us from San Francisco about …   … March 30 1979: “the day that changed my life”   … over-refreshment on the bus to see Rush and Aerosmith, aged 16   … the i...

Damping down the wildfires of rock and roll news this week we focus on the following …   … Oasis, Taylor Swift and Coldplay and the new age of Winner Takes All   … did Bob Dylan write a song with Gene Simmons, advertise lingerie or appear on a telethon with Harry Dean Stanton?   … movies that need making eg the Molly Drake Story, the Rock And Roll Mitford Sisters (Pattie, Jenny and...

Paul Weller has just covered it on his new album. Morrissey played it to Noel Gallagher who took the idea and ran with it. What explains the enduring appeal of a record that stalled at number 22 all those years ago? Actor/musician Brian Protheroe doesn’t know but he’s certainly grateful that it’s being reissued once again. His story takes us back to: …the days when young musicians hitch-hiked to L...

Other, weaker podcasts may take the summer off. Not this one. …the story of Jerry Garcia’s alligator strat, Paul McCartney’s violin bass and the instrument Peter Frampton thought had gone forever …the long story of Terry Reid, who turned down Led Zeppelin, and the golden afternoon when he was the most charismatic figure in roc …the real reason why you wouldn’t have wanted to be at Keith Richards’...

word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlin Friend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was Springsteen’s last chance saloon and spoken to the people who were there to put together the story of how it was all done. ….the lucky break that came when the boss’s son went to a Springsteen show …...

Jah Wobble - touring in October - is outstanding company and rattles on here like a steam train, sparking off at tangents in a brilliant, barely steerable monologue with a crackling cast of characters. It’s not often a podcast gets a visitor mid-recording who says, “I’ve put more poison in - but the good news is, there’s nothing in your traps!” Here you will find …   … an afternoon with Antho...

There’s a widely accepted view of the relationship between Elvis and his manager Tom Parker, the one sustained by the recent Baz Luhrmann movie, but a new and fascinating archive of unseen letters makes you see it differently: it was warmer, deeper and infinitely more complicated. Peter Guralnick – rock book royalty! - met Parker towards the end of his life and has just published ‘The Colonel And...

Lowering the magnet of curiosity into the scrapyard of news and seeing what’s attracted, which includes …   … does anyone still write satirical songs?   … Four Sides of the Circle, Margaret On The Guillotine, From Here To Infirmary … real or fictitious working album titles?   … the rarity of hearing new music without knowing what the musician looks like    … the Strokes, t...

The Wedding Present formed 40 years ago – why does that seem astonishing? - and have a new box set and tour to celebrate. David Gedge digs out his old notes about the first gigs he ever saw and played and looks back at what four decades onstage might have taught him. Among the delights …     … Rick Wakeman in full cape attire at Manchester Free Trade Hall in ’76 and how Be-bop Delux...

Bret McKenzie now mainly works on movie soundtracks, the Simpsons, Minecraft and the Muppets among them, which brings the pure delight of hearing his songs sung by Lady Gaga, Benedict Cumberbatch, Miss Piggy and Tony Bennett. He talks here about his early life in Wellington (ballet teacher Mum, racehorse trainer Dad), narrative comedy, songwriting heroes and his new album Freak Out City, and unrav...

Justin Currie recorded and toured with Del Amitri and solo for 30 years and his travelogue The Tremolo Diaries perfectly captures the rhythm of life on the road. He talks to us here about combative crowds, the curious bubble you occupy and a recent shock diagnosis that’s forced some adjustments. This includes …   … hard-won rules for life on tour: “Never leave the boat, stay in the bubble, ne...

Just when you thought it was safe to listen to a weekly rock and roll podcast …   … how Black Sabbath discovered the dark side   … why Elvis went onstage with a pistol in both boots   … rock stars out of their comfort zone   … five perfect things about Jaws we’d never taken onboard   … Ozzy Osbourne, the bungled burglary and the fingerless gloves   … Tony Iommi’s acci...

Cally Colomon looks after the legacy of Nick Drake, who died in 1974 but attracts new teenage admirers all the time. Here he talks to David Hepworth about just some of what that involves, including:   …chancers getting in touch with a bogus live recording when they’ve got a tax bill to pay   … film producers wishing to superimpose their image of Nick Drake on everybody else’s …spending m...

Suzi Quatro’s been onstage from the age of 14 as the bassist in the all-girl showband the Pleasure Seekers and the rock act Cradle. And then moved to England in 1971 when signed by Mickie Most. This podcast is a testament to the power of self-belief – she’s got more front than Woolworths! - and the two things her father told her. She’s just started another world tour and talks to us here about … &...

A rain-splashed, dub-filled, cash-scattering foray into this week’s news and events which happily lands upon …   … meeting Maddy Prior – a Prior engagement? – and the time Steeleye Span showered their audience with £8,000.   … hearing Nick Drake’s demos on a narrowboat in the pitch dark a few hundred feet below London.   … Steve Miller’s cancelled tour, absurdly blamed on the weathe...

Picked up in the great singer-songwriter sweep of the late 60s and signed to Elektra Records, David Ackles made four albums which went over the heads of the record-buying public, attracted over-the-top reviews and earned the undying devotion of fans like Elvis Costello and Elton John. Now Mark Brend’s book brings together an appreciation of his work with an account of his career before and after t...

Our patent fact-from-fiction separator goes into overdrive this week though sometimes, as Robert Wyatt observed, Ruth is stranger than Richard. High in the mix …   … FOMO (Fear Of Missing Oasis), Gen Z’s love of queuing and has there ever been a greater outpouring of joy at a band reunion?   …what’s the greatest musical city?   … Kevin Rowland – cheat, burglar, arsonist, menswear sa...