Word In Your Ear

UK Subs formed in 1976 when Charlie Harper was 32. They’ve had over 80 members, some of whom he can’t remember. They never split up and are touring in 2026 to celebrate his 82nd birthday. “I vowed I’d keep playing as long at the Stones - which I’m now starting to regret!” After 50 years on the punk frontline, he’s the first to see the humour in going deaf and “having to have the occasional sit-dow...

The boys of the NYPD choir are still singing Galway Bay, so pour yourself a measure of the Rare Old Mountain Dew and warm your toes on the following …   … Steve Lillywhite (in Bali!) remembers making Fairytale Of New York and how “a fiery redhead” kicked the Chrissie Hynde duet into touch   … the most recent singer-songwriter you could call “a ledge”?   … records we loved in our 20s...

In 1963, Capitol Records considered the Beatles “a band who looked and sounded weird with an odd name and no leader” and refused to release their records in America, despite being owned by EMI. As author Andrew Cook points out, “the truth is stranger than fiction”. New correspondence unearthed in his fascinating Capitol Gains maps out the tortuous wranglings of the deal-makers and “pantomime bad g...

Glorious news! The Undertones, dependable symbols of eternal youth, are setting out on a 50th anniversary tour in 2026, still playing Teenage Kicks and Here Comes the Summer in their mid-60s. Damian O’Neill joined when he was 14 and can’t believe it either. He looks back here at …   … their first gig in a scout hall - “Feargal was a Scout leader!” - and their second for 1,000 schoolkids at St...

Twenty pounds of headlines plus rants, theories and the odd slice of old hokum: served hot. Which this week involves …   … Jimmy Cliff and how his versatility worked against him   … the Conjuror? Eyeball Tickler? The Concert in the Egg? Hieronymus Bosch painting or late-period Oasis B-side?   … Motown, Jacksons, Beatles, Chili Peppers? What’s the greatest bassline on record?  ...

Boo Hewerdine, beloved singer-songwriter, has been onstage for 40 years in venues of every type, shape and size. He thinks of himself as a “tradesman”, a world that’s immensely satisfying but a tough call. This very funny, poignant podcast paints a vivid picture of the best and worst of times. Which include …   … playing scout huts, libraries, churches, folk clubs and the Palladium   … t...

News, rants, theories and curios which this week includes ….   … how Mani made the Stone Roses swing   … Mick & Keith, Meg & Jack, Hall & Oates, Neil & Chris … ‘Sliding Doors’ encounters that changed the landscape   … the glorious sound of profanity on records!   … what makes you a legend in county music?   … the subtle genius of Nicky Hopkins’ session work...

Crispian Mills knew he’d be onstage as he’s from a “family of professional show-offs” but they begged him not to be an actor. He talks here about his extraordinary showbusiness childhood and the band that emerged from it full of psychedelia, echoes of the East and warm invitations to join the First Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs. Along with …   … his mother Hayley Mills p...

“All bands are sad stories,” Peter Doggett points out, but is there a more woven, moving and, at times, farcical tale than that of the Beach Boys? It gives the sound of them a greater melancholy and resonance with every passing year. As his fascinating new book Surf’s Up reveals, nothing that happened is straightforward and very little as simple as it sounds. We talk here about …   … Dennis W...

Five decades of rock and roll with none of the names redacted. In the despatches this week …   … Kevin Rowland? Adam Ant? Toyah? Morrissey? Which Smash Hits cover stars are now ‘legends’?   … a classic encounter with Van Morrison down a Bristol alley   … the boy who mailed dead rodents and Boomtown Rats singles to radio stations became Pope Leo XIV!   … 25 recent big-name...

Musicians have flirted with Nazi imagery since the ‘60s, lampooning its theatre, absorbing its style, exploiting its shock value, even promoting its ideology. Daniel Rachel’s new book ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points up extraordinary examples – “from Tommy Steele to Kanye West” - and how our reaction intensified over the years. Which leads us to …   … parallels between stadium rock and the N...

Dan Jennings’ podcast ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ is so successful he’s used 250 of the interviews in a best-selling oral history. ‘Dancing Through The Fire’ has voices from right across the spectrum – family members, band members, writers, pluggers, label bosses, collaborators and famous fans. He talks to us here about …   … Weller’s real name and when he changed it by deed poll   … a th...

Marking our dance card at the rock and roll hop this week you’ll find …   … And Then He Kissed Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Springsteen’s All The Way Home: songs about the theatre of dancing   … is there a more influential sleeve than Patti Smith’s Horses?   … did Dylan invent the box-set?   … records you wish you liked   … when the Beach Boys were so off the boil they co...

David Bowie’s significance just keeps expanding and the look and sound of him never age. Paul Morley has been gripped from the start and his new book ‘Far Above The World’ explores the many reasons why. These among them …   … Labyrinth, YouTube and the new ways people discover Bowie   … why he’s a figurehead of a vanishing world   … dressing up for radio interviews   … his almo...

Sam Sussman’s mother Fran had a year-long love affair with Dylan when he was working on Blood on the Tracks – she’s mentioned in Tangled Up In Blue – and they met again in 1990. What she told him about that relationship is mapped out in the book he’s just written, Boy From the North Country, along with the firm belief that he’s Dylan’s son. Imagine how that must feel. This extraordinary conversati...

Tom Bailey’s been based in New Zealand for the last 30 years, making records, DJing and avoiding British winters. He tours the UK in 2026 playing the Thompson Twins’ greatest hits and looks back here from Auckland at the first shows he ever saw and played, all this high in the mix …   ... dance music and the British Invasion of America   … the inspiring delights of Some Kind Of Mushroom,...

The raw ingredients of this week’s news gently diced, simmered and served as a nutritious broth. And flavoured with the following …   … why Lily Allen’s divorce album doubled the value of her house   … how can you play real living people as fundamentally bad after Steve Coogan’s ‘Lost King’ court case?   … the cowbell on Honky Tonk Women, the guiro on Gimme Shelter, the tambourine o...

Morrissey and Marr both wrote memoirs but Mike Joyce hasn’t read either, preferring to publish ‘The Drums’, his version of one of the great success stories of the ‘80s, a book about “the beauty we’d given to people – and to ourselves”. At one point he and Andy Rourke shout, ‘Where did it all go right?”. He looks back here at …   … the fateful meeting in Geales fish bar when Johnny told them h...

  Boarding this week’s giddy carousel of news, we ride the following ponies …   … the Sliding Doors moment that made a ‘50s star a fortune   … Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and the art of being the Other One in a pop duo    … Bohemian Rhapsody, O Superman, I Feel Fine: records that sounded like nothing before them   … what links the Prodigy, Wet Leg, Daft Punk and Donna Summe...

Paul Young was the bassist in a pub band playing Led Zeppelin and Patto covers ‘til his solo soul and blues slot launched him as a singer. He’s still touring nearly 50 years later, just back from filling Mexican stadiums with Rod Stewart. And next May launching his acoustic ‘Songs & Stories Tour’ in theatres, intercut with film clips and hoary old tales from the battlefield. He looks back here...

‘Billy Bragg: A People’s History’ is just out, a new and wholly original kind of memoir written by himself, friends, collaborators and fans, and packed with old snapshots, concert bills, reviews and ephemera. It’s very good indeed. He looks back here with us at …   … meeting Taylor Swift – “and we both knew who the other was!”   … a total of 2,700 gigs – “not counting prisons, In-Stores,...

The Graduate, Trainspotting, Jaws, Star Wars, Citizen Kane – films you can’t picture without thinking of the music. Mark Kermode has been gripped by the marriage of movie and soundtrack since Dougal and the Blue Cat (aged 6) and, with Jenny Nelson, has just published ‘Surround Sound: the Stories of Movie Music’. We talk to him here about…     … Scorsese, Cameron Crowe, Sofia Coppola...

This week’s news put through the wringer and hung out to dry. On the line you’ll find …   … Taylor Swift and Ophelia and other things pop videos turned into tourist attractions   … the appeal of D’Angelo’s Voodoo: “he made albums with no disdain for the listener”   …. David Hepworth and “the single most exciting thing that ever happened to me in my entire life”   … bands whose...

The Zombies formed before the Stones and had huge hits with She’s Not There and Time Of The Season. Their baroque masterpiece Odessey and Oracle now gets ranked beside Revolver and Pet Sounds. Colin Blunstone has a solo tour in 2026 and looks back here in his wood-panelled den at the first shows he played, the people he met and being No 1 in America aged 19. This too …   … when your career st...

This lavish, beautifully designed collection of late ‘60s news stories, reviews and press clippings sheds new light on the band’s roots and ascent from the days when the Kidderminster Shuttle would spell their name wrong and print their parents’ address. Richard Morton Jack, author and compiler of ‘Led Zeppelin: The Only Way To Fly’, looks back here at ….   … the fact that there was already a...