Word In Your Ear

Shifting the pass-the-parcel of news and removing the wrapping when the music stops. Which this week happens here …   … will rock bands get offered the Saudi money?   … “there could be no British nightclubs in 2030”   … Diane Keaton and why all men were besotted   … the day Led Zeppelin played an Aqua Theatre for an audience swimming and in boats   … “the optimum number of...

The look, sound, story and dynamic of the Beatles can’t be imagined without him. Nor can their success. Tom Doyle, author and drummer, examines the unexplored depths of the one at the back from 70 different angles, one per chapter, in his new memoir ‘Ringo: A Fab Life’ and talks to us here about ….   … how he learnt to read by looking at his Dad’s Beatles singles and the one that first made h...

Steering the supercar of enquiry round the rock and roll racetrack with the occasional stop for a tyre change. Foot-to-floor moments this week include…   … why are the British so hung up about posh pop stars?   … the 10-second moment of his stage routine that Springsteen must find addictive   … the flaming bra, the flying dress, the human horse: Lady Gaga’s most OTT entrances  ...

London’s Blitz club in 1980 had a huge impact on the way the decade looked and sounded, the launchpad for Boy George, Spandau Ballet, a new age of electro-pop and many writers, designers and photographers. The author and broadcaster Robert Elms was one of its cornerstones, “a place for people who’d outgrown the 20th Century”. We talk here about his book ‘Blitz: the Club That Created the ‘80s’ with...

Prince’s commercial peak was Purple Rain but John McKie thinks Sign O’ The Times was his creative masterpiece and tracked down over 200 collaborators, girlfriends, “Prince whisperers”, assistants and admirers to piece together the story of its construction (without allowing himself to use the word “genius”). Which leads us up some colourful, spot-lit alleys, among them …   … “a man in suspend...

Paul Gorman, biographer of Malcolm McLaren and friend of the pod, tells the extraordinary story of the three young hipsters behind Granny Takes A Trip, the Kings Road store that was a magnet for rock’s glitterati in the late 60s. •⁠ ⁠Sheila Cohen, the first queen of cool; she invented the whole idea of vintage •⁠ ⁠Nigel Waymouth, who never went to art school but changed the face of Londo...

News, rants, theories, stories and assorted old hokum which this week stumbles into …   … Kate Bush, Thunderbirds, Tim Buckley, the Blind Boys of Alabama … the magical bass adventures of Danny Thompson (and the time he headlined over the Beatles)   … how Claudia Cardinale wound up on the sleeve of Blonde On Blonde   … would Roxy Music have made it if their albums had been released i...

We’ve always liked Thea Gilmore who once crossed America with Joan Baez in a pre-Election campaign tour and has released 21 albums (“I’ve got musical ADHD!)”. She looks back here at the first shows she ever saw and played which involves …     … a deep dive into Jake Thackray – “Last Will And Testament still makes me cry”   … spotting her dad in the crowd in the 1970 Isle of Wig...

Roger Armstrong co-founded the legendary Rock On record shop and was running the Chiswick label long before the punk rock explosion of independents, a believer that you could license rare R&B, soul and rockabilly classics while cutting new records with rising stars (Shane MacGowan, Kirsty MacColl and Joe Strummer among them). He then co-founded Ace Records and talks to us here about the thrill...

On the menu at the rock and roll state banquet …   … Into the Mystic, Meet On The Ledge, In My Life, Tom Waits’ Take It With Me and other perfect songs for a last farewell   … the day we joined the world’s best band   … Robert Redford’s blinding handsomeness and the greatest moment – all three seconds of it – in Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid   … best-looking rock stars &nb...

Novelist and journalist Tom Piazza struck up a friendship with the irreplaceable John Prine in the last years of his life. This relationship, which began as a profile for a magazine, almost blossomed into an autobiography and involved a road trip in an inadvisable vehicle, has resulted in a new book “Living In The Present With John Prine”. Which involves: •⁠ ⁠setting off in a 1977 Coupe De Vi...

Having disposed of the surprising history of pop stars who posed for Playboy, discussing whether the universe really needs another album called "Play", come up with a couple of nominations for Best Album Title Of All Time, we hear about Alex's experiences seeing Oasis in the midst of 90,000 who have never been to Manchester and how he "used the force" to get some face time with Jack Black and Dave...

Peter Hammill, adored by Bowie, Mark E Smith and many others, co-founded Van Der Graaf Generator when he was 19. And he’s made 47 albums since, powered by “hubris, enthusiasm and sheer bloody-mindness” and celebrated in a new 18-CD box set. He talks to us here from Somerset about …   … supporting Hendrix at the Albert Hall and being ‘the Shirley Bassey of the Underground’   … meeting Dav...

Has there ever been a group like Talking Heads? Jonathan Gould’s Burning Down The House explores their affluent background, the root of their ambition and the springboard of the New York scene of the late ‘70s (he was a regular at CBGB). Along with …   ... the romanticised image of CBGB and the reality   … their black music roots: “the same instrumentation as Booker T & the MGs” &nbs...

Freddie Mercury had an affair with a close friend’s wife and, in 1977, became a father. He’s now a grandfather. That’s the foundation of a new book ‘Love, Freddie’ by his highly respected biographer Lesley-Ann Jones which details a four-year, detailed exchange with his daughter ‘B’, now 48, and the contents of the 17 notebooks he gave her before he died in 1991. We talk to Lesley-Ann here about th...

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...