Word In Your Ear | Podcast Guru

Details

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent Episodes

Dexys, their hits and flops and how I survived them by Helen O’Hara

Helen’s violin at the start of Come On Eileen has filled a million wedding dancefloors. She was a member of Dexys Midnight Runners, later their musical director, at the boom time of Too Rye Ay (and its wobbly sequel) and captures the thrill of it all in her just-updated memoir, What’s She Like: A Violinist’s Tale. You’ll love this conversation - warm, candid, forgiving and touching on all the following … … the day the dungarees arrived … the tribal nature of bands … the social skills required in a group as tangled as Dexys who’d “go to the caff and just … not talk!" … what she learnt from the memorabilia found in her shed … the myth that she met Kevin Rowland at a bus-stop and her reinvention as “the belle from Ballymena” … working with Nicky Hopkins (“my hero”), Tom Dowd, Woody Woodmansey and Tanita Tikaram … Dexys studio method: “focus, discipline, tightness” and trying to record a 12-minute track in one take … hearing hits by Rod Stewart and Slade that featured violins … and her swansong: recording Because Of You for the TV sitcom Brush Strokes. Order copies of ‘What’s She Like’ here: https://www.route-online.com/all-books/whats-she-like 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 information.

46 MIN

Nigel Dick shot videos for Band Aid, Guns N’Roses, Britney and Oasis by ‘failing upwards’

We first met Nigel Dick in the late ‘70s when he was the motorbike messenger for Stiff Records and watched him rocket to success in the video boom, directing career-launching clips for Guns N’Roses, Tears for Fears and Britney Spears and working with Cher, Joni Mitchell and McCartney, all recorded in his memoir ‘Music Video Mischief’. He looks back here on that big-budget golden age and the rise of the amateurs from his home in Colorado and stops off at … … ‘You have to work out where the power lies’ … the story of the million dollar video … how he finally found the Axl Rose charisma … New Boots And Panties, ‘the most radical album to have that level of success’ … Stiff’s ‘frightening, lovable, devious’ Dave Robinson, characteristics every label boss requires … ‘I’ll make sure you never work in this town again!’ … why the 16 year-old (ex-Mickey Mouse Club) Britney Spears was born for video … working with his teenage heroes Yes: ‘the beautiful castles I’d built in my mind just collapsed to sand’ … the rise of AI – ‘best to check people haven’t got six fingers and a changing haircut’ … and working with McCartney, Cher, Band Aid, Oasis and Claude Van Damme. Order copies of ‘Music Video Mischief’ in the UK from: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/music-video-mischief-ozzy-to-britney-oasis-to-gn-r-mccartney-to-cher-a-lifetime-of-rock-and-chaos-nigel-dick/619386081ce90352?ean=9798999048783 And in the U.S. from: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com 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 information.

49 MIN

Tall stories about towering and tiny rock stars, ‘50s jazz and Mick Jagger’s gym shoes

Two fearless men journey to the Edge Of News so that you don’t have to. Some highlights of this week’s report … … when a gig’s all about the performer not the audience … the power of singing other people’s songs … can you ever trust a film critic? … what connects Richard Thompson, Neil Tennant, Loudon Wainwright and Randy Newman? … “bands can’t look like gangs if they’re not all the same height” … can you picture ‘50s jazz without cigarette smoke? … who – dear god – is “achingly cool” according to critics? Miles Davis? The Portico Quartet? Annie Lennox?! … should we call time on the ailing Mike Love? … biopics that can’t afford the music … why Robert Evans hated the American Graffiti soundtrack … people who perform sitting down … plus BB King, Jack Bruce, Philip Roth, Woody Guthrie, Woody Allen, James McMurtry and the 15-year old “Michael” Jagger’s gym shoes. 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 information.

49 MIN

Another Word with … Richard Thompson: includes Fairport, Lennon, Schwarzenegger and a cast of thousands!

Another Word with...

35 MIN

Rory Gallagher – Ireland’s first rock star remembered by the brother who managed him

You forget how huge and ubiquitous Rory Gallagher was in the ‘70s, just 22 at the Isle of Wight and auditioning for the Stones four years later, an inspiration for Johnny Marr, Andy Partridge, the Edge, Slash and countless others. And for his brother and manager Dónal - “it was a big wide world I wasn’t going to see unless I hung onto his coattails”. He’s just published a memoir, ‘Edged In Blue, A Rock’n’Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher’, and looks back here at some of the highlights, these among them … … watching Six-Five Special through a closed TV shop window at night and adding vocals to entertain the crowd … hearing jazz, Lonnie Donegan and Big Bill Broonzy on Forces Radio in Ireland … auditioning for the Stones in 1974 … joining the Fontana Showband aged 15 playing ceilidh, Chuck Berry and Georgie Fame … Taste on the chaotic Blind Faith US tour when Ginger Baker attacked the security … when Johnny Marr and Joe Bonamassa asked to borrow his old guitars … and “the BBC’s most recorded artist of the ‘70s” and managing his expanding legacy. Order ‘Edged in Blue: A Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edged-Blue-Rock-Odyssey-Gallagher/dp/1786052539 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 information.

39 MIN