Word In Your Ear

Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them …

… how Bob Marley, the Walker Brothers, the Byrds, Hendrix, Ramones, Blondie and Nirvana “got the dust of England on their boots”.

… Chappell Roan’s demands for “a living wage” in a business built on inequity.

… why audio books surprise you in ways the print edition can’t.

… Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure?

… “separate immediately”: Marsha Hunt and the secret of a successful marriage.

… Bowie, Queen, the Velvet Underground: how the most streamed songs are rarely what you’d expect.

… when London, New York and LA were the centres of the universe.

… Bookends, Randy Newman’s Good Old Boys and other albums with a narrative.

… when the Police, Pistols and Clash tried to conquer America.

… Miles Copeland Senior in Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends.

… “the film world is constructed around 100 actors, eight of whom are celebrated every year”.

… plus birthday guest Keith Adsley turns the lights out for Pitchblack Playback – albums you should hear in the dark.

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The teenage Woody Woodmansey was offered the job of under-foreman in the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull but then got a call from Bowie inviting him to move to London and play drums on his new album - “plus food and somewhere to stay”. It took him all weekend to decide. And involved some cultural readjustment when he did. 56 years later he’s a founding member of Holy Holy and touring the UK in May – along with Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory – performing songs from Bowie’s breakthrough early ‘70s albums. He talks here about …

… the life-changing sound behind the silver door of an air-raid shelter in Driffield.

… supporting the Kinks in Bridlington and the Herd at Leeds University - and why Peter Frampton told him, “I’ll see you at the top”.

... his first paid gig at the local girls’ school.

… the Spiders’ instructional group outings to see ballet, mime and theatre.

... “never more than three takes”: how Bowie wrote and recorded and the sketches he drew for their stage gear.

 … life at Haddon Hall and its “Gone With The Wind staircase”.

… Yorkshire to London and the cultural collisions involved.

… what Bowie realised was “the missing ingredient”.

… Woody’s checklist to assess Bowie’s talents when he met him: “He wasn’t Paul Rodgers or Roger Daltrey. He could write. He could communicate.”

… “I’m not wearing that!” The day Mick Ronson packed his bags and left.

Order Holy Holy tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/tony-visconti-tickets/artist/2003254

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In a courageous stand against AI technology, a pair of old lags communing via two cocoa tins and a piece of string attempt to put the rock and roll world to rights. Which this week involves …

… what David saw in the HMV record store in Oxford Street “that shook me to the ground”.

... music that only works played loud.

… Marianne Faithfull - there’s no middle ground between Sacred Figure and Outrageous Diva.

… why ‘60s fame is like no other fame.

… is there a more enduring example of bad press than Sting’s tantric sex?

… John Mendelssohn’s West Coast adventure with David Bowie.

… which is musically more significant: punk or disco?

… Tom Waits reading the weather forecast.

… which musicians make convincing actors - Sinatra, Lady Gaga, Elvis, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Costello, Mick Jagger?

… Bowie singing Jacques Brel songs on a waterbed in Hollywood.

… why we miss the great press ‘hatchet jobs’.

… do slogans last longer than music?

… what kind of world plays When The Levee Breaks softly and in a Chelsea café?

… why rock music is like the Catholic Church before the Reformation.

… plus birthday guest Kevin Rose wonders which musicians made the best actors.

Order John Mendelssohn’s ‘Peculiar To Mr Bowie’ here:

https://www.nortonrecords.com/a4-peculiar-to-mr-bowie-by-john-mendelssohn/

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When we get off of this mountain, you know where we want to go? Straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. While surveying the week’s events as we paddle, which involves …

… the genius of Garth Hudson and the magnificent way he looked - “part lumberjack, part Old Testament prophet, part Brahms.”

… how Glyn Johns invented the sound of the Eagles.

… Carrie Underwood’s Inauguration catastrophe.

… only male voice choirs or gospel groups should be allowed to perform National Anthems!

… fiery, magnificent, sexy, vaguely threatening – the appeal of the great British rock bands.

… does a protest track have to be a good song to be effective?

… “screw up your eyes and Guns N’Roses, Aerosmith and Van Halen all look preposterous”.

… how the Band hooked up with Dylan.

… was there ever a more dramatic drop-off from hit singles to album filler than in the Eagles?

… can any song called Visions ever be any good?

… why there should be more Band tribute acts.

... “any busker within 35 yards is noise pollution!”

... plus birthday guest Roger Millington wonders why we love the Band Aid single but not We Are The World.

That touching clip of Garth Hudson playing and singing in 2023:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BtfvpS0EyO8

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We put Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1983 billed as ‘the Most Promising New Act’ and, 15 albums and 42 years later, he’s about to set out on another tour, a double-bill with ABC. He looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played which involves …

… rehearsing his Live Aid slot backstage to an audience of one: David Bowie. 

… pioneering the “one-man show” in the early days of Moogs and drum machines. 

… Emerson Lake & Palmer firing cannons onstage at the Isle of Wight in 1970 (his first gig, aged 15). 

… rough treatment from the British “pundits”.

… school band Warrior – sample track title, Squashed Cat’s Intestines.

… being in Ringo’s All-Starr Band and the ELP number he’d play with Sheila E and Greg Lake. 

… “bad spectacles, terrible haircut”: early solo gigs in Oxford pubs. 

… the current tour with ABC: “lifting people’s spirits, the best job in the world”. 

Mentioned in passing: China Crisis, Hendrix, Bill Payne of Little Feat. 

Howard Jones tour dates here:

http://howardjones.com/

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Another great hero on the podcast! We first heard Andy Fairweather Low with Amen Corner on jukeboxes in the late ‘60s and he’s touring the UK from February. Ten albums and countless collaborations later, he looks back here at teenage life on the psychedelic circuit and the first shows he saw and played, stopping off at …

… the Stones in Cardiff in ’64 - “they opened with Talkin’ ‘Bout You and it hit me like a virus.”

… Amen Corner – “you gauged how good a gig was by how many people fainted.”

… being The Face of ’69 when Peter Frampton was the Face of ‘68.

… getting Otis Redding’s autograph.

… the package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move, Eire Apparent and the Nice “all in one charabanc together”.

… his first band the Firebrands playing to “literally no audience”.

… buying magical soul singles at Spillers in Cardiff.

… the days when you had a 26-inch waist and played Knock On Wood eight times a night.

… what people loved about Wide-Eyed And Legless.

… recording 50 Words For Snow with Kate Bush.

… the songs that “make the phones come out”.

… the rigours of getting old: “halfway through the set she asked, when’s Andy Fairweather Low coming on?”

... and Don Arden, Andrew Loog Oldham, disappearing cash and the significance of the Spider Jiving sleeve.

Andy Fairweather Low tour dates:

https://andyfairweatherlow.com/about-us/

Order Andy’s The Invisible Bluesman album here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Bluesman-Andy-Fairweather-Low/dp/B0DKSN2CDZ

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David feels a rant coming on. Mark lights the blue touchpaper, pulls on a tin hat and retires to a safe distance as they consider …

… the US closure of TikTok: has a single governmental act ever had such impact on the music business?

… film posters, Dinky Toys, “obscure vinyls”: the new record stores that are effectively antique shops.  

.. why Virtually Parkinson is breath-takingly awful and an insult to the interviewers’ art.  

… Melania Trump’s monstrous payday.

… Bob Dylan joining TikTok - “Good God, I must leave right away.”

… radio deejays: “the things they hate you for are the same things they love you for.”

… 50 per cent of people “looking for a vinyl fix” don’t have a record player.

… the three-word question all interviewers need.

… Blood on the Carpet: DLT, Danny Baker and the 30-year anniversary of Radio One’s “revolution”.

Plus birthday guest Paul Knox and the value of soundtracks, samplers, tribute albums and compilations “with a point of view” from Nice Enough To Eat and Stardust to the Pet Shop Boys’ Twentieth Century Blues.

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Something happens when he walks out under the lights. He can never predict what but he’s programmed to perform. As he has for over 60 years and will again when he sets out on a 63-date tour in April peppered with stories of an extravagant life and billed as ‘an evening of Francis Rossi songs from the Status Quo songbook and more’.

He looks back here at the acts that showed him the way (Gene Pitney, Slade, ZZ Top, Mott the Hoople and “my uncles, the Stones”), Butlins in Clacton, the “elfin” David Bowie, the value of “dying on your arse”, the evolution of the Status Quo shuffle, the sight of a sea of denim, opening Live Aid (and why the other acts were envious) and memories of Dog Of Two Head and Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon. “There’s a handful who are talented,” he says, “and the rest of us are just winging it and getting by.”

Order tickets here:

https://www.francisrossi.com/tour

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We both first heard Graham Nash just over 60 years ago when the Hollies’ Just One Look was on the BBC’s swinging Light Programme and we’ve followed him ever since, not least his transformational shift in the late-‘60s from suburban Salford to the wood cabins of Laurel Canyon. He’s touring the UK in October, An Evening of Songs and Stories with Peter Asher in support, and looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played, which involves …

… Bill Haley in 1958 – “he opened the curtains and said ‘See yer later, alligator!’, and I’ve never been the same since.”

… meeting his heroes the Everly Brothers when he was 18.

… the talent contest he won with Allan Clarke in 1959 beating Freddie Garrity, the future Billy Fury and Johnny And the Moondogs.

... the early days of the Hollies – “my acoustic was never plugged in”.

… supporting Little Richard the night he screamed at his soon-to-be-famous guitarist, “never play the guitar behind the back of your head again!”

…. making ‘Two Yanks in England’ with the Everlys, Reg Dwight, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

… playing Woodstock – “it’s hard to reach the back row when it’s raining and two miles away.”

… the songs he always plays and talks about onstage, Marrakesh Express, Our House and Teach Your Children among them.

Order Graham Nash tickets here:

https://grahamnash.com/tour-dates/page/2/

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Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun, it is in fact just two old lags reviewing the current events, which this week include …

… the made-up scene in A Complete Unknown which Dylan apparently insisted was included.

… the Day of the Locust: do the LA fires spell the end of the Hollywood Dream?

… why does no-one write songs about world events anymore?

… the unwelcome return of AJ Weberman.

… can you date records made between 2000 and 2025?

… Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, the Stax horns, Isaac Hayes and David Porter and their purple patch from ‘65-‘68.

… Led Zeppelin’s five song-stealing court cases – but hadn’t what they stole been stolen in the first place?

… why most biopics would be better as a six-part TV series.

… “where there’s a hit there’s a writ”.

… plus birthday guest John Innes and the best and worst bands names – from Roxy Music to Prefab Sprout.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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It’s perishing cold in our frostbitten London HQ but we warmed our toes around a blazing conversational fire and roasted the following chestnuts …

… “the job of pop records is to be better than the year before”.

… the real reason new music tends to sound the same.

… Johnnie Walker – “his voice was his instrument”.

… The Kinks, The Shangri-Las, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Righteous Brothers and the relentless change and variety of “the annus mirabilis” of the pop single.

… “Netflix rock documentaries are just there to stop the male member of the family cancelling their subscription”.

… the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man, a cornerstone of psychedelia and indie rock.

… the drum sound that “kicked open the door to your mind”.

… when novelty was 70 per cent of the appeal.

… the key moment in the career of Peter Waters Dingley was the day he changed his name.

… making records defensively.

… the only current match for the thrill and daily drama of the mid-‘60s pop charts is the Premiere League.

… plus a Lego record-player and birthday guest Andrew Slattery.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Among the walnut shells, wrapping paper, dried tangerine peel and broken toys beneath the Christmas Tree Of News we found a few unopened presents, among them …

… Marine Homicide Unit solving murders in Scottish waters or former rock star dumping toxic waste? A crime drama Stackwaddy special.

… Roy Bittan, Duke Ellington: how musical “professors” date back to ragtime.

…’Suzanne’ and the other three songs Leonard Cohen gave away.

… Mary Martin, unsung connector and catalyst of folk-rock.

… how the spare, monochrome simplicity of John Wesley Harding flew against the prevailing wind of Disraeli Gears, Forever Changes and Magical Mystery Tour.

… “I’d rather be dead than wet my bed”.

… the invention of the “blockbuster album”.

… she’s only human: what Judy Collins thought when she met Leonard Cohen.

… Crowded House, John Fogerty, Ry Cooder, Ian Broudie, Patti Smith … when did having your kids in your band become almost compulsory?

… producer Richard Perry’s journey from Beefheart to the “surrealistic vaudeville” of Tiny Tim to the pure genius of ‘You’re So Vain’.

Plus a rare moment - something David Hepworth doesn’t know! - and birthday guest Sandra Austin.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Deck the halls with beers and Stoli! The nutcracker of scrutiny was applied to this week’s noisettes of news and the following discussed over a glass of port …  

... are a lot of new song catalogues just blogs set to music?

… can any actor be convincing playing someone really famous?

… Robbie Williams’ Better Man: it’s the way forward! Who can his CGI’s monkey play next?

… why no-one writes songs with opinions anymore.

… Lola Young’s ‘charming’ press release.

... when Elvis met Nixon (and was “crackling with drugs”).  

… why we miss the one pound note!

… Dickens, Bing Crosby and why the concept of Christmas is rooted in the past.

… is part of the joy of Powerpop that it’s doomed to commercial failure? Big Star, the Shoes – perfect; Blondie – too successful!

… St James Infirmary, I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Stormy Monday – and other great songs about money - ‘These shabby shoes I'm wearing all the time/ Is full of holes and nails and brother if I stepped on a worn out dime/ I bet a nickel I could tell you if it was heads or tails’.

… the return of “a bankroll big enough to choke a donkey”.

… plus Hank Williams, Brenda Lee, Tom Waits and birthday guest Kevin Walsh wonders ‘what’s the classic Powerpop look and sound and who are its standard-bearers?’

Happy Christmas, all! … from us and ‘Bob Dylan’:

https://x.com/FallonTonight/status/1597460887446900736?lang=en

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The tremendous Bill Bailey is staging “a magical, musical mystery tour of the mind, along with other pressing matters” for 42 nights in London from December 28, a celebration of what makes us human in an age threatened by AI. There'll be “a laser harp”. There’ll be electronic drum balls played by audience members. There'll be extracts from Kraftwerk’s lost album of children’s songs. He talks to Mark here about the first live entertainment he ever saw and first shows he played himself, which happily involves …

 … “a lightbulb moment”, James Robertson Justice breaking the fourth wall, the genius of Les Dawson’s deadpan piano playing, OMD, the Cure, the Banshees, how TikTok changed song writing, Jean-Jacques Burnel whacking a skinhead with his bass, A Flock of Seagulls, the Undertones, seeing John Hegley’s mandolin-driven comedy act and thinking “I could do that”, Victor Borge and the invention of the disco bass line by a 17th century German composer.

Order tickets for Bill Bailey’s Thoughtifier show here:

https://www.billbailey.co.uk/live

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The 17 year-old Al Stewart played electric guitar in a dance band in Bournemouth in 1963. When he borrowed an acoustic and sang Masters Of War in the break, he heard the sweet sound of applause. The next night he played three Dylan songs and sensed which way the wind was blowing. He talks here about moving to London, playing at Bunjies and becoming the compere at Les Cousins as his now 60-year career began to lift off. And about his Farewell Tour which kicks off in the UK in October 2025, a combination of songs and story-telling coloured by two great heroes, Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke.

This cracking exchange steers by way of Bert Jansch, Bob Dylan, Helen of Troy, Stalin, Hitler and the Battle of Moscow, the Weeley Festival of 1971, the three songs he always plays, the young Cat Stevens and what he told Paul Simon he should do with the just-composed Homeward Bound.

Order Al Stewart tickets here:

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/al-stewart

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Gary Kemp has been posting reels of his recent visits to old haunts in Soho where he and his early bands used to rehearse, this in the run-up to releasing a third solo album, ‘This Destination’, in January. We talk to him here about how records were made and promoted in the ‘80s and how radically that’s changed today. Which includes …

… “all media is now about getting and keeping people’s attention”.

… the first time he heard one of his songs on the radio.

… Bowie, Bolan, Queen and Elton John at Trident Studios.

… how bands copy the groove of a track.

… technology and the curse of too much choice.

… why TikTok’s changed the way songs are written.

… how the first Spandau Ballet album was made.

… the phone call from Richard Hawley that kick-started a song.

… the craft of 10cc and Steely Dan and why it doesn’t work on 2024 radio.

… the male attitude to bands who are largely followed by women.

… cunning ways to infiltrate the NME in the early ‘80s.

… plus Robert Elms in jodhpurs and “fly dentists” in the Saucerful Of Secrets audience.  

Pre-order This Destination here:

https://lnk.to/GaryKempThisDestination

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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We ran our patent heat-sensing Scrutiniser®️ over the week’s news and here’s what set the bells off …

… are buskers now more expensive live entertainment than Taylor Swift?

… a Dickensian oik in Chapel Market and other riddles of modern etiquette.

… ‘Holiness and horniness’: how Hallelujah rebooted Leonard Cohen and became a one-song industry.

… the teenage self-promotional flair of Robert Plant and Marc Bolan.

… are singles a social experience and albums a solitary one?

… “Would you like a fruit gum?”: the 1950s in a single phrase.

… highly recommended: Wendy Waldman, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band and ‘The Room’ by Fabiano do Nascimento.

… rock snobs’ alarm about the revelations of their Spotify Wrapped.

… why the Sherman Brothers are as enduring as Lennon-McCartney.

… Hallelujah cover versions - from kd lang and Rufus Wainwright to Johnny Mathis and the Osmonds.

... how King David removed ‘love rival’ Uriah the Hittite.

… reconnecting with records you haven’t heard for 40 years.  

… whatever happened to She Sherriff?!

… Loudon Wainwright’s early inference about the YMCA.

… plus Lindsey Buckingham, Hugh Lloyd, Tony Hancock and fond memories of “stolen cheese guy”.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Paddling the three-man conversational kayak across the rock and roll rapids this week involved …

… Olive Mess, Candied Yams, Gorilla Biscuits …? Challenging indie act or seasonal vegan recipe?

… the amount YMCA earned through Donald Trump and why the man who wrote it is complaining.

… Tom Hanks’ valuable words of wisdom.

… Neil Tennant’s favourite bridge in a pop song (and it’s not We Can Work It Out or I Will).

… musicians and the modern world of the “one-night stand” circuit.

… Baker Street, Money, Careless Whisper, Giant Steps, Jungleland … and the sax solo that outranks them all.

… the genius of Henry Mancini and the powerful DNA of film music.

… the lost world of small ads – eg this pasted by Roxy Music: “The perfect guitarist for avant rock group: original, creative, adaptable, melodic, fast, slow, elegant, witty, scary, stable, tricky. Quality musicians only.”

… Beatles ’64 - “randomly assembled and directionless”, a listener declares!

Here’s Plas Johnson playing the Pink Panther theme with Henry Mancini:

 https://youtu.be/jBupII3LH_Q?si=brjVwsPlmcnii1Md

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Joni Mitchell called it “stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song”. Every record sent out for review used to come with a press release knocked together by an over-excited PR before terms like “psychedelia” or “prog” had been invented. They were scanned once for the odd fact or quote and usually chucked in the bin. Richard Morton Jack has tracked down scores of these handouts from 1962-1972, and the news stories they sparked, and published them in the sumptuous ‘Pressing News’, a fascinating window into how acts were sold in the days when pop stars liked rump steak, sports cars and “sincere people” but disliked “bad music, traffic wardens and people who say I look like a girl”. We leaf through his book here and talk about ….

... the ingenuity of '60s PRs and why Marc Bolan was a turning point.

… Robert Plant and David Bowie’s genius for self-promotion.

… the pop hopeful whose favourite tipple was tooth-rotting, crystal-based ‘Creamola Foam’.  

… how PRs sold rebels and outsiders.  

… a £900 Olivia Newton-John press release.

… Beta Male pin-ups Nick Drake and Scott Walker.

… confected outrage over the Small Faces’ Lord’s Prayer.

… Joe Cocker, eternally a gas-fitter from Sheffield with “a face like the back of a Sheffield Corporation bus”.

… mysterious pop acts that never made it like the Virgin Sleep, the Accent, Bread Love & Dreams, Fresh Maggots and the Tickle whose songs were supposedly chosen by computer.

 .. the Kinks – “four art students who dress like characters from Dickens”.  

… the promotion of pre-psychedelia Pink Floyd – “a lyrical atmosphere whose words express a feeling rather than tell a story.”

… “the Zombies have 50 GCSE passes between them!” and other press release fiction trotted out in the papers.

… the mass 1966 adoption of the kaftan and Charlie Chan moustache.

Order copies of Pressing News here:

https://lansdownebooks.com/products/pressing-news

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Reversing into tomorrow! This week’s news events given a vigorous once-over include …

… what will a Trump guitar be worth in 30 years’ time?

… the average age of a Glastonbury goer and how it sells its TV coverage.  

… “the Beatles in America was like Cortez arriving in South America, the clash of two civilizations. How did this film manage to balls the story up so catastrophically?”

 … Leonard Bernstein’s daughter’s dreams about George Harrison and the Fabs v the all-American alpha male.

… who should be next for a rock and roll blue plaque?

… the Beatles’ Ed Sullivan support act who became almost as famous as they did.

… why Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater is the most-streamed ‘60s track.

… Hendrix and the Isley brothers’ night in watching telly.

… and Rod Stewart’s genius for generating publicity.  

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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R.E.M. considered themselves missionaries against the prevailing pop culture – no solos, no old-school stagecraft, no printed lyrics, no lip-syncing, no hard-sell videos, no obvious leader – and mapped out a whole new route to international success. Peter Ames Carlin, whose books include biographies of Springsteen, Brian Wilson and Paul Simon, talks to us here about ‘The Name of this Band is R.E.M.’, what they pioneered and how it rearranged the rock and roll furniture. Which involves …

… why their Letterman Show was a statement of intent.

… “rather than bending to the mainstream, they did what they wanted ‘til the mainstream bent to them.”

… where you can see “the R.E.M. model” - from Sleater-Kinney to Taylor Swift.

… when ‘Mike Stipe’ became Michael.

… Stipe’s first TV appearance, dressed as Frank-N-Furter at a Rocky Horror Show screening.

… why rock critics connected with them. 

… the strategies they share with U2, Radiohead and Coldplay. 

… “Springsteen = Elvis + Dylan”.

… what was in the water in Athens, Georgia, that produced such unconventional

acts - R.E.M., the B-52’s, Pylon, Love Tractor.

… their ‘straight’ but supportive parents – Stipe’s dad in the military, Mills’ dad a marine helicopter pilot.

… how R.E.M. “channelled popular culture”.

… their pioneering approach to record deals, royalties, videos, mixing and song-writing.

… and which of them most wants a reunion.

Order ‘The Name Of This Band Is R.E.M.’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-This-Band-M-Biography/dp/0385546947

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Neil Storey worked in the Island press office in the ‘70s and ‘80s and has set out on mammoth undertaking, to compile a series of gorgeous, album-sleeve-sized books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history and talking to all involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. This latest edition, ‘the Island Book Of Records 1969-1970’, has transported us back to our teenage selves when albums by Fairport, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Free, King Crimson etc were unmissable. We talked to Neil at his home in France which happily involved …  

… the extraordinary story of the Unhalfbricking album shoot.  

… when album sleeves were assembled by hand.

… how Island pioneered the ‘underground’ aesthetic and the cheap sampler album.

… the mystery of Ian Anderson’s 11 fingers.

… the “worst sleeve” in the label’s history (which involved a trip to the butchers).

.. the day the Island roster met in Hyde Park at six in the morning.

... the curious marketing of Nick Drake – “who doesn’t have a telephone and will disappear for four days at a time”.

… and Roxy Music, Sparks, Head Hands & Feet and what else to expect in Volume 3.

Order the Island Book Of Records Volume 2 here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-II-1969-70/dp/1526182246

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Danny Baker, the act you’ve known for all these years, is kicking his legs up again in 2025 on a thundering new theatre tour, ‘Aye Aye! Ahoy Hoy!’ “Dead men tell no tales,” he points out, “so we might might as well get ‘em all told now.” This will be another barnstorming one-man circus - as, naturally, is this barrelling conversation with the two of us which collides with the following …

… being shot, Welsh cake, an olive green Humber, goldfish, when videos were the size of a loaf of bread, why half his Maidstone audience got up and left, stolen gear being hustled over Waterloo Bridge, bad things done by Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, ELP, the Average White Band, Max Miller, Kenneth Williams’ loathing for Michael Aspel, when records become like furniture, getting £4k for a Ziggy Stardust white label, why he doesn’t miss the 14,000 albums he sold, and the record that came out the same day as Sgt Pepper and Bowie’s first album but is better than both.

The podcast includes an extract from Ronnie Barker’s “A Pint Of Old And Filthy” and Terry Thomas reading PG Wodehouse.

Order tickets for Danny’s 2025 tour here:

https://www.dannybakerstore.com/

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This week’s events piled into a pipe and enthusiastically smoked include …  

… our memories of being at the Band Aid recording in Sarm studios, November 25 1984.

… why it was the last dance of the mass media and why nothing could have the same impact now.

… the “household name” that made all the difference.

… the real reason Bob Geldof could be involved.  

… James Bond, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Spaghetti Westerns … how music is the real DNA of film franchises, the fingerprint that connects you with the original.  

… why should a teenager know what a radio is?

… “Live vivid! Delete ordinary! Break moulds! Copy nothing!” The tortuous rebranding of Jaguar.

… what the BBC spends 95 per cent of its time doing.

… how Bee Gees’ drummer Dennis Byron unwittingly invented the tape loop.

… the appeal of inconvenient technology.

… David’s second Deep ‘70s compilation, “a dream fulfilment” – Americana, Skinny Tie music, cover versions, the outer limits of Island Records.

… plus birthday guest Mike Sketch on discovering music late in life (Dylan, Tom Waits etc).

David’s ‘More Deep 70s’ 4-CD compilation is available for pre-order now:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Hepworths-More-Deep-Misunderstood/dp/B0DCGGQDNK

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One of our rays of sunshine in the dark days of Lockdown was Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch, fizzing clips of the two of them in their Dorset kitchen, him playing off-brand rock and roll, her singing in extravagant finery, occasionally on an exercise bike. Their version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman got 8.6m views alone. One time they were dressed as bees, another re-staging Swan Lake wearing tutus. This has now flowered into an all-the-trimmings Christmas show with a full rock band touring in December. They look back here at how it started and where it’s ended up, which includes …

… the teenage Fripp doing the twist at the Cellar Club, Poole.

… Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood’s reaction when Robert booed him on set.

… when the “elite newspapers” declared their kitchen shows were “genius”.

… where their two different audiences meet.

… plans for an upcoming Fripp memoir and his 1981 King Crimson diary.

 … things you find in old boxes in the attic.

… how the grumpier end of King Crimson’s supporters regard the “other Robert Fripp”.

… what Tony Iommi and Robert Plant thought of their lockdown clips.

… and what you can expect from their Christmas Party show – which involves Bowie, Blondie, Neil Young, Slade, Metallica and an inflatable penguin.

Toyah and Robert’s Christmas Party tickets here:

https://toyahwillcox.com/gigs/

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John Lydon is among us in 2025 - with Public Image in May and on his Spoken Word tour in September. Entertainment is guaranteed, as it is in this podcast with Mark where he considers … Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper and the “sadness in all comedians”, stage fright, the day his dad threw him out of the house, why PiL is like opera, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, the “crippled emotions” of youth, why people open their hearts to him, the ghost of Johnny Rotten in Gladiator 11, the lost world of conversation in pubs, and missing his wife, best friend Rambo and Sid Vicious.  

Order tickets for his spoken word tour here:

https://www.johnlydon.com/tour-dates/

PiL tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/public-image-limited-tickets/artist/241

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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In which we feed the week’s events through our heat-seeking Fun-Filter®️ to see what makes the bell ring. Which includes …

… Richard Ashcroft in the new John Lewis Christmas ad.

… U2 v Coldplay, the Beatles v Pink Floyd – rock bands and the “diploma divide”.

… why can we still recite entire song lyrics we learnt when teenagers but can’t remember the shopping list we wrote this morning?

… “they couldn’t find their backside with the flashlight”.

… the new form of tribute group: the Fall, Thin Lizzy and Talk Talk and the bands made up of ex-members who are recording their ‘new music’.

… Elvis, Noel Coward, Churchill, Dylan, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Bowie, the Stones, Frank Sinatra … who should Craig Brown write about next?

… the very few people more famous than Paul McCartney.  

… our search for the poshest pop star.

… Beatles fans v the National Anthem.

… is this the only podcast on God’s green earth to mention the Wars Of Spanish Succession?

… and birthday guest Giles Fraser on Phil Manzanera, Neil Tennant, Clare Grogan, Midge Ure and other musicians with fabulous speaking voices.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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He’s written some of the darkest entries in the American songbook but became world famous with a sunny celebration of friendship on the soundtrack of “Toy Story”. Inbetween can be found a staggering range of songs dealing with everything from short people to Vladimir Putin, from performing bears to the Louisiana Flood., from ELO to the Great Nations Of Europe, all of which show up in this authoritative new biography from Robert Hilburn, for years the rock writer of the Los Angeles Times. Topics touched on in his chat with David Hepworth: 

… when you called your book “A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country”, did you know it was coming out in Election week?

… why Robert’s review of Elton John at the Troubadour in 1970 transformed the life of one piano player from Pinner while his review of Randy in the same same venue in the same year didn’t have the same effect on this local hero.

… how Randy finds his inspiration by sitting in front of the TV with a big stack of hardback books.

… what his famous uncles taught him and how he has spent a lifetime trying to follow their lead.

… how he got his first break from Cilla Black, Alan Price and the British chart,

… what he said when he finally got as Oscar after years of nominations.

… why he can write quickly when commissioned but moves agonisingly slowly when relying on inspiration.

… why he’s the only biographical subject to insist his children are interviewed.

… what he thinks of Donald Trump.

Order Robert’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Few-Words-Defense-Our-Country/dp/1408720361

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After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves …

… what time he goes to bed.

… “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent’s review was an insult.

… seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975.

… the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”).

… supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland.

… memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers.

… the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground’s What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance.

… the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet.

… “I never thought I’d retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian’.  

… the role reversal of being produced by your own son.

… and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour.

Peter Perrett tour dates here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432

Order his new album The Cleansing here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDL

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Things this week that sent the needle into the red included …

… the last dance craze the whole world noticed.

... “Rock stars used to be anti-establishment. Now they ARE the establishment.”

… artworks, flags, bespoke I-Ching Coins … would YOU pay £1,350 for a box set?

… why Quincy Jones made records like a movie director.

... how Dylan’s Biograph and Springsteen’s live box started a gold rush.

… “an unprecedented event in popular recording".

… Hot Night, Starlight, Give Me Some Time, Lights Out and other working titles for Thriller.

… “We’re here to save the record business!”

… the speed of the Beatles: two years between Ed Sullivan and Tomorrow Never Knows; two years from the Cavern to Shea Stadium.

Plus birthday guest Phil Hopwood: moments in rock history you’d like to have witnessed to see what really happened.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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The most streamed Beatles song – 700 million plays more than any other – is not by Lennon/McCartney but George who, as author Seth Rogovoy points out, is still widely considered “an economy-class Beatle” though his contributions were central to the success of their records. Seth’s new book ‘Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison’ sets out to right this monstrous wrong! As does this conversation with the two of us which covers …

… did My Sweet Lord’s court case puncture his sense of ambition?

… how he changed Taxman for American audiences.

… the statement made by starting All Things Must Pass with a Dylan/Harrison composition.

… how he was fleeced by not one but two managers - Allen Klein and Denis O’Brien.

… what we learnt from watching ‘Get Back’.

… Broadway ballads, Vaudeville, jazz and the solo on ‘Til There Was You.

… remortgaging Friar Park for Life Of Brian and pushing for the Anthology “payday”.

… his glorious spiritual/material contradiction – “the Pisces sign is two fish going in opposite directions”.

… a social mobility that John and Paul both envied.

… falling out of love with live performance.

… the beliefs of his early ‘20s he sustained all his life.

… and the staples of George Harrison’s Jukebox.

Order Seth’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Within-You-Without-Listening-Harrison/dp/019762782X

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Ian Broudie and the Lightning Seeds are about to set out on their 35th Anniversary Greatest Hits Tour – aka “beery parties”. He talks to us here about the first bands he ever saw and played in, which involves …

… memories of the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun.

… the secret of seeming enigmatic: “Never finish your sentences …”

… how Three Lions brought a whole new audience and the irony of a singer who didn’t front his biggest hit.

… why the Ramones and Talking Heads made him sell his old records.  

… first requirement for success: “being able to make a fool of yourself”.

… when Captain Beefheart forgot he was booked for an art show and painted all the pictures the night before.

… how a part in a Ken Campbell play launched his career.

… seeing the Beatles, aged seven – “Shut your eyes and put your fingers in your ears”.

… when Eric’s in Mathew Street seemed the centre of the universe.

… “for the first time ever I’m not suffering from Imposter Syndrome – I AM THE SINGER!”

… Free, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, XTC, Big In Japan and the Sausages From Mars.

… making records that are “an Andy Warhol pop-art splash of colour on a wall”.

Lightning Seeds tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/lightning-seeds-tickets/artist/735512

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Our crack pair of inquisitors tackle the week’s events and sift out the good, the bad and the riveting, which includes …

… whatever happened to savage reviews?

… “For God’s sake, keep the robots out of music!”: the 50th birthday of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

… a Naked Nick Cave Plush Doll (£24) and some Jonny Greenwood olive oil.

… strange tales about the making of Disraeli Gears.

… what keeps Kamala Harris awake at night.

… the staggering bill at Murray the K’s ‘Music In The Fifth Dimension’ in 1967.

… Teri Garr, Diane Keaton and other fantasy girlfriends.

... “Twas nought but an skellington covered in skin”.

… rock stars never seen without shades.

… and birthday guest Cathal Chu cooks up another 45 ways to leave your lover – ‘Give two weeks’ notice, Otis’.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them …

… “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …”

… how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment.

… being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.

 … how he heard the news of Lennon’s death.

… booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’.

... the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days.

… how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions.

… abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.

 … ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants.

… “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”.

… John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney.

… “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”.

Order Elliot’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Shine-extraordinary-friendship/dp/0857506072

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Brushing aside the cobweb spray and luminous flashing skulls, we ring rock and roll’s doorbell in pursuit of both tricks and treats. Among which you’ll find …

… the gothification of entertainment … Harry Potter, Creedence Clearwater and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

… Donald Trump dancing to Jeff Buckley. 

… why Phil Lesh was the heart and soul of the Grateful Dead.

… John Cooper Clarke playing a 23,000-seater and the rise of Spoken Word.

… Bah! Humbug! The full horror of Halloween and its infernal TV specials.

… Allen Ginsberg’s International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965.

… Rihanna’s dietician, therapist, spiritual advisor and hospitality liaison manager.

… the auditions for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

… the curse of having everything you want.

… John Lennon imprisoned in the Dakota – without the internet! And his mishandling of an Austin Maxi.

 … Helen Mirren’s thing about Kurt Cobain.

… why Phil Lesh, John Entwistle, Jack Casady and Paul McCartney were a breed apart.

… when Mark King’s father kicked him out of the family home.

… plus Abraham Lincoln, Fields of the Nephilim, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Eraserhead, the Batcave and birthday guest Matthew Elliot wonders if anyone had greater love songs written about them than Rosanna Arquette (by Toto and Peter Gabriel)?

Mama Tried by the Grateful Dead. Just LISTEN to Phil Lesh’s bass playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4gy0TBDfU

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Mark King and Level 42 have just announced 2025 tour dates and he talks to us here about …

… the value of what you learn in covers bands from being ignored.

… why being thrown out of home for being thrown out of school was the best thing that ever happened to him.

… Level 42’s first gig, kicked off after four songs.

… Chile, Turkey and other new markets on the “flatter world” tour circuit.

... supporting the Police, Tina Turner, Queen and Madonna in the ‘80s.

… how John McLaughlin (from Doncaster) and Allan Holdsworth (Bradford) inspired other people “from far-flung places like us”.

… Rockin’ Robin, Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and playing three nights a week in an Isle of Wight novelty act, aged 11.

… the onstage dynamic between Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.

… the complications of having to book big venues two years in advance.

… being the bassist in the Prince’s Trust house band backing Bowie and Mick Jagger.

… Billy Cobham, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and “the genius” of Steve Winwood.

Level 42s World Machine 40th Anniversary Tour here:

https://www.level42.com/

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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This is an extraordinary story on many levels – about the power and sanctuary of music, about what it took for bands to get noticed in the ‘70s, about how a teenager obsessed with King Crimson eventually joined the band and about the struggles of “a rabid Henry Cow fan trying to get on Top of the Pops”. Jakko Jakszyk is a fabulous storyteller, both in his memoir ‘Who’s the Boy With The Lovely Hair?’ and on this podcast with the two of us. Among the highlights …

… two things musicians need to know.  

… why the divisive appeal of music and comedy is so similar.

… life in a band where “Stravinsky meets the Barron Knights”.

… “Who’ll be the singing Jack Russell?” Doing voice-overs as a piece of toast and a baked potato with a Yorkshire accent.

... the quaint Englishness of Soft Machine, Caravan and King Crimson and why they were like “a holiday resort no-one knew about”.

… why there are even more idiots in advertising than the music business.

… the rigours of the Melody Maker Folk Rock Contest, aged 17, judged by Tommy Vance, Bob Harris and Brian May of Queen.

… the militant wing of the Adrian Belew Fan Club.

… Dave Robinson’s sage advice after telling him he was “unfashionably heterosexual”.

... why Robert Fripp is more Miles Davis than Frank Zappa and the longest audition in history.

…the complications of the King Crimson reunion caused by one person who shall remain nameless – “though let’s call him Greg Lake”.

… “two screaming lead guitars and a trumpet, what could possibly go wrong?”

… and working with Pete Sinfield, Peter Hawkins, Sam Brown and Nigel Planer.  

Order Jakko’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovely-Unlikely-Memoir-Jakko-Jakszyk/dp/1838491864

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Applying our patent wheat-chaff separator to recent rock and roll events, we filter out the following …

… “They’ve got the guns but we got the numbers”: whatever happened to political songs?

… the life of Libby Titus and the afterlife of Love Has No Pride.

… when gigs become stalking with a musical component.

… how Taylor Swift Tickets became the new currency.

… the most disappointing album of all time (we know the answer).

… who’s the Zeppo Marx of rock and roll?

… the old music/football analogy revisited.

… when fans think they own a band.

… the New York Rock And Soul Revue that revived Steely Dan.

… has any American star beguiled Britain more than Taylor Swift?

… when Lennon failed to swing the vote.

… does anyone convey loneliness better than Bonnie Raitt?

… our own personal rock and roll fantasies – eg Dr John recycling and Bob Dylan in his Star Wars jim-jams.

 … plus birthday guest Phil Turner - Bill Berry, Gene Clarke, Vince Clarke and the irreplaceable magic ingredient of one band member.

ROLLING STONE’S MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUMS OF ALL TIME:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/most-disappointing-albums-ever-1235111528/

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’ll know Miranda Sawyer from the Observer and the radio and, possibly, from her days at Smash Hits and Select magazines that form the foundation of her new book, Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs, a time spent watching, interviewing and hanging out with the collection of misfits and outsiders fast becoming the last great musical movement this country ever saw. This pans in on the period between April 1993, Select’s ‘Yanks Go Home’ cover, and August 1997 when Oasis released Be Here Now. A ton of highlights, among them …

… why bands hated the term Britpop – and who invented it.

… when your life in your 20s becomes history and period drama.

… are Oasis conservative or just “classically Northern”?

… why Britpop was the last hurrah of the traditional media.

… the long slow burn of Jarvis Cocker and the rise of the Beta Male.

… the impact of Select’s famous Union Jack ‘Yanks Go Home’ cover.

… why Edwyn Collins was the Godfather of Indie (and Britpop) and the song that never stopped selling.

… Ric Blaxill at Top of the Pops, Matthew Bannister at Radio One and other unsung architects of Britpop.

… lava lamps, swirly rugs, space hoppers and the charity shop tat that replaced the matt black shiny ‘80s.

… Jarvis v Jackson, Blur v Oasis and other great engines of the tabloid press.

… “Manchester had the bands and the mythmakers (Tony Wilson, Paul Morley) …”

… why the weekly music press was the Twitter of its time.

… comparing Blur in ‘90s clubs to Wembley Stadium in 2023.  

… will Oasis be the last ‘household name’ band?

… could Britpop have happened without the press?

Order Miranda’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncommon-People-Britpop-Beyond-Songs/dp/1399816896

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our record-breaking partnership faces a fresh set of spin bowlers on the rock and roll pitch but rifles a few shots over the pavilion roof, among them …

… the time Elvis let his daughter ride her pony through the house.

… when Moon Zappa (10) found naked hippies making candles in the garden.

… “Can you get that? It might be someone important.” The Queen when her mobile rang.

… Billy Joel’s daily commute to work by helicopter.

… John Peel, Elton John, Robert Christgau … who’s listened to the most music in the history of the planet?

… “Choice is a tax, a penalty”: the faint sense of nausea you get from Netflix’ fathomless sense of abundance.

… how Elvis became a hillbilly with an unlimited budget.

… are ChatGPT’s music recommendations actually quite useful? We test the Beatles, Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis.

… “what kind of a genius doesn’t have medical insurance?”

… old WW2 movies v the new Netflix series? There’s only one winner …

… plus Abba, Steampacket, Steeleye Span and Humble Pie: supergroups that worked.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Hugh Cornwell is preparing for his “All The Fun Of The Fair” tour which begins in November and here he talks to David Hepworth about:

….why rehearsals are best in bursts

….why he no longer carries keyboards

….the special magic of going to see Chuck Berry with Richard Thompson

….how the two of them have recorded “Tobacco Road” for an Alzheimers benefit record

…being at the Marquee when Clapton, Beck and Page all played with the Yardbirds

….playing the Golders Green Ionic with Helen Shapiro

….how there are nights when the guitarist think it’s been a disaster but the drummer knows it’s been a triumph

…the film podcast (http://mrdemillefm.com/) that started as a hobby

…what you can expect when his tour (http://www.hughcornwell.com/tour/) hits your town.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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We aimed the airgun of enquiry at this week’s rock and roll side-stall and dislodged the following coconuts …  

… sports star, Rhodes scholar, bohemian: why Kris Kristofferson was a whole new breed of American hero.  

… the letter his parents wrote disowning him.

… how he invented the crossover hit.

… echoes of his life in Five Easy Pieces.

… Fellini’s La Strada and the story of ‘Me And Bobby McGee’.

…. ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ and other songs written to order.

… why the past is the age before mobile phones.

… Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, Carly Simon: the kiss and tell school of songwriting.

… why Tracey Thorn misses the age of the autograph.

… who’d be famous in the 21st Century?

… “What do you think about when you’re playing the drums?” Cameron Crowe’s lost 1983 time capsule.

… in a lift with Ken Barlow.

Plus birthday guest Paul Cook and the furthest you’ve ever travelled for a gig.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Christine McVie - one of only two British girl rock musicians in the ‘60s and part of the greatest pop soap opera of all time. Neither in the backline or the frontline but occupying a unique middle ground. Packed it in for 16 years then returned to the fold. Lesley-Ann Jones’ fresh and emotional memoir Songbird follows “the trajectory of a male rock star played by a woman”, the home she was keen to escape, the outer limits of life in Fleetwood Mac’s “toxic Camelot” and the rigours of holding her ground in a man’s world. We cover all sorts here including …

… the lasting effect of not having “an ordinary mother”.  

… the night in Sunderland that made her think again.

… when your best friend sleeps with your fiancée.

… supporting the Shadows when she was 15 at the 2I’s in Soho.  

… Etta James, Chicken Shack and playing the Reeperbahn.

… why rock stars can never be part of a village community.

… Fleetwood Mac’s West Coast Elysium: “they were all as bad as each other”.

… “cute and dangerous” meets “lifeline and anchor”: the love affair with Dennis Wilson.

… why she and John McVie both needed a wife.

… and her lifelong connection with the blues, “a sadness you can’t cure”.

Order Songbird here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songbird-Intimate-Biography-Christine-McVie/dp/1789467217

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Nick Heyward was one of our favourite cover stars when we were at Smash Hits in the ‘80s, the days when hardcore Haircut One Hundred fans turned out in Fair Isle sweaters and Sou’Westers. He now lives mostly in Florida, he’s made nine solo albums – one magnificently titled Open Sesame Seed - and he’s toured again with his old band after ten years’ painful separation. Touring the UK in October, he couldn’t be more upbeat about the road ahead – “I can do anything!” – and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself. Which involves …

… seeing Count Basie, Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson on the same bill when he was 12.

… “if you stop playing music you’re like the boxer that gave up the fight”.

… pop dress codes, knock-off pop merchandise and trips to Shellys Shoes.

… growing up in Beckenham where Bowie was “the lighthouse beam that made being a pop star possible”.

… old schoolfriends and Haircut One Hundred members Les and Graham and how “we got our friendship back”.

… why seeing XTC was “like plugging into electricity”.

… Buzzcocks and Boomtown Rats at the Croydon Greyhound.  

… how he was saved by management.

… singing Love Plus One in Salisbury Cathedral.

… and the lingering thrill of his first reviews (by Graham K Smith and Adrian Thrills).

Nick’s tour dates here:

https://nickheyward.com/

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“There was no Command-Zed back then!” John Wood engineered or produced some of the most magical, timeless and affecting records ever made - by Nick Drake, John Martyn, the McGarrigles, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, John Cale, Squeeze and many more. He’s 85 now and looks back here at a luminous career that started with mastering singles at Decca and transferred to Sound Techniques, the mecca he co-founded in an old cowshed in Chelsea when takes were spontaneous and even the tape-op was part of the performance. He misses those days, when albums were organic and the labels had less control, and talks here about …

… “the age when sound had perspective and seemed three-dimensional”.

… Nick Drake’s confidence and his guiding lights - eg the Beach Boys and Randy Newman (“who I’d never heard of”). And his final nighttime sessions.

… the way Fairport recorded – “We’re only going to do it once” – and why they could make three albums a year.

…managing the girls in the Incredible String Band, “especially when Licorice played drums”.

… John Cale in “maniac mode” and his sudden and unexpected friendship with Nick Drake.

… Cale and Nico at the Chelsea Hotel.

… and why ‘Geoff Muldaur Is Having A Wonderful Time’ was the job he remembers the fondest.

Also mentioned: the Downliners Sect, Judy Collins, The Marmalade, Graham Gouldman and Squeeze.

John’s got nothing to plug and just wanted to talk to us. Thanks, John, and bless your cotton socks.

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Ian Hunter – an image so familiar you’d recognise his silhouette - now lives in Connecticut and he’s just released expanded versions of two of his best-selling solo albums, You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and Short Back N' Sides. He’s 85, born before any of the Beatles. We talk to him here about life growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s when your father’s a copper and “music wasn’t allowed in the house”, and touch upon …

… the debt he owes Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee.

… café jukeboxes full of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.

… beating 165 acts at a talent contest at Butlins.

… the record that made the Beatles (which they didn’t write).

… “a two-piece corduroy suit, open-toed sandals, overweight …”: the Mott the Hoople audition.

… Bowie playing All The Young Dudes – “a monster” – cross-legged on the floor in Denmark Street after they’d turned down Suffragette City.

… why Hendrix was thrown out of Regent Sound studios.

… playing the Reeperbahn in 1963.

… recording ‘Schizophrenic’ with three members of the E Street Band.

… “Do you want a cuddle?” The Mick Ronson recording method.

… the good thing about Covid.

… watching punk bands with Mick Jones.

… plus a ‘dyed-black’ Ford Anglia and the Greatest Record Ever Made.

Order Ian’s re-released albums here:

Buy link: https://ianhunter.lnk.to/sbns

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As the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness draws in, we poke the embers of this week’s rock and roll bonfire and rake out the following chestnuts …

… Maggie Smith on ‘70s chat shows.

… when Radiohead meets Shakespeare.

… the strange, circuitous and downright disgraceful launch of Francis Ford Coppola’s majestically bonkers Megalopolis.

… Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter: the slow ascent of two ‘overnight sensations’.

… is it big events anymore or just a low-level hum of distraction?

… Bryan Ferry as an interpreter: why we love his clubby renditions of Dylan, Amy, Frank, Elvis, Broadway ballads and old sea shanties.

… Movies In Waiting no 97: Butlin’s, skiffle, Hamburg and Ian Hunter’s 26-year clamber to the top.

... can any film still have instant world impact?

… the unsettling structure of the Graham Norton show.

… Simon Raymonde’s dad’s oceanic jazz adventure, 1949.

… plus birthday guest Matthew North sees Wayne Rooney doing Ring Of Fire at a Plymouth open mic night.

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Simon Raymonde’s affecting and beautifully written memoir ‘In One Ear’ records life in the ‘60s growing up with a father who wrote and arranged for Dusty Springfield, Helen Shapiro and the Walker Brothers, the impossibly shy promotional activities of the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and the struggles and eventual jackpot of the Bella Union record label he founded. He’s so perceptive, observant and self-mocking and we loved this energetic podcast which, among much else, lands upon …  

... why 1979 was the Golden Year.

… the time Scott Walker came to his parents’ house.

… why the Cocteau Twins might have tanked in the current age of self-promotion.

… how a loathing for Phil Collins was a Sliding Doors moment.  

… the problem with bands that don’t talk to each other.

… why they refused to appear on Top Of The Pops.

… following Rancid and the Ramones at Lollapalooza in 1996 and the sobering events that ensued.

… why the Old Grey Whistle Test was “not a happy experience”.

… the cryptic language of Elizabeth Fraser’s lyrics why he never asked her what they meant.  

… “if I hadn’t worked at the Beggars record shop I wouldn’t be talking to you now”.

… why bands are “less naïve now”.

… and “Cocteau Twins - swirling sepulchral shards of sound that patter like raindrops against the windows of your mind” – ©️ the Music Press in 1985.

Order Simon’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Ear-Cocteau-Twins-Raymonde/dp/1788709381

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Abba’s biographer Jan Gradvall met and interviewed Abba many times and builds a fresh picture of their internal chemistry in his new book Melancholy Undercover. Highlights of this illuminating pod include …

… how Sweden rejected their early hits for not being sufficiently “socialist”.

…. the discomfiting early life of Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

… what Max Martin and Denniz Pop thought made Abba’s music so durable. 

… Strindberg, Bergman, the climate, the eight months of darkness and the role of melancholia in Swedish pop culture. 

… the influence of the Human League on their later catalogue.

… why manager Stig Anderson “became a burden”.

… “Norway has Grieg, Finland has Sibelius, Sweden has Benny …”

… the first band to write about divorce.

… the Abba song with 57 chords and the only two samples Abba ever approved.

… Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and Ian Dury backstage at a 1979 London show.

… when Sid Vicious ran into Abba at an airport on the Pistols’ 1977 Swedish tour. 

… the role of the Lionesses football team, Kurt Cobain, Erasure, U2, Madonna and the Sydney gay community in the Abba revival. 

… why the Abbatars are better than Abba. 

… the myth of Agnetha as “the Greta Garbo of Pop”. 

… and why The Day Before You Came is more than the Abba swansong.

Order Melancholy Undercover here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-ABBA-Melancholy-Undercover/dp/0571390986

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A free-form spontaneous jam this week - the Dark Star of podcasts – which navigates the outer reaches of the rock and roll stratosphere by way of the following …

… was Michael Stipe’s father a military helicopter pilot in Korea?

… our fantasy Odd Couple tragi-comedy: Morrissey and Marr in a thin-skinned middle-aged flat share.  

… how the Golden Egg launched Roxy Music.

… can anyone name more than one member of Coldplay?

… did Paddy McAloon’s mum make the sets for the Clangers?

… the ’80s version of the Internet.

 … memories of lost London: international magazine shops, drinking in offices, Protein Man, roaming Hare Krishnas, “floating a curry”, wasp-covered sarnies in café windows, band flyers on derelict buildings, the romance of old Fleet Street.

… the tangled saga of Bonfire Of The Teenagers.

… “Oasis is the last of the household-name bands”.

… why Toyah is a movie waiting to happen.

… and birthday guest Jelltex on bands he thought had given up now filling stadiums.

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Mike Batt still wrestles with the emotional legacy of the Wombles, the act that simultaneously made him and cast a shadow over the rest of his career, not least his early days as a songwriter at Liberty Records, discussed here, hired after he’d answered the same ad as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, a time when A&R men wore kipper ties and had Picassos on their wall. He forged a path through psychedelia and into TV and films, taking huge financial risks with musicals, orchestral works and big-selling acts like Katie Melua, his Art Garfunkel hit ‘Bright Eyes’ eventually promoting him from the Haves to the Have-Yachts. Life, he says, has been “like running through traffic”. His memoir is just out, ‘The Closest Thing to Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’. All sorts discussed here including ...

… his brief satin-jacketed tenure in Hapshash & the Coloured Coat.

… parallels between record producers and traffic cops.

… Happy Jack and songs about outsiders.

… being in Savile Row when the Beatles played the Apple roof.

… life as “a square” during psychedelia.

… a snatch of abandoned teenage composition ‘The Man With The Purple Hand’.

… John D. Laudermilk and the magic of writing credits.

… how Bright Eyes “got me into the Officers’ Mess of Songwriters”.

… his publishers insisting there was a Womble on the book jacket.

… “circumcising” the world in a seven-crew yacht.

... and feeling simultaneously smug and guilty when driving a Roller.

Order ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Closest-Thing-Crazy-Musical-Adventures/dp/1785120840

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Joe Boyd produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others, released acts from all over the globe on his Hannibal label and has just written a mighty and definitive account of the history of popular music, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, tracing the way different sounds from different countries became interwoven. Nobody is better qualified to write this book as you’ll discover from this enthralling conversation. Among the highlights …

… “if Mick and Keith had had Spotify there’d have been no Rolling Stones.”

… the African roots of Little Richard’s horn section.

… how a Zulu folk tune from 1939 ended up on the Lion King soundtrack.

… “Western musicians are governed by keys, valves and frets but what matters is the notes in between”.

… the evolution of ska as rock and roll was too exhausting in the heat of Jamaican dancehalls.

… Alan Freed, the “Pied Piper” that led white American teenagers into black music.

… Duke Ellington and music “too complicated for white audiences to follow”.

… the bossa nova in Nick Drake’s River Man.

… Paul Simon’s Graceland and the meaning of authenticity.

… world music’s problem with drum machines.

.. the attraction of music whose origin you can hear before the vocal comes in.

Order Joe’s highly recommended book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Rhythm-Remain-Journey-Through/dp/0571360009

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With Mark Ellen rambling in the West Country it’s left to David Hepworth to talk Alex Gold down from the ledge in the light of the Dave Grohl news and discuss:

•⁠ ⁠just how many offers come the way of rich and famous rock stars

•⁠ ⁠whether his recent admission will in any way detract from the most winning smile in rock

•⁠ ⁠is this an opportunity for Jon Bon Jovi to step up?

•⁠ ⁠how a quick word from Taylor Swift is worth all the five star reviews in the world

•⁠ ⁠Nick Lowe’s infallibly entertaining story of Jet Harris and seven pints of Kaliber

•⁠ ⁠When they organised a reunion of all the progeny of Screaming Jay Hawkins

•⁠ ⁠... and the greatest music book ever with Patreon supporter Ed Newman

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The Netflix series of David Nicholls’ worldwide hit novel One Day was Top Ten in 89 countries and he’s been heavily involved in its soundtrack album, a process as enjoyable, he says, as devising the compilation tape the fictional Emma made for Dexter in 1989 featuring the Smiths, Prefab Sprout and Public Enemy. We talk to him here about the glorious pitfalls of using pop music to broadcast your personality. All bases covered, from the Geoff Love Orchestra to Joy Orbison, along with …

… prog rock drummer replacement fantasies.

… when a compilation tape is a Valentine’s card.

… music as a way of telegraphing a time.

… what the 1812 Overture does to a five year-old.

… the eternal impact of Shipbuilding and Running Up That Hill.

… “punk terrified me”.

… classic male musical taste paranoia.

… memories of Live Aid – Bowie onstage, Kiki Dee in the car park.

… buying a knock-off cassette of Sgt Pepper.

… remembering every note of a record you haven’t heard for 50 years.

… and the greatest record of all time!

Order the One Day Netflix soundtrack here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jessica-Jones-Morrish-Anne-Nikitin/dp/B0CXJNM4WV

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Old friend of the podcast, Nick Lowe has just released his 15th solo album, Indoor Safari, and he’s about to tour with Los Straitjackets. This absorbing conversation looks back at 60 years onstage and takes in the following …

… the secret of a long career.

… why he resolved “not to get that famous again”.

… touring Germany aged 15 in Brinsley Schwarz’s dad’s Dormobile.

… the Small Faces at the village hall in Hornchurch.

… to the Six Bells for seven pints with “photographer for all occasions” Jet Harris.

… playing Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent in the school band and wrestling with the chords to Cliff’s Living Doll.

… Kippington Lodge at Ally Pally, New Year’s Eve 1968, supporting Joe Cocker, the Bonzos and Amen Corner - “the Grand Canyon with a roof”.

… 270 dog walks with his son Roy during Covid and the things they discussed.

… the unique magic of working with “America’s premier instrumental surf band”.

… how ‘I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll’ is now a wedding staple.

… and the sole mention of ‘freakbeat’ vendors the Fleur De Lys in the history of our podcast.

Nick’s tour starts at the London Palladium on September 24:

https://nicklowe.com/tour-dates/

Order Indoor Safari here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indoor-Safari-Nick-Lowe/dp/B0D5TXRLDD

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Louis Armstrong, Wild Man Fischer, Irving Berlin and Lucinda Williams all started out as buskers and Cary Baker’s ‘Down On The Corner’ traces the romance and influence of street players from Ancient Rome via Chicago’s Maxwell Street to Elvis Costello outside the CBS conference and beyond. Cary, David and Mark chuck coins in the conversational hat, among them …  

… the turban and rollerblades stagewear of Harry Perry aka “the Skating Sikh”.

… Blind Arvella Gray who took up busking because of a gun battle.

… the sight of Bongo Joe on his daily commute (a moped loaded with steel drums).  

… what Mick Jagger learnt from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

… Ted Hawkins' journey from Venice Beach to Geffen Records.

… the time Cary met Moondog dressed as a Viking and why he was a symbol of old New York.

… how Billy Bragg learnt festival crowd control playing street corners.

… Madeleine Peyroux, aged 15, playing Paris subways.

… Jesse Fuller, father of the one-man band.

… do buskers now make it via Instagram?

… the only gig where you can play the same song repeatedly.

… and when is busking just noise pollution?

Order Cary Baker’s Down On The Corner here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Corner-Adventures-Busking-Street/dp/1916829104

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We applied dynamic pricing to this week’s news and various stories trebled in value, among them … 

… further adventures in the Oasis ticket fiasco.

… the greatest band name ever.

… the only rock star born under Adolf Hitler.

… Marianne Faithfull? Ian Anderson? Elvis Costello? Musicians you’d rather hear talk than play.

… rock stars telling jokes.

… “if it isn’t hard to get it’s not worth having.”

… is hype generated from above or below?

... the return of old-school analogue: David Gilmour’s Golden Ticket.

… the velvet rope and the repercussions of Clubbing.

… and has anyone seen Lobby Lud?

Find out how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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David’s seventh book in his ‘orange series’ is just out and you’re guaranteed to love it. He and Mark discussed ‘Hope I Get Old Before I Die’ at a sold-out launch event at Waterstones in Piccadilly on the evening of September 3, recorded here. Among the highlights you’ll find …

… the rock career as a three-act play.

… the tour that started the Age Of Spectacle.

… why Live Aid was the dawn of pop nostalgia.

… the rock star who retired from retirement.

… Woodstock – “the Somme with Santana”.

… the terrible fallout in the Byrds.

… why no act is ever forgotten.

… Nick Lowe and the few others who got even better as they got older.

… band reunions are about symbolism not music.

… how the rock generation took power.

… why Ron Wood’s memoir can be read as either comedy or tragedy.

… bands that will achieve immortality.

… why Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous seems like period drama.

… the worst group ever.

… and the only act that became bigger than the Beatles.  

Order David’s new book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Get-Old-Before-Die/dp/1787632784

https://linktr.ee/dhepworth

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David, Mark and our token bucket-hatted parka monkey Alex tackle the return of Oasis, its grip on the public imagination and why they’re the biggest band of the last 30 years, which includes …  

… the Gallaghers’ mixed fortunes since 2009.

 … who won the battle of the underdogs.

… “Noel has a thousand buttons, Liam has a thousand fingers”.

… why the ‘90s was just like the ‘60s, a golden age of British pop culture.  

… no whizz-bangs required, no props, no choreography, no lasers, no extras … why Oasis is the cheapest stadium gig to stage imaginable.

… what happens to the ticket money between now and the tour.

… Noel, the media and the common touch.  

… “a level of public demand that’s almost a sickness”.

… why “Oasis tickets are like utility bills”.

… the fate of bands that fall out with each other’s wives.

… how Liam was rescued by Debbie Gwyther and Noel’s ruinous divorce.

… the kind of watertight contracts and insurance required to ensure the band won’t fall apart again.

… “Liam, stay away from the fruit bowl!”.

… and Mark’s breakfast with Peggy Gallagher.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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In a concerted effort to put the world to rights, David and Mark ruminate upon the following …

… Kylie and the Wiggles? Canned Heat and the Chipmunks? Real or invented pop star/childrens’ entertainer collaborations.

.. the charmed life of Greg Kihn.

… will the BBC have any archive left if it keeps cancelling presenters?

… why Inside Llewyn Davis works and so many other biopics fail.

… the full story of the statement Springsteen made with the Born To Run cover shoot.

… Stewart Lee’s long-running beef with Ricky Gervais.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Rock journalism as an occupation is rapidly heading in the direction of the watch-mender or lamplighter so Chris Charlesworth’s account of life at the Melody Maker in the ‘70s is already starting to feel like an historic document. ‘Just Backdated’ covers a time when the rock press set the agenda, sold over half a million copies a week and was courted by attention-seeking musicians of every rank, a lost world remembered in this conversation with Mark Ellen which includes …

… the unwritten rules of ‘70s rock journalism and its limitless access.

… the “homesick and slightly lost” John Lennon when living with May Pang.

… life at Melody Maker’s Fleet Street office and staff writer Max Jones’s fling with Billie Holiday.

… touring with Led Zeppelin alongside the 17 year-old Cameron Crowe (part of the inspiration for Almost Famous).

… “Beatles to reform?” and other coverline staples.

… the night Frank Zappa was thrown off the Rainbow stage – ‘people thought he’d been killed’.

… the first British interview with Steely Dan.

… Debbie Harry when she was still in the Stillettos and the day Blondie asked him to manage them.  

... why the Bay City Rollers at an airport was “the nearest thing to a nightmare while being awake”.

… his time as MM’s West and East Coast correspondent aka “the best job in the world”.

Order ‘Just Backdated’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Backdated-Melody-Maker-Seventies/dp/1915858224

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With David asleep on a French sun-lounger beneath a copy of Summer Lightning, Alex and Mark pour themselves a cold drink and consider …

… the great ska floor-fillers.

… taking kids to rock concerts.

… the fate of all bands: “as musicianship improves, vocals decline”.

… left-field Beatles songs reworked as nursery rhymes.

… why 2-Tone had pop’s “triple threat” (and the genius of Mike Barson).

… of the five big acts with all original members intact, only one should reform.

… how “Tay-gating” became a thing.

… the secret life of Chris Ballew, former leader of minimal grunge trio the Presidents Of The United States of America.

… is the Jam a “young man’s concept”?

… the downside of “Cuddly Liam”.  

… Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran: has normality replaced escapism?

… and Frank Carter as the new Johnny Rotten.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Love’s official biographer John Einarson tells David Hepworth the star-crossed tale of the band who made the least psychedelic album of the psychedelic era. Their conversation takes in:

….Lee’s growing up between Memphis and L.A., dealing with the problems of looking more like Johnny Mathis than Otis Redding.

….how being indulged as a youngster by his family made him a tyrant as a band leader.

….growing up with a prodigious musical talent but without the mastery of a single instrument.

….refusing to put up with the inconvenience of touring and bearing personal grudges which prevented him taking up life-changing offers.

….their competition with The Doors, who would do all the things that Love wouldn’t.

…how Arthur Lee heard Forever Changes in his head and how he transferred that knowledge to an arranger who’d never heard a pop record.

….why Brian Wilson, John Sebastian and Arthur Lee “never got past 1967”.

….the gun charges that put Arthur Lee in jail and the third act he enjoyed when he came out.

You can order the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forever-Changes-Authorized-Biography-Arthur/dp/1916829120/

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As Mark Ellen goes shrimping at Frinton David Hepworth and Alex Gold links hands across the Atlantic to discuss:

….why a quick turn around Mount Hood in a Cessna should never be confused with pleasure

….why all the highly-rated albums are actually over-rated.

….why Timothee Chalamet has no hope of being able to capture more than one facet of Bob Dylan

….the name of the only music-related location in the whole of Oxford Street which has managed to survive the great hollowing-out

….why there really is no point corporations spending fortunes on renaming the places which were christened in our hearts

…the likelihood and desirability of Oasis getting back together

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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A small Pastis, a game of boules and a conversation putting the rock and roll world to rights, which this week includes …

… why Debbie Harry and Mick Jagger worked so well on the small screen.

… Elvin Pelvin on the Bilko Show and how Elvis was modelled on Tony Curtis.

… An American Werewolf In London, The Birds, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, Don’t Look Now, Nightmare On Elm Street and other old movies being rebooted.

… how Patti Smith based an entire career on looking like Keith Richards in 1972 and making records that sounded like they were produced by someone who looked like Keith Richards in 1972.

… a record separated from its sleeve ceases to exist.

… why doesn’t anyone remake classic albums?

… “Once we had something complete and perfect. And what happened? You spent it!”

… how CDs never have “materiality”.

… further proof that Oasis are the most conservative thing in pop music.

… primitive connections and how the album sleeve is the same size as a native American warrior’s shield.

… sounds that date records precisely - eg the syndrum.

Plus birthday guest Patrick Butler.

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Rockfield is a converted farmhouse in the Welsh countryside where, for over 50 years, bands have lived while recording. In the ‘70s Tiffany Murray’s mum was the in-house cook, filling Motorhead to the brim with boeuf bourguignon and Black Sabbath with salmon en croute. Her touching memoir My Family And Other Rock Stars – hailed as “a rock and roll Cider With Rosie” – sees a succession of visiting bands though the wide eyes of a child and in a wholly new light - Freddie Mercury is the man who “smelt of sweet wood and oranges” and was nice to her dog, Julian Cope is “pretty and dressed in a white sheet”. It’s a movie waiting to happen. We loved this highly original and revealing book and our conversation with Tiff which involves …

… the ‘Saffy from Ab Fab’ relationship she had with her mum who began her professional life spying on the Duchess of Argyll from a wardrobe.

… floppy hats, Biba dresses and a purple beach buggy.

… the only woman who recorded at Rockfield in the ‘70s.

… the realisation that the men singing “Galileo” repeatedly in the stables were the same people later on Top Of The Pops.

… her mother’s Book Of Rules for visiting rock stars, “a matron in the body of Julie Christie in Darling”.

… ample proof that rock music allows a life of extended adolescence.

… shelved albums and unpaid bills.

… Tiff’s stepfather and in-house Rockfield producer Fritz Fryer.

… Nick Lowe through the eyes of a 10 year-old – “tall, kind and looked like a bird”.

... Graham Parker’s trout in almonds and how the cook was paid extra “just to get food into Lemmy”.

… and mentioned in despatches – Squeeze, the Tyla Gang, Showaddywaddy, Van Der Graaf Generator and Dr Feelgood.

Order ‘My Family And Other Rock Stars' here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Other-Rock-Stars-groundbreaking/dp/0349727538

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Mark Blake calls Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac a “mosaic biography”, their almost six-decade saga presented as a series of enthralling short stories with titles like ‘Mick Fleetwood’s Great Epiphany’ and ‘Rumours: A Doomed Romance in Six Acts’. It opens in fact with a “cast of characters”, the 18 one-time members, as if dramatis personae in a play, a play that gets more outlandish and dumbfounding with every new discovery and much of it based on his interviews and meetings with most of them (including Peter Green). A few highlights here …

… how Stevie Nicks arrived as the spare part of a package deal and rose to become indispensable.

… the fake Fleetwood Mac and the Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green impersonators (which involves an egg and potato farmer from Essex).

… why you should watch the Tusk video repeatedly (and its ruinous cost).

 … Bill Clinton, Daisy Jones & the Six, the dancing pony, Guardians of the Galaxy and other key factors in the return of the Mac.   

… from model to muse to psychotherapist, the story of the real life Black Magic Woman.

… “Oh Lord, she’s writing another song.”

… internal romantic tangles that give their music a poignancy.

… the horrors of Kiln House.

… Lyndsey Buckingham’s Armani/Clash episode.

… Stevie’s love affair with Derek Taylor who then had to promote a slow-selling album containing a secret song about it.

… Mick Fleetwood, “old ham”, drag act, compulsive show-off, unsuitable band manager.  

Order ‘Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Many-Lives-Fleetwood-Mac/dp/1639367322

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Beloved Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, old pal of the pod, is touring the UK in November, two of the nights at the Palladium, and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself. Which delights include …

… what you learn playing Canadian bars aged 16.

… seeing Elton John in a 75,000-seater stadium when he was 12.

… early memories of the Kinks and the Who.

… why every gig is “a mini-battle”.

… Bob Dylan’s courage to do what the crowd don’t expect.

… original fans in middle-age: they’re back and they bring their kids!

… why a support tour with Robyn Hitchcock took him in a new direction.

… exotic wild ‘critters’ in his yard in Ontario.

… and how the UK launched his international career.

Tickets from: https://ronsexsmith.com/tours/ 

Ron’s ‘Cobblestone Runway’ and ‘Retriever’ albums have just been re-released.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction …

… watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night.

… Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79.

… the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks.

… is Cerrone’s Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer?

… lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour.

… why do songwriters value suffering over joy?

… “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”.

… what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian?

… a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.  

… and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”.

Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana.

The Beatles at Chiswick House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8

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Once again the ping-pong ball of conversation is batted across the rock and roll net and these are the scores on the doors …

 … how to wreck the national anthem.

… cover versions that are better than the original.

… the genius of Bob Newhart - "nutty Walt", Abraham Lincoln and that gag about country music.

… virtue signalling in rock magazines.

… why we connect with pop stars on the slide.

… how Tainted Love went from the Northern Clubs to the top of the American charts via a cloakroom in Leeds.

… Ingrid Andress and the curse of ‘cursive singing’.

… the comedy album that saved Warners Brothers Records.

… parenthood and Bruce Springsteen: “the world of love and the world of fear – and they’re the same world”.

… who’d rather Elvis Costello played (whisper it) other people’s songs?

… have there been any great album sleeves since the arrival of CDs?

… why Don Rickles and Bob Newhart’s friendship proves all showbiz is just an act.

... musicians, athletes, comedians, politicians and the addiction of adrenaline.

Rolling Stone’s 100 best album covers:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-album-covers-1235035232/#recipient_hashed=228eb87724435002888d7f82108650021cdb318bf64d1067e1ebef25cd1818de&recipient_salt=d0d82b7aaf06cd217ba5546bced15f5c8c98f6e3776c6c1b2145e79711b91e18

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There’s something romantic about glorious failure and Will nails it perfectly in ‘Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence’. Over 40 years plagued by bad luck and self-sabotage with Felt, Denim and Mozart Estate, Lawrence has pursued fame and success while refusing to do what’s required to achieve them. Will spent 12 months wandering the streets of London with him to paint a fond, touching and extremely entertaining portrait of the worst-equipped pop star attempting a comeback, a man on a holy, monastic mission in a book about “sacrifice and the price of a dream”. Among many highlights here, we talk about …

… where Lawrence fits in the pantheon of great underachievers like Syd Barrett, Nick Drake and Arthur Lee.

… and his similarity to Kevin Shields and Kevin Rowland.

… the wisdom of a former girlfriend: “stop trying to be the pop star you don’t want to be and you might get somewhere”.

… is lack of success the central dream of the indie world?  

… why Denim were Britpop before Britpop happened and why EMI melted down all copies of their last single.

… his rules before the book began - “No anecdotes, no interviews with former members of Felt …”

… what his stalker planned to get his attention.

… fantasy girlfriends and “a fear of cheese”.

… why he didn’t go to his mother’s funeral.

… and why Truman Capote’s portrait of Marlon Brando, the Duke and His Domain, was a touchstone for this book.

Order ‘Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Level-Superstar-Lawrence-Will-Hodgkinson/dp/1785120220

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Employing controversial VAR technology, we re-examine various events on the rock and roll pitch and suggest a new perspective. Those key moments include … 

… the “bucolic frolic” at Knebworth 50 years ago as seen from 100 yards away just past the burger van and featuring Tim Buckley, Alex Harvey, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Van Morrison, the Doobie Brothers and the Allman Brothers Band. And a stark naked Jesus.

… when did the Age of Spectacle begin?

… how Two-Way Family Favourites helped start Live Aid.

… Waters v Gilmour, a feud way beyond candour and honesty.  

… the moment Van Morrison first became ‘Captain Letdown’.

… memories of Wembley Stadium on July 13 1985 – Status Quo, U2, the non-appearance of Cat Stevens, the planned link with Ian Botham at Trent Bridge and swapping Tony Hancock lines with a man on Concorde.

... the three stages of rock and roll.

… life before mobile phones.

… The Revenant and Zone Of Interest, films that feel like the past without trying to make the past look cool.

… “the older I get, the older I wanna get”.

… Joni Mitchell and why we love an old curmudgeon.

… and birthday guest Andrew Stocks wonders why some bands can’t bury the hatchet.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Broadcaster and music writer Ann Powers lives in Nashville and grew up listening to Kate Bush and Blondie. The siren call of Blue sparked a life-long and deep-rooted devotion and her new book Travelling: On The Path Of Joni Mitchell takes a different tack from the standard biographies, mapping the context of the songs, the forces that drove her, the steel will it took to succeed and the love affairs that shaped her and her music. All discussed here. As is this ... 

… the scale of your ambition when your heroes are Nietzsche, Beethoven and Picasso.

… how she got her revenge for not being allowed to go to Woodstock.

… “she had to learn to walk three times”.

… the psychological impact of her “dynamic father and homemaker mother”.

… the love affairs with Leonard Cohen, David Crosby and Graham Nash.

… her capacity to turn disaster into triumph.

… the influence of Laurel Canyon neighbour Derek Taylor and the Beatles.

… the many reasons she declared the music business “a corrupt cesspool”.

… the tone of Rolling Stone’s ‘70s coverage and the letters she wrote to Mo Austin about the way she was marketed.

… David Crosby’s regret about not involving her in Crosby Stills & Nash.

… her reaction to the continued success of Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel and Don Henley in a world where mid-career women are “put out to pasture”.

… why the current renaissance seems “all legend, no bite”.

… and Laura Nyro, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Patti Smith, Aretha Franklin, Maggie Roach, Stevie Wonder, Thomas Dolby.

Order Travelling: On the Path Of Joni Mitchell here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Travelling-Path-Mitchell-Ann-Powers/dp/0008332967

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The first EPs appeared in the late ‘40s and ‘50s (Frank Sinatra, Elvis) hitting a magical sweet spot between the album and the single and they’ve cast a spell ever since, an exotic reminder that record labels are part of the packaged goods business. Music writer Corey duBrowa stumbled across one by Oingo Boingo in the original Licorice Pizza store in Long Beach, California, when he was 13 and began a lifelong collection that eventually led to ‘An Ideal For Living: a Celebration of the EP’, a book full of fabulous sleeve art and seven decades of 3- and 4-track classics. He talks here about every aspect of EP World and flags up some favourites, among them ones by the Goons, the Beatles, Donovan, Alice In Chains, Buzzcocks, the Clash, the Stones, Ice Cube, ‘A Factory Sample’, the Pogues, the EP that topped the album chart and a Joy Division disc worth $7,000.

Order ‘An Ideal For Living’ here:

https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/

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The rock and roll ballot-box is stuffed with votes and the exit polls suggest how this week’s debate might play out. Along these lines …

… is there still such a thing as British music?

… John Lennon as a lavatory attendant.

… Pink Floyd’s miming lessons.

.. how Neil Finn cheered up the All Blacks.

… the staggering difference in the UK album charts in the weeks the last two Labour Prime Ministers were elected (1997 and 2024) - male British bands v international female solo acts.

… ‘Starman’ on Top Of The Pops and the tricks it plays on the memory.

… “current chart acts are either in the spotlight or don’t seem to exist at all.”

… the wit and wisdom of James Blunt.

.. the Herd’s guest spot in the Tom Courtenay caper Otley.

… the Phil Collins syndrome: “when people are tired of duffing up pop stars, they tend to re-embrace them”.

… plus birthday guest Richard Lewis and songs that should be longer – eg Dancing the Night Away by the Motors, I Can Fly by the Herd (cue military bugle and church bell and choir).

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We’ve known Dylan since the days he was editing i-D, Arena and GQ and he’s been a regular on our podcasts talking about his books on Live Aid, the ‘80s, David Bowie and Wichita Lineman. And he’s finally written his memoir, These Foolish Things, full of insights and stories about glam rock, punk, the Blitz, four decades of the magazine world and the people he interviewed and shepherded into awards shows. You’ll hear the delightful clang of the odd dropped name here, along with …

… Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine and the power of fame when it was harder to achieve.

… seeing Leigh Bowery in daylight.

 … the real story of Kylie’s “bare bum” tennis shoot.

… does every good memoir involve a degree of treachery?

… why Hollywood’s still obsessed with print.

… William Hague’s 14 pints, Nick Clegg’s 30 women and other self-selling GQ scoops.

… Piers Morgan and Alastair Campbell (“the rottweilers”) and other interrogators who’d always come back with a cover line, usually involving a number.

… how politicians make great interviews as they’re used to aggression.

… “not now, I’m filming!”: life in the Arena office.

… i-D, the Face, nightclubs and “intoxicating” London in the early ‘80s.

… magazine covers and the fine art of horse-trading.

Order These Foolish Things here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/These-Foolish-Things-Dylan-Jones/dp/1408719851

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In which we hoof a few balls round the rock and roll pitch and try to stick some in the net. Extracts from the live match commentary include ….

… “Whipping Post!” “Paint it black, you devil!”: when did the audience become part of the show?

… the special, unrepeatable thing about Bill Evans At The Village Vanguard.

… GambleGate and the most we’ve ever bet on anything.

… why young musicians today are so good. And why most Americans could outplay the British.

… ‘60s Jamaican ska, 2-Tone and other imperfect imitations of the original.

 … does the mainstream exist anymore?

… did the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun invent folk-rock?

… the voice of Word In Your Ear, Kerry Shale: who is that masked man?

… the new Al Murray promotional tactic.

… and does anyone else remember Alice’s Restaurant?

Plus Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles playing Motown, Emily Roberts of the Last Dinner Party playing Gershwin and birthday guest Blaine Allan.

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The two-man tandem of curiosity wobbles its way down the rock and roll cyclepath pausing here to admire the view …

… “We’re captive on the carousel of TIME-AH!!”: tuneless Northern club singer Reg “Reg” Snipton performs Ver Greats.

… is going to gigs alone becoming a thing?

... why Phil Oakey was a better musician than any of ELP.

… Seven Nation Army in football stadiums - and does Jack White make any money from it?

… what rock stars spend their fortunes on.

… people who are ‘jewellery-blind’ (eg D Hepworth).

… the scariest intention a musician can announce.  

… Dutch fans dancing.

… the poignancy of all John Lennon’s possessions.

… how to wreck the Great American Songbook (may involve xylophone solo).

… from the Euros to a trip on the tube: how selfies have invaded our space.

… the strange, unfinished story of John Lennon’s Patek, “the El Dorado of lost watches”.

… you’re never alone with an iPhone.

… and does virtuoso musicianship ruin pop music, asks birthday guest Guy Constant? (Answer: yes).

Find out more about how you can help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more and talk here about the first gigs she ever went to and played herself, which involves …

… what she wore (aged 13) to see the Bay City Rollers at the Glasgow Apollo (includes “cork platform clogs”).

… winning the Alternative school beauty pageant dressed as Debbie Harry in a bin bag.

… her sister Margaret’s re-enactments of David Bowie, Leo Sayer and Roxy Music.

… why the furniture at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden was screwed to the floor.

… memories of 2-Tone, the Banshees, Madness, the Stranglers and the Blockheads.

… the riot at a Scottish festival when they ran out of alcohol.

… violence at early ‘80s gigs when your only security was “Ginge the Roadie”.

… Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs at the Bungalow Bar in Paisley.

… do you focus on the people in the crowd who are enjoying it or the ones that need winning over?

… horizontal rain when wearing a ballet dress and playing to “a sea of cagoules”.

… the best way to tell the audience you’re about to play a new song.

… David Hepworth’s Altered Images album review in Smash Hits: ouch!

… and her daughter watching old Altered Images clips on YouTube.  

----------------

Altered Images autumn tour dates and tickets here: http://alteredimages.band/

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Graeme is an old friend of the podcast. We’ve talked to him in the past about his books on Phil Lynott and John Martyn. ‘Under The Ivy: the Life And Music of Kate Bush’ first appeared in 2010, and was revised in 2015 after her Before the Dawn concerts and it’s now been updated again as, despite no new music or public appearances, her worldwide reputation has rocketed through the roof. We look back here at various key points in the story including ...  

… why the way she made records was ahead of its time.

… the ‘70s footage and recordings that were “supressed”.

… the “reclusive” decade and how the press filled the vacuum.

… divinely daft and humorous TV appearances eg with Delia Smith: “Waldorf Salad – that’s got waldorfs in it!”

… her bohemian childhood and the powerful influence of male counterparts, particularly eldest brother and erotic poet John Carder Bush.

… the unconventional Smash Hits interview of 1981.

… the ‘Before the Dawn’ concerts and the reason she staged them.

… her seven-year stand-off with Top Of The Pops.

… her ‘70s rock group – the KT Bush Band (still going!) – and the songs they played eg The Stealer by Free, Brooklyn by Steely Dan, Shame Shame Shame by Johnny Winter.

… Danny Baker’s NME review – “nothing she writes about matters”.

… Pamela Stephenson’s vicious pastiche and Alan Partridge’s part in her comeback.

... Talk Talk, Blackadder, Monty Python, Powell & Pressburger, Oscar Wilde, Celtic folk, the Pre-Raphaelites and other early influences.

… and the advantage of never being cool.

Order 'Under The Ivy' here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Ivy-Music-Omnibus-Remastered/dp/1915841356

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Among the logs tossed on the conversational bonfire this week to combat mid-June’s British winter you’ll find …

… ‘I Managed Van Morrison’ and other films screaming to be made.

 … how it feels to watch someone play from the best seat in the house.

… Françoise Hardy, her unsmiling photos and legions of besotted male admirers (ie us and everyone else).

 … the time she met Dylan and Nick Drake.

 … Juliette Greco, Edith Piaf and the handful of French stars who made it across the Channel.

… the joy of small venues: “the bigger the gig, the smaller a component of the experience the actual performance is”.

 … Elvis Costello’s photographic memory.

 … Maria Muldaur with Earl Palmer and Amos Garrett.

 … why Twenty Twelve says more about British life than any other TV show.

 ... the terrible jokes of Ronnie Scott.

… “Kate Bush grew up in a world without sarcasm.”

 … Siobhan Sharpe, Bertie Wooster, the Artful Dodger, Basil Fawlty, Edina & Patsy and other deathless British fictional stereotypes.

 … plus birthday guest Paul Thompson and books tracking down people who’ve played with Dexys and Dylan. And who should be next – Hawkwind, Van Morrison?

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Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we’ve been praying for an excuse to get him back since. And it’s here! - he’s on tour again and his ‘Basic Lee’ show is on Sky/Now TV on July 20. This covers his first memories of live entertainment - in the audience and as a performer – and the people who influenced him and stops off at the following stations …

… why the Wombles were just like Crass.

… how he writes and tests new material.

… why Ted Chippington inspired his stand-up career.

… television comedy is now “two-screen TV” as the viewer’s always watching something else at the same time.

… how Lockdown made audiences forget how to behave.

… “Comedian In Bum Phone Fury”: how he stopped people filming his gigs.

… deliberately using negative reaction shots in his TV edits.  

… improvisation in music and comedy and why every night should be unique.

… the tense protocol of comedians at other comedians’ gigs. 

… Mark E Smith doing things “out of necessity irrespective of how they were received” and his reaction to seeing Stewart in his audience.

… why festival crowds are a challenge.

… the Drifters, the Applejacks and Napalm Death and how they are related.

… the music playing when his son was born.

… arriving in full early Dexys rig - donkey jacket, woolly hat - to find they were now the “raggle-taggle gypsies”.

… the sole performance of Peter Richardson’s Mexican bandit act.

… Daniel Kitson, “the world’s greatest living stand-up”.

… plus the Nightingales, Chris Spedding, Clem Cattini, Kirk Brandon, the Bevis Frond, Geddy Lee, Throbbing Gristle and Brighton Psych Fest’s Secluded Bronte – “is it music or are they just moving furniture around?”

------------

All information about Stewart Lee tour dates here …

https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/

‘Basic Lee’ is on Sky/Now TV on July 20.

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You’ll always find us in the kitchen at parties, near the hoppy summer ale and sausage rolls and, and this week discussing …

… he hasn't changed his look or sound for 30 years: is there a more conservative concept than Liam Gallagher? And how he became the one-man Oasis.

… the eye-watering sum Kevin Hart made from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

… Loudermilk, Rob Gordon in High Fidelity and other Rock Snob stereotypes in fiction - “I’m a Rock Snob? It comes with the territory being right!” And how rock critics are always cast as cynical, joyless curmudgeons.  

… why Courteney Cox was chosen for the Dancing In The Dark video and how Springsteen turned live performance into spectacle.

… the diplomatic skills of A&R men in pursuit of hit singles.

… why Born In The USA was a masterclass in branding.

… the Word in Your Ear podcast and Taylor Swift, both up and running since 2006!

… plus Abba, Peter ‘King Mod’ Meaden, Jon Savage’s book on LGBTQ pop culture, Liam Gallagher’s hair and Springsteen’s dancing lessons.

Great clip of Steve Harley on Australian TV sent by listener Brian Nankervis …

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154289171249235

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“I thought Dave Davies of the Kinks was a girl. When I discovered he was a boy, that’s when I got interested.” Jon’s an old friend of the podcast and the author of some highly regarded and influential books about pop and its repercussions, ‘England’s Dreaming’ and ‘1966: the Year The Decade Exploded’ among them. His latest is ‘The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture 1955-1979’ which looks at five particular moments and the pivotal people in the mix at the time. We couldn’t recommend it more highly and cover seven decades in this conversation, stopping off at …

… how “homosexuality was a career-killer” until Bowie’s spectacular Melody Maker interview in 1972.

… new male identities - Valentino, Nureyev, Sinatra and the “subversive” stage act of Johnnie Ray.

… does pop drive change or reflect it?

… Andrew Loog Oldham, Kit Lambert, Simon Napier-Bell and the supposed “gay managers mafia” and how Oldham used camp as a weapon.

… Dusty Springfield and the Gateway Club.

… how Brian Epstein invented a new type of manager.

... Andy Warhol at the Factory, pop art, the launch of the Velvet Underground and his jukebox time-capsule of ‘60s gay pop taste.

… was Tom Robinson the first out gay British pop star?

… Mary Whitehouse v the Gay Times.

… the Clash (“hurt, vulnerable boys”), Siouxsie, Poly Styrene, the Slits, Vic Godard and punk’s other new stage identities.

Order ‘the Secret Public’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Public-Resistance-Popular-1955-1979/dp/0571358373

… and Jon’s 2-CD soundtrack here …

https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/various/jon-savages-the-secret-public-how-the-lgbtq-aesthetic-shaped-pop-culture-1955-1979?channable=409d9269640032313931333434ec&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvIWzBhAlEiwAHHWgvQetjeRXO03PVnpFYq75PMG_pmDd42hKBO8VytbDerJqZw3ycIY7pxoCFxIQAvD_BwE#cd-x2

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Giles was 12 when he watched Abba win Eurovision in 1974 and was instantly besotted – and thus required to spend the next 20 years wrestling with The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. His thunderingly funny, fond and illuminating book – My My!: Abba Through The Years – traces their story, looks at the snobbery and critical mauling they endured and figures out how they made records so universally popular and which still move him to tears 50 years later. It’s also the best example of any book we’ve read that can explain the mechanics of music to a non-musician. It’s highly recommended, as is this podcast which alights upon …

… a 50 year-old story – “for 42 of which they haven’t existed”.

.. the vicious early press reaction - “calculatingly commercial”, “dispassionate” …

… the divine clunkiness of their early TV appearances.

… the sense of the melancholy we’ve attached to their music - and why.

... the immense value of splitting up early and never reforming or publicly falling out.  

… the immaculate construction of Dancing Queen (which opens with the second half of the chorus) and why “there are two types of wedding disco – ones that start with Dancing Queen and terrible ones.”

… the maturity of Abba’s lyrics – about marriages, relationships, children and other subjects pop music rarely tackles.

 … why Abba Voyage is so affecting that he’s seen it three times.

… and Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and other key factors in The Comeback.

Order Giles Smith’s My My!: Abba Through The Ages here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-ABBA-Through-Ages-ebook/dp/B0CF73GNN4

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Peter Meaden was a key figure in the Mod movement. He changed the world view of Andrew Loog Oldham, which shaped the early Stones, and he managed the Who, remodelling their look and sound, writing their first single and turning them into Mod figureheads. Steve Turner interviewed him in 1975, an exchange that's now the centrepiece of his new book 'King Mod: the Story of Peter Meaden, the Who and the Birth of a British Subculture', and the NME's published extract in 1978 paved the way for the Mod Revival. It's an extraordinary story that would make a movie, discussed here with Steve and including ... 

... the Scene Club in Windmill Street "when a band was a way of life".

... Angus McGill and the first press mention of 'the Modernists'.

… the tale of Sandra Blackstone, the DJ who vanished into thin air.

... the lifelong values of Mod culture for teenagers like Eric Clapton, Marc Bolan and David Bowie. 

 ... the single Meaden wrote for the Who - Zoot Suit/I'm The Face - and where he stole the music from. 

... police raids in Soho. 

... doing press for Bob Dylan at the time of Madhouse on Castle Street. 

... the Flamingo Club's dress policy, French and Italian film and fashion, boxing boots, cycle jackets and the origins of Mod style. 

 ... Chuck Berry in suburban Edmonton! 

... Meaden's disastrous attempt to bring Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band to London. 

... and a typical weekend in 1964, a sleepless, Drinamyl-powered 48 hours from the Ready Steady Go! green room to the Scene Club via Carnaby Street. 

£5 off copies of ‘King Mod’ here. Just type in the discount code which is:-

Podcast offer

https://redplanetmusicbooks.com/collections/full-catalogue/products/king-mod

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This week the conversational Super-Trouper of Enquiry lights up the following …

... why care when "rock critics get it wrong"? 

... the dreadful death of the Allman brothers' dad. 

... is there any other branch of entertainment where you can be two hours late onstage?

... has any show got worse reviews than Eddie Izzard's one-woman Hamlet?

... the unlikely tale of how Iron Butterfly changed the course of Atlantic Records. 

... three, the magic number: the accidental album trilogies of Scott Walker, Steely Dan, Blur, the Beatles, Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Nick Lowe ...

... the Deadhead who saw them 1,000 times.

... U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, the Kings of Leon ... bands who've never changed their line-up.

... Yes, Thin Lizzy, the Hollies ... bands with no original members. 

... why it's less demanding seeing bands than solo acts. 

... and Madonna being sued for lateness, lip-syncing and a "pornographic stage-act that was emotionally triggering".

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Tuning into this week's rock and roll soundwave to filter signal from noise, we cranked up the volume on the following ...

... 'Zuma Nester Rock' and the eternal curse of rock stars' kids' names. 

... Bowie's spat with Robbie Williams at Netaid. 

... celebrating awkward sods like Kevin Rowland.

... why Paul Carrack has seen it all.

... 'Lewis' Armstrong, 'Hoosker Doo' and others we've been pronouncing wrong. 

... AI does David Hepworth and Mark Ellen!

... the Underground/Overground albums/singles divide of 1974: the Wombles and Paper Lace v Tubular Bells and Journey To The Centre of The Earth.

... Guy Chambers - a string quartet aged 11! - and other early achievers.

... the Stones' and Bowie's race to have a Guy Peeleart record cover and the 50th anniversary of Diamond Dogs. 

... how the Dead & Co turned a stage show into a movie experience and bands - Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys? - who should play the Las Vegas Sphere.

 ... and "the wally with the brolly" and other fresh political PR catastrophes.

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They Might Be Giants – old school fiends John Flansburgh and John Linnell – have been making elliptical, funny and adventurous records for over 40 years and writing music for children, advertising and TV comedies. We talk to John Linnell here about songwriting, early shows in art spaces, the way you saw the world when a "wiseacrey teenager" and what you can expect from their autumn tour. Which, incidentally, will include the "pointlessy difficult exercise" of performing Sapphire Bullets Of Love every night in reverse which they'll film and run backwards and then send the clip to audience members so they can gauge its accuracy ("like watching people sing for whom English is a second language"). Some illuminating moments here ...

... the rich vein of '50s music outside of rock and roll. 

... communicating by posting cassettes and how they built a following with an ansaphone.

... working in a record store in Massachussetts. 

... playing on the same bill as Steve Buscemi at New York performance venues in the '80s and gigs involving papier mache hands and masks. 

... why children are "a tough crowd" and the unsettling news that their albums for kids were outselling their usual records. 

... the fine art of survival after a 1990 worldwide hit.

... and Yoko Ono, Pere Ubu, Elvis Costello and the disturbing effect of Frank Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

They Might Be Giants tickets here …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/they-might-be-giants-tickets/artist/945181

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Guy Chambers was a teenager in Liverpool and at John Lennon’s old school - "same headmaster, Mister Pobjoy". He remembers the Beatles, Queen, Abba and Jesus Christ Superstar sparking his interest in the "perfect song package" and went on to work with Tina Turner, Rufus Wainwright, Kylie, Diana Ross and scores of others. He talks here about early shows he saw, records bought and his own tour in the autumn, "An Evening With Guy Chambers", stopping off at various points on the way, among them ...

... how YOU can write a song with him. 

... Bowie's reaction on discovering he was third on the bill below George Michael and Robbie Williams at Netaid. 

... seeing XTC and Generation X at the teen shows at Eric's. 

... Benny Hill's Ernie, the Scaffold's Lily the Pink and other singles bought at Probe Records.  

... "the great harmony bands" like the Eagles, Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas.

..."A Is For Banana", his song about dyslexia.  

... writing a string quartet aged 11 and the magic of hearing four people bring his sheet music to life. 

... "the wastage": composers who write 50 songs and throw 40 away. 

.. the cinematic internal worlds of the Cocteau Twins and Lana Del Ray. 

... the "subversive harmonies" on Strawberry Fields Forever and what makes Eleanor Rigby so perfect.

... everything that now needs to be in place to get a hit record. 

... mass song-writing teams and how he can't operate with more than three people in the room. 

... and what you can expect from his upcoming tour. 

Tickets for An Evening With Guy Chambers here …

https://www.guychambers.co.uk/live

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We’ve known Alan Edwards since the days when we’d ring him for a quote from Blondie or the Stranglers in the late ‘70s and he’s still one of the key figures in music PR. He’s looked after the Stones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Amy Winehouse, the Beckhams and many others. No-one is better positioned to see how that world has changed, from the pre-Google days when you could invent a story and the press would happily buy it to a 21st century where his flat was burgled in pursuit of lucrative celebrity leads. PRs, he believes, "are not messengers but storytellers” and his memoir ‘I Was There: Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll’ is full of them. He looks back here at …

… striking a £1m photo deal for the Beckhams’ wedding.

… Midge Ure, Gen X and other prime examples of fake news.

… hotel workers, waiters and airline pilots who sold stories to the press.

… the days when a battery-operated portable phone gave you the edge. 

… why he was hired by Blondie.

… the chilly, manipulative and inscrutable Lou Reed.

… Bowie’s disappearance in Berlin in the ‘70s and other things that would be impossible in the age of social media.

… Keith Moon in mid-air.

… and how it feels to be hacked.

Order Alan’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-There-Dispatches-Life-Rock/dp/1398525243

The Outside Organisation …

https://outside-org.co.uk/

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This week’s items slapped on the rock and roll barbecue and lightly grilled include …

… why Eurovision will never avoid political controversy.

… when AI does David Hepworth!

… what’s the secret of NTS radio?

… “there are two types of wedding disco, ones that start with Abba's Dancing Queen and terrible ones.”

… Tony Hall’s prophetic preview of Revolver in May '66 – “they shatter convention and may well have a far-reaching effect on the whole future of music”.

… when listening to the radio was a group activity.

… Daniel Kramer, Dezo Hoffman, Robert Freeman, Anton Corbijn and other photographers who shaped the way music looked.

... the rogue punctuation of "Paint It, Black".

 … songs that start with the chorus.

 … Elvis’s unrepeatable train journey from New York to Memphis in 1956.

… “there’s glass in the back of my head and my toenails don’t fit properly” – Dylan’s ’66 London press conference.

…. and hurry hurry hurry to Lot 71 in Danny Baker’s record auction, a snip at only £70!

Danny Baker’s record auction …

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/details/a230a-the-danny-baker-collection/?au=162&g=1

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We’ve followed Paul Carrack for 50 years, a big hit single – How Long – when he was with Ace, 19 albums, countless sessions (the Smiths, Eagles and Pretenders among them) and a touring band member with Squeeze, Roxy Music, Roger Waters and Nick Lowe. He once put out an album called ‘I Know That Name’ as for so many people he’s still under the radar. His newsagent assumes he’s called “Mike” as he was the singer in Mike & the Mechanics. He's touring the UK in the autumn and looks back here at …

… seeing the Beatles, Chuck Berry, the Stones, Dylan and the Shadows at Sheffield Town Hall. And Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band at Mojos promoted by Pete Stringfellow.

… playing Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg clubs in the early ‘70s.

… his time with earnest prog adventurers Warm Dust – “please don’t look them up”.

… the value of having your own label in the world of streaming.

… when Elvis Costello got him to sing the vocal on Tempted by Squeeze.

… supporting Fleetwood Mac and Free.

… playing Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and Sinatra tunes with a big band.

… how it feels to be “dropped like a stone” by Radio Two when you no longer fit the demographic.

… the real meaning of the song How Long and what he has in common with Troy McClure of the Simpsons.

Paul Carrack tour dates here …

https://paulcarrack.net/

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Nige Tassell used to go to school in full donkey-jacket-and-woolly-hat ensemble to express his boundless devotion to Dexys Midnight Runners. Forty years later he set out to find and interview everyone who’d ever been a member. For some, their time in the ranks was a joyful, career-launching delight. Others felt it was like a slightly chilly and controlling cult. They all took a while to recover and they all had extraordinary stories to tell in his latest book ‘Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners’. Here’s a flavour of what gets discussed …

… ‘No drugs or alcohol! No smiling! No eye contact with the audience!’ and other unsettling Dexys mantras.

… examples of Kevin Rowland ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’.

… the many ways the band made themselves deliberately different’.

… the event supporting Bowie that got their power cut onstage in Paris and had them thrown off the tour.

... the heavy-handed recruitment of Helen O’Hara.

… Geno Washington and other strands of the Dexys DNA.

… the ad they took in the NME that soured their relationship with the music press.

… and how Rowland’s approach today remains resolutely unchanged.  

Order Nige’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Dexys-Midnight-Runners-Tassell/dp/178512059X

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Missing being on tour and exasperated by internal disputes, Nick Mason set out to tour small-scale venues with his band Saucerful Of Secrets in 2018. They’re mid-way through another world tour (Gary Kemp’s the main singer and one of the guitarists). He doesn’t miss the stadium circuit where “you need a golf cart to get from one side of the stage to the other” and they play only the early psychedelic Floyd material, from their first singles up to (but not including) the Dark Side of the Moon, which audiences are less inclined to want to be note-perfect versions of the records. And he talks mid-set about the origins of the songs and his memories of Syd Barrett and life at the time. This podcast looks back at the first live shows he saw and played himself and how Saucerful of Secrets came about. Which includes …

… Tommy Steele at the Hackney Empire – “I came straight from school in short trousers with my satchel”.

… seeing the Rolling Stones on a ‘63 package tour.  

… performing Beatles songs at parties in Cuban heels and Oliver Goldsmith shades.

… playing the International Times launch party at the Roundhouse in ‘66 on the back of a cart.

…. early gigs at the Countdown Club, Regent Street Poly and the Albert Hall (with Alan Price and Peter & Gordon).

… the difference between Saucerful of Secrets and the stadium circuit – and the time Roger Waters played with them in New York.

… and the ‘60s demos of unreleased Floyd songs they’re hoping to add to the set.

Saucerful of Secrets tour dates here …

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kjkhMKXv4wPaR2XVbZ6h3WVMJ4ivesVn/view?usp=drivesdk 

Buy tickets here …

https://myticket.co.uk/artists/nick-mason-saucerful-of-secrets

Nick’s re-released solo albums here …

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uwB_CYLuszOUNqsfeiWQH3nXd2TxGVf7/view

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We were at the Curzon Mayfair on May 7 for the premier of the rebooted Let It Be in all its burnished finery and came away with a ton of things to unravel, among them …

… what we never knew when the film came out 54 years ago.

.. seeing it in the shadow of Peter Jackson’s Get Back.

… how the edit was overtaken by events and the tangled reasons it turned out the way it did.

… why Lindsay-Hogg’s amphitheatre concept would never have worked.

… the divine symbolism of the Beatles v the police.

… why it’s a perfect social document of late-’60s London.

… the band’s three-film film contract.

… was the world really as distraught about their break-up as the 21st Century assumes?

… herringbone coats, red plastic macs, hairy black jackets: why someone should open a Beatles ‘69 clothes emporium.

Plus … the noble philosophies of the late Steve Albini expressed in a letter to Nirvana in November 1992.

… and what happens when rock stars don’t leave wills: Exhibit A - Steve Marriott.

Read Steve Albini’s letter to Nirvana here: https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/nirvana

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We stuck a few coins in this week’s Wurlitzer and these were the tunes that got played …

… when records became all about sound not songs.

… Fonzworth Bentley, Puff Daddy’s butler, the man who held an umbrella over him on the beach at Cannes.

… what Henry Kissinger, Martha Stewart and Leonardo DiCaprio kept very quiet about.

… Manchester’s Co-Op, a tale of unprecedented hopelessness.

… what’s the definition of a song? And can you steal a record?

… the magical skill of Aston Barrett on I Shot The Sheriff and James Jamerson on You Can’t Hurry Love.

… ‘Duane Eddy Does Bob Dylan’ and its ingenious sleeve.

… does anybody still want pop posters?

… “I'd watch Jeremy Clarkson boil an egg.”

… Moneybagg Yo & DaBaby, Cigarettes After Sex and other acts playing the O2 and Wembley Arena we’ve ever heard of.  

… the ultimate autograph.

… and New Whirl Odor, Road To Rouen, Sax And Violins, Lead Me Not Into Penn Station and other tortuous album titles.

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Steve Diggle met Pete Shelley when the Pistols played Manchester in 1976 and the Diggle-fronted Buzzcocks are now on a world tour that began in Mexico and takes in North and South America, Europe and Australasia before winding up at the 100 Club where they played the Punk Festival 48 years ago – “we’ve come full circle”. He looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself and talks about Silverhead, Status Quo, Leo Sayer dressed as a clown, George Best, the Groundhogs, The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells, the Buzzcocks as “Lennon and McCartney in a blender”, “Led Zeppelin for Comprehensive schoolkids, Deep Purple for Grammar schoolkids” and a great story about Patrick Moraz of Yes with a bank of keyboards like a telephone exchange and an alpine horn.

Buzzcocks world tour dates here: https://www.buzzcocks.com/events

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This week’s theories, rants, ruminations, recollections, weak gags and free and frank exchanges of view alight upon the following …  

 … is pop music now all about identity?

…. the recording of the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun and other apocryphal tales.

… has any act been as ubiquitous since Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984?

… or has anyone inspired a greater level of personal devotion than Taylor Swift?

… Peter Green, a shotgun and his accountant.

… books bought but never read.

.. re-reading Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and the changing benchmarks for good and bad musical taste.

… intriguing parallels between the book and record industries.

… and Neil Tennant braves the digital lynch-mob.

Plus Adam Clayton’s garden, Konstantin Chernenko, Richard Burton, Rebel Wilson, Dark Academia, creepy weepies and birthday guest John Montagna looks at singles by the same act that are ‘descendants’ – ie pretty much identical – eg the Monkees’ Teardrop City and Last Train To Clarksville, the Kinks’ You Really Got Me and All Day And All of the Night and Mark Knopfler’s Cannibals and Walk Of Life. Or just try the first few seconds of these four by the Inkspots – Maybe, I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire, If I Didn’t Care and Whispering Grass.

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File this under ‘right place, right time’. Harold Bronson was a teenager in mid-60’s Los Angeles and saw every act imaginable. Then wrote for the Daily Bruin and Rolling Stone and interviewed everyone that interested him. Then managed a music store and co-founded Rhino Records, pretty much inventing the idea of the top-end reissue – “Sooner or later everyone ends up in a box.” All of this is in his memoir, ‘Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007’, and many of its cast of thousands appear in this podcast, among them Johnny Horton and ‘the Battle of New Orleans’, the Purple People Eaters, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, the Doors at the Hollywood Bowl, the Stones supported by Ike & Tina (for $12), Ozzy Osbourne (“I’d never meet anybody with a tattoo before”), Hilton Valentine working at a Henry The Eighth-themed restaurant, Groucho Marx at a Led Zeppelin launch, a ‘Best of Louie Louie’ that sold 100,000 copies and a Ritchie Valens record made on a dictaphone. 

You can order Harold’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Has-Come-Today-Diaries/dp/B0CGTX2YN8

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With Mark Ellen in foreign parts David Hepworth and Alex Gold light cigars, pass the port in the correct direction and discuss…..

…..the fact that there is only one way to play a Beatles song and that is the way the Beatles did it.

…..the chances that Taylor Swift is reaching her imperial phase and nobody is prepared to tell her what she really needs to hear.

….the very good reason that all contemporary pop records do literally sound the same.

…the 50th anniversary of Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight”.

….the story of the Allman Brothers’ “Jessica”, a jam that turned into Dickey Betts’ pension.

….how the Blue Nile got a plug which is worth all the bought media in the world.

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We lobbed the feathered arrows of enquiry at the rock and roll dartboard this week and these got the highest scores …

… rock stars v the new league of the Super-Rich.

… package tours of the mid-‘60s – eight acts, an interval, a compere plus God Save the Queen.

… ‘Hits, Flops and Other Illusions’ by Edward Zwick and the fantastic tale about arrogance, money-squandering and Julia Roberts at the Halcyon Hotel.

... pop music used to be about persuading people to cut loose; now it’s about getting them to tighten up.

… why you can read Ron Wood’s memoir as either comedy or tragedy.

.. Chris Blackwell’s post-production trickery that sold Bob Marley to a rock audience.

… Master Tape Rescue: the arduous task of panning for gold.

... and why there should be a movie about the making of Shakespeare in Love.

Plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon in Savannah, Georgia – Neil Young v Spotify, Lady Antebellum, the Dixie Chicks and the tangled world of political correctness.

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Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”. He’s always had a journalistic capacity for story-telling, remembering everything in famously entertaining detail, and we had so much material from this reunion we turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this second half ...

… “every group has to have an angle”.

… pop’s current obsession with identity.

… why Bronski Beat were so significant.

… David Bowie’s scathing one-word reviews of Michael Jackson and Oasis at the Brits.

… “the whole world of pop songs is a giant ever-expanding artwork”.

… meeting Frida from Abba, “a song waiting to happen”.

… the ‘Pits & Perverts’ gay benefit for the miners in 1984.

… London clubs in the early ‘80s - “we had a competition to see who could wear the highest heels”.

… how everyone at Smash Hits thought Michael Jackson’s Thriller was “a damp squib”.

… recording West End Girls. 

… first hearing a 12-inch single.

… appearing on Soul Train with Don Cornelius – “like being on a different planet”.

… why Dusty Springfield gave Jerry Wexler a nervous breakdown.

… seeing the last Ziggy Stardust show.

… meeting Steven Spielberg, Micky Dolenz and Joni Mitchell.

… and Boy George's gag about George Michael.

-----------------------------------

PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852

Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF

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Richard Thompson first appeared onstage aged 14 playing Beatles covers in a school group “so bad we were pelted with pennies”. Sixty years later his range of operations includes touring solo and with his band, occasional reunions with Fairport Convention, residencies on Adriatic cruise ships and running a Guitar Camp in the Catskill Mountains (along with his sons and grandson). Much has he seen and learned about live entertainment along the way and he talks to us here from his home on the American East Coast on the day of the solar eclipse. Among the highlights …  

… memories of the Marquee in 1965 – the Who, the Yardbirds, the Spencer Davis Group: “if you wanted to see both sets, you’d have to walk ten miles home”.

… seeing Nick Drake and the value of being “a silent, tortured genius”.

… life as a support act and how to “attack an audience”.

… Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry at the Finsbury Park Astoria in 1963 “when Chuck was at the height of his attention span”.

… Segovia at the Festival Hall.

… the perils of playing on sea cruises in rough weather.

… old and current album sleeves. “Dressed as a fly and now dressed as a fisherman … that’s progress.”

… how Ian Anderson and Captain Beefheart told the audience who’s boss.

… and watching the Band at the Albert Hall from a box with Fairport Convention.

----------------------

Richard Thompson tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/richard-thompson-tickets/artist/736296

Order the new album Ship To Shore here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ship-Shore-Richard-Thompson/dp/B0CVXHMFPB

-----------------------

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Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”, and he’s one of the few people who’s seen the music press from every angle - as a reader in the ‘70s, as a writer and interviewer and as a musician on its front covers. We had so much great material from this wide-ranging conversation that we’ve turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this first half ...

 … the NME article he and his brother pinned to their bedroom wall.

… the event at a Sex Pistols show “which stopped me going to gigs for about three years”.

… the first time he saw his name in print.

… interviewing Marc Bolan in his “fat phase”.

… a barbed chat with Morrissey.

… the pop press shift from “super-showbiz to super-counter-culture”.

… Television, the Clash and other music he discovered through the NME.

… meeting John Taylor 35 years after interviewing him.  

… the pop decade when “something extraordinary happened every day”.

… his mother’s horrified reaction when he left Smash Hits to start the Pet Shop Boys.

… the Human League in their Imperial Phase.

… Phil Collins showing him round Abba’s studio in Stockholm.

… and why ‘80s pop stars were “the most controlling”.

-------------------------------------

PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852

Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF

-------------------------------------

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We lobbed the cracked wooden ball of enquiry at the rock and roll coconut shy this week and a few choice items dropped off their perch, among them …

… was Kate Bush ‘the Queen of Prog’?

… ELP, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple playing to 350,000 people on a Speedway track.

… the three things that sparked the Abba revival.

… the Further Adventures of Desmond and Molly Jones, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, Father McKenzie, Rocky Raccoon, Maxwell Edison, Rose and Valerie, Sweet Loretta Martin, Vera, Chuck and Dave … Beatles characters awaiting development deals.

… was Britpop the moment the engine went into reverse?

… the two years went rock went ‘fancy dress’.

… why the Stones in 1964 were five walking fashion statements.

… Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel and its Yes connection.

… how the Beatles were in uniform on every album cover.

… David Vine at the 1974 Eurovision: “if all the judges were men, this lot would get a lot of votes and you’ll see why in a moment!”

… plus a birthday guest party - Al Hearton’s life in a Kate Bush tribute band and Stephen Lambe on the complicated birth of 90125 by Yes.

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We’ve applied our celebrated sheep/goats separation technique to the rock and roll pasture and shepherded the following into this week’s pod …

… Beyoncé and why it’s hard to connect with songs written by committee.

… are we too old for biopics?

… Marvel films, the Arctic Monkeys and other things you either love or avoid.  

… reviewing Human Touch and Lucky Town in a high-security studio (and how you can only tell if an album’s any good if you’ve lived with it for two months).

… why Tony Blackburn is the greatest British DJ.

… “Bing was no more Bing than Sinatra was Sinatra”.

… hoary old tales that were the engine of the rock press - the Clash shooting pigeons, Kevin Rowland stealing his own master-tapes, Cliff v Elvis, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v the Pistols, Spandau v Duran, Oasis v Blur.

… are Oasis songs mostly about being Oasis?

… “fame is no longer enacted in the public space”.

… indie cliches – escaping the drudgery of the Man and mundanity of Small Town life.

… “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”.

… Scots punk act get movie soundtrack windfall!

… Alex is arranging a woke stag do - “you go to places where ladies put clothes ON”.

… plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury wonders if Country is more than “the three Ds - driving, dogs and divorce”.

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Paul Cook’s post-Pistols band the Professionals were once, rather surprisingly, on the cover of Smash Hits - “the pinnacle of our success!” – and they’re including the 100 Club on their upcoming tour, the location of another career highlight. He talks to us here about how the first time he played live was also the Pistols’ first appearance (Saint Martin’s College of Art - “utter chaos”), how their old Denmark Street rehearsal room is now an AirBnB (Rotten’s cartoons still on the wall), old punks in the audience, Danny Boyle’s TV series and the very slim chance of a reunion (“never say never”). But much of this is about climbing through back windows to see bands in the early ‘70s, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Queen and Mott the Hoople among them. And seeing Alex Harvey on the day the whole of Scotland descended on London for the match against England at Wembley.

The Professionals are playing four UK dates (and often chuck in a couple of Pistols' tunes):

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/the-professionals-1-1

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exas are touring in the autumn and she talks to us here about what’s required to make it all look easy, a conversation that includes …

 … why working in a Glaswegian hair salon was the perfect preparation for pop stardom.

… the difference between the first second onstage and everything that follows.

 … the advantage of being a singer with an instrument.  

… seeing Jim Kerr in his mother’s blouse at Tiffany’s in Glasgow when she was 15.

… how Dusty Springfield remembered lyrics.

… Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie, Depeche Mode, Cameo and the Clash.

… the overpowering spectacle of Prince’s Sign O’ The Times tour in Paris.

… playing racecourses and the unsettling sight of an audience wearing fascinator hats.

… supporting Fleetwood Mac (her second gig) and something useful learnt from Stevie Nicks.

… and the nocturnal sound of lions “going at it full swipe” near her house by Regents Park.

Texas tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/texas-tickets/artist/742180

Texas & Spooner Oldham sessions: https://www.texas.uk.com/

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The all-seeing telescope of truth scanned this week’s rock and roll heavens and noticed a few patterns emerge, among them …

… the real story of the writing of Layla and who nicked what from where. And who didn’t get paid.

… why Sally Grossman was on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home.  

… album sleeves with overflowing ashtrays that screamed ‘welcome to my bohemian world!’ – Soft Machine’s Third, Man’s Rhinos, Winos + Lunatics, Back Street Crawler …  

… album sleeves that said “meet my girlfriend!” – McDonald And Giles, the Madcap Laughs, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Love Chronicles, the Paul Simon Handbook …  

… album sleeves suggesting the powerful aphrodisiac of music and the allure of ‘the bachelor pad’ …

.. our night out at a Leo Sidran show and what we’ll expect – indeed insist upon - at all gigs in the future.

… when rock stars read 12th Century Persian poetry.

…the time Lucinda Williams toured with Dylan and Van Morrison and never met either of them.

… the glorious squalor of ‘70s flats.

… “comedy is tragedy at a different speed”.

… mentioned in despatches: Sharleen Spiteri, John Mellencamp, James Burton, Bobby Whitlock, Daniel Kramer.  

The Everly Brothers’ Walking The Dog. Is that the original Layla riff at 2.20? …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072OpLw-l_s

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Phil Manzanera – who thought “every day in the band felt like Christmas” – has just published his memoir, Revolución to Roxy, and talked to us about it in front of a rammed and captivated audience at London’s 21Soho, an evening so full of detail, intrigue and revelation we’re putting it out as two podcasts. This is the second. He lifts the bonnet of the Roxy Music “art collective” in its various line-ups and shows you how the engine worked and why the idea of Eno onstage was “frightening”. He remembers working with a whole range of people – David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt, Heroes De Silencia, Quiet Sun, 801, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce and Tim Finn among them. He talks about the five seconds of guitar he knocked off in 1975 that’s made him “more money than all my Roxy earnings put together”. He reflects – and very poignantly – that bands never talk to each other and how he hopes the other members read his memoir as they’ll discover things about him they never knew. And he tells the fantastic story of the Guitar Legends festival in Seville and the way he managed Bob Dylan.  

And you can order a copy of ‘Revolución to Roxy’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revoluci%C3%B3n-Roxy-Phil-Manzanera/dp/1783242817

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Phil Manzanera – whose relatives include a Colombian pirate, a spy and an Italian opera musician - has just published his memoir, Revolución to Roxy, and talked to us about it in front of a packed and enthralled house at London’s 21Soho, a life so fascinating, detailed and colourful we’re releasing the conversation as a two-part podcast. Here’s Part One which looks back at an exotic childhood in Hawaii, Caracas and Cuba – with first-hand memories of Castro’s revolution in 1959 – and then his school days, early bands (the Drag Alley Beach Mob, Pooh & the Ostrich Feathers, Quiet Sun), the audition for Roxy Music, how they were styled, supporting David Bowie and their rapid and eventful ascent to the first hit single. When he joined the band, he said, “every day felt like Christmas”. Part Two to follow!

Order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revoluci%C3%B3n-Roxy-Phil-Manzanera/dp/1783242817

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Fish has announced a Farewell Tour in 2025. “I’ve been there, done that and sold the t-shirt.” He’s moving to a croft on a remote Scottish island with nesting eagles, a flock of sheep named after the Hibernian FC team of 1972 and part-ownership of what’s just been voted “the best beach in the world”. Getting there is like the journey in Brigadoon. This covers a wide range of bases, among them …

… how the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the tour circuit.  

… his first gig as “a big, gangly, geeky teenager” at the Golden Lion in Galashiels playing Steely Dan and Ry Cooder covers.

… the lies boys tell when trying to get into bands.

… supporting Queen for an audience of 200,000 and how he “over-toured” Europe.

… how it feels to be “the Anti-Christ in the Church of Marillion” and their very public divorce in 1988.

… seeing Yes at the Usher Hall in for £1.25 and Genesis on the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour.

… the music press v the New Wave of British Prog.

… girls called Kayleigh whose mothers fancied the singer from Marillion.

… irate fans on social media.

… the fine art of “guerrilla touring”.  

 … plus the Faces, Sven Hassel, Edgar Rice Burroughs and a curious analogy about Sioux Indians.

https://fishmusic.scot/

UK tour dates here …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/fish-tickets/artist/740885

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Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was a slow-paced, vicious dirge about the band members who forsook and betrayed him which magically evolved into what appeared to be an optimistic love song, a radio staple that never stopped selling. David and Mark remembered its transformation.

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Various items set off the alarm in the rock and roll bag-check this week and were hauled back for closer inspection, among them …

… when did records first try to sound like the past?

… why Karl Wallinger and Robbie Williams fell out over She’s the One.

... how Marillion and Chuck D changed the digital landscape.

… the only word for the sound of Free is “lascivious”.

… Blood on the Tracks, Here My Dear, Shoot Out The Lights, Tapestry, Tunnel of Love and other accounts of marital fracture.  

… proof the mainstream no longer exists: Glastonbury headliner SZA has had 1.7b streams yet people claim they’ve never heard of her.

… the poignancy commercial failure lends to pop music.

… the Wire’s ‘100 Records That Set the World On Fire (While No-One was Listening)’.

… how Marvin Gaye married a woman 17 years older than him and left her for a 17 year-old.

… Eamonn Forde - in bed! - talking about his new book ‘1999: The Year the Record Industry Lost Control’, the people who knew the digital revolution was coming and the ones who didn’t believe it.

… Big Star, Dwight Twilley, the Raspberries, World Party and why Powerpop appeals to music snobs like us.

… “a Golden Age is when things behaved in such a way that you believed they’d behave that way forever”.

… plus Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Andy Fraser, Steve Winwood and the days when “music down a phoneline” felt like science fiction.

Order Eamonn Forde’s 1999: The Year the Record Industry Lost Control here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/1999-Year-Record-Industry-Control/dp/1913172775

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Stephen Fall wrote reviews of his records, one a day, to make him a better listener. A decade later he published them in a book so colossal that we drop it on a desk to prove it’s passed the Boff Test. ‘Reviewing My Record Collection: 3,333 Albums from A to Zuma’ is a laudable labour of love, records he bought years ago and revisited, records he found in charity shops and took a punt on, records with reputations, records that deserve “a mauling”, records he wants the world to hear, records arranged alphabetically by title from A by Jethro Tull to Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. He’s evangelical about the album format and never skips a track. It’s an attractively personal view and often mentions when the relationship began – “I found Moon Pix by Cat Power for £1.50 in a Cancer Research in North Finchley”. This fascinating conversation about a love that knows no bounds touches on CDs you always find in charity shops (eg by REM, Dido and Travis), how strange it is that the same records you can pick up for 50p are often being repackaged as “top-end super-deluxe vinyl reissues” and how he felt a sense of bereavement when he finished the book. Which he’s why, oh yes, he’s begun Volume Two.

You can buy the first one for £17.99 from Amazon …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reviewing-My-Record-Collection-Albums/dp/B0CV53YD22#:~:text=Book%20overview,collecting%20records%2C%20tapes%20and%20CDs.

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Arthur Brown – enduring psychedelic godfather – is out on tour again 57 years after first performing Fire in a flaming metal crown. He’s nearly 82. This is the most old-school podcast we’ve ever done, talk of seeing Salvador Dali in his audience in a Paris nightclub, jazz bands on the back of trucks, his grandmother’s hotel being bombed in WW2, the birth of Flower Power, gigs at the UFO club, Palaeolithic art, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, panicked security personnel with fire blankets and memories of the key components of his incendiary headgear over the years among them cow gum, Army gaiters and a pie dish full of petrol. As you’ll discover – and this couldn’t be more old-school either – Zoot Money once had to extinguish the flames with two pints of Newcastle Brown.

Arthur’s keeping the home fires burning on a European tour. Dates here …

https://www.songkick.com/artists/333715-crazy-world-of-arthur-brown/calendar

Website - thegodofhellfire.com

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Suzi Ronson was working in a hairdressers in Beckenham in 1970 when a Mrs Jones dropped in for a shampoo and set talking gaily about her son, “an artistic boy who plays guitar and piano”. The same son who’d had a hit with Space Oddity and occasionally drifted down the High Road in a dress. Within weeks she’d become the first rock stylist, transforming Bowie’s hair, image and stage clothes and launching him in the direction of Ziggy Stardust and an international audience. She was a key part of his entourage that toured the UK, America and Japan and she talks about later life married to Spiders’ guitarist Mick Ronson, the role he played in Bowie’s success and the trials of his solo career in its aftermath. Both this podcast and her memoir (Me And Mr Jones: My Life With David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars) look at Bowie’s early career from a wholly new and original angle - in fact someone should base a film on it. A few highlights ...

… Haddon Hall and its exotic inhabitants.

… Schwarzkopf Red Hair Dye and other trade secrets.

.. how it feels to see an audience with the haircut you invented.

… expeditions to Liberty’s and Mr Fish with Angie Bowie.  

… the Spiders’ northern sensibilities adjusting to the brave new world.

… how Tony Defries made Bowie mysterious and unreachable.

… why Lou Reed was a revelation.

… America’s Southern states reacting to the 1972 tour.

... and the magnetism of Bob Dylan and why Mick Ronson ended the Rolling Thunder tour with an invoice not a wage packet.

Order Suzi’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Me-Mr-Jones-Suzi-Ronson/dp/057137185X

Suzi’s the special guest on the Lust For Life tour reading extracts from the book …

https://www.lustforlifetour.com/special-guest-support

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Nutritious items on the rock and roll tasting menu this week include …

… the curious life of Tom Verlaine, his grocery cart and his 50,000 books.  

… was March 9 1984 the worst week ever for the British album charts?

… what all great records have in common.

… Yesterday’s news today! ‘Soundies’ at the cinema and the Scopitone colour video jukebox.

… why A Hard Day’s Night was the greatest advert for the magical qualities of the Beatles and the scene that was the blueprint for the pop promotional clip.

… comforting acts with a narrow range – JJ Cale, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, U2 (“like getting into your parents’ car after a school trip”). And what made JJ Cale’s recordings so mesmerising.   

… did Johnny Marr ever play a guitar solo?

… “I work in advertising but tell my mother I play piano in a brothel”.

… the link between JJ Cale’s Call Me The Breeze and Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone.

Mentioned in despatches … Cab Calloway and the Hondells, The Hoodoo Gurus, the Style Council, Jimmy Reed and the Inkspots.

Tom Verlaine’s 50,000 books …

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/march/at-the-tom-verlaine-book-sale?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240306blog&utm_content=20240306blog+CID_6b4a1bd19ed9ca733f5ffca04056ca8b&utm_source=LRB%20email&utm_term=Read%20more

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Caught in the piercing super-trouper of perusal this week …

... the BRITS 2024, a howling embarrassment.

… Medieval Beatles! She Came In Through the Privy Window, Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Kestrel, Comely Rita, I’m Happy Just To Joust With You …

… the wisdom of Tony Hancock.

… The Last Dinner Party and other ‘art concepts’.

… the Pattie Boyd/George Harrison/Eric Clapton love triangle.

… the days when “forming a band was a conspiracy against the tedium of life”.

… is it all over for young blokes in pop music? And is being in a band still considered sexy?

… the oldest musicians still touring: if Willie Nelson’s still going at 90, won’t Ed Sheeran be on the road at 100?

… “these days hanging a guitar round your neck insinuates that you might be homeless”.

.. and a whole range of facts that make starting groups seem less attractive (the cost, the likely profit, the decreasing appeal of ‘abroad’, digital gangs, how big ticket prices soak up all the live circuit cash).  

... plus new patrons piped aboard!

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Henry Normal set up Baby Cow Productions with Steve Coogan, co-wrote the Royle Family, Coogan’s Run and Mrs Merton and produced Gavin & Stacy and Red Dwarf. He’s been a central plank in British comedy since the early ‘90s and, throughout it all, developed his own stage show built around poems and stories. He’s touring the UK with Brian Bilston. This podcast is full of hard-won insight into what makes comedy work and how the best poetry connects with “a greater truth”. And much besides including …

… what middle-class BBC execs wanted to change about the Royle Family and why it worked as it was.

… touring with John Cooper Clarke “who lived by a cemetery and had egg custard for breakfast”.

… putting on a Pensioners’ Disco, aged 14, that featured The March of The Mods played at 33.

... the influence of Roger McGough and the Liverpool poets.

… how, apart from the Office, American versions of British comedies mostly fail to get the point.

… seeing Juicy Lucy at the Nottingham Boat Club when he was 17.

… what made Spike Milligan’s Small Dreams Of A Scorpion so original.

… working with Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash and the Guardian’s first review – “three middle-class writers”.

… how to structure spoken word shows – “salad rather than soup”.

… and reflections about Mr Inbetween, Derry Girls, Clive James and Norman Gunston.  

Get tickets for Henry Normal and Brian Bilston here: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/henry-normal

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Steve Howe talks to us from the old house and studio in Devon where they rehearsed ‘The Yes Album’ in 1970. He’s been recording there for 54 years and is part of the current line-up about to set out around Europe. He looks back here on what he’s learnt from 60 years onstage and mentions …  

… the effect of seeing Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and The Animals in 1964.

… playing old Shadows tunes at the Barnsbury Boys School in Holloway, aged 14.

… how Yes songs evolved and the cover versions they used to play (America by Paul Simon, Something’s Coming from West Side Story).

… “the dark 1968 that followed the rainbow 1967”.

... Duane Eddy, Hank Marvin, Chet Atkins, Alison Krauss and the Big Three.

… how Sgt Pepper – and blues, jazz and classical music - lit prog’s blue touchpaper.

… the value of “homework” and the hours of painstaking rehearsal that allowed them to play Fragile onstage.

… how Iron Butterfly helped transform the Yes stage show.

… Starship Trooper, Roundabout and other songs they’re guaranteed to play.

… old memories of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe.

… and the road ahead: “I’ll keep going while I can still do the twiddly bits”.

Yes tour dates: https://www.yesworld.com/

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As this week’s rock and roll steeplechase thunders out over the jumps, the following runners and riders make it past the post …

… “First he changed music. Then he changed the world!” and other over-cooked biopic sells.

… Billy Joel returns by the miracle of Artificial Ignorance.

… what you learn from visiting rock stars’ childhood homes.

… what’s Malta done to deserve a four-day Liam Gallagher festival?

… the one thing that’s never changed about Country Music.

… how Hotel California ended up in court.  

… Sam Mendes’ Beatles project and the problem with actors playing very famous people.