Word In Your Ear
by Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold
Latest episode
Mary Gauthier, hardcore troubadour – ‘you got 30 seconds to get…
Mary Gauthier, hardcore troubadour – ‘you got 30 seconds to get…
About this podcast
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.
Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.
Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 1,032 episodes
- Mary Gauthier, hardcore troubadour – ‘you got 30 seconds to get their attention!’ · 32 min · Episode 988Mary Gauthier didn’t appear onstage ‘til a traumatic night in Boston aged 29 and she’s been a songwriter and storyteller ever since, much of the raw material from the rigours of…
- Nick Heyward, Haircut 100 and life as a 15 year-old father · 46 min · Episode 987Haircut 100’s moment in the sun was brief but dramatic and as vividly remembered as his childhood in Nick Heyward’s memoir Fantastic Days. The boy in marmalade corduroy shoes…
- Dylan and the Pope, the drummer on 42 Number 1s & rock stars who were teenage crims · 51 min · Episode 986Seeking another landslide victory in our 20-year conversational campaign, this week’s vote-winners include … … did Bob Dylan take the Pope a jigsaw and some Lucozade? … the…
- Richard Jobson on the Skids and the day Steve Jones burgled Francis Bacon · 35 min · Episode 985A “feral child” from Fife gets recruited by a punk band who have five long years in the sun and split up. Until rebooted when U2 and Green Day cover one of their singles 25 years…
- Dick Taylor, the Pretty Things and the four months he spent in the Stones · 47 min · Episode 984The Pretty Things were dead centre in the mid-‘60s underground and they’ve been mythologised ever since - for the sound of those singles, for their SF Sorrow masterpiece and for…
- Dylan Jones, past master of the long lunch, saw the music world from a restaurant table · 45 min · Episode 983London restaurants were where musicians, actors, writers and TV stars were seen “and how you knew where they were in the days before social media”. They were a form of theatre…
- What’s at the heart of Indie Rock? – plus Bowie rebooted and Patrick Stewart RIP · 54 min · Episode 982‘To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations and to boldly go where no podcasters have been before!’ Which this week involves … … the lost 1978 Bowie…
- Carl Palmer’s 64 years onstage and the ingenious way he’s touring as ELP · 54 min · Episode 981Whenever Carl Palmer joined a band, he was head-hunted by a bigger one - the King Bees, Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster and…
- Joni Mitchell’s fascinating treasure trove of lost interviews with the BBC · 37 min · Episode 980Tom Hagler works at the BBC with access to every TV and radio programme involving Joni Mitchell for 50 years, all full of revelations about her songs and the times she spent in…
- Which bands pass the three-year test? – plus the great live albums & rock stars’ alter egos · 1 h 3 min · Episode 979Stirring the spice-filled gumbo of news and turning the heat up. This week’s nutritious ingredients include …. … is everything better shorter? … the greatest opening line in a…
- Dexys, their hits and flops and how I survived them by Helen O’Hara · 46 min · Episode 978Helen’s violin at the start of Come On Eileen has filled a million wedding dancefloors. She was a member of Dexys Midnight Runners, later their musical director, at the boom time…
- Nigel Dick shot videos for Band Aid, Guns N’Roses, Britney and Oasis by ‘failing upwards’ · 49 min · Episode 977We first met Nigel Dick in the late ‘70s when he was the motorbike messenger for Stiff Records and watched him rocket to success in the video boom, directing career-launching…
- Tall stories about towering and tiny rock stars, ‘50s jazz and Mick Jagger’s gym shoes · 50 min · Episode 976Two fearless men journey to the Edge Of News so that you don’t have to. Some highlights of this week’s report … … when a gig’s all about the performer not the audience … the…
- Another Word with … Richard Thompson: includes Fairport, Lennon, Schwarzenegger and a cast of thousands! · 36 min · Episode 975Richard Thompson has a new album, ‘Hippies, Thugs and Heroes’, and he’s touring again in 2027, the perfect excuse to get another of our favourite guests back in the chair again…
- Rory Gallagher – Ireland’s first rock star remembered by the brother who managed him · 39 min · Episode 974You forget how huge and ubiquitous Rory Gallagher was in the ‘70s, just 22 at the Isle of Wight and auditioning for the Stones four years later, an inspiration for Johnny Marr…
- Q Magazine’s 40th, Ariel Bender and the most unlistenable music ever made · 57 min · Episode 973In this week’s extension of The Longest Conversation In Pop History™️ you’ll be happy to find … … the front row audience driving Gillian Anderson mad and why we feel for her…
- Roxy, Traffic, Nick Drake, Mott the Hoople & the magic of Island Records · 40 min · Episode 972The third instalment of ‘The Island Book of Records’ is out, another sumptuous, elegantly designed, LP-sized chronicle of every album released on this most fabled of labels, in…
- Gary Kemp bought Brian Epstein’s address book and discovered ‘the DNA of the Beatles’ · 44 min · Episode 971A lifelong Beatles obsessive, Gary Kemp bought Epstein’s black leather address book at auction and (with Simon Halfon) researched its 404 names to construct a picture of him, “a…
- ‘Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece!’ David Holzer has played it 1,000 times · 42 min · Episode 970David Holzer was a Lou Reed fan from the moment he saw Walk On The Wild Side on Top Of The Pops but avoided Metal Machine Music for 42 years as it was supposedly unlistenable. He…
- Todd Rundgren’s outbursts, ‘too old to mosh’ & the happiest and saddest songwriters · 54 min · Episode 969A long-running conversation that shifts from major to minor, back to major and all notes inbetween, this week’s lyrics including … … can people who write ‘happy’ ever be cool?…
- Jon Savage loathed the 1976 singles chart so he’s made an album of should-have-been hits · 38 min · Episode 968Jon Savage detested the UK’s mid-‘70s hits with a vengeance, “records so bad they made you want to strangle every deejay on Radio One, especially Dave Lee Travis”. Which is why…
- Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece and the daft, chequered history of Ties In Rock! · 58 min · Episode 967The two-man conversational canoe paddles the rock and roll tideway, stopping off this week at … … Van Morrison’s set-opener is Kidney Stew Blues by Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson. Do…
- Why can’t brothers in bands ever get along? · 1 h 0 min · Episode 966While Mark Ellen visits his Scottish estates, David Hepworth and Alex Gold keep the home fires burning with a wide-ranging conversation, taking in: • why every band containing…
- Sid Griffin: the Long Ryders leader laughs at the absurdity of teenage life! · 37 min · Episode 965A whole new format we’ve invented for people who’ve been guests before and were so entertaining we wanted them back. So we’ve devised some random questions to spark a few…
- An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys · 42 min · Episode 964“Good hair, good shoes, something to say” were the requirements of Indie Sleaze whose vanguard lit up the fading music press in the first decade of the 21st Century – acts like…
- Nicky Hopkins’ hidden genius, the Oasis film and the best songs about rain · 59 min · Episode 963This week’s news in three separate files - the Good, the Bad and the Befuddling. Which involves … … have Oasis created their own economy? … are stadium gigs now like historical…
- Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher · 38 min · Episode 962Clint Boon was at the heart of “the two biggest musical revolutions of my lifetime” – as a teenager for Joy Division and Buzzcocks, and later the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and…
- The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!” · 40 min · Episode 961The Slits burned very brightly – but briefly - and were gone, their bumpy and courageous tale crisply told in Zoë Howe’s updated ‘Typical Girls?’. She looks back here at the…
- Shawn Colvin – songwriter, storyteller, urban cowgirl, singing waitress · 28 min · Episode 960Shawn Colvin was in the spotlight from the age of 10 playing her parents’ parties, singing in bars at college, acting off-Broadway and joining country swing bands before making…
- The world’s greatest radio station! & things we loved about Dolly Parton · 1 h 0 min · Episode 959Passing the conversational Dutchie 'pon the left hand side, we fire up the following … … “speech, not music, brings people together” … if music gets ever broader, why’s radio…
- Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree · 37 min · Episode 958Dave Rowntree had a camera with him as Blur took off in the early ‘90s and his book ‘No-One You Know’ distils the thrill of a band in ascent – backstage, in studios, with fans…
- Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’ · 30 min · Episode 957Natalie Merchant joined 10,000 Maniacs when she was 17, had a long and successful solo career and then began teaching children in New York State. Realising the value of rhymes…
- The Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums · 28 min · Episode 956The Proclaimers have only had a handful of hits but they’re songs that have kept expanding for nearly 40 years. And the World Cup was a reminder of how far they’ve reached. Craig…
- What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!” · 43 min · Episode 955The original rock podcast - now in its 20th year! – knocks the week’s news across the conversational net. Amid the top-spin, rallies and double-faults, you’ll find … … farcical…
- Martin Simpson’s 60 years on the folk circuit ‘making people cry for a living’ · 50 min · Episode 954Martin Simpson got backstage when he was 15 and met Jimmy Reed and Big Joe Williams and it changed his life forever. He’s been on the folk circuit ever since, still at the top of…
- The Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band · 43 min · Episode 953The Shadows were the strongest brand in British pop, adored and widely imitated. When they went out of fashion, no-one wanted them to change. Bob Stanley salutes their enormous…
- Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it · 45 min · Episode 952Stuff, nonsense, the white heat of debate and yesterday’s news today! Which this week involves … … which of these didn’t host a TV chat show – Ian Botham, Charlotte Church, Lily…
- Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him · 33 min · Episode 951A sense of melancholy hangs over the music of songwriters whose lives were tragically short – Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Eva Cassidy, Judee Sill - and we’re left knowing very…
- How Kylie became the whole world’s sweetheart · 39 min · Episode 950Michael Cragg’s devotion to all things Kylie once led him to Melbourne in search of the actual carousel horse she rode in a pop video. He got a tattoo a day later. Can’t Get You…
- Sandy Denny’s life and luminous talent celebrated by Linda Thompson · 29 min · Episode 949‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ has just been published, memories from fellow musicians, old friends, producers, writers, fans and admirers. Linda Thompson met her when they…
- The Abbey Road photo miracle, Glen Hansard and TV we’d pay to watch · 54 min · Episode 948The news slapped on the conversational barbecue and served with a side of old hokum. This week’s mixed grill includes … … our favourite story in the whole of popular music! ……
- Bowie, the Cure, Neil Young and the golden age of the video shoot · 34 min · Episode 947Tim Pope caught the video wave in 1981 and made hundreds of promotional clips, often three or four a week, edited at night and on-air days later. You’ll have seen them, singles…
- Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Girl · 34 min · Episode 946Pauline Black was seen singing Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell songs in Coventry folk clubs and recruited by a local reggae band. Then converted to ska and joined the Selecter…
- Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion · 46 min · Episode 945Tony Fletcher launched Jamming! when he was 13, wrote for the Face at 16, ran a label with Paul Weller at 17 and a year later was presenting the Tube. And was in a band signed to…
- Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing · 47 min · Episode 944Testing the temperature of this week’s news to see what trips the fire-alarm, which includes … … does having a Number One still matter? … Pauline Black’s sliding doors moment…
- Jonathan Richman, on-the-road songs and the best-known solo ever recorded · 43 min · Episode 943This week’s news in a conversational cocktail-shaker and served with ice and a little paper parasol. Those Happy Hour highlights include … … six musicians who keep getting…
- Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho · 37 min · Episode 942Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author…
- Steve Hackett remembers batwings, blues clubs and Genesis on £15 a week · 38 min · Episode 941Steve Hackett’s seven years in Genesis get re-explored when he tours in October, along with ‘solo gems’ from the records he’s made since, the latest ‘the Roaring Waves’, a…
- Mari Wilson, our favourite girl about town, takes Neasden to Chelsea · 35 min · Episode 940Mari Wilson has drunk deep of all that London nightlife has to offer, from a London Transport social club in Wembley to a posh venue in Chelsea via the Cooks Ferry Inn in…
- All music is dance music! – and the best stage name ever · 53 min · Episode 939Another over-heated week put through the conversational air-conditioner, which involves … … the man who got rich writing words that could never be sung … Anna Bullock? Stefani…
