Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull and 58 years of one-legged live performance
Ian Anderson is touring again in 2026 and talks to us here about tweed stage-wear, an audience of four, his teenage heroes and the first shows he ever saw and played. There’s all sorts within, including … … playing his first gig to Catholic schoolgirls at the Holy Family Youth Club in Blackpool – “we emptied the room”. … queues round the block at the Marquee in 1968 – “the moment I knew we’d arrived.” … how Joe Cocker nicked his breakfast. … seeing Cliff at the ABC in Blackpool – “he was our Elvis.” … guitarists who played “nicely”– Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Ritchie Blackmore. “Precise, accurate, they sang melodies.” … the ceremonial christening of Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. … exotic clothes, stage names and parallels with Beefheart’s Magic Band. … recording Feel Like Makin’ Love with the 90-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck. … learning Guitar Tango by the Shadows - “not blues or rock and roll - progressive pop!” … the fine art of dressing up: Jethro Tull in America – tweeds and deerstalkers v check shirts and denim. … fund-raising shows for imperilled cathedrals. … the allure of touring by train – “I’m Michael Portillo with a flute”. … the three songs Jethro Tull always play. Tickets for the Curiosity Tour 2026 here: jethrotull.com Ian Anderson presents Christmas With Jethro Tull:Thursday 18 December 2025 - Bath AbbeyFriday 19 December 2025 - Peterborough CathedralSaturday 20 December 2025 - Southwark Cathedral Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Album sleeves the modern world would ban & the best song titles and opening lines
It’s Happy Hour in the Rock and Roll Lounge of News and we’re working our way through anything over 40 per cent proof. Which means ice, a slice and …. … how the F-Bomb lost its impact. … Mick Ralphs and Lalo Schifrin RIP – and chapeau to "There's A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On’. … the Blush-o-meter! Album sleeves that’d get you lynched in the 21st Century – and that means you Roxy, UFO, BowWowWow, Blind Faith, Tom Waits and Supertramp! … why the TV comedy W1A was the last record of the world before Covid. … Irresistible song titles – eg Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Misty Morning Albert Bridge, Jeannie Needs A Shooter. … where was Instagram when Roxy Music started?! … the genius of Sabrina Carpenter’s publicity machine. … “The oldest used to have the power. Now it’s the youngest.” … Jeff Bezos v a canal full of inflatable crocodiles. … I’m Getting Buried in the Morning, Paintball’s Coming Home … the eternal joy of Half Man Half Biscuit. … “Meeting a man from the motor trade - like a line from a TS Eliot poem.” And birthday guest Guy Constant on the value of lyrics - plus ‘grollies, ‘70 supergroups and Theresa May swearing. Here’s the link set up by Jon Hotten to help the rock writer (and former podcast guest) Mick Wall after he’d suffered a heart attack: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jon-hotten-2Find 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.
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Bobby Bluebell’s thriving third act, ‘80s Glasgow and the gift that keeps on giving
Bobby Bluebell remembers the “cuddly duffle-coat friendship” of Glasgow bands in the early ‘80s and the Bluebells’ second act rebooted by the Volkswagen ad. The band are touring again and an even bigger part of the city’s thriving musical community, and he looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played, along with … … singing “When I’m Dead And Gone’ in an old folks home. … on the town with Siobhan Fahey, her sisters and boyfriends Kevin Rowland and Gary Crowley. … buying Rocket Man and Wee Neil Reid’s Mother Of Mine, aged 13. And Elton John at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall. … his side project The Golden Tree (with Grahame Skinner of Hipsway) playing ‘Scottish’ songs by Marmalade, Strawberry Switchblade, Ewan MacColl, Coldplay, the Easybeats, Talking Heads and the Bay City Rollers. … “Glasgow had six gangs. You had to choose your route home carefully if wearing Kickers.” … Clare Grogan’s sister’s part in the Bluebells’ fortunes. … Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne holding HIT and MISS signs in the front row of an Oxfam Warriors gig. … “A cuddly duffle-coat friendship”: the Glasgow bands of the early ‘80s and memories of Altered Images and Peter Capaldi’s Dream Boys. … why Dolly Parton was ditched and ‘Young At Heart’ chosen for the Volkswagen ad. … playing the Old Grey Whistle Test with the Psychedelic Furs. … “the best way to get an audience to stop talking is to entertain them.” … “All hits are luck”. … his Golden Rule when playing festivals. The Bluebells tickets here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/315250-bluebells/calendar The Golden Tree: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HO0TGE0vgPgwDoaBUMAJF?si=LUsXAtrURVWYjEkzDpI0mQ&nd=1&dlsi=65dddbf6bf6c45e4Find 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.
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Dubmaster Dennis Bovell has had 50 fun-filled years making magical records
Dennis Bovell has worked his dub magic on everyone from Janet Kaye to the Slits, the Pop Group, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood – and his own band Matumbi. He talks here about the thrill and freedom of making dub records, his new album Wise Music In Dub – which reworks ‘Pass The Dutchie’, Minnie Riperton and the Stylistics – and how the phone never stops ringing with requests for an echo-filled clattery sonic re-boot. And about spending lockdown in a “dub bubble”, how recording has changed since his days with a one-track Phillips tape-machine, and recruiting Swizz The Panist (“who plays steel pans like a classical piano”) and Duke Baysee, the harmonica-playing Routemaster bus conductor. Pre-order Wise Music In Dub here: https://wiserecords.bandcamp.com/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.
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Rick Wakeman once signed a contract guaranteeing he’d wear “at least one cape onstage”
Rick Wakeman was onstage from the age of five and looks back with us here on a life of live performance – jazz and blues bands, the Strawbs, Yes – and ahead to this autumn’s tour performing King Arthur and the Six Wives of Henry the Eighth. “I wake up every morning, throw off the duvet and – if nothing else has fallen off – have a great day!” There’s more … ... how it feels when the rock press call you ‘Tomorrow’s Superstar!’ at the age of 24. … the contract he once had to sign that said “Mister Wakeman will wear at least one of his capes during the performance”. … seeing the Bonzos in 1965, “Viv Stanshall so paralytic he sang the entire set lying down”. … being on a packed tube to Gants Hill and suddenly realising he was on the cover of the Melody Maker he was reading. … Mrs Symes, his piano teacher, who launched his career (aged five). … his teenage band Atlantic Blues “who ended Wipe Out eight times faster than it started”. … the day his Strawbs’ Hammond organ solos were applauded by the Telegraph and Times. … early piano sessions for Cat Stevens, Ralph McTell and Al Stewart. … aspects of touring that prove “financially non-viable”. … and how Wolf Hall rebooted the legend of Henry the Eighth. Plus Atomic Rooster, Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Brown, green PVC trousers and a cape collection that includes “four originals”. Buy tickets here: https://www.rwcc.com/live.php#ere2025Find 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.
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Australia