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 Hi...
Did Britain invent the rock band? - plus our new laws about music & Garth Hudson RIP
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=BtfvpS0EyO8Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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37:25
Howard Jones has ‘the best job in the world’
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/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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20:49
Andy Fairweather Low’s teenage psychedelic stardom
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/B0DKSN2CDZFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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28:03
A 3-part rant about LPs sold as ‘antiques’, TikTok & the shameful AI Michael Parkinson
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.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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50:10
The unstoppable Francis Rossi – open the fridge door and he’ll do 30 minutes
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/tourFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon 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. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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