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Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

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.

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  • #964
    Wednesday · 42 min

    An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys

    “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 Franz Ferdinand, the Rakes, the Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. Janine Warren saw the Strokes in Camden in 2001 and life took a whole new direction. Her book ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect’ looks back at old-school rock PR, unmanageable bands, and the summit and collapse of the last scene she thinks we’ll ever see. You’ll enjoy … … Morrissey at St George’s Hall, Blackburn … deejaying at Liquidation in Liverpool playing psychedelia and Northern Soul … the impossible task of being Pete Doherty’s PR: “like sand running through your fingers” … the day its editor realised the NME was doomed … the indie dilemma: wanting fame and publicity while appearing not to care … the rise of Arctic Monkeys, the first big digital success story … the financial crash, big label panic, illegal file-share and other woes of the 2010 music business … why rock scenes are a thing of the past … and the greatest Indie Sleaze record ever made. Order copies of ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect: the Last Indie Music Scene 2000-2010’ here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/janine-warren-foreword-by-alex-kapranos/the-world-was-a-mess-but-his-hair-was-perfect-the-last-indie-music-scene-2000-2010?algolia_query_id=5510672a106c0f77be3b364fe1f570ce&algolia_object_id=57550933459275&algolia_index=shopify_prod_products&algolia_position= Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #963
    Monday · 58 min

    Nicky Hopkins’ hidden genius, the Oasis film and the best songs about rain

    This 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 re-enactment? … “people listen to music more intently in Manchester as they’re inside while it rains” … ‘includes All Things Must Pass miniature garden gnomes!’ The mad money-draining joy of the luxury box-set … when bands don’t change but audiences do …Sun = Happiness, Rain = Sorrow: lyrics as an emotional weather forecast … the pianist who wouldn’t play minor chords … Nicky Hopkins on records by the Kinks, Beatles, Who and Stones (“She’s A Rainbow was like a music-box Mozart”): has any session player made a more vital contribution? … “Lose two teeth in German nightclub brawl, go back to Burnage”: real and fictitious rock band Monopoly sets! … Blue Nile, Ann Peebles, Beautiful South, Paul Simon? What’s the best song about rain? Plus J Blackfoot, Paul Simon’s Kathy from Brentwood and birthday guest Matthew North. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #962
    September 11 · 38 min

    Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher

    Clint 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 Hacienda and onstage with Inspiral Carpets, a world of characters as big as his own. His memoir ‘The Manchester Chronicles’ is about obsessions, schoolteachers, purple winklepickers, mobile discos, good luck, catastrophe and being in the right place at the right time for 30 years. Along with … … why Manchester listens to music so intently: “we’re stuck inside while it rains” … auditioning Noel Gallagher “as the Lockerbie plane flew directly overhead” … the new economy: making a Number 2 album funded by t-shirt and cassette sales … growing up on Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Little Richard and Gary Lewis & the Playboys … Inspiral Carpets’ obsession with West Coast psychedelia … when the band all got houses with their Mute advance “and I just bought some $800 sunglasses” … great bowl-heads haircuts (Stones, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane) and why he got one too … seeing the Pistols at the Electric Circus: “I left college the next morning” … the sudden split: playing Glastonbury one minute, living on milk tokens and income support the next … his 1975 disco playing Mud, the Rubettes and Showaddywaddy (“I was a 14 year-old Ted”) … and how 24 Hour Party People captured “the spirit, chaos, colour and madness”. Order copies of ‘The Manchester Chronicles: True Tales of Music, Madness and Mayhem 1976-2006’ here: https://geni.us/manchesterchronicles Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #961
    September 9 · 39 min

    The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!”

    The 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 unforgettable things they wore, said and did as “outsiders in an outsider scene”, a band celebrated before they’d even played a note. And touches on … ... how other all-girl groups got started - the Moodies, the Runaways, Fanny, the Shaggs, Goldie and the Gingerbreads … Nora Forster – Ari’s mum, German print heiress, the “punk rock Baroness Nica” who bankrolled the Slits … Ari was a 14 year-old schoolgirl, Viv Albertine was 21: “I couldn’t have a relationship with her. It was like a having a child in the band” … Nick Kent’s account of the four of them “blazing down Oxford Street” … producer Dennis Bovell’s dub reggae project with “the Witches of West London” … their fractious relationship with Island Records and Radio One … “No birds on the stage!”: the author’s life as a female drummer … and the Pop Group, Rip Rig + Panic, “humour, playfulness, the freedom to be childlike” and the long legacy of the Slits. Order ‘Typical Girls?: the Story of the Slits’ here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/typical-girls-the-story-of-the-slits-omnibus-remastered?_pos=1&_psq=typical+girls&_psid=eb748e5dc&_ss=e Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #959
    September 7 · 1 hr

    The world’s greatest radio station! & things we loved about Dolly Parton

    Passing 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 getting more niche? … can YOU guess the NME’s 10 most influential bands in 2002? … a doomed Dolly Parton kidnap attempt at the Hammersmith Odeon: we were there! … ‘Voice-tracking’, ‘auditorium testing’ and other network radio secrets ... 61 year-old listener hears the Beatles for the first time and reports back. (Chapeau, Jelltex!) … short-lived TV spin-offs from Fawlty Towers and Dad’s Army … Madonna, 50 Cent and Courtney Love wrote children’s books? Anyone read Marcus Mumford’s ‘Barnaby and the Drumming Bear’? … familiar acts doing unfamiliar songs and well-known tracks by obscure people … and why Boom Radio is booming. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #957
    August 26 · 29 min

    Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’

    Natalie 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 and theatre, her adaptation of Mother Goose (played by herself) was expanded into a multi-media performance with 150 four-year-olds and recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She even made most of the costumes. And she’s never had an audience reaction as enthusiastic and emotional. It’s a magnificent project to give children experiences that modern life rarely affords “right down to the thrill of seeing people play real instruments”. She talks to us here from her New York home about ‘Cabinet Of Wonder’, along with … … her first stage appearances, aged seven … scanning record collections and thinking “if they don’t have a copy of Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girl’, we can’t be friends!” … how improvising lyrics got her into 10,000 Maniacs (“who I wanted to call the Tunda Bunnies”) … seeing Styx, the Cars and the Clash playing ‘Combat Rock’ … how she and her daughter grew up in homes without TV … and the threat of future education run by avatars. The Cabinet of Wonder website: https://cabinetofwonder.org And the multi-retailer link for the album: https://cabinetofwonder.lnk.to/album Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #955
    August 24 · 42 min

    What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!”

    The 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 developments in the Tupac trial … the shock-horror reaction to the Sam Mendes Beatles’ wigs! … Dave Marsh’s ‘1001 Greatest Singles’ in 1989: what 45s released since would make his Top 10? … ‘If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me’, ‘I’ve Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart’: real or made-up Country song titles? … “People buy albums because they like the band. They buy singles because they like the song” … musicians who wrote a second memoir as the first one wasn’t all true … the Stones single that’s streets ahead of their others … the Hank Marvin Challenge: the correct facial expression when playing instrumentals! … are the greatest singles the ones with the most emotional depth? … and the mystery of ‘No Way Out’ by Joyce Harris. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #953
    August 18 · 42 min

    The Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band

    The 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 influence and creation of the guitar hero and unravels their rapid post-Beatles decline in his superb new book, ‘The Shadows: the Definitive Story’. And talks to us here about … … Hank and Bruce arriving in London aged 15 when the 2i’s coffee bar was a labour exchange and a social club … entering a talent contest won by a Malayan opera singer … the magic of cowboy culture transported to British suburbia and their four cartoonish stage names … meeting Jacques Tati at the Paris Olympia and being asked to write a song for his upcoming movie … the rapid post-Beatles crash – bow-ties, panto and Cliff announcing his Christianity … “being thrown through a mangle twice a night by Arthur Askey in Stockton-on-Tees is not why they joined the music business” … getting Hipgnosis to design their album sleeve while stuck playing Batley Variety Club … the return of instrumentals with Albatross and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly … when Hank was asked to join the Move .. the Swedish vogue for “barbed wire groups” … and Neil Young’s ‘From Hank to Hendrix’ – which everyone assumed was about Hank Williams. Order copies of Bob’s book here: https://tr.ee/rSilFTJwfO Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #952
    August 16 · 45 min

    Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it

    Stuff, 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 Allen or Harold Wilson? … if you’d paid £102 to see two-thirds of the Fugees show up an hour late, wouldn’t you SCREAM for a refund? … Britain’s most rock’n’roll hotel and why the idea of “excess” seems purely American … Dave and Stephane Grappelli at the Sunset Marquis … Reversing Into Tomorrow! We Came, We Saw, We Left! The genius of Stiff Records, “the Motown of Bayswater”, and the oddballs and misfits they signed … “there are only two types of record demand: too little and too much” … “Artistic breakthrough, the first double B-side!” The single that started the Indie boom … and why naked ballet doesn’t work. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #951
    August 14 · 33 min

    Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him

    A 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 little about them. Jamie Fisher, writer and New York Times researcher, discovered Elliott Smith 12 years after he’d died and contacted 40 of his friends and fellow musicians to build a picture of him for her memoir Nobody Broke Your Heart. She looks back here at his background and ascent from the Portland club circuit to the Oscars, and touches on … … the emotional impact of first hearing his music walking round Central Park in Lockdown … “goofy, stubborn, wildly smart, addictively listenable” … early life in Omaha and Texas (and the telling tattoo on his arm) … the shy collegiate kid reading Dostoevsky who thought promotion was “distasteful” … how a singer-writer broke through in Portland during the Grunge boom … rejected stage-names - Johnny Panic, Elliott Stillwater-Rotter - and the pivotal moment when Steven became ‘Elliott’ .. his sense of humour – “a garbage truck passed him and he said, ‘there’s my ride!’” … the archive of unreleased recordings she’d heard … the Oscars appearance and signing to DreamWorks and Nirvana’s PR … the root of his eventual unhappiness … “he would have been more shielded if he’d been in a band” … and his expanding legacy and adoption by Gen-Z. Order ‘Nobody Broke Your Heart’ here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/jamie-fisher/nobody-broke-your-heart-an-intimate-biography-of-elliott-smith Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #950
    August 12 · 38 min

    How Kylie became the whole world’s sweetheart

    Michael 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 Out Of My Head is a funny and fondly detailed personal account of the risk-taking variety of her records, the mystery of her private life and the irresistible nature of her appeal, a girl who, were there a war on, would be painted on the tail fins of aircraft. He looks back here at … … her ‘90s reinvention by association – with Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence and Bobby Gillespie … how records about joy never get enough credit … wrestling back control after life with Stock Aitken & Waterman … the root of her appeal as a gay icon ... being vilified by the press for any public pronouncement … a capacity to charm her detractors when she meets them … reciting I Should Be So Lucky at the Poetry Olympics alongside Patti Smith and Allen Ginsberg … a mixture of the ordinary and the exotic and the ‘Carry On’ sexuality of her videos … only Queen Elizabeth 11 has had more waxworks at Madame Tussauds … and Michael’s meeting with her – “I’m six foot eight, she’s five foot one” - and the resulting photo. Order copies of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571392766-cant-get-you-out-of-my-head-in-search-of-kylie/ Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #949
    August 11 · 28 min

    Sandy Denny’s life and luminous talent celebrated by Linda Thompson

    ‘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 were both 16 and was devoted to her ‘til she died in 1978 – “she’s still with me, I talk to her all the time”. She looks back here at their lives in Soho bars, folk clubs and studios, the world they inhabited and the musicians they both knew. Among the many highlights … … meeting Sandy in 1966, onstage doing Jackson Frank’s You Never Wanted Me. “Eight million cigarettes a day but such breath control!” … why her singing and songwriting were unique … high times at the Colony Club with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon - “famously grumpy” … “she didn’t put up with bullshit. Cross her and she’d deck you” … memories of Nick Drake – “spectral and gorgeous” … the repercussions of the Fairport car crash … memories of her family home in Wimbledon (on the cover of Unhalfbricking) … recording ad jingles for Ski Yoghurt and ‘flour so fine, it flows and it flows’ - £15 an hour, “a fortune” … making demos of Nick Drake songs with Elton John, “so full of Valium I had to be held up to the mic” … sharing a flat with Tim Buckley in Holland Park … “anyone who can bear to listen to their own records must be no bloody good” … and the script Nick Hornby started about the life of Richard and Linda Thompson. Order ‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ here: https://burningshed.com/georgia-rose-lucas_sandy-denny-a-peoples-history_book Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #948
    August 10 · 54 min

    The Abbey Road photo miracle, Glen Hansard and TV we’d pay to watch

    The 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! … Lisa Marie Presley & Michael Jackson, Neil Young & Daryl Hannah and other weird celebrity weddings … how Glen Hansard got hired for the Commitments … “Everybody has a plan ‘til they’re punched in the face” … Linda Thompson and the million reasons singers hate listening to their old albums … the fabulous life and times of Vicki Wickham in the days when 24 year-olds ran the business … Luke Combs, Nate Bargatze and the rising appeal of Mr Nice Guy … how David Bowie recorded … Mick Jagger’s only marriage … “Kingsley Amis Introduces Us To Pop Stars!” and other doomed TV ideas Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #947
    August 6 · 34 min

    Bowie, the Cure, Neil Young and the golden age of the video shoot

    Tim 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 for the Style Council, The The, Iggy Pop, Hall & Oates and many others. For 15 years he was the man to call – inventive, caffeinated, risk-loving, clubbable – and “nothing was too mad or stupid”. He celebrates that magic age of big budgets and creative freedom in his story-filled memoir ‘I Shoot Rock Stars’, just out, and looks back here at … … the video that made his reputation … MTV showing six of his clips in a row … the thrill of Bowie’s silhouette as he walked across the Rainbow stage in 1977: “there was so little footage back then, you’d rarely seen people move” … his teenage love of Dusty, ELP, King Crimson and Pink Floyd … shooting seven clips a fortnight and the one time a record label tried to interfere … Neil Young’s 2,000-acre Broken Arrow Ranch and the “burning fires of his eyes” … Iggy Pop singing I Wanna Be Your Dog in the John Snow pub in Soho … “German sausages, lumps of lamb, maggots, a whole party”: the Soft Cell clip that caused a walk-out ... “You’re a funny little arsehole!”: breaking the ice with Bowie … what he learnt from Mark Hollis of Talk Talk and spending time with his ashes. Order ‘I Shoot Rock Stars’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-shoot-rock-stars/tim-pope/9781035426959 Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • #945
    August 4 · 46 min

    Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion

    Tony 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 EMI. If anyone did more as a teenager, we want to meet them. It’s all in his coming-of-age memoir ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ - discussed here - which touches on … …the speed, the possibilities and the riches of success in the early ‘80s – and how it felt to be at the heart of it … “I knew nothing about running a label – and then discovered Paul Weller didn’t either” … Madness being interviewed by “spiky-haired, Harrington-jacketed, Ben-Sherman-shirted me” … when confidence meets ignorance … when bands went from selling 2,000 records to 20,000 and, in America, 200,000: “Phil Oakey always carried £500 in cash” … the research meetings that launched the Tube and his two-minute audition … the day Leslie Ash called in sick and he covered for her on live TV … Pete Townshend, 35, convinced the Who were finished ... discovering the inner circle within the inner circle … “to the Rainbow for the Mod Revival all-dayer!” … and memories of Wham!, Paula Yates and Pete Wylie and what he learnt from running labels and magazines. Order copies of ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ here: US: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com/pow UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pow-when-uk-punk-went-pop-1980-84-tony-fletcher/74b193de4c1dee68 Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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