Word In Your Ear

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.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.comSubcribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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-supportSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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%20moreSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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!Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, alongside a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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-normalSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. … Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’: sampled banjo and other misdemeanours. … from Watergate to Putin: the 50 year-old record so lean, smart and cynical that the world’s only just catching up. … Don Henley on Irving Azoff: “He may be Satan but he’s OUR Satan.” … Rock sea-cruises: “get your marital vows renewed by a member of Weezer!” ... why CD has ruined Jackson Browne’s For Everyman. … what Hugh Grant superimposed on the character of Jeremy Thorpe.   … and birthday guest Adrian Ainsworth - Arse Curtains and other career-limiting band names.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Reverend Richard Coles is back on tour with his ‘Borderline National Trinket’ show and talks to us from his home in Sussex where he’s “the only person in the village who hasn’t won a BAFTA”. This looks back at his life – “a CV like the work of a fantasist” - and what he’s learnt from 50 years of watching various types of stage entertainment and playing to audiences ranging from the Wollaston Over-‘60s Methodist Ladies Fellowship to a bunch of delinquent Spanish pop fans with catapults. And he talks fondly of the Communards and how ‘80s pop was a Golden Age. Among the highlights … … Morecambe & Wise at the Kettering Granada with Arthur Tolcher on the mouth organ. … finding your “pulpit voice”. … Sir Robert Helpmann’s great gag about referees. … why time is a healer. … the “marble denim and mullets” of Legs & Co’s interactive dance to the Communards on Top Of The Pops.   … on the literary circuit sandwiched between John Lydon and Marti Pellow – “dreams do come true”. … if he’s ever met a shy vicar. … the stagecraft of Danny Baker, Adam Kay and Grayson Perry. … standing on a chair to conduct the RPO, aged 8 and the time he wrote a Magnificat For Choir And Snare Drum in A Minor. … seeing Bauhaus, John Otway and the 4-Be-2s. … sitting between Lenny Henry and Torvill & Dean at a Kylie show. … his teenage punk band Zerox playing Clash covers. … and why there are never any forks in a Green Room. Get ‘Borderline National Trinket’ tickets here, last date March 11 at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre …https://www.seetickets.com/tour/reverend-richard-colesSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jah Wobble - aka John Wardle - wrote ‘Dark Luminosity: Memoirs of a Geezer’ in 2009. It’s just been reworked, expanded and republished and it’s well worth reading, full of detail about growing up in the East End, unexploded bombs, pickling factories, grim schooldays, record shops and clubs, the bands he saw and his arrival at Kingsway College where he met John Lydon and Sid Vicious and became a cornerstone of the punk rock inner circle. And then two challenging years as the bassist of Public Image Ltd, the time he worked as a train driver and ticket collector for London Transport, a series of collaborations – Brian Eno, Baaba Maal, Holger Czukay, Sinead O’Connor, Chaka Demus – and some bold and original solo albums (you’ll enjoy Island Records' reaction when he pitches an album based on the poems of William Blake). Among this podcast's highlights … … the Kafkaesque world of working for the London Underground in the days when you could “punch an area manager and not get sacked”. … why great rhythm sections are like great football players. … his dad, an El-Alamein survivor, on seeing Mick Jagger on Top of the Pops: “the Rolling Stones should be used for mine clearance.” … Public Image Ltd – “three of the weirdest people you could ever meet”, the band that kept their cash in a shoebox. … “you can’t go through life as a tourist”. … the secret of the perfect bass sound. … watching the first Sex Pistols’ rehearsal. … seeing Bob Marley & the Wailers at the Lyceum. … the record that reversed his dislike of the Beatles. … why working with Pharoah Sanders was the highlight of his musical life. … his 2023 album, ‘The Bus Routes of South London’. … Jim Reeves, Burl Ives and further sounds of the family homestead. ... and a powerful aversion to hippies. Order John’s memoir here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Luminosity-Memoirs-Geezer-expanded/dp/0571375359\Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.