Word In Your Ear

Growing up in remote rural Norfolk, crime writer Cathi Unsworth had a Goth conversion, a condition from which, she happily admits, you never fully recover. And never want to. She discovered Dennis Wheatley’s ‘To The Devil A Daughter’, heard Siouxsie & the Banshees on the Peel Show and saw a picture of Robert Smith in a magazine which she stuck by her bedroom mirror to help her construct his spectacular dishevelment. She’s just published ‘Season Of The Witch: the Book of Goth’, a highly entertaining account of the dark side of rock starting out with the Brontes, Edgar Allan Poe and Aubrey Beardsley and heading, via Jim Morrison, Jacques Brel and Nico, to Joy Division, the Cure and the Sisters of Mercy. This is a very funny and self-mocking pod in which you’ll find the following … … why Yorkshire is “Goth’s Own Country”. … the secret ingredient in Mac McCulloch’s vertical hair. … Nick Cave - “the Dark Lord of Goth Music” (©️ the Daily Mail) – at the Coronation. … Lee Hazlewood’s advice to Nancy Sinatra when recording Goth staple These Boots Are Made For Walking. … “changing into fishnet tights in the bogs at school”, rival pop gangs, mooching about in graveyards and a mate “who used to sit up trees reading Dennis Wheatley and summoning Satan”. .. the joy of crimpers and backcombing. … “spreading the virus” at the Batcave. … the inventor of the term Goth and the key Gothmothers and Gothfathers. … local folklore about hellhounds in Norfolk. … her first gig, the York Rock Festival in 1984 featuring the Bunnymen, Sisters of Mercy, Spear of Destiny and the Redskins: “Gothtopia”! … “Beer Girls and Beer Boys” and why it was best to avoid them. … dark Satanic mills. … and the greatest Goth record ever made. Order ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Season-Witch-Book-Cathi-Unsworth/dp/1788706242Subscribe 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.

Filling the spinnaker of enquiry on the careering, two-mast schooner of rock and roll this week you will find … … the prog drummer who made a fortune. ... did Brian Wilson bring a horse into a recording studio? Or write a symphony for drums? Or have an idea involving a hen in tennis shoes? … why the New York Times review of the new Wham! documentary is ridiculous and wrong. ... the eternal allure of The Larry Sanders Show – “Madam, I killed a man like you in Korea!” … the curse of identity journalism. … the most influential British DJ of all time. … Kenneth Tynan’s exquisite profile of Johnny Carson in the New Yorker and the dark art of being a TV chat show producer. … the mathematical certainty that every review you ever write will eventually resurface. “Nothing will be forgotten - the afterlife is always longer than the first flush of success.” … was there ever a briefer ‘fashionable’ moment than that of Guns N’ Roses? … the great new expression for being drunk – “overserved”.  Watch that deathless Renia clip here …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv0VyHHEj2s&t=11sSubscribe 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.

This week we paddle the two-man kayak of curiosity across the rock and roll seafront and make a few stops on the way, among them … … “the future is always in the past”. … the pure theatre of the E Street Band and its cast of characters – “our lives are repaired by the fact that they’re still together”. … the growing appeal of Country & Western - and even “shronking” jazz – as you get older. … Bless the Barn, Featherwash and Franny Wisp, Portlandia’s low-volume crowd-pleasers. … the ‘Barry’ TV series (starring Bill Hader): that rare beast, a contract killer who’s a nice bloke. … the 60th anniversary of the recording of She Loves You, why engineer Norman Smith predicted a flop and the fan break-in at Abbey Road that energised the session. … is the success of Nick Drake partly an antidote to the age of technology? … how our concept of ‘old’ has changed: McCartney at Live Aid was a coffin-dodging 43, same age as Kelis at Glastonbury. … is cricket now the drunkest spectator sport? And which is the greater agony, seeing England doing badly when you’re there or watching at home with the commentary? … and the Elton John Band have been together 53 years – but that’s only six years longer than Madness. … plus birthday guests Andrew Stocks and Patrick Cleasby and a roll-call of new patreon supporters.Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!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.

Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …… the republishing of Giles Smith’s Lost In Music, one of the funniest books ever written about our real life relationship with pop stars, records and being in bands. Giles – and Nick Hornby – kick-started a whole new literary vogue. … has Cate Blanchett won Glastonbury? … why do we update book jackets but never change a record cover? … how the Stones’ Steel Wheels tour changed the gig economy. … the Stackwaddy game: song titles - George Formby or Frank Zappa? … how gigs became a status symbol and tickets a statement purchase. ... did a record sleeve ever put you off buying the album? … what are YOU going to do with your vinyl collection? Original new “estate plans” considered. … amusing things said by George Melly (and who was Mucky Alice?). … Recession? What recession? 650,000 people bought arena/stadium tickets in London last weekend. Plus Toe Fat, Blind Faith, “the Larynx on Legs”, author Giles Smith and birthday guests Blaine Allen and Richard Lewis.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.

Aged 21 in 1963, Harvey Lisberg wanted to be the next Brian Epstein and ended up managing Herman’s Hermits and 10cc, among others, before relaunching the snooker stars Jimmy White and Hurricane Higgins. We thoroughly recommend his just-published memoir ‘I’m Into Something Good’ and this wide-ranging encounter takes in … ... the unique division of labour in 10cc and the magnificently doomed invention of ‘the Gizmo’. … the perils of $100,000’s credit in Las Vegas casinos. … life for the wives of rock stars “in love with music”. … his friendship with Colonel Tom Parker and a day spent with Elvis in Honolulu. … a prickly relationship with Mickie Most. … why America fell in love with Peter Noone. … Herman’s Hermits’ US tours with the Stones and the Who. … and how he changed the snooker world by remodelling the “Artful Dodger” Jimmy White.  Buy Harvey’s memoir here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-Into-Something-Good-Managing-ebook/dp/B0BSHGRN5VSubscribe 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.

This week’s pod veers off the conversational highway to break out its picnic hamper at the following leafy locations …. … the Stackwaddy game: metal band or clawed demon from Dante’s Inferno? … when bands stopped being good-looking. … Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms: how long can you give a record before it clicks? … Tony ‘TS’ McPhee of the Groundhogs (RIP) and the great British blues underground: cue the scent of damp greatcoats. … does anything capture the time better than a record shop in a movie? … the hard-fought life of Glenda Jackson plus “All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got”. … eternally recommended: the crestfallen, poignant, melancholy world of the Fountains of Wayne. … the moment in A Clockwork Orange that gave us Heaven 17 and Fuzzy Warbles. … streaming services are now editing the movies they carry (eg the French Connection): Doesn’t this infantilize the audience? … We Are Family. Are Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh related? Is Suzi Quatro Sherilyn Fenn’s aunt? … a unique literary double-act: Robert Caro and the late Bob Gottlieb. … how subtitles change the way we watch. … Paul McCartney, consummate press-wrangler. … and the lost appeal of late-night movie screenings.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The super-trouper of gentle enquiry alights this week upon … … why bands are at their biggest when they’re over the hill. … Fats Waller v Morrissey song titles: can YOU tell your Waller from your Wallower? … how could Dylan have written Queen Jane Approximately aged only 24? … why you should hear Pieces Of Treasure by Rickie Lee Jones, particularly the track All The Way. … the social media bin-fire that’s shredding the reputation of Bobby Gillespie and how Twitter loves a character assassination - “Pound shop Mick Jagger! Always a charlatan!” … was anyone worse equipped for the rigours of the pop circus than Nick Drake? … “big” 20-album record collections, board games and no telly: fond memories of real life in late ‘60s London.   … Richard Thompson and Nick Drake’s painfully awkward tube journey. … what risible sum Astrud Gilberto was paid for The Girl From Ipanema. … and why Springsteen was called “the Boss”.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearGrab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to https://nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 months for free! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Forty years ago Clare Grogan was on the cover of Smash Hits yet again and was the fourth guest at our garden party on June 3. Here she remembers the key events that have happened since which include meeting Bill Forsyth and the success of Gregory’s Girl (and why she only saw it for the first time recently), touring with Siouxsie & the Banshees when still at school, life as a pop star in the golden age, being Kristine Kochanski in Red Dwarf and its obsessive fans, her time in Father Ted, Kim Wilde’s call to get her to join the Here And Now ‘80s pop package tour and a great story about Nik Kershaw and John Taylor. Listen to what happened when she told the audience how she loves and needs applause – and loves “loud cheering” even more. Spoiler alert: contains both laughter and tears. Order the new Altered Images CD here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mascara-Streakz-Altered-Images/dp/B0B29LG9B3/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=altered+images+mascara+streakz+cd&qid=1686041285&sr=8-3Subscribe 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 first record by the Beatles came out on the same day as the first James Bond film. Over sixty years later they still send their differing forms of Britishness out into the world. John Higgs has written a book, “Love And Let Die”, about how closely they have been intertwined over the years, about how they stood for very different sorts of masculinity, how they changed the way we wanted to dress and behave and how they have, between them, shaped the British psyche of today.Love And Let Die: https://www.waterstones.com/book/love-and-let-die/john-higgs/9781399600163Subscribe 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.

Author, DJ, member of St Etienne and a regular on our podcasts, Bob Stanley was the second guest at our sun-baked garden party in the auditorium of Opera Holland Park on June 3 talking about his new book “Bee Gees: Children Of the World”. He feels – and very rightly – that in some quarters they’re still the punchline to a heartless joke and deserve infinitely more critical respect. This illuminating conversation touches on the “teenage delinquent” years in Manchester, their struggles in Australia, signing with Robert Stigwood, success and how badly they handled it, what the press made of them, how they invented the sound of Jive Talkin’ and Night Fever, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, why they were known as “Pilly, Potty and Boozy” and the various people who’ve loudly sung their praises – Diana Ross, Pet Shop Boys, Take That and Noel Gallagher among them. Order Bob's book ‘Bee Gees: Children of the World’ here … https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bee-Gees-Children-Bob-Stanley/dp/1788705424/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=]2502&hvtargid=pla-1945216255331&psc=1&th=1&psc=1Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.