Word In Your Ear

Topics off the leash this week include … The Talent v Charisma pie chart you can apply to any act. “Double-concentrated Liam” versus “diluted Noel”, an update on the Oasis land-grab. A second helping of the “Pete Doherty swaps crack for Camembert” story. Liverpool taxi-driver, 25, claims to have never heard of the Rolling Stones: could this be possible? Pop stars infinitely older (or younger) than you imagined. Learning to speak fluent tabloid – “the Here Comes The Sun hit-makers”, “the Paint It Black chart-busters” etc …Marc Bolan is a “thin” concept. Bolan + Pies/Booze doesn’t work. Plus Petula Clark, Andy Summers, Japan, Michael Owen and Toni Basil.----------------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We give the week a spirited shakedown to see what falls out of its pockets. And this includes … The late Ronnie Hawkins – road hog, stunt diver, bootleg liquor smuggler! Who’s the only original rock and roller now still alive? If you went to see Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp lumbered on to “jam”, how monumentally hacked off would you be? Kiss have handed in their lunchpails and eyebrow pencils. Shouldn’t more hoary old rock acts “retire out of self-respect”? What Danny Boyle’s Pistol mini-series explains about the band’s urge to succeed – and its corniest moments revisited. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga ... any other musicians who cut it on-screen?  What are the great songs about communal experience along with Thanks For The Memory, I Will Survive, Born To Run, Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) and Airhead’s Funny How? What Americans call “hiking” we call “walking”. Sir Tim Rice, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Ian Rankin … our expanding list of beknighted podcast guests.-------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Framed in the piercing super-trouper of perusal this week … The highs and lows of Danny Boyle’s new Sex Pistols biopic. The best in-car music for road trips (Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Rufus Wainwright …). How do Thom Yorke’s children feel about their father’s brilliant new album (the Smile) still sounding like the work of a bleating teenager? The late Alan White (of Yes), a working drummer since the age of 13.  Has social media destroyed the celebrity interview by revealing how star-struck we all are? The joy of never googling an artist and allowing them to remain a glorious mystery. The unusual position in Depeche Mode occupied by Andy Fletcher.  Can classical musicians understand pop music? When Pink Floyd met Yehudi Menuhin. The Common ground between cricket and Spinal Tap. Irritating scenes in the new Operation Mincemeat movie.  … and birthday patreon guests Ann Kember, Paul Thompson and Ray Roscoe.———Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!———Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we've been mainly talking about....Could The Smile be the first side-project to eclipse the mothership?Is the kitchen the place we mainly listen to music these days?Bob Neuwirth - the man who helped Dylan become DylanVangelis - the man whose music was more famous than the filmWhy do American newspapers make pop records sound as dull as set books?Here's friend of the pod Owen Parker.https://www.owenparker.co.uk-----------------Make a pact to make better coffee. If you haven’t tried Pact Coffee yet, we’ll help you get started with 50% off your first and third order when you create a new Pact Plan.Go to https://www.pactcoffee.com/Create your flexible coffee subscription.Enter the code YOUREAR at checkout.And get speciality coffee, through your letterbox.-----------------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Entertainments, thrills and diversions at the end of the rock and roll seaside pier this week include … Things we want to see in a Bob Dylan museum. Why the upcoming Spinal Tap sequel fills us with excitement and dread in equal measure. The pub in Cornwall that Vogue magazine tried to sue.  Is ‘Exile’ the best Stones album or just their most fashionable? And a new book about Nellcôte – “urchins living in wealth and splendour”.   The brief return of the Stackwaddy game - Springsteen or Taylor Swift lyric? YOU be the judge!  The fizzing cacophony of the Smash Hits office. Why do most TV series (apart from Breaking Bad) start well and fizzle out? A trailer for ‘The Curious Chronicles of Villa Nellcôte’ by Geir Hornes here …http://www.nellcotechronicles.com--------- Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!---------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dazzling super trouper of gentle enquiry is trained this week upon:- Our recent encounter with John Lydon – his high viz shirt, his smoking habit and his usefully commercial righteous indignation about the upcoming Danny Boyle-directed ‘Pistol’ TV series. Why Spinal Tap was a blessing and a curse for their real-life drummer Ric Parnell (RIP). The magnificent bucolic frolic held in the memory of the Old Grey Whistle Test producer Mike Appleton. The sad fate of Jackie Wilson. The “pleasant illness” of record collecting. Musicians who died onstage. Why comedians might start to need bodyguards The curious meaning of a “stone fox chase”.----------Make a pact to make better coffee. If you haven’t tried Pact Coffee yet, we’ll help you get started with 50% off your first and third order when you create a new Pact Plan.Go to https://www.pactcoffee.com/Create your flexible coffee subscription.Enter the code YOUREAR at checkout.And get speciality coffee, through your letterbox.----------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Folk deity, songwriter and festival figurehead, Kate Rusby was raised on Planxty and De Dannan but staged a rebellion with Smash Hits and “storytelling songs” by A-ha. High in the mix in this splendid pod are “people who sing like a bird”, Nanci Griffith, Nic Jones’ Penguin Eggs, being on Top Of The Pops with Ronan Keating, “2p bus rides anywhere in Yorkshire”, Lyle Lovett, stage fright in Hyde Park, winning a folk competition aged 15, Dan Tyminski as George Clooney and why she’s evangelical about Bob Fox and Stu Luckly. 30th Anniversary album …https://www.amazon.co.uk/30-Happy-Returns-Kate-Rusby/dp/B09VPMYB1F Tour dates …https://katerusby.com/gigs/ Underneath the Stars Festival …https://underneaththestarsfest.co.uk/ https://katerusby.com/ @katerusbyTickets for Word In The Park on Saturday June 18th in London here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word In Your Attic before the rest of the world - alongside a whole lot more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

… which may or may not feature Noel Coward, Slade, the KLF and the Spice Girls. Other key items in pursuit of entertainment this week include:- When did British pop turn female? The glorious notion that boyfriends who don’t work out are “Near Mrs”. The best band this decade! (clue: it’s Wet Leg). The endlessly rewatchable qualities of Moneyball and The Big Short. Cary Grant: “All men want to be Cary Grant? I want to be Cary Grant!” The singular magic of the Hot Club of Cowtown. Who invented the term “rock and roll”? Who bought a song called Real Ugly Woman from the teenage Leiber & Stoller?  Band members who slept with each other. Alan Freed being sued by Moondog. And the certifiable fact that only one person was ever better as a solo artist than in their original band (and we name him).-------------------------------Make a pact to make better coffee. If you haven’t tried Pact Coffee yet, we’ll help you get started with 50% off your first and third order when you create a new Pact Plan.Go to https://www.pactcoffee.com/Create your flexible coffee subscription.Enter the code YOUREAR at checkout.And get speciality coffee, through your letterbox. --------------------------------Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!--------------------------------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

White-hot topics examined this week include:- The sweeping return of Britpop (Shed Seven, Reverend and the Makers, how did they get so huge?) Has Nick Mason won Pink Floyd? Has Liam Gallagher won Oasis? Record shops that shaped our lives like the Record Bar in Wakefield. The amazing Nick Cave merchandise range (now encompassing tea-sets, crockery, tiles, wallpaper, jewellery and “the Warren Ellis Pure Exploitation Egg Cup”). What Frank Sinatra claimed was a “filthy Communist lie”.Is there a better chronicler of the shades of middle age than Nick Lowe? Can the current Little Feat line-up really be called Little Feat? Acts that stand for something. Happy 40th birthday to Moon Zappa’s Valley Girl! Is there a more irritating adjective than “awesome”? ‘Dogs with fleas, allergies/A book of Greek antiquities …’ Plus birthday patron John Montagna gets to call a meeting. --------------------------------Make a pact to make better coffee. If you haven’t tried Pact Coffee yet, we’ll help you get started with 50% off your first and third order when you create a new Pact Plan.Go to https://www.pactcoffee.com/Create your flexible coffee subscription.Enter the code YOUREAR at checkout.And get speciality coffee, through your letterbox. --------------------------------Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!--------------------------------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among the key questions being booted round the block this week in hot pursuit of entertainment:- Why is the billing of the Rolling Stones as just “Stones” on the current tour posters a monstrous affront to human decency? Why are Mozart and PG Wodehouse “like two peas in a pod”? Is there a better literary simile than “the drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded like GK Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin”? Would pub rock, punk and the ‘80s club boom have ever happened if it hadn’t been for the mighty Time Out?   What’s the howling error in all the Battle of Britain movies? And what pitiful fee did Yvonne Elliman choose to accept instead of royalties for the Jesus Christ Superstar album? And birthday patron guest Stephen Lambe has a couple of questions for the panel.  ----------"Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear to get up a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!"----------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world... and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.