Word In Your Ear

How can you not love the Divine Comedy whose inspirations include Tom Lehrer and “Landfill Indie”? And Neil Hannon wrote music for Wonka, Father Ted and the IT Crowd. There’s a new album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, and a tour in October and all bases are covered in this conversation from Kildare, these among them …  … seeing U2 at Croke Park “and feeling as though I’d won the Wonka Golden Ticket”. … favourite bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s - Pixies, Sugarcubes, Sonic Youth and Ride.… the miserably cancelled Father Ted musical and how he’s recycled the songs he wrote for it. … a research trip to an Indie Disco with Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian.  … how it feels to record at Abbey Road.  … his teenage band inventing new words to R.E.M songs in an Enniskillen youth club. … how new songs begin.  … supporting Carter USM and Suede, “the moment I first felt like a pop star”. … Mar-A-Lago, a childhood trip to London and further melancholia on his new album Rainy Sunday Afternoon.… rocks on the street in Derry en route to Primary School during the Troubles. … Hepworth and Ellen appearing on a Duckworth Lewis album - “nudging and nurdling!” … his first stab at “witty pseudo-intellectual lyrics”. … “never leave your tour bus, be rehearsed before you start rehearsals” and other ways touring saves money. … and the five songs he always plays.Divine Comedy tickets here: https://thedivinecomedy.com/livePre-order Rainy Sunday here: https://lnk.to/RainySundayFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train home.” She was 17. In this podcast she tells us the story of the one of the fastest career ascents on record which stops off at … … an open-mic night with a girl who cut up newspaper – “what happened to her?” … Basingstoke alumni –Tanita Tikaram, Jane Austen, Liz Hurley … … ignoring Wham! in favour of Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits. … the lure of school theatre groups – “a skive, you could basically be arty and smoke”. … “Ringo Starr gave me an award!” … supporting Warren Zevon and Jonathan Richman - and John Martyn (with Tracy Chapman). … the faint absurdity of promoting Twist In My Sobriety on Kids TV. … “when you’re young, you’re adaptable”. … mourning the loss of mainstream music. … a summer spent miming on European pop TV shows. … the thrill of hearing Ancient Heart was Top Ten when playing the Cambridge Folk Festival – “they all thought, that’s one of us in the charts!”  … and today’s imbalance between new music and nostalgia. Order Tanita Tikaram tickets here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/live/ Order Liar: Love Isn’t A Right here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/music/Find out how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bob Mould, whose records with Hüsker Dü had such impact on Nirvana and Pixies, is back on tour again, both solo and with a band. “I’ve built this tiny soap box - and if you don’t like it, it’s been nice knowing you!” He talks to us from San Francisco about … … March 30 1979: “the day that changed my life” … over-refreshment on the bus to see Rush and Aerosmith, aged 16 … the influence of Hüsker Dü on Nirvana, Pixies and My Bloody Valentine – “it’s a game of hot potato. YOU take this sound now!” … seeing the Ramones opening for Iggy Pop – “simplistic on the surface but I got all their ‘60s pop references” … the art of the three-song set-opener … playing Buzzcocks and Ventures covers in ‘three-two’ bars … opening for the Foo Fighters, playing for 100,00 people – and for crowds wearing masks during Covid … “the more the production, the less the spontaneity” … visual clues playing solo to let the audience know where the beat is … “I’m one of those others”: inter-song riffs about politics, protest and oppression Order Bob Mould tickets here: https://bobmould.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Damping down the wildfires of rock and roll news this week we focus on the following … … Oasis, Taylor Swift and Coldplay and the new age of Winner Takes All … did Bob Dylan write a song with Gene Simmons, advertise lingerie or appear on a telethon with Harry Dean Stanton? … movies that need making eg the Molly Drake Story, the Rock And Roll Mitford Sisters (Pattie, Jenny and Paula Boyd) … surely what makes the rock business ‘unfair’ are the people spending the money on it? … is the Golden Age of TV over? … Paul Weller’s magnificent Find El Dorado and the songwriters he’s rebooting - Willie Griffin, Bobby Charles, Duncan Browne, Eamon Friel … a JR Hartley moment: Brian Protheroe taking his grandson to watch his album being re-mastered at Abbey Road … ‘Programmes made for older viewers always have a lot of green in them’ … will we ever get another comedy record? … why did we love Succession, Breaking Bad, the Queen’s Gambit and Six Feet Under yet have no burning desire to ever watch them again? … how 200 Go-Betweens box-sets came with books from the late Grant McLennan’s library signed by Robert Forster … ‘Never glad confident morning again!’ … new acronyms – RIYL, anyone? … do any new TV comedies merit an Xmas Special? ... plus the Trump Awards, main character syndrome, Black Pudding Bertha (the Queen of Northern Soul) and birthday guest Ed Newman on box-set addiction – “this way madness lies!”Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Weller has just covered it on his new album. Morrissey played it to Noel Gallagher who took the idea and ran with it. What explains the enduring appeal of a record that stalled at number 22 all those years ago? Actor/musician Brian Protheroe doesn’t know but he’s certainly grateful that it’s being reissued once again. His story takes us back to:…the days when young musicians hitch-hiked to London…the way the sun shone on the day “Sgt Pepper” came out…when Soho was a village and an out of work actor could afford to live in Covent Garden…when being dumped by a girl could inspire that actor to diarise his daily routine…when the jazzman who played the solo on the record couldn’t remember it for “TOTP”…how it feels to take your grandson to Abbey Road to watch your album being remastered.Pre-order the Chrysalis Red reissue of the first Brian Protheroe album: https://brianprotheroe.lnk.to/PNBFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Other, weaker podcasts may take the summer off. Not this one.…the story of Jerry Garcia’s alligator strat, Paul McCartney’s violin bass and the instrument Peter Frampton thought had gone forever…the long story of Terry Reid, who turned down Led Zeppelin, and the golden afternoon when he was the most charismatic figure in roc…the real reason why you wouldn’t have wanted to be at Keith Richards’ place on that day in 1967…why there’s nothing more boring than hedonismMick Jagger’s 1967 affidavit is here: https://www.ewbankauctions.co.uk/20250821M1-lot-4008-The-Rolling-Stones-typed-documents-that-appear-to-relate-the-infamous-Redlands?auctionFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlinFriend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was Springsteen’s last chance saloon and spoken to the people who were there to put together the story of how it was all done.….the lucky break that came when the boss’s son went to a Springsteen show….the man who played on Bruce Springsteen’s greatest record and then left….how Springsteen learned that the way to make a live-sounding record was not to record it live….the reconnecting of 70s rock with the great American rock & roll of the 50s…the thinking behind one of the few album covers deserving of the adjective “iconic”…what happened when Steve Van Zandt told the Brecker Brothers what to play….the fundamental difference between American and British musicTonight In Jungleland: The Making Of Born To Run: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tonight-Jungleland-Making-Born-Run/dp/0385551533Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jah Wobble - touring in October - is outstanding company and rattles on here like a steam train, sparking off at tangents in a brilliant, barely steerable monologue with a crackling cast of characters. It’s not often a podcast gets a visitor mid-recording who says, “I’ve put more poison in - but the good news is, there’s nothing in your traps!” Here you will find … … an afternoon with Anthony Hopkins … the time Ginger Baker got the wrong dessert - “a bowl of rhubarb went flying” … East End violence: the Whitechapel firm v the Mile End mob … why bands are like short-order cooks … his first gig with Public Image – teargas, barricaded in the dressing-room and the head of security getting kicked in the throat … and his second gig – “someone threw a frozen pig’s head and it lay there looking balefully up at me” … Wilko Johnson (“a caged tiger”) and Lee Brilleaux tying his shoelaces to the mic lead … Bob Marley at the Lyceum and how Aston Barrett changed the game … tour managers whose metal briefcases have a cosh and a pepper spray … onstage exorcisms with the Invaders Of The Heart … John Lydon meeting Arthur Brown, the Heavy Metal Kids, Woody Woodmansey and the man with six fingers in Get Carter … and his community music project ‘Tuned In’ at Merton Arts Space, Wimbledon Library.  Order tickets here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/13218-jah-wobble/calendarFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a widely accepted view of the relationship between Elvis and his manager Tom Parker, the one sustained by the recent Baz Luhrmann movie, but a new and fascinating archive of unseen letters makes you see it differently: it was warmer, deeper and infinitely more complicated. Peter Guralnick – rock book royalty! - met Parker towards the end of his life and has just published ‘The Colonel And The King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley and the Partnership That Rocked The World’. He talks to us here about separating the myth from reality which touches on … ... overturning the conventional wisdom “that Elvis was the puppet, Sam Phillips the genius and Tom Parker the manipulator”. ... how theirs was “a partnership of equals” – though Elvis was in charge, not the Colonel. … how Presley’s “security risk” – carrying guns and drugs across borders – was a factor in his refusal to accept world tour offers. … two men powerfully motivated by money – Elvis liked spending it, Parker liked losing it. … humour, charisma, intelligence, a force of nature: how Parker’s letters paint a different picture. … “he was an entirely self-invented man. And there was no-one more American – which was ironic as he was Dutch.” … the full story of the Elvis TV Christmas Special. … how Parker grossly undersold Presley’s catalogue rights to RCA in 1973 for $5.4m. … the Colonel’s Honesty game – “think of the number I’m thinking of and I’ll pay you if you’re right!” … how Parker tried to curb Presley’s “smutty humour” and sell his “James Dean enigma” to the film industry after Dean’s death in 1955. … how the only time he didn’t carefully manage an Elvis appearance was the Steve Allen Show hound dog debacle. … why Parker couldn’t control either his or Presley’s self-destructive habits. … his gambling addiction and a miserable 72-hour stint in a Vegas casino. … and would the first internationally-known artist’s manager have been as famous had he not called himself “the Colonel”? Order ‘The Colonel And the King’ here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-guralnick/the-colonel-and-the-king/9780316399449/?lens=little-brownFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lowering the magnet of curiosity into the scrapyard of news and seeing what’s attracted, which includes … … does anyone still write satirical songs? … Four Sides of the Circle, Margaret On The Guillotine, From Here To Infirmary … real or fictitious working album titles? … the rarity of hearing new music without knowing what the musician looks like  … the Strokes, the Faces and other confident gangs you wanted to join … Poisoning Pigeons In The Park, the Vatican Rag and the moment Tom Lehrer claimed was the death of satire … the dwindling need to feel ‘contemporary’ - Blur, Primal Scream and the Libertines have made one album in the last ten years … when MTV went ‘lifestyle’ … how ‘a 60 year-old rock star’ still feels young … bring on the ‘90s package tour! … “Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?” … and honorary mentions of Chappell Roan, Blink 182, Henry Kissinger, Wet Leg, Randy Newman, PP Arnold and ‘Kicking Pigeons’ by Spunge.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.