Word In Your Ear

… 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.

Among the delights this week:- Pink Floyd’s single for Ukraine (the best peace anthem ever?) and the song Bruce Springsteen played the night Saddam Hussein’s statue came down in Baghdad. A man who has 227 Kiss albums. Warners’ talent scout Andy Wickham (RIP), the house hippy who opened the door for Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Gram Parsons and a-ha (a movie waiting to happen).   The members of Big In Japan (a book and documentary waiting to happen). The snack bar Brimful Of Rasher, the Greek restaurant I Should Be Souvlaki and other sparkling retail puns.   The welcome return of “What gets my goat?” And birthday patron Chuck Loncon on the comedy classics of Kinky Friedman and Bob Newhart. -------- Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox singing the WW1 folk protest song "The Red Viburnum In The Meadow" by St Sofia Cathedral in central Kyiv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYpOrwksgbA Pink Floyd’s video for Hey Hey Rise Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saEpkcVi1d4--------Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th: 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.

Will Smith did something at the Academy Awards which showed what he cared about most - did you notice it too? Our blow-by-blow account of the moment everyone missed. * Plus … a man who has 25 Big Country albums (and other unlikey acts whose records we obsessively collect).* Is there any band still going after 50 years with more original members than Roxy Music?* The enduring joy of Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp! and Night And Day.* And the kind of thing they let you put on an album cover 50 years ago.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.

In which we salute the charismatic Taylor Hawkins – and the magnetic appeal of brothers in arms (Taylor & Dave, Pete and Carl, Bruce and Clarence, John and Paul) - invent some rock and roll retirement homes (Itchycoo Park, Barrytown, In The Land Of Grey And Pink), stage an album sleeve style-off and wonder if ‘80s hair will ever make a comeback. Other things mentioned in despatches include Cruising With Ruben & the Jets, the Wailing Wailers, Broadcast News, Working Girl and whether Strawberry Switchblade and Pete Wylie have their Smash Hits covers on their living room walls. Steve Lamacq’s Drumming Masterclass with Taylor Hawkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwjEc8S0PRoTickets 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 - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Entertaining things subjected to wry and rigorous scrutiny this week include:- * The most bizarre and tenuous rock autobiographies – eg the tell-all revelations of Elvis Presley’s nurse, Primal Scream’s tambourine player, Sinatra’s valet and the girl who made John Lennon a cheese sandwich.* How Roger Daltrey wound up living in a van.* Aimee Mann v Steely Dan and the curious world of support acts.* Would you rather see a “legend” or the next big thing? * The noble tradition of song stealing in reggae. * “Your bus leaves in ten minutes, be under it!” and other inspired ways of dealing with hecklers.  * If you mailed a letter to 'Andy Partridge, Swindon' or 'Rod Stewart, Essex', would they get it?   * And Dolly Parton’s dignified escape from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Plus there’s a ceremonial reading of Bono’s piss-poor poem about Ukraine.  Subscribe 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.

Have you ever heard a band but couldn’t work out where their sound came from? We’re saying: only once. What connects the Sweet’s Blockbuster! to Willie Dixon’s Hoochie Coochie Man? How can Noel Gallagher complain that musicians can’t afford instruments when instruments have never been cheaper? Why is songwriting now like VAR? Has anyone had more preposterous names than the offspring of Grimes and Elon Musk? How did Nile Rodgers transform Let’s Dance? … plus literary theft, smoking in films, Eno’s Music For Airports, Dylan’s new book, NordVPN and the movies you can watch endless times and why (Master And Commander and Brief Encounter among them).Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear or use the code yourear to get 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! And it’s our anniversary! We started our Word In Your Attic Zoomcasts exactly two years ago and we’ve now done 159 of them. Here’s a little taste of what you might have been missing …   Edgar Wrighthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUePw4TUvEY Andy Partridgehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvQiDJ3vwi0 Shamira Ahmedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6nLk50vR6Y Bob Geldofhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ssIPRMrYzU Ian Rankinhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pawySOxKUAk Stewart Leehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7lOJUYSY9c&list=PL4BuS5rDGKiPB8-eIUxSPTbajC-l2FyuE&index=141 Laura Bartonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7815zq9yc&list=PL4BuS5rDGKiPB8-eIUxSPTbajC-l2FyuE&index=93 Alexis Petridishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsKuIjlMBrs Jon Ronsonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqiMN2QKVZE&list=PL4BuS5rDGKiPB8-eIUxSPTbajC-l2FyuE&index=159Subscribe 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.

There’s “pop star good looks” - as opposed to “film star good looks” - and there’s “indie good looks” ... but which acts were a hundred per cent hot? Plus … is there any such thing as an original pop song? How did the Linn Drum make us accept the mechanical? What’s the source of a lot of canned laughter? What was Springsteen’s great act of betrayal? And we explore the benefits of Nord VPN by way of South Korea’s favourite comedy and Peter Sellers and Bernard Cribbins in Two-Way Stretch. And birthday patron Jon Collins gets to call a meeting.Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to nordvpn.com/yourear or use the code yourear to get 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! Maximum pulchritude: the Small Faces and PP Arnold doing Tin Soldier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWTtx_PxPoSubscribe 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.

In which we skip the light fandango through live recordings full of extraneous noise – hecklers on a Lou Reed track, barking dogs on a Joe Henry album, the audience chatter on Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard – remember why Gary Brooker’s voice was so affecting and applaud PJ O’Rourke’s wisdom about the art of childrearing. And turn cartwheels in the direction of a guesthouse run by a member of Horslips, an early sighting of “Little” Stevie Winwood, the Queen track not to play at funerals and a touching encounter with Dave Clark. Plus birthday patron guest Avi Chaudhuri gets to set the agenda. PJ O’Rourke …https://youtu.be/n775HebQKMI?t=197 Joe Henry and barking dog …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0KmtMgiTuo Dylan’s Every Grain Of Sand with barking dog …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPzXz-N1NaMSubscribe 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.