

Word In Your Ear
Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 25, 2014 • 1h 6min
Word Podcast 220
Legendary artist manager, entrepreneur and speaker on all things music business Simon Napier-Bell talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his new book “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay” (the dodgy business of popular music) in front of a packed house at The Islington. Includes: Lottie Collins, Wham, Irvin Berlin, The Beatles, Japan, the Yardbirds, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, One Direction, Pet Shop Boys and just about everybody else in the music business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 5, 2014 • 1h 6min
Word Podcast 219
Includes: world debut of enthralling new parlour game Rock Poker; Neil Finn’s Two-Way Family Favourites; the two tribes of Adam Ant Nation; Justin Timberlake’s moveable feast; why long-form TV is a sinister plot to steal our lives; a pathetic attempt to read a whole paragraph of Mark Ellen’s book “Rock Stars Stole My Life” without laughing; plusuncalled for interjections from Fraser Lewry’s amazing wi-fi rabbit and your questions answered. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mar 10, 2014 • 1h 2min
Word Podcast 218 - Where's The Crisps?
March 2014: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry convene over cakes to discuss: why all rock docs are legally bound to feature Bono, the touching story of Harry Nilsson's last marriage, what Jimi Hendrix really got up to in Marrakesh, whether Ginger Baker is in fact a bit of a bore, Fraser's day trip to North Korea and the book what Mark wrote. And Vikings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 22, 2012 • 20min
Word Podcast 217 - with Bob Harris
Men kicking stars! Smoking on TV! Having to introduce music you didn't like! Getting picked on in public! All this and more in our Whispering Bobcast in which the great man plays 70s Rock Bingo, recalls cramped sessions with the Wailers in tiny continuity studios, the years when he couldn't go out for fear of being set upon by punk rockers, his memories of eating celery with Van Dyke Parks and making friends with John Lennon, his sacking from Radio One, his re-hiring by Radio Two and the launch of a new compilation of live sessions from Old Grey Whistle Test. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 8, 2012 • 20min
Word Podcast 216
This week we're joined by Jude Rogers and Eamonn Forde to kick around the following subjects: the stylistic chasm between Grace Jones and Ed Sheeran at the Jubilee concert, the desirability of Macca finishing with Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, whether Madness playing Our House on top of the Palace was the most spectacular bit of staging ever seen at a pop show, what we have learned from Twitter about Nick Heyward, Richard Coles and "the girls side of the playground", the sounds and smells our children will never know and the big question - do records smell? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 1, 2012 • 21min
Word Podcast 215 - with Chas Hodges
We're joined in the pod by Chas Hodges, who you'll know from such hits as "Gertcha" and "Ain't No Pleasing You". But you ought to also know him from his time in Joe Meek's house band, his stint on tour with the Beatles as a member of Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers, his time with pioneering country-rock band Heads, Hands and Feet and his manifold and honourable contributions to sessions galore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 19, 2012 • 18min
Word Podcast 214 - with Graham Gouldman
Graham Gouldman wrote For Your Love for The Yardbirds, Bus Stop for The Hollies, Tallyman for Jeff Beck, No Milk Today for Herman's Hermits and I"m Not In Love and lots of others for 10cc. He has worked with Kirsty MacColl, Kasenetz-Katz, Andrew Gold, Gary Barlow, The Ramones, Mickie Most, John Paul Jones, Neil Sedaka and the Manchester City FA Cup squad of 1972. He's got a new record coming out called Love & Work. You think we ran out of things to talk about? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 11, 2012 • 23min
Word Shortcast - The Blockheads
Chaz Jankel - co-author of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Sweet Gene Vincent and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - looks back at the rollicking rise of the Blockheads, and Derek "The Draw" Hussey contemplates Ian Dury, the man whose shoes he fills in the current Blockheads line-up. Contains their charming performance of A Little Knowledge, the greatest piece of music recording in Word podcast history, we're saying. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 4, 2012 • 22min
Word Podcast 213
Kate Mossman, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry go through John Peel's Record Collection and ponder what you can tell about personality type from flicking through anyone's accumulated spines. We also wonder whether Alabama Shakes anxiety indicates the impossibility of trying to like things just because other people do, discuss rock's vanishing instruments, and attempt to come up with preferable alternatives to the big Duran Duran/Stereophonics/Paolo Nutini/Snow Patrol Olympic showdown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Apr 27, 2012 • 1h 4min
Word Podcast 212
Over the last week we've welcomed three authors into the pod: Stanley Booth went on the road and down to Muscle Shoals with the Rolling Stones in 1969 and eventually wrote all about it in the ultimate access all areas on tour book, The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones; Paul Charles is one of the UK's leading live music agents and he's also the author of The Last Dance, a new novel set against the background of the Irish showband scene of the 60s; Andrew Martin is a journalist and author who's taken his fascination with railways of all kinds into fiction as well as fact. His new book is Underground Overground, a passenger's history of the tube. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.