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 Hi...
Ed Tudor Pole – singer, actor, serial showman – saw the pop and punk wars as ‘pure theatre’.
Ed Tudor Pole entered punk rock from stage school and always felt he was playing a part. After being hired to act in the Great Rock’N’Roll Swindle, he formed Tenpole Tudor and had a brief and dramatic moment in the sun, all recorded in his rollicking memoir ‘The Pen Is Mightier.’ He talks here about … … his “quite posh” ancestry and a great-grandfather bankrupted by the Wall Street Crash. … a “Damascene conversion” to the Rolling Stones and ten hours in the burning sun at their Hyde Park show, aged 14. … being at RADA with Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton and Juliet Stevenson. … The Great Rock’N’Roll Swindle audition and the “really horrid” Nancy Spungen’s striptease. … how everyone’s related to Edward 111. … the secret of a One-Man Show – adopt the voice of Will Hay and “let the audience do the work!” … why “most actors are awful people and all crippled in some way” and his time in theatre was “like being a cow in a field of sheep”. … how Stiff’s Dave Robinson hated punk and wanted Tenpole Tudor to be a novelty act. … three months with five acts in a coach on the Stiff Tour. … how the success of Swords Of A Thousand Men didn’t affect their ticket sales - “it was bought by 350,000 12 year-old boys who weren’t old enough to go to gigs”. … why the Tenpole Tudor split broke his heart. … as Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear … surprise paydays like the use of Who Killed Bambi? in the Zero Day soundtrack to accompany Robert De Niro’s nervous breakdown. Order ‘The Pen Is Mightier’ here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pen-Mightier-Autobiography-Punk-Rocker/dp/0857306057 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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39:03
AI’s Word In Your Ear theme tune (!!), the four stages of showbiz & taking kids to concerts
Scanning the rock and roll ether with our patent heat-seeking Ripple-Detector®️ to see what rings the bell. Which this week includes … … how reformed ‘90s pop groups all look like Paul Whitehouse characters from the Fast Show. … the mutual agony of parents taking kids to concerts. … “Tap! Tap! Tap!”, the “gacked up” sound of the Heartbreakers’ at work in Fort Petty. … “Two old voices crack through the static/ Vinyl souls dissected so erratic”: AI’s nerve-jangling interpretation of Word In Your Ear – in song! … the four stages of showbiz … and three stages of hearing music.… the miracle birth of Don Henley’s ‘The Boys Of Summer’. … why we tend to run the other way when people insist we’d like something. … records that make sense 40 years later – and a message from Brian Eno. … EMF and the graffiti, Carter USM rugby tackling Phillip Schofield, Radiohead playing ‘My Iron Lung’: bands “too cool” for the Smash Hits Poll Winners’ Party. … how simpler music appeals as you get older. Plus the new Patreon roll-call and, from Les, the unsettling AI-generated tribute to Word in Your Ear: https://suno.com/song/ba364f5a-1b39-4d77-8f5b-bcdb9bad6760?sh=N3TMfcz8YUIxPIylFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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39:22
Hearing 45 year-old records you’d never played & the least likely-looking person to become a rock star
The super-trouper of scrutiny scans this week’s events and lands upon … … the man who’s played on 21,000 records. … how Joni Mitchell is still stirring it up aged 81 and why we love her for it. ... the impact of the stadium circuit on rock festivals. … the longest-surviving group in the world – bowing out at Glastonbury after 66 years! … “fake indignation” on social media. … the 40th anniversary of Dead Or Alive’s stunning You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). … the most unlikely looking person to have ever become a rock star. … the serial winner of the Bass Player Who Most Resembles An Old Testament Prophet contest. … why a record untouched for four decades – eg Day Of Radiance by electronic zither master Laraaji - seems to have matured like a fine wine. … how Donna Summer’s I Feel Love was a new kind of music, one that made you one want endless repetition rather than change. … “Kevin Ayers drank a pint of Pernod then drove me down a mountain”. Plus birthday guest Avi Chaudhiri on the connection between Buddy Holly, Mike Mills and Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https:/www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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42:06
What Kate Mossman discovered about rock’s elder statesmen
Kate’s an old pal from our days at Word magazine. She was on the staff for six years before heading off to the New Statesman and has just put out a collection of the sizzling and revelatory profiles she wrote for us, them and the Observer about a particular sector of the musical landscape for whom she’s always carried a torch. As she wonders in ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters with Rock Royalty’, “how is it that in the presence of wrinkly rock stars twice my age I sometimes think I’m meeting … me?” This tremendous exchange is full of hard-won insight about the mind-set of musicians and stops off at the following … … the fascinating appeal of rock stars’ vulnerability, giant egos, oddness and obsessions – “they’re often frozen at the emotional age they became famous”. … growing up with Britpop, the decade when “teenagers weren’t allowed to like anything”. … things women notice and men often miss: the difference between male and female journalists. … being driven down a mountain by Kevin Ayers after he’d drunk a pint of Pernod. … why she’s so drawn to the critically unfashionable acts like Bruce Hornsby, Kiss and Terence Trent D’Arby. … what she learnt from interviewing Joni Mitchell’s old boyfriend Cary Raditz. … why the best route to understanding any rock star is via their parents. … her obsession with “the shamefully unfashionable” Queen, aged 11, and the appeal of these self-styled “fun ambassadors” against the grating irony of the ‘90s. … the “charming yet awful” Paul O’Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra handing out $50,000 bundles of cash to the homeless. … why musicians are more interesting when they’ve peaked. … “the cartoon characters” of Shaun Ryder and John Lydon. … “the only people at Jeff Beck’s interment were his wife and Johnny Depp”. … and being refused an interview by Janelle Monae for not being sufficiently “queer or black”. Order ‘Men Of A Certain Age’ here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645 Tickets for Kate’s launch event on April 3:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/men-of-a-certain-age-kate-mossman-with-alexis-petridis-tickets-1270535970289Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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42:56
How John Harris and his son found a life-changing connection through music
John Harris is an old pal from our days in the music press. You might remember him from Sounds, the NME and Select (which he edited) and he’s been one of the mainstays of the Guardian ever since, writing mostly about pop culture and politics. When his son James was diagnosed with autism and, looking for ways to connect with him and help his development, John began playing him various types of music. The results were life-changing for the family and recorded in his moving and revelatory book ‘Maybe I’m Amazed - A Story Of Love And Connection In 10 Songs’. With autism, John points out, “you can see the trees but seeing the wood is harder”. This fascinating conversation involves … … have we misread the eccentricities of John Coltrane or Van Morrison, Prince, David Byrne and Gary Numan? … how many musicians are outsiders in an industry requiring them to be the opposite of what they feel capable of. … how people with autism hear songs differently each time and “music is an endlessly replenishable source of wonder”. … why so many lead guitarists are loners. .. how James has perfect pitch and hears everything – birdsong, lawn-mowers, police sirens – as notes. And how music taught him to sight-read. … vivid, unforgettable, emotional recollections of the moment you first heard records – in John’s case Sir Duke, Baker Street, Strange Town. … “blokes in black denim jackets drinking Becks”: the allure of working for the West End rock press. … “all records are novelty records when you’re young”. … how 50-year-olds marvel at Spotify and 20-year-olds at vinyl. … the artistic rise and fall of Britpop. Order John’s highly recommended book ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maybe-Im-Amazed-Story-Connection-ebook/dp/B0D6B7H5NYFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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