Word In Your Ear

Peter Hammill has spent nearly six decades building the most devoted following imaginable – Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Mark E Smith among them. ‘Rock And Role’ tells his invigorating story, beautifully illustrated with photos, cuttings, artwork and memorabilia. Author Joe Banks looks back at his life, impact and captivating way with words, and stops off at … … the value of looks and charisma in the days when labels hadn’t the faintest idea of the future … how Hammill “created a world to live inside and broadcast from” … psychedelic cabaret with wolf masks and blood capsules … meeting Hammill’s muse and former girlfriend Alice: “50 years later, each still think the other one left them” … “songs that ask the big questions about life” … discovering VDGG in 1984 (via Marillion) and piecing together their story in the days before the internet … public school, Gilbert & Sullivan and the Hallelujah Chorus … the influence of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers on Genesis’ Supper’s Ready … his plans with Mark E Smith and how Bowie had every new album delivered to him all his life … Charisma, Tony Stratton-Smith and the freedom to experiment … the intensity of his following in Japan and Italy: “there’s no such thing as a casual Hammill fan”. Order ‘Rock And Role’ here: https://burningshed.com/store/kingmakerHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deck the halls with cheese and Bolly! … and a dish of the usual rock and roll distraction which this week throws the following logs on the fire … … the greatest Xmas single ever? … Metal Machine Music, Cut the Crap, Two Sides of the Moon … can panned records ever be rehabilitated? … how Roxy Music invented ‘rock brand-value’ and turned it into pictures … Joe Ely and the romance of songs about the American landscape … Rob Reiner and why that scene in When Harry Met Sally is the greatest marriage of people and ideas … the real-life moment that inspired Spinal Tap … “most American pop music is about geography” … "I keep my fingernails long so they click when I play the piano" … Jordan Carl Wheeler Davis? Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr? Mystery acts playing Wembley Arena … the British think America is “fabulous and otherworldly”. Americans think Britain is “quaint” … plus the magnificent McGarrigles’ Christmas Hour, farewell Hofner and we name the Finnegan’s Wake of rock music!Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com.wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beloved Australian songwriter Paul Kelly has just turned 70 – “it sounds Biblical, threescore years and ten.” He looks back here at the road he took to get there, from early days in Adelaide to the pub circuit to his catalogueof stirring and eloquent songs about the big issues of life and love, as Neil Finn says, “with not a trace of pretence or fakery”. You’ll find … … the moment he felt he’d arrived … the story of How To Make Gravy – “a Christmas song with no chorus about a man in prison” – and Rita Wrote A Letter, its ghostly sequel … early records he loved – Tommy Roe, Peter Paul & Mary, Yes, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, the “chaotic” Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong … life on the Melbourne pub circuit playing Neil Young, Gram Parsons and Hank Williams … touring with Leonard Cohen – “a masterclass in performance, like a prayer, a ritual, like a Vaudevillian Rabbi” .. the storytelling songs of the Stanley Brothers, the Louvin Brothers and Buck Owens ... the great Calypso cricket tradition and the track he wrote about Shane Warne … “the odd-sock drawer”: the file in his computer where he stores early sketches … I’m In Love With A Blue Frog, the five chords that underpinned 50 years of songwriting! … the intricacy of Neil Finn’s impressionistic lyrics … and the things you hear in your songs when someone else sings them. Order Paul Kelly’s ‘Seventy’ here: https://paulkelly.lnk.to/seventyHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Williams was a teenage activist singing We Shall Overcome at protest marches and she’s taken up the cudgels again on her new album World’s Gone Wrong. She talks to us here from her home in Nashville about … … early inspirations - Dylan, Donovan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, Buffy Sainte-Marie – and her love of Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake and ‘60s British folk … playing Delta blues for tips at Andy’s in Bourbon Street in 1971 … her sudden favourite Beatle switch – “Paul … then George!” … her Dad’s Ray Charles and Hank Williams records … seeing jazz pianist Sweet Emma Barrett in Preservation Hall in the ‘60s and Hendrix at a New Orleans sports arena … the effect of her stroke in 2020 and having to re-learn the guitar – “I tend to write in G now as it’s the easiest chord to play” … the allure of medieval murder ballads, “far too dark” for most Americans ... songs she always plays live (one by Neil Young) … finding her tribe in Nashville – “when I arrived people asked, ‘What church do you go to?’ not ‘Do you go to church’?” … being “a quarter Welsh” … and the song she wrote about her president in 2018 – 'We have slow-danced with the devil/ We have swallowed the liquid of his lies’ - and the new version she’s just recorded. 2026 tickets here: https://www.lucindawilliams.com/tour Order World’s Gone Wrong here: https://30tgrs.ffm.to/worldsgonewrongHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shock, horror, public outcry and moments of moral turpitude plus with the usual news, rants and old hokum, which this week alights upon … … why Gene Simmons thinks “musicians are treated worse than slaves” ... the high noon of Madonna and her foil-wrapped Sex book … is Rufus Wainwright pop’s most successful nepo-baby? … how CMAT forced Bertie Ahern to pull out of the Irish Presidency … the Stackwaddy Quiz: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You? Getting Killed? Sinister Grift? Pitchfork Album of the Year or an entry in the Berlin Film Festival? … from Mods & Rockers to illegal raves: pop scandals that hit the headlines … can we blame Gap for the moment kids started to dress the same? … was the death of Top Of The Pops the end of the pop consensus? … Fela Kuta, arrested 200 times … Jackson Browne, “never far from tragedy” … is ‘70s funk and soul the best driving music? … 42 year-old hears Hejira and the Stooges’ Metallic KO for the first time … plus Tetsu Yamauchi RIP, David Sylvian in a converted ashram in New Hampshire and birthday guest Sandra Austin. CMAT’s Euro-Country (which skewered Bertie Ahern): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz8_HxITJF0&list=RDnz8_HxITJF0&start_radio=1 Dave Brubeck ‘playing’ Golden Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qs1J612nZsHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.