Word In Your Ear

Jon Savage detested the UK’s mid-‘70s hits with a vengeance, “records so bad they made you want to strangle every deejay on Radio One, especially Dave Lee Travis”. Which is why he’s compiled ‘Jon Savage’s 1976: Something Was Going To Happen’, 24 ground-breaking tracks released the same year that paved the way to the future. He looks back here from his home in Anglesey at the thrill of hearing them the first time aged 22, the many highlights including …

… hilarious memories of the nauseating Jeans On, Fernando, No Charge, Combine Harvester and Save Your Kisses For Me

… and his undying love for Eddie and the Hot Rods, Pere Ubu, Candi Station, Burning Spear, Miami and the Flamin’ Groovies

… cheap Ronco and K-Tel compilations and Radio One’s stranglehold on popular taste

… what happened at parties when you took off Steely Dan and played the Ramones

… “reggae records never seem to date”

… seeing the Runaways at the Roundhouse and the Clash at Fulham Town Hall with the future Poly Styrene

… the first review he ever had published

… the early ‘70s ‘underground’ - psychedelia, prog, metal, glam, reggae and disco

… and hunting for records at One Stop, Dobells and Harlequin.

Order copies of Jon Savage’s 1976 album here: https://www.acerecords.co.uk/jon-savages-1976-something-was-going-to-happen

And look out for Jon’s brilliant books, among them
England’s Dreaming (about to be republished with a new Derek Jarman cover), Teenage and 1966.
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The two-man conversational canoe paddles the rock and roll tideway, stopping off this week at …

… Van Morrison’s set-opener is Kidney Stew Blues by Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson. Do people have to play their big hits?

… what’s the key ingredient in success?

... “all great albums automatically have great sleeves. Bar one!”

… does Beyonce have a horsefly named after her? Is there a Jerry Garcia wood roach? A Sting tree-frog?

… U2’s new album cover is an Abbey Road pastiche. So … is this their swansong?

… “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”

… Elvis, Stones, psychedelia, Be Bop Deluxe, power pop, punk, Pete Doherty: rock stars in ‘statement’ ties

… the many ways Songs In The Key Of Life was a masterpiece

… plus “fibrous weaves, over-stuffed loons”, the Plimsouls, the Roaring Boys, Josh Rouse and birthday guest James Ewen.
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While Mark Ellen visits his Scottish estates, David Hepworth and Alex Gold keep the home fires burning with a wide-ranging conversation, taking in:

•⁠ ⁠why every band containing a pair of brothers seems to inevitably succumb to fraternal warfare

•⁠ ⁠how Ed Sheeran found himself caught in the cross-fire between a multi-millionaire and a bunch of support acts keen not to get caught on the wrong side of a social media war

•⁠ ⁠the fine line that divides a British cheese from a motorway service area

•⁠ ⁠what are the best cases of “mailbox money” in show business?

•⁠ ⁠does anybody else think gigs finish too early?
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A whole new format we’ve invented for people who’ve been guests before and were so entertaining we wanted them back. So we’ve devised some random questions to spark a few memories and revelations. First up, Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders, touring the UK this autumn, who looks back here at his early life before he “went to L.A. to quote-unquote make it”. You’ll love this as much as we did, especially …

… the Beatles song he knew he’d understand when he was older

… his teenage band rehearsal when the drummer got a hammer in his head

… the rock star he always wanted to be

… what happens when you wear the bug-infested cap you find on a bus

… DJ Carl ‘Weird Beard’ Markert burping in Pepsi commercials on WAKY Radio

… Gregg Turner and the Angry Samoans – “bad songs in bad taste”

… things he can still recite from childhood

… the best use of music in a movie

… how arch-rival Norrie Paramor made George Martin even richer

… and the greatest B-side ever written.

Plus English teacher Mrs Atlas and his deathless crush on Mimi Babcock.

Long Ryders tickets here … thelongryders.com/tour
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“Good hair, good shoes, something to say” were the requirements of Indie Sleaze whose vanguard lit up the fading music press in the first decade of the 21st Century – acts like Franz Ferdinand, the Rakes, the Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. Janine Warren saw the Strokes in Camden in 2001 and life took a whole new direction. Her book ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect’ looks back at old-school rock PR, unmanageable bands, and the summit and collapse of the last scene she thinks we’ll ever see. You’ll enjoy …

… Morrissey at St George’s Hall, Blackburn

… deejaying at Liquidation in Liverpool playing psychedelia and Northern Soul

… the impossible task of being Pete Doherty’s PR: “like sand running through your fingers”

… the day its editor realised the NME was doomed

… the indie dilemma: wanting fame and publicity while appearing not to care

… the rise of Arctic Monkeys, the first big digital success story

… the financial crash, big label panic, illegal file-share and other woes of the 2010 music business

… why rock scenes are a thing of the past

… and the greatest Indie Sleaze record ever made.

Order copies of ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect: the Last Indie Music Scene 2000-2010’ here:
https://www.roughtrade.com/product/janine-warren-foreword-by-alex-kapranos/the-world-was-a-mess-but-his-hair-was-perfect-the-last-indie-music-scene-2000-2010?algolia_query_id=5510672a106c0f77be3b364fe1f570ce&algolia_object_id=57550933459275&algolia_index=shopify_prod_products&algolia_position=
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