Genuinely ‘iconic’ rock pictures, words we should ban and how Freddie Mercury still makes headlines
Hoary old tales retold – ideally in an Irish accent - and new ones prized from the giddy carousel of rock and roll news which, this week, features … … was there a better stage name than Rick Derringer? … Linda Ronstadt, Ronnie Spector, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other new biopics under construction. … genuinely ‘iconic’ rock images – the Ziggy lightning stipe, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, Elvis dancing in Jailhouse Rock, Dylan and Suze Rotolo in Jones Street … … our old pal Barry McIlheney, his Belfast band Shock Treatment and the time he asked U2 to draw a duck. … the thin wall that separates hilarity and grief. … how TikTok and a 1962 B-side booted the 87-year old Connie Francis. … Banned words! – ‘iconic, circle back, reach out, Ramones-esque, eponymous sophomore effort’ and other clichés that MUST be banished! … “Sgt Pepper: it’s like the Beatles on acid!” … why 80 per cent of the stadium experience is beyond our control. ... how Freddie Mercury still makes headlines beyond the grave. … the real Rikki in ‘Rikki Don’t Lose that Number’. … and when you find yourself at a Springsteen gig next to a Trump supporter. Watch the Barry McIlheney podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjw-6HZWa-EFind 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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48:57
Martha Wainwright - ‘never nervous, always ballsy’ and onstage from the age of eight
Martha Wainwright is a key member of the Wainwright/McGarrigle clan, all of them big favourites of ours. She’s currently on her 20th anniversary tour and looks back here at the first shows she ever saw and played which involves … … growing up in a folk dynasty in Montreal. … the sight of Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen, backing singers on Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man tour, “who made me want to be onstage too”. … the story of ‘Matapedia’, the song Kate McGarrigle wrote when an old boyfriend thought she was her teenage daughter. … her first shows playing Elvis, Dylan and Woody Guthrie songs on the coffeehouse circuit. … singing with her brother Rufus and her cousins with Kate & Anna McGarrigle at folk festivals. … onstage at the Roches’ Christmas shows in New York. … the time her brother stole the show over Emmylou Harris: “I thought I want that kind of attention!” … seeing Pink Floyd’s The Wall in a Montreal hockey stadium, aged 9 – “a very marking experience”. … the songs of her mother’s she always plays: “I’m obsessed with her legacy”. Martha Wainwright 20th Anniversary tour tickets here: https://marthawainwright.com/showsFind 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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24:27
Budgie of Siouxsie And The Banshees started out in nightclub cabaret acts, aged 13
Small boy begins breeding budgerigars in Liverpool, makes enough to buy a drum kit and becomes the power behind Big In Japan, the Slits, the Creatures and Siouxsie and the Banshees. And one half of punk rock’s most famous couples. The immensely engaging Budgie has finally written his memoir, ‘The Absence’, and talks to us from Berlin about … … are bands only as good as their drummers? … Siouxsie, the Ice Queen goth-in-waiting who was actually “a cackling crazy tomboy from Chiselhurst”. … playing Shadows instruments in a nightclub cabaret, aged 13. … the gnawing pain of not being asked to play Live Aid – “we just weren’t part of that all-pals-together-in-the-wonderful word of music”. … “World Exclusive!”: seeing Bill Nighy in a band in the ‘70s singing Rosalita. … the Apache and Wipeout drum patterns in the rhythms of the Slits and Banshees. … in praise of drummers: Bill Buford, Phil Collins, the Glitter Band, Humble Pie’s Jerry Shirley. … the peculiar world of the teenage budgerigar breeder. … the dynamic of the Slits – “Palmolive, off-the-scale crazy”. … ‘You're The Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk’ by Burke Shelley’s Budgie, Humble Pie’s ‘Rockin’ the Fillmore’ and when you only have one cassette in your car and it’s ‘Wonderworld’ by Uriah Heep. … Siouxsie’s Jim Morrison fixation and lack of ambition. … the advantage of being in a band with a girl singer. … and the likelihood of a Banshees’ reunion. Order Budgie’s memoir ‘the Absence’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absence-Memoirs-Banshee-Drummer/dp/1399621564Find 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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41:27
Books rock stars want you to read, sacked drummers and how Dylan spent his birthday
The two-man pedalo of enquiry sets out on the Bank Holiday boating lake of news pausing to consider … … Florence Welch, Dua Lipa and the rise of the rock and roll book club. … the 92 year-old that Bob Dylan supported at the Cascades Amphitheatre, Ridgefield. … the Beatles had 18 drummers! … the sad end to Billy Joel’s tour schedule. … is Hollywood dead? … what’s your relationship with reading if your first experience of literature is dressing up as a wizard on World Book Day? … why is there something unfailingly comic about drummers being fired? … “No nudity! No voluminous outfits!”: Cannes new red carpet ruling. … is Chimes Of Freedom Bob Dylan at ‘peak wordage’? … are books and record sleeves the new antiques, items to furnish a room? … Sherlock Holmes, Hunter S Thompson: Corey Hart of Slipknot’s recommended reading. … and how Springsteen is taunting Trump. Plus Starry Eyed And Laughing, old drummer gags and who the hell’s seen Ne Zha 2 or Mickey 17?Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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38:14
Dylan Jones bangs the drum for 1975, an explosion of talent and creativity
Dylan Jones – writer, former editor of i-D, Arena and GQ - was 15 in 1975 and dressed like Jimmy McCulloch of Wings (“a lot of denim and silk scarves”), a time he thinks had enormous influence on the following five decades. There are many highlights in his latest book ‘1975: The Year The World Forgot’, a lot of them discussed here with David and Mark, including … … the lasting impact of the cover of Patti Smith’s Horses. … the “frightening” Millie Jackson, 50 years ahead of her time. … why Blood On The Tracks was the first middle-aged rock album. … the information black-out and the value of the ‘70s rock press - particularly Street Life – for such experimental music. … how the sarcasm of Steely Dan still feels contemporary – “Donald Trump is a figure they could have made up 50 years ago”. … the three key rhythms of the ‘70s – Fela Kuti’s afro-beat, James Brown’s funk and Klaus Dinger’s Neu!-beat. … the reason Donna Summer’s Love To Love You Baby is 17 minutes long. … how Brian Eno’s accident led to the birth of ambient music. … “writing about pop music allows you to write about anything”. … how the sophistication and intellect of the mid-‘70s was pilloried in Punk’s Year Zero. … the Quiet Storm genre - aka “foreplay music” – from Sade to Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. ... the unrecognised power of the female record-buyer and the sexism of the rock press. … and the greatest record of 1975! Pre-order ‘1975: The Year The World Forgot’ here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/1975-World-Forgot-Dylan-Jones/dp/1408721988Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: 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.
Ireland