Share

cover art for A Rock Snobbery Special plus 50 years of the Old Grey Whistle Test

Word In Your Ear

A Rock Snobbery Special plus 50 years of the Old Grey Whistle Test

Ep. 412
ā€¢

.. where we consider the brave new world in which Rick Astley plays the Smiths, a documentary explores the reasons people detest Kenny G and Rolling Stone rather self-consciously revise their list of the Best 500 Songs Of All Time (should they declare 2001 the new Year Zero and just reset the clock?). And featuring ... worst supergroups, acts who've never put out any cover versions, bands who arrived at the venue but never played and Morrissey answering the phones on Rock Around the Clock.  


Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 729. Justin Hayward ā€“ ā€˜60s package tours, lost profits & the highpoint of the Moody Blues

    28:32||Ep. 729
    Nights In White Satin - 260 million streams on Spotify - is still the central plank in the set Justin Haywardā€™s touring in October. He talks to us here about the first shows he ever saw and played, the ballroom circuit of the mid-ā€™60s remembered in particularly vivid detail and involving the odd burst of song - ā€œMy kind of town, Great Yarmouth is ā€¦!ā€. Along with ā€¦ ā€¦ the appeal of ā€œa Moody Blues crowdā€. ... ā€œName Singer seeks guitar playerā€: the Melody Maker ad that got him into the Marty Wilde band, aged 17. ā€¦ playing a summer season on the same bill as a water feature ā€“ aka the Waltzing Waters. ā€¦ his early band All Things Bright and their Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Coasters setlist. ā€¦ the ā€œonerousā€ publishing deal he signed with Lonnie Donegan that siphoned off the profits of Nights In White Satin. ā€¦ seeing Tommy Cooper at the Bournemouth Pavilion and the Barron Knights at the Locarno in Swindon. ā€¦ ā€œTerry the Pillā€ in Eric Burdonā€™s office. ā€¦ toying with the idea of ā€œa rock version of Dvorakā€. ā€¦ the uncertain fate of Nights In White Satin and the plugger who threatened to resign over it. ā€¦ how Days Of Future Passed was the ā€œDeramic Soundā€ demo record. ā€¦ and the highpoint of the Moody Blues story and their Second Coming. Justin Hayward tickets here: https://justinhayward.com/pages/current-tour-dates https://justinhayward.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 728. Your guided tour of David Bowieā€™s London with Paul Gormanā€™s stories about its key locations

    55:16||Ep. 728
    No musician is more closely associated with London or left more footprints than Bowie, and you can trace its influence on his life and work (and vice versa) through a series of landmarks from the suburbs to the centre. Author and curator Paul Gorman has just published an annotated street-map ā€“ David Bowieā€™s London - listing the places that played a formative role in his world and music, the places he rehearsed, performed, filmed and recorded, the homes of friends and managers, his schools and the addresses where he lived, worked and was photographed, made connections, bought clothes and generally raised the temperature. We talk here about many of those old haunts and the stories attached to them, which includeā€¦ ā€¦ mysterious manager Ralph Horton who got him to change his name to Bowie and then vanished from the face of the earth. ā€¦ the fate of Heddon Street, home of K-West and the Ziggy phone-box.  ā€¦ Marc Bolan refusing to let him sing at an all-night benefit at Middle Earth. ā€¦ ā€œthe Fairy Godmother of the New Romanticsā€ at the WAG Club. ā€¦ when Lionel Bart came to Haddon Hall. ā€¦ Bowie and Steve Marriott auditioning for the Lower Third. ā€¦ how he levered his way into a Fabulous magazine fashion shoot. ā€¦ ā€œthe end of the age of Showbizā€: performing Chim Chim Cher-ee at the Marquee when at a crossroads between rock and roll and cabaret. ā€¦ the magical piano at the Trident Studios. ā€¦ a chance encounter with the otherworldly Vince Taylor whose ā€˜UFO mapā€™ helped inspire the concept of Ziggy Stardust. ā€¦ the legend of Mr Fish, creator of the man-dress on the cover of The Man Who Sold The World. ā€¦ the days when people had a white Rolls Royce and matching Alsatian ā€“ and ā€œthe Great Sarong Scare of the ā€˜90sā€. ā€¦ and various fringe figures including his art teacher Owen Frampton, Konrads agents Bob Knight and Eric Easton, muse and heartbreaker Hermione Farthingale, producers Shel Talmy and Tony Hatch (ā€œthe original Mr Nasty from Opportunity Knocksā€) and slum landlord and racketeer Peter Rackman. Order Paulā€™s street-map here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Bowies-London-Paul-Gorman/dp/1068523476Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 727. Eddi Reader - busking, singing radio jingles and ā€œmen you put on the shoulder-pads forā€

    40:27||Ep. 727
    We first saw Eddi Reader singing with the Gang Of Four on Whistle Test in 1982. This eventful pod traces her story from seven kids in a two-bedroom council flat (ā€œme in the toilet with a guitar singing Your Cheating Heartā€), to the Scottish folk clubs, busking with circus acrobats on the Left Bank, to radio jingles, life as a backing singer and the rapid rise of Fairground Attraction who reformed last year, 34 years after they split in 1990. It's highly entertaining from the kick-off, not least ā€¦. ā€¦ snogging the Earl of Morayā€™s son during Dylan at Blackbushe. ā€¦ the jingles she sang on ā€˜80s radio ads. ā€¦ what she learnt from Annie Lennox when touring with Eurythmics. ā€¦ backing singer stage-wear etiquette. ā€¦ performing Love Me Tender aged eight in the school classroom. ā€¦ singing Three Drunken Maidens and Lord Franklin at the Irvine Folk Club, over the road from Amandaā€™s Wet T-Shirt Night. ā€¦ busking in Paris and the songs that pulled the most money (eg Tupelo Honey and All Along the Watchtower). ā€¦ ā€œmen you put on the shoulder-pads for.ā€ ā€¦ what Billy Bragg called ā€œa civilianā€. ā€¦ Chou Pahrot, Cado Belle, CafĆ© Jacques, Stone the Crows and other great lost Scottish bands. ā€¦ Hamish Imlachā€™s advice about how to project onstage. ā€¦ how to use a pencil as a pop-shield. ā€¦ and her Grandad ā€œwho loved his wife so much he nearly told herā€. Eddi Reader tickets here: https://eddireader.co.uk/gigs/ Fairground Attractionā€™s Beautiful Happening album: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Happening-Fairground-Attraction/dp/B0CZ7NMJYV https://eddireader.co.uk/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 726. Why all great pop stars are cartoons, Bowie doing mime and people whose voices weā€™ve never heard

    46:29||Ep. 726
    Passing the Dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, we sift through this weekā€™s events, rants and theories which absorbingly include ā€¦ ā€¦ that Drake v Kendrick Lamar beef in full! ā€¦ was Bowie only as good as his collaborators? ā€¦ Kingmaker, Toploader, Feeder, Slayer, Longdancer, Widowmaker ā€¦. has there ever been a good band with a name ending ā€˜-erā€™? ā€¦ā€¦ seeing the Jam at the Hope & Anchor. ā€¦ John Lennon was not a working-class hero. Bob Marley shot no sheriffs. Joe Strummerā€™s daddy wasnā€™t a bankrobber. Starship patently never built any cities on rock and roll. Monstrous rock and roll untruths exposed!  ā€¦ why Film Star Good-Looking is different from Rock Star Good-Looking. ā€¦ one glove, a swan dress, comedy specs, a snake, a bat ā€¦. Pop stars with a cartoonable signature. ā€¦ Woody Allen, Lisa Kudrow, Scarlett Johansson and the Kanye West clip that was never sanctioned.  ā€¦ JD Salinger, Scott Joplin, Thomas Pynchon, Banksy ā€“ people whose voices weā€™ve never heard. ā€¦ the gripes of Taylor Swift. ā€¦ ā€˜An Interminable Appetite For Spiteā€™ and other album titles in waiting. ā€¦ and Buffy Sainte-Marie and the perils of misrepresentation. Plus birthday guest Chris Lintott remembers seeing Bowie as a mime artist.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 725. Bob Marley in London, Chappell Roanā€™s outburst & records that sound best in the dark

    45:21||Ep. 725
    Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them ā€¦ ā€¦ how Bob Marley, the Walker Brothers, the Byrds, Hendrix, Ramones, Blondie and Nirvana ā€œgot the dust of England on their bootsā€. ā€¦ Chappell Roanā€™s demands for ā€œa living wageā€ in a business built on inequity. ā€¦ why audio books surprise you in ways the print edition canā€™t. ā€¦ Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure? ā€¦ ā€œseparate immediatelyā€: Marsha Hunt and the secret of a successful marriage. ā€¦ Bowie, Queen, the Velvet Underground: how the most streamed songs are rarely what youā€™d expect. ā€¦ when London, New York and LA were the centres of the universe. ā€¦ Bookends, Randy Newmanā€™s Good Old Boys and other albums with a narrative. ā€¦ when the Police, Pistols and Clash tried to conquer America. ā€¦ Miles Copeland Senior in Ben Macintyreā€™s A Spy Among Friends. ā€¦ ā€œthe film world is constructed around 100 actors, eight of whom are celebrated every yearā€. ā€¦ plus birthday guest Keith Adsley turns the lights out for Pitchblack Playback ā€“ albums you should hear in the dark.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 724. The rise of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars through the eyes of Woody Woodmansey

    36:41||Ep. 724
    The teenage Woody Woodmansey was offered the job of under-foreman in the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull but then got a call from Bowie inviting him to move to London and play drums on his new album - ā€œplus food and somewhere to stayā€. It took him all weekend to decide. And involved some cultural readjustment when he did. 56 years later heā€™s a founding member of Holy Holy and touring the UK in May ā€“ along with Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory ā€“ performing songs from Bowieā€™s breakthrough early ā€˜70s albums. He talks here about ā€¦ ā€¦ the life-changing sound behind the silver door of an air-raid shelter in Driffield. ā€¦ supporting the Kinks in Bridlington and the Herd at Leeds University - and why Peter Frampton told him, ā€œIā€™ll see you at the topā€. ... his first paid gig at the local girlsā€™ school. ā€¦ the Spidersā€™ instructional group outings to see ballet, mime and theatre. ... ā€œnever more than three takesā€: how Bowie wrote and recorded and the sketches he drew for their stage gear.  ā€¦ life at Haddon Hall and its ā€œGone With The Wind staircaseā€. ā€¦ Yorkshire to London and the cultural collisions involved. ā€¦ what Bowie realised was ā€œthe missing ingredientā€. ā€¦ Woodyā€™s checklist to assess Bowieā€™s talents when he met him: ā€œHe wasnā€™t Paul Rodgers or Roger Daltrey. He could write. He could communicate.ā€ ā€¦ ā€œIā€™m not wearing that!ā€ The day Mick Ronson packed his bags and left. Order Holy Holy tickets here:https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/tony-visconti-tickets/artist/2003254Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 723. So Long, Marianne Faithfull plus the Shipping Forecast as read by Nick Cave

    53:40||Ep. 723
    In a courageous stand against AI technology, a pair of old lags communing via two cocoa tins and a piece of string attempt to put the rock and roll world to rights. Which this week involves ā€¦ ā€¦ what David saw in the HMV record store in Oxford Street ā€œthat shook me to the groundā€. ... music that only works played loud. ā€¦ Marianne Faithfull - thereā€™s no middle ground between Sacred Figure and Outrageous Diva. ā€¦ why ā€˜60s fame is like no other fame. ā€¦ is there a more enduring example of bad press than Stingā€™s tantric sex? ā€¦ John Mendelssohnā€™s West Coast adventure with David Bowie. ā€¦ which is musically more significant: punk or disco? ā€¦ Tom Waits reading the weather forecast. ā€¦ which musicians make convincing actors - Sinatra, Lady Gaga, Elvis, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Costello, Mick Jagger? ā€¦ Bowie singing Jacques Brel songs on a waterbed in Hollywood. ā€¦ why we miss the great press ā€˜hatchet jobsā€™. ā€¦ do slogans last longer than music? ā€¦ what kind of world plays When The Levee Breaks softly and in a Chelsea cafĆ©? ā€¦ why rock music is like the Catholic Church before the Reformation. ā€¦ plus birthday guest Kevin Rose wonders which musicians made the best actors. Order John Mendelssohnā€™s ā€˜Peculiar To Mr Bowieā€™ here:https://www.nortonrecords.com/a4-peculiar-to-mr-bowie-by-john-mendelssohn/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 722. Did Britain invent the rock band? - plus our new laws about music & Garth Hudson RIP

    37:25||Ep. 722
    When we get off of this mountain, you know where we want to go? Straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. While surveying the weekā€™s events as we paddle, which involves ā€¦ ā€¦ the genius of Garth Hudson and the magnificent way he looked - ā€œpart lumberjack, part Old Testament prophet, part Brahms.ā€ ā€¦ how Glyn Johns invented the sound of the Eagles. ā€¦ Carrie Underwoodā€™s Inauguration catastrophe. ā€¦ only male voice choirs or gospel groups should be allowed to perform National Anthems! ā€¦ fiery, magnificent, sexy, vaguely threatening ā€“ the appeal of the great British rock bands. ā€¦ does a protest track have to be a good song to be effective? ā€¦ ā€œscrew up your eyes and Guns Nā€™Roses, Aerosmith and Van Halen all look preposterousā€. ā€¦ how the Band hooked up with Dylan. ā€¦ was there ever a more dramatic drop-off from hit singles to album filler than in the Eagles? ā€¦ can any song called Visions ever be any good? ā€¦ why there should be more Band tribute acts. ... ā€œany busker within 35 yards is noise pollution!ā€ ... plus birthday guest Roger Millington wonders why we love the Band Aid single but not We Are The World. That touching clip of Garth Hudson playing and singing in 2023:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BtfvpS0EyO8Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
  • 721. Howard Jones has ā€˜the best job in the worldā€™

    20:49||Ep. 721
    We put Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1983 billed as ā€˜the Most Promising New Actā€™ and, 15 albums and 42 years later, heā€™s about to set out on another tour, a double-bill with ABC. He looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played which involves ā€¦ā€¦ rehearsing his Live Aid slot backstage to an audience of one: David Bowie. ā€¦ pioneering the ā€œone-man showā€ in the early days of Moogs and drum machines. ā€¦ Emerson Lake & Palmer firing cannons onstage at the Isle of Wight in 1970 (his first gig, aged 15). ā€¦ rough treatment from the British ā€œpunditsā€.ā€¦ school band Warrior ā€“ sample track title, Squashed Catā€™s Intestines.ā€¦ being in Ringoā€™s All-Starr Band and the ELP number heā€™d play with Sheila E and Greg Lake. ā€¦ ā€œbad spectacles, terrible haircutā€: early solo gigs in Oxford pubs. ā€¦ the current tour with ABC: ā€œlifting peopleā€™s spirits, the best job in the worldā€. Mentioned in passing: China Crisis, Hendrix, Bill Payne of Little Feat. Howard Jones tour dates here:http://howardjones.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear