Podcasts · Music

Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

300 episodes

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.

More about the show

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.

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Episodes page 1 of 6

  1. Which bands pass the three-year test? – plus the great live albums & rock stars’ alter egos

    · 1 h 03 min · Episode 979

    Stirring the spice-filled gumbo of news and turning the heat up. This week’s nutritious ingredients include …. … is everything better shorter? … the greatest opening line in a book ever written … did Tom Waits,…

  2. Dexys, their hits and flops and how I survived them by Helen O’Hara

    · 46 min · Episode 978

    Helen’s violin at the start of Come On Eileen has filled a million wedding dancefloors. She was a member of Dexys Midnight Runners, later their musical director, at the boom time of Too Rye Ay (and its wobbly sequel)…

  3. Nigel Dick shot videos for Band Aid, Guns N’Roses, Britney and Oasis by ‘failing upwards’

    · 49 min · Episode 977

    We first met Nigel Dick in the late ‘70s when he was the motorbike messenger for Stiff Records and watched him rocket to success in the video boom, directing career-launching clips for Guns N’Roses, Tears for Fears and…

  4. Tall stories about towering and tiny rock stars, ‘50s jazz and Mick Jagger’s gym shoes

    · 50 min · Episode 976

    Two fearless men journey to the Edge Of News so that you don’t have to. Some highlights of this week’s report … … when a gig’s all about the performer not the audience … the power of singing other people’s songs ……

  5. Another Word with … Richard Thompson: includes Fairport, Lennon, Schwarzenegger and a cast of thousands!

    · 36 min · Episode 975

    Richard Thompson has a new album, ‘Hippies, Thugs and Heroes’, and he’s touring again in 2027, the perfect excuse to get another of our favourite guests back in the chair again. He joins us here for a brilliant,…

  6. Rory Gallagher – Ireland’s first rock star remembered by the brother who managed him

    · 39 min · Episode 974

    You forget how huge and ubiquitous Rory Gallagher was in the ‘70s, just 22 at the Isle of Wight and auditioning for the Stones four years later, an inspiration for Johnny Marr, Andy Partridge, the Edge, Slash and…

  7. Q Magazine’s 40th, Ariel Bender and the most unlistenable music ever made

    · 57 min · Episode 973

    In this week’s extension of The Longest Conversation In Pop History™️ you’ll be happy to find … … the front row audience driving Gillian Anderson mad and why we feel for her ... can you still buy anything for £1.10?…

  8. Roxy, Traffic, Nick Drake, Mott the Hoople & the magic of Island Records

    · 40 min · Episode 972

    The third instalment of ‘The Island Book of Records’ is out, another sumptuous, elegantly designed, LP-sized chronicle of every album released on this most fabled of labels, in this case between 1971-72. They’re edited…

  9. Gary Kemp bought Brian Epstein’s address book and discovered ‘the DNA of the Beatles’

    · 44 min · Episode 971

    A lifelong Beatles obsessive, Gary Kemp bought Epstein’s black leather address book at auction and (with Simon Halfon) researched its 404 names to construct a picture of him, “a 360-degree look” built around musicians,…

  10. ‘Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece!’ David Holzer has played it 1,000 times

    · 42 min · Episode 970

    David Holzer was a Lou Reed fan from the moment he saw Walk On The Wild Side on Top Of The Pops but avoided Metal Machine Music for 42 years as it was supposedly unlistenable. He was transfixed when he finally heard…

  11. Todd Rundgren’s outbursts, ‘too old to mosh’ & the happiest and saddest songwriters

    · 54 min · Episode 969

    A long-running conversation that shifts from major to minor, back to major and all notes inbetween, this week’s lyrics including … … can people who write ‘happy’ ever be cool? … the best drummer who isn’t a drummer?…

  12. Jon Savage loathed the 1976 singles chart so he’s made an album of should-have-been hits

    · 38 min · Episode 968

    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:…

  13. Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece and the daft, chequered history of Ties In Rock!

    · 58 min · Episode 967

    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? ……

  14. Why can’t brothers in bands ever get along?

    · 1 h 00 min · Episode 966

    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…

  15. Sid Griffin: the Long Ryders leader laughs at the absurdity of teenage life!

    · 37 min · Episode 965

    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…

  16. An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys

    · 42 min · Episode 964

    “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,…

  17. Nicky Hopkins’ hidden genius, the Oasis film and the best songs about rain

    · 59 min · Episode 963

    This week’s news in three separate files - the Good, the Bad and the Befuddling. Which involves … … have Oasis created their own economy? … are stadium gigs now like historical re-enactment? … “people listen to…

  18. Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher

    · 38 min · Episode 962

    Clint Boon was at the heart of “the two biggest musical revolutions of my lifetime” – as a teenager for Joy Division and Buzzcocks, and later the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Hacienda and onstage with Inspiral…

  19. The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!”

    · 40 min · Episode 961

    The Slits burned very brightly – but briefly - and were gone, their bumpy and courageous tale crisply told in Zoë Howe’s updated ‘Typical Girls?’. She looks back here at the unforgettable things they wore, said and did…

  20. Shawn Colvin – songwriter, storyteller, urban cowgirl, singing waitress

    · 28 min · Episode 960

    Shawn Colvin was in the spotlight from the age of 10 playing her parents’ parties, singing in bars at college, acting off-Broadway and joining country swing bands before making 12 solo albums. She’s touring the UK and…

  21. The world’s greatest radio station! & things we loved about Dolly Parton

    · 1 h 00 min · Episode 959

    Passing the conversational Dutchie 'pon the left hand side, we fire up the following … … “speech, not music, brings people together” … if music gets ever broader, why’s radio getting more niche? … can YOU guess the…

  22. Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree

    · 37 min · Episode 958

    Dave Rowntree had a camera with him as Blur took off in the early ‘90s and his book ‘No-One You Know’ distils the thrill of a band in ascent – backstage, in studios, with fans, on tour buses and their first trips to…

  23. Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’

    · 30 min · Episode 957

    Natalie Merchant joined 10,000 Maniacs when she was 17, had a long and successful solo career and then began teaching children in New York State. Realising the value of rhymes and theatre, her adaptation of Mother…

  24. The Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums

    · 28 min · Episode 956

    The Proclaimers have only had a handful of hits but they’re songs that have kept expanding for nearly 40 years. And the World Cup was a reminder of how far they’ve reached. Craig and Charlie Reid talk to us here about…

  25. What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!”

    · 43 min · Episode 955

    The original rock podcast - now in its 20th year! – knocks the week’s news across the conversational net. Amid the top-spin, rallies and double-faults, you’ll find … … farcical developments in the Tupac trial … the…

  26. Martin Simpson’s 60 years on the folk circuit ‘making people cry for a living’

    · 50 min · Episode 954

    Martin Simpson got backstage when he was 15 and met Jimmy Reed and Big Joe Williams and it changed his life forever. He’s been on the folk circuit ever since, still at the top of his game and with the wealth of…

  27. The Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band

    · 43 min · Episode 953

    The Shadows were the strongest brand in British pop, adored and widely imitated. When they went out of fashion, no-one wanted them to change. Bob Stanley salutes their enormous influence and creation of the guitar hero…

  28. Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it

    · 45 min · Episode 952

    Stuff, nonsense, the white heat of debate and yesterday’s news today! Which this week involves … … which of these didn’t host a TV chat show – Ian Botham, Charlotte Church, Lily Allen or Harold Wilson? … if you’d…

  29. Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him

    · 33 min · Episode 951

    A sense of melancholy hangs over the music of songwriters whose lives were tragically short – Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Eva Cassidy, Judee Sill - and we’re left knowing very little about them. Jamie Fisher, writer and…

  30. How Kylie became the whole world’s sweetheart

    · 39 min · Episode 950

    Michael Cragg’s devotion to all things Kylie once led him to Melbourne in search of the actual carousel horse she rode in a pop video. He got a tattoo a day later. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head is a funny and fondly…

  31. Sandy Denny’s life and luminous talent celebrated by Linda Thompson

    · 29 min · Episode 949

    ‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ has just been published, memories from fellow musicians, old friends, producers, writers, fans and admirers. Linda Thompson met her when they were both 16 and was devoted to her ‘til…

  32. The Abbey Road photo miracle, Glen Hansard and TV we’d pay to watch

    · 54 min · Episode 948

    The news slapped on the conversational barbecue and served with a side of old hokum. This week’s mixed grill includes … … our favourite story in the whole of popular music! … Lisa Marie Presley & Michael Jackson,…

  33. Bowie, the Cure, Neil Young and the golden age of the video shoot

    · 34 min · Episode 947

    Tim Pope caught the video wave in 1981 and made hundreds of promotional clips, often three or four a week, edited at night and on-air days later. You’ll have seen them, singles for the Style Council, The The, Iggy Pop,…

  34. Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Girl

    · 34 min · Episode 946

    Pauline Black was seen singing Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell songs in Coventry folk clubs and recruited by a local reggae band. Then converted to ska and joined the Selecter - back on tour this summer and with a…

  35. Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion

    · 46 min · Episode 945

    Tony Fletcher launched Jamming! when he was 13, wrote for the Face at 16, ran a label with Paul Weller at 17 and a year later was presenting the Tube. And was in a band signed to EMI. If anyone did more as a teenager,…

  36. Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing

    · 47 min · Episode 944

    Testing the temperature of this week’s news to see what trips the fire-alarm, which includes … … does having a Number One still matter? … Pauline Black’s sliding doors moment … rock stars you can’t imagine dancing…

  37. Jonathan Richman, on-the-road songs and the best-known solo ever recorded

    · 43 min · Episode 943

    This week’s news in a conversational cocktail-shaker and served with ice and a little paper parasol. Those Happy Hour highlights include … … six musicians who keep getting better looking … Plas Johnson RIP, a part of…

  38. Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho

    · 37 min · Episode 942

    Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool…

  39. Steve Hackett remembers batwings, blues clubs and Genesis on £15 a week

    · 38 min · Episode 941

    Steve Hackett’s seven years in Genesis get re-explored when he tours in October, along with ‘solo gems’ from the records he’s made since, the latest ‘the Roaring Waves’, a collaboration with old pal Steve Rothery. He…

  40. Mari Wilson, our favourite girl about town, takes Neasden to Chelsea

    · 35 min · Episode 940

    Mari Wilson has drunk deep of all that London nightlife has to offer, from a London Transport social club in Wembley to a posh venue in Chelsea via the Cooks Ferry Inn in Edmonton, and she remembers it well. Here she…

  41. All music is dance music! – and the best stage name ever

    · 53 min · Episode 939

    Another over-heated week put through the conversational air-conditioner, which involves … … the man who got rich writing words that could never be sung … Anna Bullock? Stefani Germanotta? People who’d never have made…

  42. Adam & the Ants, pop stardom and Marco Pirroni’s brief spell in the spotlight

    · 38 min · Episode 938

    Marco Pirroni’s moment in the sun was big, lucrative but incredibly short. It was under a year from Adam & the Ants’ first hit to their last and immediate break-up. Adam, he remembers, was the perfect writing partner –…

  43. The Specials are no more! Horace Panter remembers days when it was ‘like walking on air’

    · 23 min · Episode 937

    The Specials have officially disbanded, bowing out with a swansong album recorded in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. Horace Panter looks back at the first shows they played - when Jim Callaghan was still PM! -…

  44. Is Indie the new Good Old Days? And why are there no British country stars?

    · 52 min · Episode 936

    As this week’s news hurtles over the net, we sort the aces from the double-faults. The final score … … Madonna, Shakira, Chris Martin and World Cup 11-minute half-time overload! … how many Stones albums were “the…

  45. Kevin Rowland, the new Dexys and what he's learnt from life

    · 41 min · Episode 935

    We first saw Kevin in ‘77 wearing jodhpurs onstage with his art-punk band the Killjoys! He’s formed a new version of Dexys, made an album, starts a tour in October, and looks back here at central moments in his life,…

  46. Great rock feuds of Manchester, TV comedy & the man who invented the pop song

    · 50 min · Episode 934

    This week’s penalty shoot-out of news sorts the surefire hits from the over-the-bar misses. That final score again … … what Morrissey’s only gone and done now … when your logo’s worth than your songs … Taylor…

  47. Joan Armatrading, Tom Robinson and the great music meltdown of Summer ‘76

    · 40 min · Episode 933

    The blistering heat of 1976 burnt various things onto the memory – standpipes, strikes, Entebbe, ‘Confessions’ movies, Jeremy Thorpe – but most of all the records that became its soundtrack, some of them revolutionary,…

  48. Prefab Sprout - a tale of mystery, eccentricity and pop’s most famous motorbike

    · 42 min · Episode 932

    Nige Tassell fell in love with the literary allusions of Prefab Sprout when at school and his new book ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ tells their unique and inscrutable story – and involves some delightfully off-road…

  49. Madonna smoking, the first indie PM and have we just witnessed the nadir of pop?!

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 931

    Tapping the barometer of news to see what’s blistering or stormy, which this week includes … … “The Man can’t bust our music!”: the crimes and misdemeanours of Clive Davis … the single biggest change in our lifetimes…

  50. Gary Numan’s reality check – ‘I’m essentially a guy who wears make-up for a living’

    · 39 min · Episode 930

    Seven hundred fans have contributed to ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’, a lavishly published compendium of memories of discovering, hearing and watching him over the 50 years he’s been making music. As you might…

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