Podcasts · Word In Your Ear

Tanita Tikaram - from ‘girl with guitar in bedroom’ to Hammersmith Odeon in six months

· 34 min · Episode 803

Episode Tanita Tikaram - from ‘girl with guitar in bedroom’ to Hammersmith Odeon in six months

0:00 33:31

Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train home.” She was 17. In this podcast she tells us the story of the one of the fastest career ascents on record which stops off at …

… an open-mic night with a girl who cut up newspaper – “what happened to her?”

… Basingstoke alumni –Tanita Tikaram, Jane Austen, Liz Hurley …

… ignoring Wham! in favour of Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits.

… the lure of school theatre groups – “a skive, you could basically be arty and smoke”.

… “Ringo Starr gave me an award!”

… supporting Warren Zevon and Jonathan Richman - and John Martyn (with Tracy Chapman).

… the faint absurdity of promoting Twist In My Sobriety on Kids TV.

… “when you’re young, you’re adaptable”.

… mourning the loss of mainstream music.

… a summer spent miming on European pop TV shows.

… the thrill of hearing Ancient Heart was Top Ten when playing the Cambridge Folk Festival – “they all thought, that’s one of us in the charts!”

… and today’s imbalance between new music and nostalgia.

Order Tanita Tikaram tickets here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/live/

Order Liar: Love Isn’t A Right here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/music/

Find out how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The episode on the publisher’s site (opens in a new tab)

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.