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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.

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

Episodes page 3 of 6

  1. How A Hard Day’s Night ripped up the pop movie rulebook

    · 44 min · Episode 883

    Author and broadcaster Samira Ahmed used to watch A Hard Day’s Night once a week and she’s just written an enthralling account of the shoot and its impact for the BFI’s Classic Films series. A movie, she points out,…

  2. Bob Dylan and the Beatles, a tale of envy, affection and intense rivalry

    · 36 min · Episode 882

    Bob Dylan and the Beatles watched each other closely. Jim Windolf is fascinated by the parallels in their stories, the obvious moments they influenced each other and the unconcealable tensions at the times they met,…

  3. Mark Lewisohn and why writing the real Beatles story just got harder

    · 49 min · Episode 881

    Mark Lewisohn began his Beatles’ trilogy in 2003, the first volume appearing ten years later. He’s hoping the second, Turn On, which covers 1963 to 1966 and every recording session, might be ready by 2031 and working…

  4. Albums we bought because we liked the title

    · 47 min · Episode 880

    Spinning sides at the conversational disco to see what fills the dancefloor, which this week includes … … Jerry Garcia had seven fingers! Brian Jones had seven children! Morrissey worked for the Inland Revenue! … the…

  5. How Glenn Tilbrook transformed the life of Squeeze

    · 34 min · Episode 879

    Glenn Tilbrook wrote an album with Chris Difford about a futuristic nightclub when they were teenagers and, 52 years later, they’ve recorded it and are performing it on the upcoming tour. He looks back here at the…

  6. The Skids, Big Country and the unsettling story of Stuart Adamson

    · 46 min · Episode 878

    Stuart Adamson co-founded the Skids and Big Country but was profoundly ill-suited to the spoils of his success. Author Scott Rowley unpacks his passage from Dunfermline to Nashville and Hawaii to get a sense of his…

  7. There are only three Rock National Treasures – and we name them!

    · 49 min · Episode 877

    Our ‘big air’ manoeuvres on the rock and roll ski jump this week land the following tricks … … why don’t we re-use old protest songs instead of writing new ones? … “a temple of music and gothic lust:” would YOU buy…

  8. Keith & Chuck, Bowie & Tina, Frank & Elvis and what we learnt from rock’s joint ventures

    · 42 min · Episode 876

    Some shared stages. Some made records and films together. Some had love affairs. Matt Thorne is fascinated by stars’ collaborations and what they reveal about them. He talks here about 14 musicians who collided and the…

  9. Boston, Def Leppard, bad hair & the golden age of rock radio

    · 35 min · Episode 875

    Paul Rees fell in love with AOR when it began with Boston in 1976, the polished, ramped-up hits that were briefly the music of the American heartland. His book ‘Raised On Radio: Power Ballads, Cocaine & Payola – the…

  10. Was Bad Bunny at the Superbowl the greatest show ever staged?

    · 1 h 04 min · Episode 874

    After 40 days of relentless rain, you need our little ray of sunshine. And here we all are! Sitting in the rock’n’roll rainbow this week you’ll find … ... the Wuthering Heights instagram gold-rush … licensing…

  11. Andy Bown remembers the Herd, Judas Jump and 47 years in Status Quo

    · 32 min · Episode 873

    Andy Bown found the 20 year-old recordings of “a deep-space love story” he’d written with the sci-fi author Russell Hoban and he’s just reworked and released them. He talks to us here about “Out There” and life in the…

  12. How the album survived and why it satisfies the soul!

    · 39 min · Episode 872

    The album has had 25 years of being hammered by other formats – Napster, iTunes, Spotify, TikTok – and not only survived but thrived. For Keith Jopling it’s the irreplaceable way to hear music and to measure the people…

  13. Racy pulp paperbacks, teenage Joni and the BRIT School versus the age of the amateurs

    · 47 min · Episode 871

    Unredacted exchanges about the rock and roll underworld this week highlight the following … … real or made-up stars’ kids’ names: Speck Wildhorse? Blue Ivy? Everly Bear? Motorhead Michelob? … man plays drum solo with…

  14. David Bowie and the triumph, mystery and struggle of his third act

    · 39 min · Episode 870

    Bowie’s early years have been scrutinised repeatedly but people tend to speed through the last act, from the early ‘90s to his death in 2016. Alexander Larman’s ‘Lazarus: The Second Coming Of David Bowie’ looks at his…

  15. Days with Bowie, Prince, the Stones, Hendrix & the Clash by David Sinclair

    · 1 h 02 min · Episode 869

    David Sinclair was a long-running rock critic for the Times, Rolling Stone and many others and now makes records himself. He looks back here at some of the first bands he saw and the extraordinary people he…

  16. The genius of Sly Dunbar & Catherine O’Hara plus Springsteen’s anthem and old New York

    · 57 min · Episode 868

    A bone-shaking ride on the weekly news cycle, stopping off here to pump up the tyres …. … Springsteen’s Streets Of Minneapolis: it’s not what he said but the fact that he’s said it … “they’re all just Sly & Robbie…

  17. Adele Bertei, New York’s art-rock explosion and Eno’s shopping list

    · 36 min · Episode 867

    Adele Bertei got a Greyhound to New York in 1977 intent on joining a band. James Chance thought she “looked like a pimp” and hired her as the organist in the Contortions, an instrument she couldn’t play. Her memoir No…

  18. Steve Lillywhite produced the Stones, U2, Siouxsie, XTC - ‘the last leg of the relay’

    · 54 min · Episode 866

    Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The…

  19. Who’d be a nepo baby? plus the mystery album that outsold the Beatles

    · 48 min · Episode 865

    Scanning the baggage carousel of news to see what sets off the alarm, which this week involves … … Springsteen: why is America’s most American American so quiet about his President on home turf? … the Seven Ages of…

  20. Simon Nicol of Fairport Convention, back in the van with a bag of toffees

    · 37 min · Episode 864

    Fairport tour again in 2026 and are playing their annual Cropredy Convention in August, its 50th year. The rolling Kent landscape behind him, co-founder Simon Nicol looks back at almost six decades in the line-up, the…

  21. Miles Hunt of the Wonder Stuff - ‘I’d rather make people laugh than applaud’

    · 42 min · Episode 863

    Miles Hunt is on tour in 2026 – solo, with Vent 414 and the Wonder Stuff - and looks back here at his 40 years on stage, which involves … … stifling hecklers the John Lydon way: “the exits are clearly marked!” … what…

  22. Kenney Jones remembers the Small Faces’ masterpiece

    · 26 min · Episode 862

    Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake is being reissued on Kenney Jones’ Nice Records, along with unheard outtakes discovered when the original master was found in one of his battered old drum cases. He talks to us here – with the…

  23. The fabulous Bob Weir and how the Grateful Dead invented the internet

    · 39 min · Episode 861

    A tie-dyed-in-the-wool rock & roll space odyssey to infinity and beyond which stops off this week at … … why the Dead’s music was “like lighting a match in the wind” … Ha Ha Harlem! Rebels Without Applause! –…

  24. Steve Cradock on Ocean Colour Scene, Mod hair & the ghost of Ronnie Lane

    · 28 min · Episode 860

    Steve Cradock’s touring with Ocean Colour Scene in 2026 and in his own show, Travellers Tunes, with his wife and son Steve – “we’re like the Von Trapps!” This highly original night involves them “living like gypsies in…

  25. Mary Coughlan, onstage from the age of five - ‘Applause and lemonade!’

    · 25 min · Episode 859

    Mary Coughlan – aka “Ireland’s Billie Holiday”, adored by Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan and Elvis Costello - is on tour again in 2026. This warm, funny and circuitous conversation looks back from her home in Wicklow at the…

  26. Pet Shop Boys at 40, missing folk star found! & rock stars’ childhood bedrooms

    · 52 min · Episode 858

    ‘January,’ a revered pop lyricist once wrote, ‘sick and tired you've been hanging on me.’ And if that’s the mood down your way, this might help crank up the heat, alighting as it does upon the following … … Guns…

  27. From Dylan to Chappell Roan, pop’s 60-year obsession with Brigitte Bardot

    · 56 min · Episode 857

    Cartwheeling into 2026 with the usual cast of rock and roll heroes and pantomime villains. Behind you this week you’ll find … … Boy George? Rick Wakeman? Chas Smash? Vanilla Ice? Pop stars who’ve done panto … will…

  28. Peter Hammill, Van Der Graaf Generator and what makes them unique

    · 34 min · Episode 856

    Peter Hammill has spent nearly six decades building the most devoted following imaginable – Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Mark E Smith among them. ‘Rock And Role’ tells his invigorating story, beautifully illustrated with…

  29. Do all panned albums end up loved? And what’s the most significant record sleeve?

    · 54 min · Episode 855

    Deck the halls with cheese and Bolly! … and a dish of the usual rock and roll distraction which this week throws the following logs on the fire … … the greatest Xmas single ever? … Metal Machine Music, Cut the Crap,…

  30. Paul Kelly – ‘national treasure!’ - and the song that took 30 years

    · 48 min · Episode 854

    Beloved Australian songwriter Paul Kelly has just turned 70 – “it sounds Biblical, threescore years and ten.” He looks back here at the road he took to get there, from early days in Adelaide to the pub circuit to his…

  31. Lucinda Williams is fighting on every front

    · 32 min · Episode 853

    Lucinda Williams was a teenage activist singing We Shall Overcome at protest marches and she’s taken up the cudgels again on her new album World’s Gone Wrong. She talks to us here from her home in Nashville about … ……

  32. Beastie Boys, Frankie, teds, punks, raves - ‘moral panics’ remembered!

    · 1 h 03 min · Episode 852

    Shock, horror, public outcry and moments of moral turpitude plus with the usual news, rants and old hokum, which this week alights upon … … why Gene Simmons thinks “musicians are treated worse than slaves” ... the…

  33. Punk Rock recalled by Chris Sullivan - can music STILL be outrageous?

    · 34 min · Episode 851

    What’s the word ‘punk’ come to mean 50 years later? It’s been adopted by the very people it sought to unsettle. Chris Sullivan – DJ, club runner, lecturer, former band-leader – arrived in London just as it kicked off…

  34. UK Subs’ Charlie Harper (81) has served 50 years in the punk wars. Give this man a medal!

    · 33 min · Episode 850

    UK Subs formed in 1976 when Charlie Harper was 32. They’ve had over 80 members, some of whom he can’t remember. They never split up and are touring in 2026 to celebrate his 82nd birthday. “I vowed I’d keep playing as…

  35. Fairytale of New York's full story & the imperishable genius of Steve Cropper

    · 54 min · Episode 849

    The boys of the NYPD choir are still singing Galway Bay, so pour yourself a measure of the Rare Old Mountain Dew and warm your toes on the following … … Steve Lillywhite (in Bali!) remembers making Fairytale Of New…

  36. The Beatles versus Capitol Records and ‘the greatest marketing hype in history’

    · 47 min · Episode 848

    In 1963, Capitol Records considered the Beatles “a band who looked and sounded weird with an odd name and no leader” and refused to release their records in America, despite being owned by EMI. As author Andrew Cook…

  37. The Undertones are 50! And no-one’s more amazed than Damian O’Neill

    · 34 min · Episode 847

    Glorious news! The Undertones, dependable symbols of eternal youth, are setting out on a 50th anniversary tour in 2026, still playing Teenage Kicks and Here Comes the Summer in their mid-60s. Damian O’Neill joined when…

  38. Jimmy Cliff, unseen Beatles and the greatest bassline on record!

    · 1 h 04 min · Episode 846

    Twenty pounds of headlines plus rants, theories and the odd slice of old hokum: served hot. Which this week involves … … Jimmy Cliff and how his versatility worked against him … the Conjuror? Eyeball Tickler? The…

  39. Boo Hewerdine’s funny and alarming account of real life on the road

    · 34 min · Episode 845

    Boo Hewerdine, beloved singer-songwriter, has been onstage for 40 years in venues of every type, shape and size. He thinks of himself as a “tradesman”, a world that’s immensely satisfying but a tough call. This very…

  40. Legendary duos who met by chance, RIP Mani & ironing to gangsta rap

    · 59 min · Episode 844

    News, rants, theories and curios which this week includes …. … how Mani made the Stone Roses swing … Mick & Keith, Meg & Jack, Hall & Oates, Neil & Chris … ‘Sliding Doors’ encounters that changed the landscape … the…

  41. Kula Shaker’s Crispian Mills had a colourful childhood

    · 38 min · Episode 843

    Crispian Mills knew he’d be onstage as he’s from a “family of professional show-offs” but they begged him not to be an actor. He talks here about his extraordinary showbusiness childhood and the band that emerged from…

  42. The Beach Boys’ story gets more tangled by the minute

    · 36 min · Episode 842

    “All bands are sad stories,” Peter Doggett points out, but is there a more woven, moving and, at times, farcical tale than that of the Beach Boys? It gives the sound of them a greater melancholy and resonance with…

  43. What makes a rock star a ‘ledge’ & the daft rituals of the ‘70s disco

    · 51 min · Episode 841

    Five decades of rock and roll with none of the names redacted. In the despatches this week … … Kevin Rowland? Adam Ant? Toyah? Morrissey? Which Smash Hits cover stars are now ‘legends’? … a classic encounter with Van…

  44. Rock’s fascination with the Third Reich exposed by Daniel Rachel

    · 36 min · Episode 840

    Musicians have flirted with Nazi imagery since the ‘60s, lampooning its theatre, absorbing its style, exploiting its shock value, even promoting its ideology. Daniel Rachel’s new book ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points…

  45. Paul Weller – ‘gloriously chippy’ – as seen by friends, family, fans and collaborators

    · 35 min · Episode 839

    Dan Jennings’ podcast ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ is so successful he’s used 250 of the interviews in a best-selling oral history. ‘Dancing Through The Fire’ has voices from right across the spectrum – family members,…

  46. Did rave kill dancing in couples? Stars seen in strange places?

    · 40 min · Episode 838

    Marking our dance card at the rock and roll hop this week you’ll find … … And Then He Kissed Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Springsteen’s All The Way Home: songs about the theatre of dancing … is there a more…

  47. David Bowie and why we need him more than ever. Paul Morley looks back in wonder

    · 30 min · Episode 837

    David Bowie’s significance just keeps expanding and the look and sound of him never age. Paul Morley has been gripped from the start and his new book ‘Far Above The World’ explores the many reasons why. These among…

  48. ‘Bob Dylan is my father’ - and why Sam Sussman is convinced it’s true.

    · 27 min · Episode 836

    Sam Sussman’s mother Fran had a year-long love affair with Dylan when he was working on Blood on the Tracks – she’s mentioned in Tangled Up In Blue – and they met again in 1990. What she told him about that…

  49. Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey had a ‘manifesto for success’. Here’s how it worked

    · 35 min · Episode 835

    Tom Bailey’s been based in New Zealand for the last 30 years, making records, DJing and avoiding British winters. He tours the UK in 2026 playing the Thompson Twins’ greatest hits and looks back here from Auckland at…

  50. Cowbells, maracas, gongs, castanets – classic percussion parts demonstrated!

    · 46 min · Episode 834

    The raw ingredients of this week’s news gently diced, simmered and served as a nutritious broth. And flavoured with the following … … why Lily Allen’s divorce album doubled the value of her house … how can you play…

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