Word In Your Ear – Details, episodes & analysis

David, Mark and our token bucket-hatted parka monkey Alex tackle the return of Oasis, its grip on the public imagination and why they’re the biggest band of the last 30 years, which includes …  

… the Gallaghers’ mixed fortunes since 2009.

 … who won the battle of the underdogs.

… “Noel has a thousand buttons, Liam has a thousand fingers”.

… why the ‘90s was just like the ‘60s, a golden age of British pop culture.  

… no whizz-bangs required, no props, no choreography, no lasers, no extras … why Oasis is the cheapest stadium gig to stage imaginable.

… what happens to the ticket money between now and the tour.

… Noel, the media and the common touch.  

… “a level of public demand that’s almost a sickness”.

… why “Oasis tickets are like utility bills”.

… the fate of bands that fall out with each other’s wives.

… how Liam was rescued by Debbie Gwyther and Noel’s ruinous divorce.

… the kind of watertight contracts and insurance required to ensure the band won’t fall apart again.

… “Liam, stay away from the fruit bowl!”.

… and Mark’s breakfast with Peggy Gallagher.

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In a concerted effort to put the world to rights, David and Mark ruminate upon the following …

… Kylie and the Wiggles? Canned Heat and the Chipmunks? Real or invented pop star/childrens’ entertainer collaborations.

.. the charmed life of Greg Kihn.

… will the BBC have any archive left if it keeps cancelling presenters?

… why Inside Llewyn Davis works and so many other biopics fail.

… the full story of the statement Springsteen made with the Born To Run cover shoot.

… Stewart Lee’s long-running beef with Ricky Gervais.

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Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction …

… watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night.

… Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79.

… the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks.

… is Cerrone’s Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer?

… lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour.

… why do songwriters value suffering over joy?

… “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”.

… what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian?

… a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.  

… and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”.

Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana.

The Beatles at Chiswick House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8

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Spicy and nutritious items in the rock and roll bouillabaisse this week include …

… Roger Waters at the Palladium: a masterclass in how to insult an audience.

… “without Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones would have been Manfred Mann.”

… the only rock star who can tell a story onstage.

… Nempnett Thrubwell, Hinton Blewett, Glaister Fagan … Leafy Somerset hamlet or venerable reggae dubmeister?

… the money Dave Grohl made from Nirvana (and it’s less than you’d imagine).

… why Barry McGuire’s Eve Of Destruction was so terrifying.

… please, someone, stage an exhibition of original paintings used on album sleeves!

… the rise and rise of the rock spectacle.

… Hogg, Fat Grapple, Makin’ Bacon? Real or fictitious pork-related acts from the Melody Maker Club Calendar 1971.

… has social media taken the place of protest music? Why has no-one made a statement the Israel/Hamas war?

… more smoking-themed album covers.

… what, in her darkest hour, Madonna must think about Taylor Swift’s movie triumph.

… and In The Court of the Crimson King and other albums that sound like their covers.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content and more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Nick Banks - nephew of the great Gordon Banks – saw a note pinned by his favourite band to a wall in 1986, his Sliding Doors moment: ‘Pulp Want Drummer. Call Russell or Jarvis’. What happened next he records in his memoir ‘It Started There: From Punk To Pulp’. We talk to him about life in Sheffield in the ‘70s and ‘80 and why it took 15 long years for Pulp to crack it. Among the highlights …

… why punk rock was like “Harry Potter’s Sorting Hat”.

… what drummers bring to groups.

… Pulp’s stage act in 1982 – “trombones, backing singers, orange paper fish”.

… being denied a Number One by Robson & Jerome.

… the band’s response to Jarvis Cocker’s brave new direction – “Barry White meets the Pet Shop Boys”.

… what happened at the BRITS and who’s to blame.

… real life in what promised to be “the gilded palace of stardom with limousines and dancing girls”.

… the moment that caused “the raised eyebrows of disdain” in the Pulp story. 

… and his first sighting of “that mesmerising, bespectacled, lanky streak of piss”.

Order Nick’s memoir here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Started-There-Punk-Pulp/dp/1915841100

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Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Engaging blips on the rock and roll radar this week include:-

… Iron Maiden album title or novel by Jeffrey Archer?

… selling Ringo’s ashtray.

… the Blood Doner: the Hancock script that keeps on giving.

… “Terrible album title. Terrible album cover, too.” The start of Rolling Stone’s review of which immortal record?

… how come acting runs in families but writing and music don’t?

… Smash Hits: the Musical - you heard it here first. And why the Live Aid musical will work.

… A Salty Dog, Shades, Smokin’ OP’s – album sleeves based on fag packets.

… the curious tale of the Equinox and the imposters on their album cover.

… which pop stars are in the Barbie doll range?

… why smoking is part of the DNA of rock and roll. And who smoked what? Bob Hope (Chesterfield), Lennon (Woodbines), Bowie (Gauloises) …

… the significance of Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods of Atlanta, Georgia.

… and musicians who outsold their famous parents.

Plus birthday guests: Matthew Elliott on records you own but have never played, and Phil Turner “the Elton John album so bad it put me off him for 20 years.”

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Will Sergeant’s just put out the second volume of his memoirs, both of them Sunday Times best-sellers, Echoes and the first edition, Bunnyman. Here he revisits the Liverpool of the ‘60s and ‘70s in extraordinary detail - the clothes, the records, the gangs, the school days, the early shows he saw - and the many reasons he wanted to form a band. On the agenda …

… ‘rockist’ cliches the Bunnymen detested.  

… why America loved early ‘80s British groups.

… the powerful appeal of Jethro Tull, Status Quo, Slade, Roxy Music, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and rock and roll theatre.

… clothes bought from NME small ads in the ‘70s.

… absurd rivalries with Simple Minds and the Jesus & Mary Chain.

… fond memories of David Thomas of Pere Ubu smashing a pig iron spike with a lump hammer.

… the ‘Porcupine’ cover shoot in Iceland.  

… the charisma of the teenage Mac McCulloch.

… bands that borrowed from the Bunnymen.

… why the Ramones were “Status Quo with drainpipes”.

… and the magic ingredient that held Mac’s hair aloft.

Order Bunnyman here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bunnyman-Memoir-Sunday-Times-bestseller/dp/1472135032

And Echoes here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echoes-memoir-continued/dp/1408719304

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content here: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Crime novelist Cathi Unsworth turned Goth in her teens in rural Norfolk fired by a cocktail of Dennis Wheatley, the Damned on the Peel show and the dark arts of the York Festival “Gothtopia” bill in 1984. She devoted long hours to trying to construct Robert Smith’s “tarantula hair” and acquiring black lace garmentry. Something about its music and folklore chimed with a life marooned in the middle of an East Anglian beanfield pondering tales of Shuck, the fabled fire-eyed ghostly hound alleged to roam the neighbourhood at night. We talked to her about her marvellous ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ for a live podcast recorded at London’s 21Soho on 25 September, a very funny and wide-ranging exchange that included …

… why Goth is like no other tribe: you never make a full recovery – or ever want to.

… the part played in its family tree by Aleister Crowley, Aubrey Beardsley, the Brontes, Joy Division, Magazine, the Cramps, Jim Morrison and Bobby Gentry.

… why Leeds became one of Goth’s key spiritual centres.

… the shocking spectacle of Dave Vanian in full Stygian rig in broad daylight.  

… “the three Goth Ians” - Astbury, Curtis, McCulloch.

… the significance of Cabaret and A Clockwork Orange.

... why Goths feel obliged to dress the part.

… the romantic allure of Robert Smith against that of Nick Cave.

 … the curious link between Siouxsie and Margaret Thatcher.

… and how Goth keeps finding new recruits.  

Order ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Season-Witch-Book-Cathi-Unsworth/dp/1788706242

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Richard Morton Jack interviewed over 200 people when assembling what’s unquestionably the best, most colourful, comprehensive, revealing and accurate portrait of Nick Drake ever published. We talked to him about ‘Nick Drake: The Life’ at a live podcast recording at 21Soho on September 25 and explored various remote corners of this sad, surprising and eternally gripping story, among them ….

… the fate of the tape of the 20-year old Drake playing for the Stones in Morocco in 1969.

… what the press and public made of Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layer and Pink Moon when released and Joe Boyd’s reaction to their eventual success.

… the early school days of the head boy who won a cup for “General Efficiency”.

… his obsession with Francoise Hardy and the disastrous day he met her.  

… the peaks and troughs of his live performances including the time he played an event for a Birmingham rugby team supporting Genesis (required to play the Hokey-Cokey).

… Kirstie Clegg, his on-off girlfriend from 1969.

… Drake’s uncelebrated fondness for TV sitcoms and Benny Hill.

… Peter Paul And Mary and other unlikely staples of his early repertoire.

… and the events that helped re-boot his legacy.

Order Richard’s highly recommended book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Drake-Richard-Morton-Jack/dp/1529308089

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Spice-filled items tossed into the conversational cooking-pot this week include:-

… our charming encounter with Gary Numan, possibly the world’s most contented man.

… the next step in the age of spectacle: the sensory bombardment of U2’s shows at the Las Vegas Sphere and the crippling cost of experiencing it. 

… Taylor Swift’s genius for publicity and the subtle art of connecting with “Joe Six-Pack”.

… the shockingly unwise and unfathomable pronouncements of Roger Waters and how his fall-out with David Gilmour makes Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?’ seem like a love letter. 

… pop stars and their hair transplants. 

… what do bands think of their tribute acts?

.. the ‘Austin Powers’ albums of David McCallum, a star so huge he needed a police motorcade.

… Hugh Laurie, James Gandolfini, Carrie Fisher, Colin Firth, Felicity Kendal and others whose TV roles made them sex symbols.

… and do rock stars really change people’s political views?

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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