Word In Your Ear

Leo Sayer has met everyone – rock legends, sport superstars, future presidents … 02.06.2026 32мин

Leo Sayer burst onto national telly in 1973 dressed as a Pierrot with the Show Must Go On launching a 50-year career in colourful company – songwriters, boxing legends, swindling managers, scurrilous socialites – and learning a great deal in the process. “Don’t underestimate the idiots!” is the hard-won advice. He’s touring in October and joins us here from Australia to look back at … … how he and Linda Ronstadt escaped from Trump’s gruesome penthouse … walking through Memphis dressed as a clown … seeing Lonnie Donegan invent skiffle, Dylan at the Albert Hall and Bob Marley at the Lyceum from the side of the stage … when Paul Kossoff asked him to audition for Free … designing record sleeves for Marley, Roger Daltrey, Humble Pie and Quintessence … “I’m the Forrest Gump of the music industry – nearly there!” … “working with Adam Faith was like having Marlon Brando as your acting coach” … the advice Paul McCartney gave him in 1973 … “Do you mind if I vomit in your shoe?” … and a week in a training camp with Muhammad Ali. Order Leo Sayer tickets here: https://tix.to/LeoLive26 Order the ‘Leothology’ box-set here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/leo-sayer/leothology-the-studio-albums-1973-nowHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Songs about sweltering heat, Willie Nelson’s braids and is vinyl now ‘luxury goods’? 01.06.2026 47мин

Chasing the shade and slapping the Sunscreen on this week’s overheated news, we pour a tinkling drink and reflect upon the following … … British people in hot weath-ah! … when rock stars you haven’t seen for 50 years pop up on Zoom … Lennon’s tooth? Timberlake’s toast? Mooney’s school report? Weird things sold at auction … Paul Horn playing in the Taj Mahal, Sonny Rollins on the Williamsburg Bridge, U2 in Slane Castle … are new vinyl albums now ‘luxury goods’ and old ones ‘antiques’? … where you can hear the Abbey Road building on the Dark Side of the Moon … the cinematic records Daniel Lanois made in an abandoned movie theatre near Santa Barbara … Summer In The City: the Lovin’ Spoonful’s road-drill and Regina Spektor’s cleavage … Cat-calming music! Gym motivation! Stress-busting songs for Spurs fans on Judgement Day! The age of the prescriptive playlist … the new dawn of instrumental music, “a public utility like turning on a tap” … and the single Sinatra recorded for Maureen Starkey (only one copy made!).Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

How Daniel Lanois made those adventurous records with Dylan, U2 and Willie Nelson 29.05.2026 37мин

Daniel Lanois built a studio in his basement in Quebec and began producing local acts when a teenager. Through work with Brian Eno, he went on to record U2, Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Emmylou Harris and scores of others with a method that’s unique, cinematic and utterly extraordinary, a brand of sonic architecture that creates settings to accommodate the songs, often in exotic and stimulating places. And he's made nine albums of his own, the latest the magical instrumental suite ‘Belladonna Nocturne’ – “hear this and you may never go home again”. This rich and fascinating conversation includes … … how the place you record affects the way you think ... producing Dylan and Willie Nelson in an abandoned Mexican cinema … why the first record he bought was Wipe Out by the Surfaris … the process of “printing sound” and his Music Minus One theory … “Songs are doorways to another dimension” … Eno’s working method: “he walked round the studio for 45 minutes ringing bells to map out the length of the album” … drawing song sketches to stop everyone having to crowd round a laptop … making the Unforgettable Fire with U2, “expanding Slane Castle ‘til there were little critters crawling out of the walls!” … conjuring the tropical heat of Robbie Robertson’s Somewhere Down the Crazy River … and what Hells’ Angels like to do to his music. Order Belladonna Nocturne here: https://artsmusic.lnk.to/BelladonnaNocturneHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Siouxsie, Nico, Cocteaus, Shangri-Las, Bobbie Gentry … a celebration of the sound of Goth! 28.05.2026 31мин

Cathi Unsworth was a teenage Goth, enthralled as much by Joy Division and the Banshees as by the Brontës, Bram Stoker and Aubrey Beardsley. We loved her book ‘Season of the Witch’ and she’s since put together a soundtrack album, ‘Dressed In Black’, featuring the Goth divas she most admires and adores. And talks to us here about everything from murder ballads, the Industrial Revolution and Victorian literature to … … John Peel, Siouxsie, Joy Division and her teenage Goth conversion among the “hedge-goths” and “field-goths” of rural Norfolk … the phenomenal life, lyrics and mysterious disappearance of ‘Swamp-witch’ Bobbie Gentry … has Goth eaten Punk? … why BBC banned Billie Holiday’s “Gloomy Sunday” … the ‘death discs’ of John Layton, the Shangri-Las and Twinkle … how Cabaret and Julie Driscoll coloured Siouxsie and the Banshees … Shirley Collins’ Death And The Lady – “now that’s what I call a pandemic!” … did Liz Fraser speak fluent Faerie? … Nico – “if I had a machine-gun I’d kill you all!” … and how Juliette Gréco looked the devil in the face. Order copies of ‘Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Dark Side’ here: https://acerecords.co.uk/various-artists-dressed-in-blackHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Blondie and Clem Burke remembered by devoted pal Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s 27.05.2026 34мин

Clem Burke joined Blondie in 1975. He started writing his memoir 20 years ago and just managed to finish it before he died in 2025, encouraged and assisted by his old friend Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s, “a chance to reflect on all he’d achieved”. We’re thrilled she’s joined us here to talk about his dramatic life and ‘The Other Side of the Dream’, a conversation stopping off at … … falling for her “teenage crush” when she saw Blondie on TV, the man who wore red shoes at his audition … Clem Burke, eternal fan who idolised the Beatles, Bowie and the Stooges, and the brief moment he became Elvis Ramone ... do bands talk to each other?… Blondie was not a democracy … “in fact bands are an example of how democracy doesn’t work” … Clem’s powerhouse drumming and showmanship: “you couldn’t take your eyes off him” … “the night we met we each had a limo and he introduced me to Andy Warhol” … how it felt to hear Blondie record one of her songs … how their lives connected: “we both achieved a dream and had it taken away from us” … why drummers tend to see groups differently … and life in the Go-Go’s - “married to four girls!” Order copies of Clem Burke’s ‘The Other Side of the Dream: My Life in And Out of Blondie’ here: https://lnk.to/theothersideofthedreamHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Nick Lowe’s miracle payday, Rock feuds and a giant inflatable Jarvis 25.05.2026 50мин

Panning for gold in the murky waters of this week’s news, we found the following … … is Sabrina Carpenter’s aunt the voice of Bart Simpson? … is punk now just a small room in the giant apartment block of Goth? … why band life was different for Ringo, Kathy Valentine and Clem Burke … Barack Obama’s songs that define America and how you can’t do the same for Britain … what you notice about the Who’s ‘Tommy’ 47 years later … the night Tom Fogerty’s widow brought his ashes to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame … Hurrrggggh! Aah-haaaa!: the vocal trademarks of Clarence Carter, Bob Wills, James Brown and Bobby Bland … did Select magazine REALLY once give away a giant inflatable Jarvis? (spoiler: yes) … plus Shleep and Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt and Sam Cooke humming. Sam Cooke humming:https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-e&channel=entpr&q=sam+cooke+thumming+youtube+#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7e9fec7d,vid:ZYd8DFI5CJg,st:0Order copies of David Hepworth's new paperback 'Hope I Get Old Before I Die' here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Get-Old-Before-Die/dp/1804991996Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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 Damned at 50 and the memories (and regrets) of Rat Scabies 20.05.2026 35мин

The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too … … playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets … Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger … punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles” … Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit … Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years” … going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix … supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap” … Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion … “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement” … rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted” … Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following. Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damnedHelp us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Shoegaze, slackers, ‘noise chasms’ and the 10-year reinvention of rock 19.05.2026 44мин

A whole new age of psychedelia kicked off in the mid-‘80s, of dream-weavers and glorious underachievers, a complete rejection of the standard rock approach to stagecraft, sound and self-promotion. Simon Reynolds was at the heart of it, writing for Melody Maker and piping aboard the pioneering noise-mongers aiming to entrance and disorientate, as recalled in his new book ‘Still In A Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers and the Reinvention of Rock 1984-1994’. He looks back with us here from his home in Los Angeles at its key bands, events and spiritual godfathers, these among them … … the return to childhood via Syd Barrett and Jonathan Richman to Sarah Records  … is ‘feeble little horse’ the most Shoegaze band name ever?  ... what it was about Morrissey that made Smiths singles sink after Top Of The Pops  … the reason Bowie formed a band  … charming/infuriating interviews with the Cocteau Twins: “words only have any meaning when they’re sung” … how Britpop brought down the curtain of the wall of sound   … Shoegaze, Dreampop, Lovelynoise, Wide-Brimmed Hat Music and the rock press attempt to impose order: “if a band was on the cover they could double their fee”  ... the divine arrogance of Lawrence of Felt who “didn’t want ordinary people buying my records” … the ever-extending “noise chasms” of My Bloody Valentine …  “shattering quartz”: reviewing music that’s about sound not words  … Shoegaze DNA in the 21st Century ... and the greatest album of that decade, “each track like a session beer”. Order copies of ‘Still In a Dream’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/still-in-a-dream/simon-reynolds/9781399618373Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Famous rock locations, His & Hers records and weird things thrown onstage 17.05.2026 54мин

This week’s news gets a thorough shake-down to see what falls out of its pockets. Which includes … … cupcakes, mobiles, rubber ducks, a dead swan: weird things thown at rock stars … “polka-dotted micro-tonal space-rock from the planet Zog”: Alex gets the Angine de Poitrine live experience! … is Shoegaze the Adrian Mole of pop? … “Hands off my Husker Du!” Joint record collections and who gets what when you split … Sun Studios, the Albert Hall stage, the Savile Row roof: places where we’ve shivered with excitement … why don’t they put an old phonebox back in Heddon Street so Bowie fans can take pictures? … Ocean Blue, Washed Out, Skimming Stones, Pelt: Dreampop band or Farrow & Ball paint colour? … Physical Graffiti, Anticipation, New Boots and Panties: album sleeve tourist locations … plus burning wedding photos, when uncles gave you cash and the house Jackson Browne’s grandpa built.Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Brian Eno’s restless creative adventures with Roxy, Bowie, U2 and Talking Heads 15.05.2026 30мин

For nearly 60 years, Brian Eno has been a “proud non-musician” who changed the way people thought and sounded while inventing whole new ways of recording. We loved reading the updated edition of ‘On Some Faraway Beach’ which examines his staggering catalogue of avant garde experiment and wonders if there’s anyone remotely like him. Author David Sheppard looks back with us here at … … a life of great good fortune: “luck is being ready” … the rivalry with Bryan Ferry sparked by his getting more attention … and girls ... where you can hear the effect on his Oblique Strategy cards on the Bowie recordings ... the ingenious way he made U2 make up their minds … his first experience of immersive sound via the organ his granddad built in the family home … why Wire’s Colin Newman calling him “a Class A Bullshitter” was a compliment … Bono: “We didn’t go to art school, we went to Brian Eno” … was Coldplay “a Rubicon he should never have crossed?” … the appeal of the sculptured sound of early ‘70s synths to someone who couldn’t play keyboards … his greatest record, Another Green World, and the time he heard Music For Airports playing in an airport Order copies of On Some Faraway Beach here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Some-Faraway-Beach-Times-Brian/dp/1399605712/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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 Who, Floyd, Led Zep and the great college circuit that launched 1,000 bands 12.05.2026 49мин

Cheap tickets, warm beer, draughty halls and refectories, a whole new cobbled-together rock circuit was born in the ‘60s for an audience who watched and listened intently. Which allowed the music to take a different route. Paul Sexton spoke to Mark Knopfler, Nick Mason, Justin Hayward, Phil Manzanera and many others to piece together ‘Rock Goes To College: the Campus Music Scene That Shaped A Generation’ and talks to us here about the fans and amateurs who ran it and the lost world of motorway caffs and Ford Transits, stopping off at … … Hendrix, Fairport, Free, Queen, Dire Straits: tales of the campus gig foot-soldiers … no security, no lightshow, no seat, no stage: how the idea of live entertainment changed in 50 years   … Pink Floyd not being allowed front-of house in Top Rank theatres without a tie … the Stranglers and the Damned refusing to play college shows “unless townies were allowed in” … the “chart clause” - £50 extra if a band’s in the Top 3! … the Stones playing an Oxford ball … bands market-researching songs before recording them … why Leeds could afford the Who and Leonard Cohen … what Harvey Goldsmith, Paul Conroy and Chris Wright learnt from booking bands … why Wings chose the college circuit … and the arrival of DJs and disco that put a nail in the college gig coffin, “a golden age with nothing like it before or after”. Order ‘Rock Goes To College’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rock-Goes-College-campus-generation/dp/0008722412/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.EWpbXfJjfIq6DOGDGU8HMQMTbZ6fxtMSFJLLqnswcYo.7mGYWOOBglb6F5p42gs88d1lJ0uLxzWS4w3W0vPrwN0&qid=1775764128&sr=1-1Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Paul Simon, Bad Bunny, how songwriting changed & the scourge of Blue Dot Fever! 11.05.2026 50мин

It’s polling day for this week’s news and these are the stories that got our vote … ... Pussycat Dolls, Meghan Trainor and how ‘Blue Dot Fever’ is wrecking ticket sales … how can you judge a songwriter with eight collaborators? … Dylan’s ‘Judas’ moment 60 years later … is everything becoming binary: thumbs-up or thumbs-down? … Grandmaster Flash, Augustus Pablo, George McRea, Tangerine Dream and the times brand new music was invented … when certain dances got you arrested … Alice in Sunderland? See You In My Drums? Shadows’ song titles rebooted … the hilarious self-positioning of the NME critics’ poll… plus jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and thrill of imagining the sound of acts who were never recorded.Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Pleasure Gardens, cabaret, nightclubs, rave & 350 years of the Big Night Out 07.05.2026 30мин

Mass commercial nightlife began in a Japanese Pleasure Garden in 1657 and it’s blossomed ever since – via Victorian Vauxhall, cabaret Paris, jazz-driven New Orleans, flappers, speakeasies, moonshine, Studio 54 and the rave palaces of the 21st Century. Imogen Willetts tracks its riotous evolution in ‘Up All Night: A History of Going Out’ and wonders if the invention of the iPhone has burst the balloon. She talks to us here about … ... the Tango, the Can-Can: dances that got you arrested … how bourgeois French ‘slummers’ found a taste of danger … the heady allure in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens as an escape from Victorian squalor … how Anita Berber’s chloroform ballet shocked and delighted Weimar Berlin … when dancing was a mating ritual and the impact of Dating Apps   … democracy on the dancefloor: the unrepeatable mix of punters and celebrities at Studio 54 … and how the invention of the electric light got people going out and the iPhone made them stay home Order ‘Up All Night’ here: https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/imogen-willetts/up-all-night/9781399617093/Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Andy Earl’s memories of photographing Prince, Madonna and Johnny Cash 05.05.2026 33мин

Andy Earl helped create the new dawn of colour photography in the ‘80s pop video age and went on to shoot a series of unforgettable portraits, album sleeves and magazine covers, many featuring in his new exhibition in Bankside Yards, London. He looks back here at some of his subjects and the analogue days when you flew halfway round the world for the right light and backdrop and every prop in the picture was real. Along with … … that controversial BowWowWow shoot and how he got the job … Johnny Cash in a cornfield near Melbourne and the dogs he called “Hell” and “Redemption” … Duran Duran (and a mysterious nun) in Sri Lanka … “my job was to create a look” … why the age of digital photography brought a loss of control … the Robbie Williams Life Thru a Lens “law court” shoot … “he couldn’t have been more eccentric”: Prince in Monte Carlo and the confiscated camera … Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder for Hipgnosis: where Dali met Magritte … “in Monument Valley with a truckload of giant prosthetic eyeballs”: the Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet cover … how covers changed when the CD arrived  … and Madonna opening the hotel window and inhaling the sound of screaming fans: “I just need my hit!” Andy’s show at Bankside Yards runs from May to August and is free to enter. Details here: https://banksidelondon.co.uk/events/andy-earl-x-bankside-yards/Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Talk Talk, a deep-dive tale of mystery and imagination 04.05.2026 45мин

Talk Talk made just five albums, all written and recorded unconventionally and no-one’s entirely sure how they did it. And in the last two decades of his life Mark Hollis released only 92 seconds of music. Lifelong admirer Graeme Thomson explores the band’s endless mysteries in his memoir ‘In Another World: the Four Seasons of Talk Talk’, and looks back here at the last hurrah of the days of studio extravagance, which includes … … why Traffic in 1967 was the Mark Hollis Holy Grail … “25 per cent of him never appeared above the surface” … the Talk Talk ‘human sampling’ method – eg a few seconds of Danny Thompson, Steve Gadd or Larry Klein woven into the mix … “music made with the blindfold on” … the ‘80s press reaction to Mark’s eulogies about Miles Davis, Stockhausen and Shostakovich … where you can hear Talk Talk in the music of Kate Bush … making records the way Kubrick made films … head music: how Spirit of Eden suits the rebirth of headphones … band lynchpin Tim Friese-Greene, producer of the Lion Sleeps Tonight! … what unlimited time and choice does to a studio bill … and the 92 seconds of music he made for the Kelsey Grammer TV series Boss. Order ‘In Another World: the Four Seasons of Talk Talk’ here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/In-Another-World/Graeme-Thomson/9781917923613Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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 Clash, the Cramps and Penny Kiley’s teenage punk diaries 01.05.2026 28мин

Penny Kiley moved to Liverpool in 1976, ran into punk rock and “became the person I’d never been allowed to be”, as vividly remembered in her memoir, Atypical Girl. It’s a moment of liberation mapped out by records, nights at Eric’s and the big personalities in the city’s Second Coming, the beat she later covered for Melody Maker. She looks back here at some unconquerable moments, among them … … the impact of Marc Bolan and David Cassidy - and later Patti Smith, Siouxsie, Pauline Murray and Poly Styrene … punk’s “bad taste aesthetic” and the clothes she wore … boomtown Liverpool in the late ‘70s – “everyone had a film script or a demo tape” … how Boy George stole Pete Burns’ act … the Clash, Talking Heads and the Ramones at Eric’s … why her book is “like an historical novel about the way journalism changed”  … first reviews, front covers and life as Melody Maker’s Liverpool correspondent, “which could be awkward with friends in bands” … Orange Juice and the ground-breaking NME C81 tape … and the adjustment to the ‘80s – “the Royal Wedding, Live Aid, Duran Duran, yuppies, a decade where I didn’t feel I fitted in” Order a copy of Atypical Girl here: https://birlinn.co.uk/product/atypical-girl/ https://www.waterstones.com/book/atypical-girl/penny-kiley/9781846976919Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Van Morrison’s agent writes crime fiction as the music business sleeps 29.04.2026 44мин

In the 70s Paul Charles wrote lyrics for an Irish prog band. Now he writes mystery novels. Inbetween he’s been agent for Tom Waits, Nick Lowe, Van Morrison, Hothouse Flowers and many others and has forgotten more about live shows than most of us will ever know. Here he talks about:•⁠ ⁠hearing the Beatles for the first time through the family radio•⁠ ⁠meeting Tom Waits in a queue at Tower Records in Hollywood•⁠ ⁠why he likes to watch the way bands take the stage•⁠ ⁠the changes he’s seen in the live music landscape•⁠ ⁠why everybody suddenly wants to tour•⁠ ⁠what will change about ticket prices and what probably won’t•⁠ ⁠why the artist doesn’t want to see his agent in the bar after the show•⁠ ⁠what it’s like when Jackson Browne plays you his new record•⁠ ⁠why his latest McCusker mystery is called “Hi Love, You Just Dropped Your Glove”Order “Hi Love, You Just Dropped Your Glove”: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0GTC3M9CW/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Can the Michael movie reboot Jacko? & how social media changed festivals 26.04.2026 1ч 2мин

This week’s news stories charge out onto the pitch but which are heading for promotion? In the running at the final whistle … … “a ghoulish, soulless cash-grab”: the multiple disasters in the making of the Michael biopic … how spectacle is replacing music … which do we prefer, the truth or the myth? … did Steve Reich re-invent music? … when the Dalai Lama appeared at Glastonbury … how does it feel to perform to a sea of non-clapping motionless mobile phone users? … the remodelling of Coachella … “producers are in the business of creating of high-profile communal rights” … Vilma Jaa: “like Sandy Denny making music with Massive Attack” … how festivals are all about special guests and social media … the 1974 Diana magazine quiz: “how tall is Alvin Lee?” … 20 year-old Word in Your Ear podcast unearthed! ... plus Luciano Berio, Slow Club and “the bawdy harridan and her jive muse”.Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.

Andy Kershaw & Dylan’s jar of jam plus the things people do to get gigs 19.04.2026 54мин

Be glad for the pod has no ending! Now in our 20th year and, this week, ruminating fondly on the following … … the “underhand” selling of Geese … Morrissey’s absurd whinge about the Salford Lads Club photo … Jay Leno’s $50 ruse to get comedy gigs … when bands “didn’t even know what a hotel was” … radio sessions in Andy Kershaw’s flat … what’s the point of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? … when has any aspect of the entertainment business EVER been “fair”? … “Four eyes, one vision!” Elvis Costello busking in Park Lane … the great Supremes records after Diana Ross … Focus, 10cc, Devo, Zappa, the Shadows and other musical dead-ends ... Ronnie Wood and … Beverley Knight? …. “Shove off, Phil Collins! And have you got your Barley Sugars?” … and birthday guest Stephen Lambe about why Focus are largely forgotten.Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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 story of Wild Thing and whatever happened to World Cup songs? 13.04.2026 54мин

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on as we voyage to the far side this week to take a picture of … … the Kanye West & Wireless ding-dong … Springsteen with Tom Morello, Pet Shop Boys with Johnny Marr: the fine art of the ‘special guest’ … when Time Magazine invented Swinging London … Gregg Allman and the judge’s wife … Fake Plastic Trees! Pressure Drop by the Clash! Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)! Politicians trying to be hip … a primal howl from the Troggs written by the son of a golf professional from Westchester County (Chip Taylor RIP) … why all bands should have ‘membership’ gigs ... Back Home! This Time We’ll Get It Right! Are we still making World Cup anthems? … never drive a car listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra followed by the Sun Ra Arkestra and Trout Mask Replica … plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon is listening to every record he owns.Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourearHelp 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.