Word In Your Ear

Епизоди

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  Nicky Hopkins’ hidden genius, the Oasis film and the best songs about rain 14.09.2026 58мин

  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 music more intently in Manchester as they’re inside while it rains” … ‘includes All Things Must Pass miniature garden gnomes!’ The mad money-draining joy of the luxury box-set … when bands don’t change but audiences do …Sun = Happiness, Rain = Sorrow: lyrics as an emotional weather forecast … the pianist who wouldn’t play minor chords … Nicky Hopkins on records by the Kinks, Beatles, Who and Stones (“She’s A Rainbow was like a music-box Mozart”): has any session player made a more vital contribution? … “Lose two teeth in German nightclub brawl, go back to Burnage”: real and fictitious rock band Monopoly sets! … Blue Nile, Ann Peebles, Beautiful South, Paul Simon? What’s the best song about rain? Plus J Blackfoot, Paul Simon’s Kathy from Brentwood and birthday guest Matthew North.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.
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  Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher 11.09.2026 38мин

  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 Carpets, a world of characters as big as his own. His memoir ‘The Manchester Chronicles’ is about obsessions, schoolteachers, purple winklepickers, mobile discos, good luck, catastrophe and being in the right place at the right time for 30 years. Along with … … why Manchester listens to music so intently: “we’re stuck inside while it rains” … auditioning Noel Gallagher “as the Lockerbie plane flew directly overhead” … the new economy: making a Number 2 album funded by t-shirt and cassette sales … growing up on Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Little Richard and Gary Lewis & the Playboys … Inspiral Carpets’ obsession with West Coast psychedelia … when the band all got houses with their Mute advance “and I just bought some $800 sunglasses” … great bowl-heads haircuts (Stones, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane) and why he got one too … seeing the Pistols at the Electric Circus: “I left college the next morning” … the sudden split: playing Glastonbury one minute, living on milk tokens and income support the next … his 1975 disco playing Mud, the Rubettes and Showaddywaddy (“I was a 14 year-old Ted”) … and how 24 Hour Party People captured “the spirit, chaos, colour and madness”. Order copies of ‘The Manchester Chronicles: True Tales of Music, Madness and Mayhem 1976-2006’ here: https://geni.us/manchesterchroniclesHelp 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.
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  The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!” 09.09.2026 39мин

  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 as “outsiders in an outsider scene”, a band celebrated before they’d even played a note. And touches on … ... how other all-girl groups got started - the Moodies, the Runaways, Fanny, the Shaggs, Goldie and the Gingerbreads … Nora Forster – Ari’s mum, German print heiress, the “punk rock Baroness Nica” who bankrolled the Slits … Ari was a 14 year-old schoolgirl, Viv Albertine was 21: “I couldn’t have a relationship with her. It was like a having a child in the band”… Nick Kent’s account of the four of them “blazing down Oxford Street” … producer Dennis Bovell’s dub reggae project with “theWitches of West London” … their fractious relationship with Island Records and Radio One … “No birds on the stage!”: the author’s life as a female drummer … and the Pop Group, Rip Rig + Panic, “humour, playfulness, the freedom to be childlike” and the long legacy of the Slits. Order ‘Typical Girls?: the Story of the Slits’ here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/typical-girls-the-story-of-the-slits-omnibus-remastered?_pos=1&_psq=typical+girls&_psid=eb748e5dc&_ss=eHelp 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.
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  Shawn Colvin – songwriter, storyteller, urban cowgirl, singing waitress 08.09.2026 27мин

  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 Ireland from late September and looks back on it all with us from her home in Austin, Texas. Lots of great moments here, these among them … … growing up on hymns, Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio with a Dad who tried to get stoned at a Judy Collins gig … being a spoons-playing singing waitress with Maria Muldaur in an off-Broadway musical … playing four sets a night of Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel for tips and beer on the Illinois bar circuit … acting in the Simpsons and Larry Sanders … life in dance halls in country swing bands … her part in “the great ‘80s Urban Cowboy Scare” … how to connect with festival crowds when it’s raining … the Richard Thompson glass bowl requests system … and covers she never tires of playing – Joan Baez, U2, Gnarls Barkley.Shawn Colvin tickets here: https://tix.to/ShawnUK26Help 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.
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  The world’s greatest radio station! & things we loved about Dolly Parton 07.09.2026 1ч

  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 NME’s 10 most influential bands in 2002? … a doomed Dolly Parton kidnap attempt at the Hammersmith Odeon: we were there! … ‘Voice-tracking’, ‘auditorium testing’ and other network radio secrets ... 61 year-old listener hears the Beatles for the first time and reports back. (Chapeau, Jelltex!) … short-lived TV spin-offs from Fawlty Towers and Dad’s Army … Madonna, 50 Cent and Courtney Love wrote children’s books? Anyone read Marcus Mumford’s ‘Barnaby and the Drumming Bear’? … familiar acts doing unfamiliar songs and well-known tracks by obscure people … and why Boom Radio is booming.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.
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  Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree 27.08.2026 36мин

  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 America and Japan. It bristles with joy and exhilaration. He looks back here at life in lift-off nearly 35 years ago and ahead to his spoken word tour promoting it, stopping off at … … two years busking in France in the mid-’80s … why pictures taken on film are more like paintings than photographs … Blur’s unique chemistry - “all four of us had one sister and no brothers”  … what he learnt from their label manager Dave Balfe … the writer who discovered Blur and other game-changing moments  … how ‘the Fanerati radar’ and editor Miranda Sawyer encouraged him to publish the book … Japan’s confusing, intoxicating new culture in the early ‘90s   … mile-melting on US tour buses in the days before social media and DVD   … and why Blur today are in “the dream position”. Order tickets and copies of the book here: https://www.daverowntree.com/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.
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  Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’ 26.08.2026 29мин

  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 Goose (played by herself) was expanded into a multi-media performance with 150 four-year-olds and recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She even made most of the costumes. And she’s never had an audience reaction as enthusiastic and emotional. It’s a magnificent project to give children experiences that modern life rarely affords “right down to the thrill of seeing people play real instruments”. She talks to us here from her New York home about ‘Cabinet Of Wonder’, along with … … her first stage appearances, aged seven … scanning record collections and thinking “if they don’t have a copy of Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girl’, we can’t be friends!”  … how improvising lyrics got her into 10,000 Maniacs (“who I wanted to call the Tunda Bunnies”) … seeing Styx, the Cars and the Clash playing ‘Combat Rock’ … how she and her daughter grew up in homes without TV … and the threat of future education run by avatars.  The Cabinet of Wonder website: https://cabinetofwonder.org And the multi-retailer link for the album: https://cabinetofwonder.lnk.to/albumHelp 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.
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  The Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums 25.08.2026 27мин

  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 first adventures onstage, talent shows, the tour circuit, the new album ‘You May Offend’ and … … the moment the Proclaimers took off … first records bought in Woolworths in Fife (including the less-than-prophetic World Cup anthem Easy Easy) … the fraternal voices of the Everly Brothers … seeing Joy Division supporting Buzzcocks and feeling “the heat and charisma” of Ian Curtis … the unique way they write songs … getting royalties when your hits are sung in televised football stadiums … their first gigs playing Stones, Kinks, Clash and Pistols covers plus a Talent Show in ’77 on a bill with “a lassie singing Scottish ballads and possibly a performing dog” … recording at Rockfield and the ghost of Bohemian Rhapsody ... their new video imagining John & Yoko as they might be today … how easy it is to offend Gen-Z … and hitchhiking 60 miles to see Hibs and writing ‘The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues’ about it. Order ‘You May Offend’ here: https://proclaimers.lnk.to/youmayoffendHelp 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.
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  What are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!” 24.08.2026 42мин

  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 shock-horror reaction to the Sam Mendes Beatles’ wigs! … Dave Marsh’s ‘1001 Greatest Singles’ in 1989: what 45s released since would make his Top 10? … ‘If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me’, ‘I’ve Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart’: real or made-up Country song titles? … “People buy albums because they like the band. They buy singles because they like the song” … musicians who wrote a second memoir as the first one wasn’t all true … the Stones single that’s streets ahead of their others … the Hank Marvin Challenge: the correct facial expression when playing instrumentals! … are the greatest singles the ones with the most emotional depth? … and the mystery of ‘No Way Out’ by Joyce Harris.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.
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  Martin Simpson’s 60 years on the folk circuit ‘making people cry for a living’ 19.08.2026 50мин

  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 knowledge and experience reflected in this extremely entertaining podcast. His ‘Some Kind Of Jubilee’ album celebrates 50 years since his first record and he’s on tour in September. And talks to us here about … … his operatic Dad born in the 19th Century … the message carved with a knife on the door of the Bodmin Trad Music Club  … hearing Paul Robeson aged four and thinking “I want to make people cry for a living” … ‘60s folk circuit snobbery and its disdain for “foreign songs” … signing Big Joe Williams’ walking stick in a space between Bob Dylan and Joan Baez … memories of Alex Campbell, Matin Carthy, Dave & Jo Ann Kelly and “that swarthy bunch of lunatics from Hull, the Watersons” … the Nun & Ice Cream Cone, the Frog & Afterbirth: imaginary pub venues cooked up with June Tabor … being managed by Tony Secunda, “an extremely unpleasant human being” … “the only damage you can do to a folk song is to not sing it” … supporting Steeleye Span and the night cash rained from the heavens … Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right, These Days by Jackson Browne, Mississippi John Hurt and other songs that never let you down onstage  … second-lining at a New Orleans jazz funeral: “the slow drag and the racing return” … and how folk songs travel abroad and evolve.   Order copies of ‘Some Kind Of Jubilee’ here: https://martinsimpsonmusic.com/pre-order-the-new-album/ Martin Simpson tickets here: https://martinsimpsonmusic.com/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.
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  The Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band 18.08.2026 42мин

  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 and unravels their rapid post-Beatles decline in his superb new book, ‘The Shadows: the Definitive Story’. And talks to us here about …  … Hank and Bruce arriving in London aged 15 when the 2i’s coffee bar was a labour exchange and a social club … entering a talent contest won by a Malayan opera singer … the magic of cowboy culture transported to British suburbia and their four cartoonish stage names … meeting Jacques Tati at the Paris Olympia and being asked to write a song for his upcoming movie … the rapid post-Beatles crash – bow-ties, panto and Cliff announcing his Christianity … “being thrown through a mangle twice a night by Arthur Askey in Stockton-on-Tees is not why they joined the music business” … getting Hipgnosis to design their album sleeve while stuck playing Batley Variety Club … the return of instrumentals with Albatross and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly … when Hank was asked to join the Move .. the Swedish vogue for “barbed wire groups” … and Neil Young’s ‘From Hank to Hendrix’ – which everyone assumed was about Hank Williams. Order copies of Bob’s book here: https://tr.ee/rSilFTJwfOHelp 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.
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  Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it 16.08.2026 45мин

  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 paid £102 to see two-thirds of the Fugees show up an hour late, wouldn’t you SCREAM for a refund? … Britain’s most rock’n’roll hotel and why the idea of “excess” seems purely American … Dave and Stephane Grappelli at the Sunset Marquis … Reversing Into Tomorrow! We Came, We Saw, We Left! The genius of Stiff Records, “the Motown of Bayswater”, and the oddballs and misfits they signed … “there are only two types of record demand: too little and too much” … “Artistic breakthrough, the first double B-side!” The single that started the Indie boom … and why naked ballet doesn’t work.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.
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  Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him 14.08.2026 33мин

  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 New York Times researcher, discovered Elliott Smith 12 years after he’d died and contacted 40 of his friends and fellow musicians to build a picture of him for her memoir Nobody Broke Your Heart. She looks back here at his background and ascent from the Portland club circuit to the Oscars, and touches on … … the emotional impact of first hearing his music walking round Central Park in Lockdown … “goofy, stubborn, wildly smart, addictively listenable” … early life in Omaha and Texas (and the telling tattoo on his arm) … the shy collegiate kid reading Dostoevsky who thought promotion was “distasteful” … how a singer-writer broke through in Portland during the Grunge boom … rejected stage-names - Johnny Panic, Elliott Stillwater-Rotter - and the pivotal moment when Steven became ‘Elliott’ .. his sense of humour – “a garbage truck passed him and he said, ‘there’s my ride!’” … the archive of unreleased recordings she’d heard … the Oscars appearance and signing to DreamWorks and Nirvana’s PR … the root of his eventual unhappiness … “he would have been more shielded if he’d been in a band” … and his expanding legacy and adoption by Gen-Z. Order ‘Nobody Broke Your Heart’ here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/jamie-fisher/nobody-broke-your-heart-an-intimate-biography-of-elliott-smithHelp 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.
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  How Kylie became the whole world’s sweetheart 12.08.2026 38мин

  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 detailed personal account of the risk-taking variety of her records, the mystery of her private life and the irresistible nature of her appeal, a girl who, were there a war on, would be painted on the tail fins of aircraft. He looks back here at … … her ‘90s reinvention by association – with Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence and Bobby Gillespie … how records about joy never get enough credit … wrestling back control after life with Stock Aitken & Waterman … the root of her appeal as a gay icon ... being vilified by the press for any public pronouncement … a capacity to charm her detractors when she meets them  … reciting I Should Be So Lucky at the Poetry Olympics alongside Patti Smith and Allen Ginsberg … a mixture of the ordinary and the exotic and the ‘Carry On’ sexuality of her videos … only Queen Elizabeth 11 has had more waxworks at Madame Tussauds … and Michael’s meeting with her – “I’m six foot eight, she’s five foot one” - and the resulting photo. Order copies of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571392766-cant-get-you-out-of-my-head-in-search-of-kylie/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.
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  Sandy Denny’s life and luminous talent celebrated by Linda Thompson 11.08.2026 28мин

  ‘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 she died in 1978 – “she’s still with me, I talk to her all the time”. She looks back here at their lives in Soho bars, folk clubs and studios, the world they inhabited and the musicians they both knew. Among the many highlights … … meeting Sandy in 1966, onstage doing Jackson Frank’s You Never Wanted Me. “Eight million cigarettes a day but such breath control!” … why her singing and songwriting were unique … high times at the Colony Club with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon - “famously grumpy” … “she didn’t put up with bullshit. Cross her and she’d deck you” … memories of Nick Drake – “spectral and gorgeous” … the repercussions of the Fairport car crash … memories of her family home in Wimbledon (on the cover of Unhalfbricking) … recording ad jingles for Ski Yoghurt and ‘flour so fine, it flows and it flows’ - £15 an hour, “a fortune” … making demos of Nick Drake songs with Elton John, “so full of Valium I had to be held up to the mic”   … sharing a flat with Tim Buckley in Holland Park … “anyone who can bear to listen to their own records must be no bloody good” … and the script Nick Hornby started about the life of Richard and Linda Thompson. Order ‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ here: https://burningshed.com/georgia-rose-lucas_sandy-denny-a-peoples-history_bookHelp 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.
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  The Abbey Road photo miracle, Glen Hansard and TV we’d pay to watch 10.08.2026 54мин

  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, Neil Young & Daryl Hannah and other weird celebrity weddings … how Glen Hansard got hired for the Commitments … “Everybody has a plan ‘til they’re punched in the face” … Linda Thompson and the million reasons singers hate listening to their old albums … the fabulous life and times of Vicki Wickham in the days when 24 year-olds ran the business … Luke Combs, Nate Bargatze and the rising appeal of Mr Nice Guy … how David Bowie recorded … Mick Jagger’s only marriage … “Kingsley Amis Introduces Us To Pop Stars!” and other doomed TV ideas 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.
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  Bowie, the Cure, Neil Young and the golden age of the video shoot 06.08.2026 34мин

  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, Hall & Oates and many others. For 15 years he was the man to call – inventive, caffeinated, risk-loving, clubbable – and “nothing was too mad or stupid”. He celebrates that magic age of big budgets and creative freedom in his story-filled memoir ‘I Shoot Rock Stars’, just out, and looks back here at … … the video that made his reputation … MTV showing six of his clips in a row … the thrill of Bowie’s silhouette as he walked across the Rainbow stage in 1977: “there was so little footage back then, you’d rarely seen people move” … his teenage love of Dusty, ELP, King Crimson and Pink Floyd … shooting seven clips a fortnight and the one time a record label tried to interfere … Neil Young’s 2,000-acre Broken Arrow Ranch and the “burning fires of his eyes” … Iggy Pop singing I Wanna Be Your Dog in the John Snow pub in Soho … “German sausages, lumps of lamb, maggots, a whole party”: the Soft Cell clip that caused a walk-out ... “You’re a funny little arsehole!”: breaking the ice with Bowie … what he learnt from Mark Hollis of Talk Talk and spending time with his ashes. Order ‘I Shoot Rock Stars’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-shoot-rock-stars/tim-pope/9781035426959Help 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.
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  Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Girl 05.08.2026 34мин

  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 box-set of live recordings, ‘The Selecter at the BBC’. She looks back here at … … their first gig with Madness for 47 years in Brighton – “very red fezzy!” … her Sliding Doors moment supporting Bert Jansch ... discovering the Pioneers, Prince Buster and the Skatalites through white skinheads in Coventry … the famous 2-Tone Brighton Beach photo of 1979 with the Specials and Madness … “there were three looks for a black girl singer back then – Tina Turner, the I-Threes Earth Mother … or invent something new. So I invented the Rude Girl” … seeing Pentangle playing the theme from ‘Take Three Girls’ in 1971 and then the MC5 and Arthur Brown with his “papier-mâché brain” … training as a bio-chemist and radiographer – “there isn’t an orifice I haven’t inspected” … the first Selecter gig – “flares, safari suits and me in pink spandex trousers like the girls from Chic” .. how Jerry Dammers created the cartoon 2-Tone look and the night radio played the first single … and “a black man with a gun and a stage invasion” on the BBC’s Pebble Mill. Order copies of ‘The Selecter At The BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981’ here: https://theselecter.lnk.to/AtTheBBC Tickets here: https://theselecter.net/live-dates/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.
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  Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion 04.08.2026 46мин

  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, we want to meet them. It’s all in his coming-of-age memoir ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ - discussed here - which touches on … …the speed, the possibilities and the riches of success in the early ‘80s – and how it felt to be at the heart of it … “I knew nothing about running a label – and then discovered Paul Weller didn’t either” … Madness being interviewed by “spiky-haired, Harrington-jacketed, Ben-Sherman-shirted me” … when confidence meets ignorance … when bands went from selling 2,000 records to 20,000 and, in America, 200,000: “Phil Oakey always carried £500 in cash” … the research meetings that launched the Tube and his two-minute audition … the day Leslie Ash called in sick and he covered for her on live TV … Pete Townshend, 35, convinced the Who were finished ... discovering the inner circle within the inner circle … “to the Rainbow for the Mod Revival all-dayer!” … and memories of Wham!, Paula Yates and Pete Wylie and what he learnt from running labels and magazines.   Order copies of ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ here: US: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com/pow UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pow-when-uk-punk-went-pop-1980-84-tony-fletcher/74b193de4c1dee68Help 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.
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  Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing 03.08.2026 46мин

  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 … heatwaves, fire, rain, dust and thunderstorms: how extreme weather’s changing the festival circuit … when Jarvis Cocker was a fishmonger and Bryan Ferry taught pottery … is AI erasing our love of rock history? … Wuthering Heights Day: the lone fabulous amateur appeal of Kate Bush v the polished mass choreography of the 21st Century … all bands vividly remember first hearing themselves on the radio … and then rang their mothers … digital native or digital immigrant? … and when Mark met the Hells Angels in a Kentucky Fried Chicken.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.