Word In Your Ear

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

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

Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley read a review of the Sex Pistols in February 1976, borrowed a car, drove to London, asked the NME where they’d find the band and were told ‘try a sex shop in the King’s Road’. The events that followed changed both the culture of Manchester and the course of rock history, a story mapped out in David Nolan’s excellent ‘I Swear I Was There’, a book as much about the audience as the band. His theory: “If the Pistols hadn’t played the Lesser Free Trade Hall … no Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Factory Records, ‘indie’ scene, Smiths, Fall, Nirvana, Blur, Oasis, Radiohead or Prodigy.’ As the 50th anniversary looms, he talks to us here about … … those who claimed to be there and the ones who actually were … the contrast between myth and reality … the letter Morrissey sent the NME: “Maybe the Pistols will be able to afford some clothes which don't look as though they've been slept in” … punk metaphor: Howard Devoto asking a tailor to narrow his trouser legs and being told, “there’s no going back” … North/South crowd violence: “a battle with a gig breaking out in the middle” … the three reels of home-movie and the photos that turned up 36 years later … Sister Rosetta Tharpe, ‘Judas’ at the Free Trade Hall, Stones In The Park and other landmark Manchester moments ... the pioneering impact of Granada TV   … “if you look at Manchester now, its media, its skyscrapers, its cultural prosperity, none of that would have been happened without those Pistols gigs” … “Sheffield would have admired them, Manchester thought: we can do better!” … and various bit-part players – Tony Wilson, Peter Hook, Paul Morley, Jordan and Jon the Postman. Order ‘I Swear I Was There’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swear-Was-There-Pistols-Manchester/dp/1786060159 Book promotions at Walthamstow Rock & Roll Book Club, London - 25 May (link below); Nudie, Manchester – 28 May; Central Library, Manchester - 11July: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/david-nolan-i-swear-i-was-there-tickets-1985356197832?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios&sg=0713ff5cbb20ee739ec0a8803927c4228f74fda0c5bac9785b11548a1e5b7c04ba91c0af5267ba677dfafa61163636f97633016b86ba8be02a78ecdb7f234740f0be4f90136c5fd636905d294bHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dominic Mohan saw Britpop on the inside from the showbiz desk of the Sun in the days when it sold 4.5m copies, a series of heated memories recorded in ‘1996: My Backstage Pass to the Wildest Year of Britain’s Wildest Decade’, a lost age of hedonism, stupidity, drunkenness and creativity. He makes a compelling case in this very funny and colourful podcast which stumbles into … … the advice David Hepworth gave him when he was 16 … Euro 96 and headlines you couldn’t run now … how the deaths of Kurt Cobain and John Smith changed the picture … doorstepping Phil Collins’ ex-wife … the wreath for Noel Gallagher “the fat dancer from Take That” sent to the Sun … Cool Britannia and that brief love affair between music and politics  … on the dancefloor at the Labour Conference with Mo Mowlam, John Prescott and Chris Evans … Knebworth 1996, the perfect marriage of alternative music and club culture with a £250,000 bar bill … the debt Pulp, Oasis and Blur owe Ray Davies - “less the Godfather of Britpop, more a concerned uncle” … is it hard to identify a new zeitgeist when people don’t congregate as much? … the ‘reverse-ferret’ from American culture towards bespectacled blokes from Sheffield … the shameless age before people public apology … how the post-Spice Girls TV talent shows soaked up the budgets and column inches … and Madonna dancing with Dennis Hopper. Order copies of ‘1996’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/1996-Backstage-Wildest-Britains-Decade/dp/B0FZBZHPNR The Barbican Show curated by Dominic: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2026/event/1996-a-celebration-of-the-wildest-year-of-britains-wildestHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Visconti left Brooklyn for London in 1967, began working with the Move and Marc Bolan and formed a life-long friendship with the teenage David Bowie, playing on his first two albums and producing 10 of ones that followed. And in 2014 he formed Holy Holy with Woody Woodmansey, a live celebration of Bowie’s music from 1970 to Blackstar. They’re touring again in September with Glenn Gregory as lead singer – “you can’t mourn forever.” He talks to us here about … … the gig they played the night Bowie died … life at Bowie’s commune at Haddon Hall – “I kept my door firmly locked!” … Marc Bolan at Middle Earth, “a hundred spellbound kids sitting cross-legged on the floor” … hearing Flowers In The Rain (which he arranged) as the first record on Radio One … “A little chinwag?” How Bowie broke the news about his illness … his dislike of Space Oddity, “I told him it was novelty, a sell-out” … producing The Man Who Sold The World and the emotional Blackstar … the night he met the teenage Bowie and they wound up in a Chelsea cinema … “Why are you doing this?” Bowie’s reaction to the first Holy Holy tour in 2014 … his time as the red-caped Hypeman and Ronson and Woody’s resistance to make-up, “macho boys from Hull” … walking round New York with a cassette of secret The Next Day album in his pocket … and the big emotional moments in the Holy Holy set list Order Holy Holy tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/holy-holy-tickets/artist/2096354Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When he was 19, New Yorker Brian Cullman covered the London music scene for Crawdaddy, landing at the birth of folk-rock and the singer-songwriter boom and watching its leading lights from unimaginably close quarters - Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, John Martyn among them. He even played on the same bill as Drake at Les Cousins club, all this recorded in his book ‘How To Prepare for the Past: Travels in Music and Time’. He talks to us here about that golden age and the American stars he met later, stopping off at … … Ed Sullivan at the shoe-shine: “in six months the Beatles will be lucky to be playing a bowling alley!” … Nick Drake in the same clothes he wore on the cover of Five Leaves Left … Sandy Denny: “She knew she was extraordinary but didn’t know if she was any good” … Jackson Browne, onstage from the age of 12 … being hired by rock encyclopaedist Lillian Roxon, “my fairy godmother” … Tim Hardin making Bird On A Wire, “so wasted they followed him round the room with a microphone” ... and “14 hotdogs”? The cavernous appetite of Big Joe Turner. Order ‘How To Prepare for the Past’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Prepare-Past-Travels-Music/dp/B0FTS8ZPTW Or here: https://www.zebooks.com/books/how-to-prepare-for-the-pastHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Gorman, author and curator, has put together fascinating maps of the London haunts of Bowie and the Stones and just published one about the Clash built around key locations in the network that formed them and helped them to flourish. It’s a beautiful thing: buy one and take the walking tour! He talks to us here about … … how an Agit-Prop alternative West London emerged with links to Oz, IT and San Francisco counter-culture … kindred spirits meeting in Rock On, Compendium Books and the dole office in Lisson Grove … how their artwork and black and white photos linked them to the past .. the days when corrugated iron and fly-posters were part of the London vernacular … Guns On The Roof: how the band and press ramped up an element of danger ... the art school background that gave them control of their visuals … “Big Audio Dynamite was the band the Clash could have been!” … Nick Lowe’ theory that everyone is either funny or not funny: “The Clash? Not funny” … Kosmo Vinyl’s attempt to get their triple album released for the price of a single … their connections to the Slits, Bernie Rhodes, Patti Smith, Pennie Smith, Hawkwind and Heathcote Williams …and the moving story of Joe and Mick’s last meeting. Order the Clash map here: https://www.herblester.com/products/london-calling-the-clash-in-the-capital Paul’s Slits walking tour here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/slits-are-girls-walking-tour-with-paul-gorman-tickets-1985048002010Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil Tennant co-wrote a musical at Primary School and soon decided that “learning other people’s songs was hard work compared with making up your own”. He’s chosen some from the Pet Shop Boys’ 40-year catalogue, hits and obscurities, in ‘One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem’, just out in paperback, and added fascinating notes about their context and composition. This very funny and revealing conversation lands on the following … ... the first song he ever wrote … auditioning for Rocket Records in 1975 … does songwriting have rules?  … how Chris Lowe tamed his inner “musical snob” … rap, Brecht-Weill, Betjeman, Noel Coward, My Fair Lady and the art of “speak-singing” … the decades of lyrics stored in our brains … the Songwriting Bootcamp that produced What Have I Done To Deserve This? … the essence of melancholy (and the chord that expresses it) … “the sound of words is often more important than the sense” … whether Dylan deserved the Nobel Prize for Literature … West End Girls and whether to rap in English or American … the writing of King's Cross, Cricket Wife, Odd Man Out and I Made My Excuses And Left … “Robert Maxwell stole my pension!” … and the “geology of my life” in diaries that one day might make a memoir. Order ‘One Hundred Lyrics And a Poem’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571397891-one-hundred-lyrics-and-a-poem/ And ‘Pet Shop Boys: Volume’ here: https://shop.petshopboys.co.uk/gb/pet-shop-boys-volume/9780500027479.htmlHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Watering the scented hedgerows of news to see if any green shoots appear. And they do, in the form of … … the most effective protest song ever written … the commendable box-ticking life of Country Joe McDonald … the Timothée Chalamet ding-dong: is it still safe to voice an opinion? … Harry Styles’ 67 dates in just 7 locations: how ‘Destination gigs’ throttle the competition … was Wings a worse name than the Beatles? And McCartney as a shepherd: discuss … what makes a song work as a football chant? ... the most unusual things we've heard sung by crowds …. Stormfront, Gothic Serpent, Midnight Hammer, Rolling Thunder … album title or US military campaign? … why we love improv theatre … when Champion Jack Dupree lived in Halifax and Kid Creole in Rotherham … plus barrelhouse blues piano, ‘inflicting’ music on people and birthday guest Avi Chaudhuri & rock music as community singing.Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A gorgeous and lavish new publication tells the story of the Kinks in the ‘60s via the key events in their unsteady trajectory plus concert bills, letters and ephemera assembled by Andrew Sandoval, the kind of non-digital research that’s filled his archive with yellowing back numbers of Disc & Music Echo. It’s “nirvana for any fan”, the title hinting at the level of detail – ‘The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night, the Day By Day Story Part 1: 1940 – 1971’. He joins us here from Los Angeles to talk frock coats, deathless tunes and own-foot-shooting setbacks, and what he learnt about the band from compiling it. Which involves … … their magical run of 16 hits from 1964–68 (by a sole songwriter) … the five people who ran and managed the band and what they had to put up with … the last chance saloon backstory of You Really Got Me and the Jimmy Page rumours … the Kinks’ alleged black-listing on the American tour circuit … Ray’s “unauthorised autobiography” and perpetual self-sabotage … Granada TV’s record of Alan Bennett and John Betjeman as possible co-writers for Arthur ... the 12,000 miles required to re-record three seconds of “Lola” … the ways Reprise, Pye and Marble Arch sold the Kinks catalogue   … and Ray and Dave’s live debut as “the Kelly Brothers”. Order copies of ‘The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night’ here: https://beatlandbooks.myshopify.com/Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, all mapped out in his book ‘Where The Music Had To Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other – and Changed the World’. He talks to us here from New York about what he discovered when writing it, which touches on … … deep-end Dylan and Beatles fans: which can be “crankier”? … the Chaplin-like comic timing of Dylan’s early shows and the humour of the Beatles’ early stage act … the song Lennon and Dylan wrote, recorded and then lost – now possibly in the Dakota archive   … the theory that 4th Time Around refers to the four Beatles songs clearly derived from Dylan … first impressions of each other - “Teenybop music!” “Folk crap!” – and how both acts were crowd-pleasers who could feign indifference … when the two superpowers met at the Delmonico, Warwick and Savoy hotels … Dylan in ’66: “girls still scream at me … but in a different way” … the night Bob, Paul and Dana Gillespie saw John Lee Hooker at Blaises … how Lennon’s I Want You was a direct response to Dylan’s song of the same title … the 15 Dylan songs played in the Get Back sessions … Bob’s touching low-key visit to Lennon’s childhood home … and the failed attempts by Bob and McCartney to collaborate. Order copies of ‘Where The Music Had To Go: How Bob Dylan and the Beatles Changed Each Other – and Changed the World’ here:https://www.waterstones.com/book/where-the-music-had-to-go/jim-windolf/9781399627849Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 most terrifying villain in the history of cinema   ... is pop music becoming inbred? … when Neil Sedaka made records with 10cc (and Abba) … Happy? Get Lucky? Crazy In Love? What was the last hit single the whole world seemed to be singing? … Noddy Holder, Kim Wilde, Robert Wyatt, Gary Numan: what makes you a National Treasure? … rock and roll puns and double-entendres … “drawn from the national conversation”: the divine Englishness of the Pet Shop Boys … the Gilded Palace of Sin, In The Court of the Crimson King and other records we bought because of the title … and acts wiped out by the Beatles “like corn before the sickle”.Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.