Word In Your Ear

David Gray went through the roof with his White Ladder album in 2000 and he’s toured and recorded ever since, ending this summer’s loop at Latitude. He talks to us here about the rigours of seeing bands when you lived in rural Wales and the hilarious, hard-won lessons of the first gigs he played himself and every possible shade of crowd reaction. It’s an absolute whirlwind from start to finish and features ... ... playing weddings, clubs, festivals and a Welsh village regatta … the role of music in the construction of your character … the turning point: “I arrived onstage to more applause than I’d ever had when leaving” … the time gave Morrissey his string of beads … the emotional architecture of live performance and how Elvis programmed his shows … vivid memories of seeing the Cult (“bloody nose”), the Mission (“headbutted”) and the Stranglers (“we left terrified”) … running from stage to stage at Glastonbury in ‘86 and the insular genius of the Cure … his Liverpool punk band in their perishing “Joycean” flat … the unbeatable sound of a crowd singing one of your songs   … Nick Drake’s frail sensibility and the value of growing a hard skin. David Gray tickets here: davidgray.comDavid Gray’s new album Nightjar, a companion to his 2005 No.1 record Life in Slow Motion, is out now via Bella Figura.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.

Peter Frampton, for goodness sake! Part of our lives at Word In Your Ear since we were teenagers. Played guitar on national telly when he was 14. Joined the Herd at 16 and Humble Pie two years later. Had the biggest-selling album in American history in 1976 and now releasing his first new record in 16 years. From his home in Nashville, he looks back here – with great modesty, humour and affection - at how he adjusted to such mountainous success and to “when it all came crashing down” while throwing in a winning impression of George Harrison. This too …   … the Herd pursued by screaming girls across Streatham Ice Rink … when “the Face of 1968” (Frampton) joined “the Face of 1967” (Marriott) … recording with George, Ringo, Billy Preston, Steve Stills and Phil Spector (aged 20) - “where the hell am I and how did I get here?” … “I’d fallen off the radar and Bowie gave me the biggest gift anyone could give me” … the petrifying success of Frampton Comes Alive! - “I felt I’d be like a Rubik’s Cube, here today, gone tomorrow” … the Scout Club gig (aged 12) that lit the fuse and playing Ready Steady Go! when he was 14 (same show as the Stones) … when his father met Mick Jagger … making the doomed Sgt Pepper film with the Bee Gees … working with Sheryl Crow who’d had a poster of him when she was 14 … and revisiting his childhood home in Beckenham. Order ‘Carry The Light’ here: https://www.frampton.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.

Kate’s an old pal of ours from Word magazine who writes scintillating columns and profiles for the New Statesman and Observer. We loved her book ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty’ – just out in paperback! – where she relives her meetings with a variety of legends, eccentrics and old lags whose music she finds particularly compelling and wonders what they all have in common. This typically funny and colourful conversation stops off at … … the attractive fallibility of rock stars past their peak … a lifetime’s devotion to Paul Simon … “Olivia Dean is the Carole King of her generation” … the ridiculous expectations we heap on musicians’ creativity … why Arts Criticism is under threat … when the first record you buy (aged five) is the Chicken Song … “One-Hit Wonders have achieved infinitely more than most of us” … Ray Davies and his “eternal sense of apartness” … why George Michael is under-appreciated and the time he found someone living under his floorboards … the days when Jeff Beck modelled PVC jackets for Rave … the genius of Pat Metheny’s Orchestrion … and the new acts who’ll still be huge in ten years’ time. Order copies of ‘Men Of A Certain Age’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645Help 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.