Word In Your Ear

Seven hundred fans have contributed to ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’, a lavishly published compendium of memories of discovering, hearing and watching him over the 50 years he’s been making music. As you might imagine, he’s immensely touched, not least because – in this honest and extremely modest conversation – he feels his roller-coaster career was down to “perseverance not God-given talent” and that if he hadn’t come along, that devotional space in his fans’ lives would have been filled by someone else. He talks to us here from his home in Los Angeles and touches on … … the extent of what music can mean to people … how careers pan out – “huge highs then you fall off a cliff for a while” … ‘I made though perseverance more than God-given talent’ … meetings with upstarts and superstars … why he doesn’t listen to new music … ‘Don’t call me, the Gothfather!’ … the press he got in the early ‘80s “that made fans hide their Gary Numan albums” … how hip-hop and Afrika Bambaataa absorbed his music … ‘I’m not unique, I simply supply a service” ... and having your Gary Numan tattoo sketched for you … by Gary Numan! Order copies of ‘Gary Numan: A People’s History’ here: https://burningshed.com/richard-bowes_gary-numan-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.

Digging deep in the icebox of news to choose the following lightly chilled refreshments … … 500 Miles, Wonderwall, Yes Sir I Can Boogie(?): what does it take to be a football anthem? … Gorillaz brilliant reinvention of the “guest appearance” … Jerry Dammers' father was the Dean of Bristol Cathedral? Siouxsie’s dad milked venom from snakes? … Rod Stewart’s “laryngitis”- aka being on a private jet to watch Scotland play in Boston! … how they’re celebrating Syd Barrett’s 80th … the godawfullest album title in the entire history of popular music … England 2 Colombia 0: Kirsty MacColl’s immaculate sense of melancholy … Faux Fighters, Proxy Music, By Jovi: tribute bands aren’t lesser versions of the band you like but great versions of the songs you like … the worst Boz Scaggs gig followed by the best … teen fizz to chin-stroking introspection: the link between George Michael and the Beach Boys … “Londoners like to feel they’re impossible to impress” … plus 500 Hartlepool fans dressed as Smurfs and birthday guest Blaine Allan.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.

‘Graceland’ was an almighty gamble for Paul Simon, a costly, high-risk departure from the music he’d been making and a complex international venture. And a game-changing, worldwide triumph. When Ashley Kahn taught a course about it at New York University, Simon turned up to contribute. His book ‘Days Of Miracle And Wonder’ tells the story of what inspired the album, the way it was recorded and the global reaction when it arrived in 1986. We talk to him here about … … the bootleg cassette of township jive that inspired the Graceland project  … fraying relations with Art Garfunkel and Carrie Fisher ... his habit of playing unfinished tracks to people – David Byrne, Philip Glass, Neil Diamond – while singing the vocal into their ear … the extraordinary way he apologised for the failure of One Trick Pony … how Bakithi Kumalo’s bass solo on You Can Call Me Al is a palindrome – “first half forwards, second half reversed!” … the advice Quincy Jones gave him about South Africa’s cultural boycott … the key role of Roy Halee, engineer and long-time creative collaborator ... the Johannesburg sessions that “started with rhythm and worked backwards” … Kind Of Blue, A Love Supreme, other albums that merit a book to themselves … the details you hear in the tracks’ last seconds … and the Grammy telecast that cemented the album’s US success. Order copies of ‘Days of Miracle And Wonder’ here: https://geni.us/DaysofMiracleandWonderHelp 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.

Amid much parping of vuvuzelas, the week’s news stories sprint onto the pitch. And these make it to the quarter-finals … … Dua Lipa’s mega-wedding and its echoes of Mick & Bianca … when did publicity turn into “perpetual planetary attention”? … Chris Martin “curating” the World Cup Final half-time show … if you can’t stand the noise, move out of Soho! … watching Rufus Wainwright do Judy Garland   … when Madonna was troubled by helicopters … JBs’s Dudley, Mr Pickwicks, the Band On The Wall: who imagined old rock venues would be celebrated by the V&A? … “Keep music away from sport!” … is Taylor Swift really getting married in Madison Square Garden? … and the Nation Blue, the Green Falcons, the Golden Lilies: starry-eyed indie act or World Cup team nickname?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.

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.

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.

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.

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.