Episode notes
While Mark Ellen visits his Scottish estates, David Hepworth and Alex Gold keep the home fires burning with a wide-ranging conversation, taking in: • why every band containing a pair of brothers seems to inevitably succumb to fraternal warfare • how Ed Sheeran found himself caught in the cross-fire between a multi-millionaire and a bunch of support acts keen not to get caught on the wrong side of a social media war • the fine line that divides a British cheese from a motorway service area • what are the best cases of “mailbox money” in show business? • does anybody else think gigs…
Podcast
Word In Your Ear
Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold · Music · English
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the
More from Word In Your Ear All episodes →
-
E971 · 7 Oct 2026 · 44 min
Gary Kemp bought Brian Epstein’s address book and discovered ‘the DNA of the Beatles’
A lifelong Beatles obsessive, Gary Kemp bought Epstein’s black leather address book at auction and (with Simon Halfon) researched its 404 names to construct a picture of him, “a 360-degree look” built around musicians, managers, impresarios, hustlers, grifters, ‘walkers’, tricksters, writers, deejays, scene-makers and assorted fashion and media folk. It’s fascinating. As is this podcast where he talks about what he discovered compiling ‘1967: the World of Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ and how the contacts were like “an Advent Calendar leading to his death in August 1967”. We touch on … ……
-
E970 · 6 Oct 2026 · 42 min
‘Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece!’ David Holzer has played it 1,000 times
David Holzer was a Lou Reed fan from the moment he saw Walk On The Wild Side on Top Of The Pops but avoided Metal Machine Music for 42 years as it was supposedly unlistenable. He was transfixed when he finally heard it, began playing it daily and felt so strongly about “the most radical rock record ever made” he tracked down 60 fellow obsessives and wrote the enthralling ‘Lou Reed: Metal Machine Mystic’. And talks to us here from his home in Mallorca about … … why Reed released MMM. To escape a ruinous contract? To boost his avant garde status? To torpedo his career? … how it was made with…
-
E969 · 4 Oct 2026 · 54 min
Todd Rundgren’s outbursts, ‘too old to mosh’ & the happiest and saddest songwriters
A long-running conversation that shifts from major to minor, back to major and all notes inbetween, this week’s lyrics including … … can people who write ‘happy’ ever be cool? … the best drummer who isn’t a drummer? … when will Oasis buy Man City? … why is Taylor Swift unmemorable? … when’s “too old to mosh”? … weird double-bills: Jimi Hendrix and the Monkees. Cat Stevens and Engelbert. Black Sabbath and … Neil Diamond? … huge stars who barely had any hits … what Todd Rundgren said about the New York Dolls, XTC and Bat Out Of Hell (“a parody of Springsteen” … why black musicians had white…
-
E968 · 29 Sep 2026 · 38 min
Jon Savage loathed the 1976 singles chart so he’s made an album of should-have-been hits
Jon Savage detested the UK’s mid-‘70s hits with a vengeance, “records so bad they made you want to strangle every deejay on Radio One, especially Dave Lee Travis”. Which is why he’s compiled ‘Jon Savage’s 1976: Something Was Going To Happen’, 24 ground-breaking tracks released the same year that paved the way to the future. He looks back here from his home in Anglesey at the thrill of hearing them the first time aged 22, the many highlights including … … hilarious memories of the nauseating Jeans On, Fernando, No Charge, Combine Harvester and Save Your Kisses For Me … and his undying love…
-
E967 · 28 Sep 2026 · 58 min
Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece and the daft, chequered history of Ties In Rock!
The two-man conversational canoe paddles the rock and roll tideway, stopping off this week at … … Van Morrison’s set-opener is Kidney Stew Blues by Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson. Do people have to play their big hits? … what’s the key ingredient in success? ... “all great albums automatically have great sleeves. Bar one!” … does Beyonce have a horsefly named after her? Is there a Jerry Garcia wood roach? A Sting tree-frog? … U2’s new album cover is an Abbey Road pastiche. So … is this their swansong? … “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” … Elvis, Stones, psychedelia, Be Bop Deluxe,…
-
E965 · 18 Sep 2026 · 37 min
Sid Griffin: the Long Ryders leader laughs at the absurdity of teenage life!
A whole new format we’ve invented for people who’ve been guests before and were so entertaining we wanted them back. So we’ve devised some random questions to spark a few memories and revelations. First up, Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders, touring the UK this autumn, who looks back here at his early life before he “went to L.A. to quote-unquote make it”. You’ll love this as much as we did, especially … … the Beatles song he knew he’d understand when he was older … his teenage band rehearsal when the drummer got a hammer in his head … the rock star he always wanted to be … what happens when…
-
E964 · 16 Sep 2026 · 42 min
An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys
“Good hair, good shoes, something to say” were the requirements of Indie Sleaze whose vanguard lit up the fading music press in the first decade of the 21st Century – acts like Franz Ferdinand, the Rakes, the Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. Janine Warren saw the Strokes in Camden in 2001 and life took a whole new direction. Her book ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect’ looks back at old-school rock PR, unmanageable bands, and the summit and collapse of the last scene she thinks we’ll ever see. You’ll enjoy … … Morrissey at St George’s Hall, Blackburn … deejaying at…
-
E963 · 14 Sep 2026 · 59 min
Nicky Hopkins’ hidden genius, the Oasis film and the best songs about rain
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,…
-
E962 · 11 Sep 2026 · 38 min
Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher
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…
-
E961 · 9 Sep 2026 · 40 min
The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!”
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…
