Word In Your Ear

Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers … … the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic … the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends … why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity  ... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary” … GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club … how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him … and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.   Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: https://www.equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues

Steve Hackett’s seven years in Genesis get re-explored when he tours in October, along with ‘solo gems’ from the records he’s made since, the latest ‘the Roaring Waves’, a collaboration with old pal Steve Rothery. He looks back here at defining moments in the Genesis story such as the stage props, the early American tours and Phil Collins when he met him having just auditioned for Zeffirelli and being “all fur coats and girlfriends”. Along with … … when bands stood on fishboxes if there wasn’t a stage … playing harmonica through his nose and “open wounds” from American guitars .. Cream, John Mayall and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on Eel Pie Island  ... what Lennon said about Genesis “in the days before we could tweet it, sadly” … Apache, Man Of Mystery and the guitarists Hank Marvin inspired … how Phil Collins got to be the band’s singer and the days when Phil and Peter Gabriel did Alan Whicker impressions onstage ... Guy Garvey at the Prog Proms … the last time the five of them were together and the chance of a reunion … and the new album with Steve Rothery, inspired by Whitby and the legend of Dracula. Order copies of ‘The Roaring Wave’ here: https://stevehackettsteverothery.lnk.to/TheRoaringWaves-Album Order Steve Hackett tickets here: https://myticket.co.uk/artists/steve-hackett   and https://www.hackettsongs.com/tours

Mari Wilson has drunk deep of all that London nightlife has to offer, from a London Transport social club in Wembley to a posh venue in Chelsea via the Cooks Ferry Inn in Edmonton, and she remembers it well. Here she marks the release of her new album “Girl About Town” by talking about:•⁠ ⁠making bacon sandwiches for Mott The Hoople•⁠ ⁠entertaining her dad’s mates with her Alma Cogan impression•⁠ ⁠Half of Scotland coming to stay for the Home Internationals•⁠ ⁠touring in a Commer van•⁠ ⁠taking her “Klute” hairstyle to watch Stray and the Pink Fairies•⁠ ⁠playing Dusty Springfield on the musical stage•⁠ ⁠audiences who want to get home in time for Antiques Road Show•⁠ ⁠bringing it all back home to the Cadogan Hall, Chelsea, on October 4th:⁠ ⁠https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/mari-wilson-girl-about-town/

Another over-heated week put through the conversational air-conditioner, which involves … … the man who got rich writing words that could never be sung … Anna Bullock? Stefani Germanotta? People who’d never have made it if they hadn’t changed their names … and the best stage name ever! … Marco Pirroni’s jukebox … when the Rock'n’Roll rulebook declared ‘Thou Shalt Not Dance!’ … how David Dundas made a fortune from just four notes … Ringo, Dylan, Hank Marvin, Bill Wyman and the magic of cowboy culture … who lost out on ‘It’s Only Rock’n’Roll’ and ‘Jessica’? … and the biggest star of the 20th Century and how he got his name Plus the Bingville Bugle and birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana looks back at when dance music came in for a kicking.

Marco Pirroni’s moment in the sun was big, lucrative but incredibly short. It was under a year from Adam & the Ants’ first hit to their last and immediate break-up. Adam, he remembers, was the perfect writing partner – driven, intensely competitive and with “a pathological fear of only being Number 2”. He’s got no regrets, hasn’t had to do day’s work since, and looks back here at …… being the first band writing songs for the video age… “you can’t confuse fans buying records with love, it’s nothing personal”… Telstar, Fireball XL5, Roxy Music and the “moon-stomping hits of Slade”… playing covers of songs they didn’t like with Siouxsie at the 100 Club: “punk rock and my part in its downfall”… Adam’s “Shakespearian tirade” at the legal meeting with Rolf Harris when he sued over Prince Charming and War Canoe… Malcolm McLaren’s jukebox: the Flamin’ Groovies, Alice Cooper, the Troggs, “songs that weren’t very good”… “we stopped being a punk band or a pop band or a glam band – or any sort of band at all”… never tour America when you don’t have a bank account.Order ‘Your Money Or Your Life’ here: https://tr.ee/P2_qxNZ6jC

The Specials have officially disbanded, bowing out with a swansong album recorded in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. Horace Panter looks back at the first shows they played - when Jim Callaghan was still PM! - and the rigours of mastering ska when some of the group thought it was “old man’s music”. Along with … … the dignified way for any band to retire … the 2-Tone tour of 1979 – “like a school trip with no teachers” … bonding with Terry Hall over comedian Ken Platt: ‘I won't take me coat off, I'm not stoppin'!" … the day Jerry Dammers came to rehearsal with Prince Buster’s Greatest Hits – “for all your rebellious needs!” … the poignancy of playing in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral when you start the set with an air-raid siren … seeing the Faces and Mott the Hoople, “once in my school uniform” … the sensory overload - “The space! The volume!” - of Led Zeppelin at the Albert Hall when you’re 15 and from Kettering … “strange to think few people under 60 have ever seen the Specials” … the bassist he pretended to be when posing in the mirror ... the Bilzen Festival in 1979 “when the chain-link fence was broken down and I came offstage like I was walking on air” … and creating the 2-Tone look with ex-Mod tonic suits Order ‘Live From The Cathedral’ here: https://shop.thespecials.islandrecords.com/

As this week’s news hurtles over the net, we sort the aces from the double-faults. The final score …  … Madonna, Shakira, Chris Martin and World Cup 11-minute half-time overload! … how many Stones albums were “the best since Exile On Main Street”? … Kevin Rowland’s heart-breaking songs about Life’s Third Act … 10 good reasons to miss the Nineties … Country & Western is about travelling through the vast geography of America. “Go 200 miles in Britain and you fall off the edge” … Florian Pilkington-Miksa, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond: rock’s real (or invented?) double-barrelled names … how “travel and never arrive” is the new entertainment experience … plus Sly Stone’s Babies Makin’ Babies, the comforting cry of “Gambo’s in the building!” and birthday guest Patrick Butler.

We first saw Kevin in ‘77 wearing jodhpurs onstage with his art-punk band the Killjoys! He’s formed a new version of Dexys, made an album, starts a tour in October, and looks back here at central moments in his life, some recent ones so huge and affecting “that I put them to music” and they’ll be performed as a drama in the first half of these upcoming theatre shows. This touches - in vivid detail - on bands that inspired him, repaired relationships, a health crisis, what it took to be a singer in the first place and what’s requires now to put the show back on the road, along with … … memories of music before the Beatles … playing Jim Reeves and Ricky Nelson in a social club band in 1975 “after the bingo” … the touching shift of power in his relationship with his 102 year-old father: “he was like a child again, he needed me” … Roxy Music on Top Of The Pops, “I couldn’t believe you could be avant garde AND commercial” … life on the Top Rank circuit supporting the Specials: “you learnt not to play at an audience but play for them”  … making Searching For The Young Soul Rebels in ten days with producer Pete Wingfield dancing in the studio … “Come On Eileen doesn’t belong to me anymore” … the alarming spectacle of an ‘80s Hear & Now package tour and what it taught him .. the song he wrote for his grandchildren (one of whom is 31) … a possibly terminal diagnosis in 2024 and “like Wilko Johnson, the relief I felt” … and the Tim Buckley song he just recorded without knowing who wrote it! Order the new Dexys album ‘Love’ here: https://dexysofficial.lnk.to/love And tour tickets here: https://dexys.tmstor.es/Live

This week’s penalty shoot-out of news sorts the surefire hits from the over-the-bar misses. That final score again … … what Morrissey’s only gone and done now … when your logo’s worth than your songs … Taylor Swift’s wedding and how Sly Stone got there first … do musicians care about awards?… Divine Comedy, Jonathan Richman, Fountains of Wayne, Zappa: why are ‘humorous’ records so divisive?… happy 200th birthday Stephen Foster, the man who invented the pop song!… and cover versions of his songs you’ll know - Hard Times Come Again No More (Dylan, Springsteen, Emmylou Harris), Beautiful Dreamer (the Beatles), My Old Kentucky Home (Randy Newman), Oh Susannah (James Taylor), Camptown Races and many more … why comic actors are funnier on TV than in films … the delicious melancholy of songs about going home … when did musicians ‘go pro’? Did the Clash or the Faces consider themselves ‘professionals’?… Oasis, New Order, the Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, Corrie, Man City/Man U, the Smiths: why is Manchester Feud Central? … plus Margot, Jerry & the take-away curry, and birthday guest Guy Constant.