Word In Your Ear

This week’s pod was recorded just after we saw ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ at London’s National Portrait Gallery, a warm and winning show that starts with him as a wide-eyed fan trying to take pictures of his heroes and soon switches to his shots of the whole world trying to photograph him. We talk about his pictures of French jazzers, Paris boulevards, backstage rooms at TV shows, models, paparazzi, light entertainment stars, screaming fans, American police guns, Miami beaches, billboards, views from plane windows, hotel rooms, cocktails and a New York theatre showing “Christine Keeler Goes Nudist plus Playgirls”. And wonder how it feels to discover 60 years later you had your photo taken by a Beatle. PLUS … … the top-flight rock and roll star we passed in Soho. … the record David tries every year to force himself to like. … the wonderful Geoff Davies of Probe Records, the much-loved Liverpool figurehead who signed the Farm and Half Man Half Biscuit.   … bands who’ve had the most members. … ‘Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times”. What’s not to love about the Human League’s Dare? … the new U2 parlour game. … why CDs sales are on the up. … and what the police would know about you if they found your phone.Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKGet your exclusive NordVPN deal here - it's risk-free with Nord's 30-day-money-back guarantee!: https://nordvpn.com/yourearSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

David Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of music’s legends during their final acts, some of which is gathered in “Holding The Note”, a collection of his writings on music. From his ill-lit Manhattan eyrie he talks to David Hepworth of many matters, including:….what was in the handbag which remained on the piano during Aretha Franklin shows….what it was like being on the receiving end of an almighty dressing-down from the elderly Leonard Cohen….how Bruce Springsteen learned nothing at school but has picked up a great deal since….how Bob Dylan reckons he’s in a “post-interview” phase of life - or is he?….how his father took him to see Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and he has taken his own kids to see Radiohead….how Keith Richards found a ghost writer who could throw his voice….what was really the last good Stones album.…why you should never try to get rock stars to like you.Pre-order Holding The Note here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-remnick/holding-the-note/9781035023974Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Recorded together in Mark Ellen’s attic! Among the conversational footballs booted round the park this week you’ll find:- … Freddie’s “exquisite clutter”: would YOU buy one of his bonzai plant-holders, his catsuit with ballet shoes and a $0.5m silver bangle? … when did the story change from “the Stones are old, knackered and ought to give up!” to “the Stones are old, brilliant and should carry on forever!”? ... do all enduring legacies need an element of tragedy? … who calls the Ezra Collective “a jazz band”? … who’s been married the longest … Bono, Alice Cooper or Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits? … 1984 was the annus mirabilis of the album? Birthday guest Matthew North has the records to prove it. … the perils of celebrities chairing press conferences (QED Jimmy Fallon). ... how they’ve only gone and wrecked the Rugby World Cup anthems.   … and useful phrases to deploy when you didn’t much care for your mate’s band but don’t want to hurt their feelings – eg You’ve done it again! Only YOU could have put in a show like that! You took it to a whole new level!Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Fired by the rock and roll revival of 1970 and a post-Easy Rider taste for American music, a circuit of some 35 London pubs filled with bands playing fizzing, small-scale shows that never sounded quite the same on record, bands whose moment in the sun was ultimately wrecked by the arrival of punk rock. This pod – and Simon’s book ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ – raises a dimple jug to some of its forgotten heroes including Meal Ticket, Roogalator, Ducks Deluxe, the Winkies and the Kursaal Flyers. Be honest, when did YOU last hear mention of the Count Bishops or GT Moore & the Reggae Guitars? So what was it about Southend? How did Eggs Over Easy play such a pivotal role in it all? And Creedence Clearwater Revival? And Dave Edmunds? Why was this the perfect launchpad for Ian Dury? And what was the final nail in the pub rock coffin? Order ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Went-Rotten-Londons-1972-1976/dp/0857305743/ref=sr_1_11?qid=1693561624&refinements=p_27%3ASimon+Matthews&s=books&sr=1-11Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Kevin Armstrong was the guitarist in the band David Bowie asked him to assemble for Live Aid and toured and recorded with him many times. Playing the guitar intro to Rebel Rebel in a stadium, he says, is “like lighting a match”. Start the Passenger with Iggy Pop and you’re greeted with “a great mass of love”. His memoir, Absolute Beginner, is “a window onto the high table of rock and roll” and full of insights into life in studios and on the road and the fathomless levels of diplomacy often required to collaborate. This entertaining pod expands upon … … why he turned down the offer to join the Smiths. … how Jim Osterberg transforms himself into Iggy Pop. … the Sinead O’Connor’s tour manager’s trick to speed the band through security.   … the song Bowie dropped from the Live Aid set. … why Michael Hutchence is “terrified of small crowds”. … Bowie’s ex-Navy Seal minder and the old decoys-under-blankets ruse. … why Morrissey is “thin-skinned”. … and the eternal curse of “Imposter Syndrome”.  Order ‘Absolute Beginner’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Beginner-Memoirs-least-known-guitarist/dp/1911036173Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

We dipped the shrimping net of curiosity in the rock and roll rockpool this week and transferred the following items to the podcast bucket … … who now regrets being the “little tyrant” that broke up their band 30 years ago? … who was the real Bungalow Bill and how did the song about him change his life? … Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman are almost forgotten. Are the Doors and the Kinks heading the same way? … the unique and extraordinary Bill Wyman, “more a witness to the Rolling Stones than a member”, plus Nellcôte and the Birds’ Custard. … is the ice finally melting in the Talking Heads camp? … an everyday tale of Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash” on the mean streets of North London’s garden suburbs.   … was Lennon v the Maharishi an early example of “career cancelling”? … is Life During Wartime from Stop Making Sense the greatest live performance ever filmed? … the curse of the Budokan. … and birthday guests Avi Chaudhuri and Jelltex (who strongly recommends The Mood Elevator's second album, Married Alive).Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Ray Padgett lives in Vermont, first discovered Dylan when he was 16 in the 21st Century and was fascinated and besotted, later launching the newsletter ‘Flagging Down the Double E’s’ and now publishing the enthralling ‘Pledging My Time’, a collection of his interviews with over 40 people who’ve worked, performed and recorded with the inscrutable old rogue. Both the book and this fast-moving, whip-smart and very funny conversation are revelatory and highly recommended, the podcast shedding light on … … the daily life of Bob Dylan – eg the piles of gifts he routinely receives and the security men who scour his vacated hotel rooms to remove anything that could be nicked and put on eBay. … the only friend who seemed to co-exist with him on “an equal footing”. ... an eye-witness account of his first performance (aged 13) at a Jewish summer camp in Minnesota. … the childhood friend who owned a fish business in Duluth and ended up running the Rolling Thunder Revue - as Dylan enigmatically put it, “if you can sell fish, you can sell tickets”. ... the time he went to a business conference and nobody recognised him. … how he tells musicians to “never play the same thing twice”. … the chance meeting with Scarlet Rivera – two hours later she was onstage as “my violinist” with Dylan and Muddy Waters. … multiple examples of his love of spontaneity and the extraordinary way he hires musicians.   … a rare moment when his career seemed to stall. … and honourable mentions of Richard Thompson, Paul Stookey, Jim Keltner, Stan Lynch and Jeff Bridges. Pledging My Time …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pledging-My-Time-Conversations-Members/dp/B0C6VRBZQC Flagging Down the Double E’s newsletter …https://dylanlive.substack.com/aboutTickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHKSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/woridinyourear https://www.covermesongs.com/about-ray-padgett

Its tyres pumped, its engine tuned, its air-con still on the blink, the rock and roll charabanc trundles off on its circuit which, this week, makes the following stops … … the singer who sold vials of her tears as part of a merchandise range. … when Billy Bragg entered a Paul Simon lyric in his school poetry contest and only got 7 out of 10. … why our favourite music still tends to be the stuff we heard in our teens. … how Bill Graham’s “Electric Ballroom Experience” changed the landscape – “we were out there with no compass”. … former Kursaal Flyers drummer Will Birch re-watches their ’76 TV film documentary: “There are only two good things about Scotland - the whisky and the road out of there.” “Five autographs? Wasn’t like this at the Carnegie Hall!” … “creamy mousse with ripe stone fruits, bright citrus and a biscuity length”: home-brewing with Alex James.   … and how Wreckless Eric’s made a living for 46 years out of just one song.  That Bill Graham interview …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVeuDS0n3XI Melvyn Bragg introduces the Kursaal Flyers on the BBC’s 2nd House in 1976 …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQKNeWlQzdI&t=11sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Even podcasts take “annual leave” but we’re back and once again propelling the two-man Pedalo of Enquiry down the rock and roll seafront stopping off at sundry wave-rippled spots, among them … … what Chuck Berry said about the Clash. … a band whose keyboard player is the King’s second cousin. … the song Art Garfunkel sang for years without realising it was about him. … Billy Connolly’s bicycle gag and other things you couldn’t get away with now. … Ian Hunter remembering “that little bloke from Beckenham”. … why Punk was like a religious movement. Guest Paul Burke claims it was a “passing fad and its over-cooked legacy was fashioned by the middle-class media”. … the Shakespearian echoes of ‘The Boxer’. … what Bowie would have done if the Laughing Gnome had been a hit. … how Robbie Robertson lived the life Bob Dylan claimed to have lived and never recaptured the spirit of the first two Band albums. … Earl Shilton, Norbert Putnam … American session player or remote place in Leicestershire?… lost TV documentaries about Gene Vincent and the Global Village Trucking Company.  That Global Village Trucking Company doc …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNrBey7yQI Punk’s fake history, Spectator column by Paul Burke …https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/punks-fake-history/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear