Word In Your Ear
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 late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.
Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.
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- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 43 minutes
- Episodes
- 857
- Years Active
- 2007 - 2025
Peter Hammill on Bowie, other superfans & 47 albums of ‘self-sabotage and chaos’.
Peter Hammill, adored by Bowie, Mark E Smith and many others, co-founded Van Der Graaf Generator when he was 19. And he’s made 47 albums since, powered by “hubris, enthusiasm and sheer bloody-mindnes…
Talking Heads, where they came from and where they went - with Jonathan Gould
Has there ever been a group like Talking Heads? Jonathan Gould’s Burning Down The House explores their affluent background, the root of their ambition and the springboard of the New York scene of the…
Freddie Mercury has a daughter’ – and Lesley-Ann Jones can prove it
Freddie Mercury had an affair with a close friend’s wife and, in 1977, became a father. He’s now a grandfather. That’s the foundation of a new book ‘Love, Freddie’ by his highly respected biographer …
Oasis in 2026, the Troggs and what Morrissey’s only gone and done now!
All the leaves are brown and the sky’s a bit unruly but mellow fruitfulness abounds in this week’s pick of the rock and roll news. Add to basket …
… is Morrissey hacked off, broke or just desperate…
‘Hey Joe’, its miracle birth & why violent songs are like True Crime - by Jason Schneider
Immortalised by Hendrix, ‘Hey Joe’ had its roots in 18th century murder ballads, ‘60s folk and rock clubs before the world got to hear it. Jason Schneider unravels its twisted genesis in ‘That Gun In…
Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span drove Rev Gary Davis round Britain in a Triumph Herald
Maddy Prior – folk royalty, an absolute hero of ours – is touring with Steeleye Span again this autumn 66 years after they started, a life someone should make into a movie. She talks to us here about…
Why reviews lost their sting - and what matters more, the song or the record?
Our pencil-chewing, critical assessment of this week’s news gets mainly * and *** reviews, among them …
…. Sting v Summers & Copeland over Every Breath You Take, the goose that laid the golden egg
… …
Debsey Wykes of Dolly Mixture wants you to read her teenage diary
Debsey Wykes was in Dolly Mixture, one of the very few all-girl groups in post-punk London, a time when bands with charisma won the battle for attention and you promoted singles on the back of a truc…
Singers’ vast egos explained and what’s the real definition of ‘a fan’?
A tub-thumping, snare-cracking, cymbal-simmering, two-way backbeat to this week’s rock and roll news, the on-beats including …
… “Trauma-bonding?” Why being ‘a fan’ is like a love affair
… Ian Brown,…
Neil Hannon - the Divine Comedy, the Father Ted saga & nights at the Indie Disco
How can you not love the Divine Comedy whose inspirations include Tom Lehrer and “Landfill Indie”? And Neil Hannon wrote music for Wonka, Father Ted and the IT Crowd. There’s a new album, Rainy Sunda…
Tanita Tikaram - from ‘girl with guitar in bedroom’ to Hammersmith Odeon in six months
Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train hom…
Bob Mould remembers Hüsker Dü, Sugar & that guy with the hipster moustache
Bob Mould, whose records with Hüsker Dü had such impact on Nirvana and Pixies, is back on tour again, both solo and with a band. “I’ve built this tiny soap box - and if you don’t like it, it’s been n…
Comedy records, TV gold & have Oasis and Coldplay hoovered up all the cash?
Damping down the wildfires of rock and roll news this week we focus on the following …
… Oasis, Taylor Swift and Coldplay and the new age of Winner Takes All
… did Bob Dylan write a song with Gene Si…
Brian Protheroe on the eternal life of his 1974 hit “Pinball”
Paul Weller has just covered it on his new album. Morrissey played it to Noel Gallagher who took the idea and ran with it. What explains the enduring appeal of a record that stalled at number 22 all …
Terry Reid, the man who really invented Led Zeppelin, & guitar fetishism
Other, weaker podcasts may take the summer off. Not this one.
…the story of Jerry Garcia’s alligator strat, Paul McCartney’s violin bass and the instrument Peter Frampton thought had gone forever
…the …
Peter Ames Carlin on the record that made Bruce Springsteen
word-podcast-798-peter-ames-carlin
Friend of the pod and chronicler of the careers of Springsteen, Paul Simon and REM, Peter Ames Carlin has heard all the recordings that went into the album which was…
Jah Wobble - 40 hilarious unedited minutes interrupted by a pest control officer
Jah Wobble - touring in October - is outstanding company and rattles on here like a steam train, sparking off at tangents in a brilliant, barely steerable monologue with a crackling cast of character…
Elvis, the Colonel & how unseen letters changed Peter Guralnick’s view of their partnership
There’s a widely accepted view of the relationship between Elvis and his manager Tom Parker, the one sustained by the recent Baz Luhrmann movie, but a new and fascinating archive of unseen letters ma…
Are the Nineties the new Classic Rock? And whatever happened to comedy records?
Lowering the magnet of curiosity into the scrapyard of news and seeing what’s attracted, which includes …
… does anyone still write satirical songs?
… Four Sides of the Circle, Margaret On The Guillo…
The Wedding Present turns 40, memories of John Peel & ‘the only time I ever pogo-ed’
The Wedding Present formed 40 years ago – why does that seem astonishing? - and have a new box set and tour to celebrate. David Gedge digs out his old notes about the first gigs he ever saw and playe…