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.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 43 minutes
- Episodes
- 857
- Years Active
- 2007 - 2025
All of your rock heroes have had work done
In which we waspishly suggest the odd nip and tuck is now standard practice - and name a few obvious suspects. And alight upon …
… Nick Hornby’s new book and the connections he’s found between Dicken…
King Crimson, Dave Vanian’s shoe and seeing one of the world’s most famous women on a train
Things picked up by the ankles this week and given a light shaking to see what falls out of their pockets …
… why King Crimson is like no other band on God’s green earth.
... a sweet story about a Le…
50 years of Nuggets, Ian Brown’s karaoke and is there a band name worse than Jealous Nostril?
Things given a grilling this week in hot pursuit of revelation and entertainment …
.. would YOU pay £45 to see Ian Brown and some backing tracks?
… the life of the late Joe Bussard, collector of 25,0…
Hilary Mantel, Zappa track or ad slogan and the day Beefheart sold Aldous Huxley a vacuum-cleaner
In powerful pursuit of amusement and distraction we aim the piercing supertrouper of scrutiny this week in the direction of …
… why Ry Cooder MUST write a memoir.
… records that sounded like nothing …
Our farewell to the most famous person in the world (and the story of a brief encounter)
The Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights, the radio played “music for a solemn occasion” and this week’s pod is a reflection about the woman who’s been Queen all our lives (and we’re old enough to remember…
You’re not going to Duran Duran’s Halloween party dressed like that!
Among the thoughts, theories and assorted old hokey in the firing line this week you will happily find …
… rock biopics someone ought to be making
… memories of Drummie Zeb and Aswad at Nottingham Bo…
Celebrity mash-ups! An afternoon with Billy Joel, Ivanka Trump, Bono, Geldof and Rupert Murdoch
Welcome to this week’s pod in which various white-hot topics are brought in for questioning, among them …
… Whatever happened to Dando Shaft?
… Alastair Sim, Terry-Thomas and flowsy saxophones in The…
The horror, the horror! Why you MUST see the new Woodstock ’99 documentary
In bold and vigorous pursuit of entertainment we steer via the following topics …
… Thora Hird with a rifle.
… acts who wrote rejected songs for Bond movies.
… the legend of Van Duren.
… hilariously …
In praise of Bernard Cribbins, Clive James and the noble art of guitar-smashing
Our weekly stroll through the sunlit uplands of rock and roll visits the following topics …
… Bob Dylan’s worst lyrics
… musicians in movies, actors who made albums (Judi Dench?) and the slight return …
Why half the people at a gig don't really want to be there
While Mark Ellen is away in his French chateau, David Hepworth goes off on one about Bruce Springsteen tours and why you can't use "dynamic pricing" in the world of live music and why the concert-goi…
Dave Grohl reaches ‘Meldrew age’, Be Here Now’s 25th birthday and the sex life of Dave Davies
In which we paddle our conversational canoe through the rock and roll backwaters, stopping off this week at …
… the closure of Word magazine ten years ago and what we miss – and don’t miss - about it…
How much of ‘Indie’ is just shoes and hair?
High in the conversational mix this week …
… the return the Stackwaddy game! - do Ben & Jerry’s do a Bohemian Raspberry? Are there really Apple Music genres called Pillow Talk and Countrypolitan?
… …
Chris Blackwell remembers the “underdogs, rejects and misfits” he signed to Island Records
Nearly every Island act seemed impossibly hip, characterful and charismatic and much of that was down to the vision and long-term belief of the man who founded the label and ran it for 30 years. Chri…
Danny Baker and Graham Gouldman at our live McCartney 80th birthday special!
On June 18, along with four guests, we held a party for Paul McCartney on his 80th in front of a big crowd in the magical tented arena at Opera Holland Park in West London. This was a lot of fun from…
Paul McCartney in the Park: our 80th birthday special (Part One!)
On June 18 we laid on a celebration of all things McCartney on his 80th in the magical tented arena at Opera Holland Park in West London. People came from all corners of the globe. It turned out to b…
What links The Day Of The Jackal, Supertramp, the Sun and James Callaghan?
Appetising items on our lavish tray of conversational hors d'oeuvres this week include:-
Billie Eilish, 20, (“the youngest at headliner at Glastonbury”) and pop stars who started even younger – “Litt…
The new Elvis movie and why we loved it
Among the things of great import we ran up the flagpole this week:-
Why Baz Lurhmann’s new movie will do for Elvis what Get Back’s done for the Beatles.
Highlights of our Word In Your Park show – wha…
Why music is largely about everything but music
Topics off the leash this week include …
The Talent v Charisma pie chart you can apply to any act.
“Double-concentrated Liam” versus “diluted Noel”, an update on the Oasis land-grab.
A second helping…
Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp and how to ‘rockwash’ your tarnished reputation
We give the week a spirited shakedown to see what falls out of its pockets. And this includes …
The late Ronnie Hawkins – road hog, stunt diver, bootleg liquor smuggler!
Who’s the only original rock …
Has any actor played a rock star convincingly?
Framed in the piercing super-trouper of perusal this week …
The highs and lows of Danny Boyle’s new Sex Pistols biopic.
The best in-car music for road trips (Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Rufus Wainwright …