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
- 858
- Years Active
- 2007 - 2025
Ronnie Spector, the Day Of The Jackal and why no-one screams at musicians with beards
What’s the difference between “chin music and beard music”? What’s the most you’d pay for a ticket? What happened when the Pope went record shopping? Will the Beatles’ Get Back be used in management …
The inventor of the rock logo and why Rick Wakeman’s owed a fortune
In which we choose a new National Anthem, tell the story of Hamish Grimes and the Clapton graffito, salute the best moments in Frasier and feel the powerful effect of the 'You Can All Join In' sample…
The Summer Of Soul movie, Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense and listening to 1,000 albums a year
In which we look at Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, the Staple Singers and Gladys Knight in the fabulous Harlem concert film from 1969. And think what possessions we might bother to keep in a house fire. A…
Rock memoirs that need to be written, the Porridge Christmas Special and Hunky Dory’s 50th birthday
In which we salute the comic genius of Ronnie “Fletcher” Barker and Fulton “Mackay” Mackay, fantasise about autobiographies still to come (Neil Tennant, Pet Clark, John Paul Jones, Noel Gallagher), a…
Mike Nesmith, Don’t You Want Me and Sly Stone’s drum machine
In which we remember the lightness of touch and winning gallows humour of Mike Nesmith and the interesting ways he made and spent his fortunes. And it’s 50 years since There’s A Riot Goin’ On, the mo…
Alternative Xmas songs, Zappa’s worst year, Milk Almond and the Happy Mung Beans
In which we remember the “Smoke On The Water” fire at Montreux Casino, the soft melancholy of some underrated Christmas records, wonder which documentaries could get a Get Back remake and address the…
Sex In The Sixties - let Peter Doggett be your guide
Peter’s been on the pod before talking about the Beatles and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and he’s just published a fascinating account of the ‘60s sexual revolution, a time when a new and unimaginabl…
John Illsley tells the Dire Straits story
Recorded at the West Hampstead Arts Club - we're back in the outside world! - the band’s bassist remembers their label’s hopes of selling 5,000 copies of their first album in the autumn of ’77. His j…
Sondheim, the Band Aid recording and the first F-word on record
In which we remember being at Sarm Studios 37 years ago as Bob Geldof and Midge Ure marshalled the troops, and look at the reaction to the Get Back movie, Alan Hull, Al Stewart’s energetic love life,…
Lenny Kaye nails some moments “when the universe shifted”
Lenny Kaye’s just published ‘Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments In Rock And Roll’, events in particular times and places that changed the landscape, among them (and discussed here) Liverp…
Elvis Costello, aka rock’s “greatest communicator”
In which we watch a breathtaking 40-minute piece of oratory by EC that takes in David Hockney, TikTok, Laurel & Hardy, what Pete Thomas did during Lockdown and how to avoid your new album being “just…
Inscrutable album covers and Hunky Dory’s 50th birthday
In which we salute the great ‘60s pop writer and Beatles associate Maureen Cleave, find a copy of Melody Maker from the week Hunky Dory was released (the Rainbow opens, Lindisfarne banned from Bright…
McCartney’s lyrics & the Tom Tom Club plus Lionel Blair and other rhyming slang immortals
In which we kick about with music at weddings, spin-off groups, the bracing challenge of Trout Mask Replica, why pop music needs no awards, the Lionel Blair gag on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, a 42-di…
Happy 50th to the Pink Moon recording sessions!
In which we debunk the eye-watering Adele Hyde Park ticket prices, note the crowd-losing absence of choruses in Nick Drake songs, remember the strangest onstage guests, marvel at McCartney’s childhoo…
Daniel Rachel hears 100 hours of Beatles audio – “it’s like the DNA in a crime scene”.
Daniel Rachel, old pal of the pod, has just published ‘Like Some Forgotten Dream: What If The Beatles Hadn’t Split Up?’, much of it drawn from his access to the Let It Be tapes and full of enthrallin…
Tim Burgess: how Tim’s Twitter Listening Party raised the sum of human happiness
One of the great Lockdown success stories now has a book attached. This magnificent invention started in March last year and, at one point, Tim was hosting 10 Listening Parties a day. He looks back h…
The best five tracks of the ‘70s and massive applause for Paul Simon (80)
In which we watch the Harmony Game (the fabulous doc about the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water), wonder if the British are qualified to play Country, hear the new Let It Be outtakes (the Fabs pl…
Kacey Musgraves’ naked TV appearance restaged by Alex Gold
In which we remember when one of the Stones was in the Air Force, the agony of loons pants, the genius of Irene Handl (and her screen roles: Mrs Crumbling, Miss Harker-Parker, Miss Slenderparts) and …
Richard Balls: the intoxicating songs and chaotic life of Shane MacGowan
‘A Furious Devotion' is just out, written by Richard Balls after long conversations and nights spent with Shane and interviews with members of the Pogues, old girlfriends, former teachers and collabo…
The late Commander Cody and other enthusiastic smokers
White-hot, pressing topics kicked around the rock and roll park this week include … can heavy metal ever be sexy?, why the Beatles would have made the greatest Unplugged act, the return of Scritti Po…