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
Screaming Jay Hawkins 75, Dave Grohl 1
With Mark Ellen rambling in the West Country it’s left to David Hepworth to talk Alex Gold down from the ledge in the light of the Dave Grohl news and discuss:
• just how many offers come the way of…
One Day author David Nicholls – prog rock, Live Aid and making tapes for girls
The Netflix series of David Nicholls’ worldwide hit novel One Day was Top Ten in 89 countries and he’s been heavily involved in its soundtrack album, a process as enjoyable, he says, as devising the …
Nick Lowe – war stories, wise decisions and the event in 1970 that made him think again
Old friend of the podcast, Nick Lowe has just released his 15th solo album, Indoor Safari, and he’s about to tour with Los Straitjackets. This absorbing conversation looks back at 60 years onstage an…
The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”.
Louis Armstrong, Wild Man Fischer, Irving Berlin and Lucinda Williams all started out as buskers and Cary Baker’s ‘Down On The Corner’ traces the romance and influence of street players from Ancient …
Who should follow John Lydon with a Spoken Word spectacular?
We applied dynamic pricing to this week’s news and various stories trebled in value, among them …
… further adventures in the Oasis ticket fiasco.
… the greatest band name ever.
… the only rock star…
David Hepworth on the glory, comedy and tragedy of rock stars who can't retire
David’s seventh book in his ‘orange series’ is just out and you’re guaranteed to love it. He and Mark discussed ‘Hope I Get Old Before I Die’ at a sold-out launch event at Waterstones in Piccadilly o…
The Oasis reunion – feuds, cash, symbolism and the desire to repair our imperfect lives
David, Mark and our token bucket-hatted parka monkey Alex tackle the return of Oasis, its grip on the public imagination and why they’re the biggest band of the last 30 years, which includes …
… th…
Are comedians more competitive than rock stars?
In a concerted effort to put the world to rights, David and Mark ruminate upon the following …
… Kylie and the Wiggles? Canned Heat and the Chipmunks? Real or invented pop star/childrens’ entertainer …
Johnny Beatle’, early Blondie, Led Zeppelin’s plane and seven fabulous years at the Melody Maker.
Rock journalism as an occupation is rapidly heading in the direction of the watch-mender or lamplighter so Chris Charlesworth’s account of life at the Melody Maker in the ‘70s is already starting to …
One-word rock star mimicry, bands who shouldn’t reform & the best thing about Taylor Swift
With David asleep on a French sun-lounger beneath a copy of Summer Lightning, Alex and Mark pour themselves a cold drink and consider …
… the great ska floor-fillers.
… taking kids to rock concerts.
…
The extraordinary story of Arthur Lee, Love and the 1966 flop which became a hit for the ages
Love’s official biographer John Einarson tells David Hepworth the star-crossed tale of the band who made the least psychedelic album of the psychedelic era. Their conversation takes in:
….Lee’s growin…
Buddy Holly airlines and the inimitable Bob Dylan
As Mark Ellen goes shrimping at Frinton David Hepworth and Alex Gold links hands across the Atlantic to discuss:
….why a quick turn around Mount Hood in a Cessna should never be confused with pleasure
…
“Pop music is 80 per cent about hair”, remaking classic albums and why CDs are so hard to love
A small Pastis, a game of boules and a conversation putting the rock and roll world to rights, which this week includes …
… why Debbie Harry and Mick Jagger worked so well on the small screen.
… Elvi…
Queen, Bowie and other residents of Rockfield Studios remembered by the cook’s daughter
Rockfield is a converted farmhouse in the Welsh countryside where, for over 50 years, bands have lived while recording. In the ‘70s Tiffany Murray’s mum was the in-house cook, filling Motorhead to th…
57 years of Fleetwood Mac: author Mark Blake's fond encounters and fresh revelations
Mark Blake calls Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac a “mosaic biography”, their almost six-decade saga presented as a series of enthralling short stories with titles like ‘Mick Fleetwood’s Great…
Ron Sexsmith doesn’t need a teleprompter. He can do 40 Dylan songs at the drop of a hat
Beloved Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, old pal of the pod, is touring the UK in November, two of the nights at the Palladium, and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himsel…
Without John Mayall … no Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo or Led Zeppelin?
Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction …
… watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night.
… Laurel Canyon,…
Best album sleeves, what’s ruined singing and pop as ‘empowerment porn’
Once again the ping-pong ball of conversation is batted across the rock and roll net and these are the scores on the doors …
… how to wreck the national anthem.
… cover versions that are better than…
Who is Lawrence and why did Will Hodgkinson write a whole book about him?
There’s something romantic about glorious failure and Will nails it perfectly in ‘Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence’. Over 40 years plagued by bad luck and self-sabotage with Felt, Denim a…
Backstage at Live Aid, the first Knebworth and bands that don’t get on
Employing controversial VAR technology, we re-examine various events on the rock and roll pitch and suggest a new perspective. Those key moments include …
… the “bucolic frolic” at Knebworth 50 year…