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
How Joni Mitchell joined the boys’ club and why we don’t need a comeback – by Ann Powers
Broadcaster and music writer Ann Powers lives in Nashville and grew up listening to Kate Bush and Blondie. The siren call of Blue sparked a life-long and deep-rooted devotion and her new book Travell…
Twist And Shout? Spiral Scratch? Corey duBrowa celebrates the best and rarest EPs ever made
The first EPs appeared in the late ‘40s and ‘50s (Frank Sinatra, Elvis) hitting a magical sweet spot between the album and the single and they’ve cast a spell ever since, an exotic reminder that reco…
What songs should be longer or shorter?
The rock and roll ballot-box is stuffed with votes and the exit polls suggest how this week’s debate might play out. Along these lines …
… is there still such a thing as British music?
… John Lennon …
Dylan Jones – Clegg’s women, Hague’s pints and “the wiring behind celebrity culture”
We’ve known Dylan since the days he was editing i-D, Arena and GQ and he’s been a regular on our podcasts talking about his books on Live Aid, the ‘80s, David Bowie and Wichita Lineman. And he’s fina…
Happy accidents, whooping at gigs and why the album review star system doesn’t work anymore
In which we hoof a few balls round the rock and roll pitch and try to stick some in the net. Extracts from the live match commentary include ….
… “Whipping Post!” “Paint it black, you devil!”: when d…
Pop football chants, Reg ‘Reg’ Snipton sings Joni Mitchell & the tale of John Lennon’s watch
The two-man tandem of curiosity wobbles its way down the rock and roll cyclepath pausing here to admire the view …
… “We’re captive on the carousel of TIME-AH!!”: tuneless Northern club singer Reg “R…
Only Clare Grogan knows how it feels to burst onstage from a giant birthday cake
Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description…
The wit and charisma of Kate Bush by Graeme Thomson: going too far makes you what you are
Graeme is an old friend of the podcast. We’ve talked to him in the past about his books on Phil Lynott and John Martyn. ‘Under The Ivy: the Life And Music of Kate Bush’ first appeared in 2010, and wa…
For the love of Françoise Hardy, Ben Sidran and the TV comedy Twenty Twelve
Among the logs tossed on the conversational bonfire this week to combat mid-June’s British winter you’ll find …
… ‘I Managed Van Morrison’ and other films screaming to be made.
… how it feels to watch…
Stewart Lee knows the rigours of ‘animal costume work’ and why great comedy is about shock
Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we’ve been praying for an excuse to g…
How Springsteen went “six deep”, fictional rock hacks and who’s more conservative than Liam Gallagher?
You’ll always find us in the kitchen at parties, near the hoppy summer ale and sausage rolls and, and this week discussing …
… he hasn't changed his look or sound for 30 years: is there a more conser…
Jon Savage - Dusty’s wig, Bowie’s bombshell and how gay pop culture changed music
“I thought Dave Davies of the Kinks was a girl. When I discovered he was a boy, that’s when I got interested.” Jon’s an old friend of the podcast and the author of some highly regarded and influentia…
“Abba’s success is more about us than them”: Giles Smith looks back at a 50-year love affair
Giles was 12 when he watched Abba win Eurovision in 1974 and was instantly besotted – and thus required to spend the next 20 years wrestling with The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. His thundering…
the Architect of Mod: how Peter Meaden restyled and launched the Who - by Steve Turner
Peter Meaden was a key figure in the Mod movement. He changed the world view of Andrew Loog Oldham, which shaped the early Stones, and he managed the Who, remodelling their look and sound, writing th…
Great album trilogies, suing Madonna and "the pantheon of psychedelic heaviosity"
This week the conversational Super-Trouper of Enquiry lights up the following …
... why care when "rock critics get it wrong"?
... the dreadful death of the Allman brothers' dad.
... is there any othe…
The spectacular Dead & Co, songs performed backwards & happy birthday Diamond Dogs!
Tuning into this week's rock and roll soundwave to filter signal from noise, we cranked up the volume on the following ...
... 'Zuma Nester Rock' and the eternal curse of rock stars' kids' names.
... …
Why They Might Be Giants now perform an entire song backwards
They Might Be Giants – old school fiends John Flansburgh and John Linnell – have been making elliptical, funny and adventurous records for over 40 years and writing music for children, advertising an…
Guy Chambers - writing with Robbie, a tangle with Bowie & half a bagel with Paul McCartney
Guy Chambers was a teenager in Liverpool and at John Lennon’s old school - "same headmaster, Mister Pobjoy". He remembers the Beatles, Queen, Abba and Jesus Christ Superstar sparking his interest in …
Alan Edwards, pop PR – ‘Bowie was like King Arthur and the Spice Girls like the Pistols’
We’ve known Alan Edwards since the days when we’d ring him for a quote from Blondie or the Stranglers in the late ‘70s and he’s still one of the key figures in music PR. He’s looked after the Stones,…
Rock’s image-makers, men on dancefloors and why bands can’t act like bands anymore
This week’s items slapped on the rock and roll barbecue and lightly grilled include …
… why Eurovision will never avoid political controversy.
… when AI does David Hepworth!
… what’s the secret of NT…