Word In Your Ear

We lobbed the feathered arrows of enquiry at the rock and roll dartboard this week and these got the highest scores … … rock stars v the new league of the Super-Rich. … package tours of the mid-‘60s – eight acts, an interval, a compere plus God Save the Queen. … ‘Hits, Flops and Other Illusions’ by Edward Zwick and the fantastic tale about arrogance, money-squandering and Julia Roberts at the Halcyon Hotel.... pop music used to be about persuading people to cut loose; now it’s about getting them to tighten up. … why you can read Ron Wood’s memoir as either comedy or tragedy. .. Chris Blackwell’s post-production trickery that sold Bob Marley to a rock audience. … Master Tape Rescue: the arduous task of panning for gold. ... and why there should be a movie about the making of Shakespeare in Love. Plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon in Savannah, Georgia – Neil Young v Spotify, Lady Antebellum, the Dixie Chicks and the tangled world of political correctness.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear via Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”. He’s always had a journalistic capacity for story-telling, remembering everything in famously entertaining detail, and we had so much material from this reunion we turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this second half ... … “every group has to have an angle”. … pop’s current obsession with identity. … why Bronski Beat were so significant. … David Bowie’s scathing one-word reviews of Michael Jackson and Oasis at the Brits. … “the whole world of pop songs is a giant ever-expanding artwork”. … meeting Frida from Abba, “a song waiting to happen”. … the ‘Pits & Perverts’ gay benefit for the miners in 1984. … London clubs in the early ‘80s - “we had a competition to see who could wear the highest heels”. … how everyone at Smash Hits thought Michael Jackson’s Thriller was “a damp squib”. … recording West End Girls.  … first hearing a 12-inch single. … appearing on Soul Train with Don Cornelius – “like being on a different planet”. … why Dusty Springfield gave Jerry Wexler a nervous breakdown. … seeing the last Ziggy Stardust show. … meeting Steven Spielberg, Micky Dolenz and Joni Mitchell. … and Boy George's gag about George Michael.----------------------------------- PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852 Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF-----------------------------------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear  Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard Thompson first appeared onstage aged 14 playing Beatles covers in a school group “so bad we were pelted with pennies”. Sixty years later his range of operations includes touring solo and with his band, occasional reunions with Fairport Convention, residencies on Adriatic cruise ships and running a Guitar Camp in the Catskill Mountains (along with his sons and grandson). Much has he seen and learned about live entertainment along the way and he talks to us here from his home on the American East Coast on the day of the solar eclipse. Among the highlights …   … memories of the Marquee in 1965 – the Who, the Yardbirds, the Spencer Davis Group: “if you wanted to see both sets, you’d have to walk ten miles home”. … seeing Nick Drake and the value of being “a silent, tortured genius”. … life as a support act and how to “attack an audience”. … Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry at the Finsbury Park Astoria in 1963 “when Chuck was at the height of his attention span”. … Segovia at the Festival Hall. … the perils of playing on sea cruises in rough weather. … old and current album sleeves. “Dressed as a fly and now dressed as a fisherman … that’s progress.” … how Ian Anderson and Captain Beefheart told the audience who’s boss. … and watching the Band at the Albert Hall from a box with Fairport Convention.---------------------- Richard Thompson tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/richard-thompson-tickets/artist/736296 Order the new album Ship To Shore here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ship-Shore-Richard-Thompson/dp/B0CVXHMFPB-----------------------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”, and he’s one of the few people who’s seen the music press from every angle - as a reader in the ‘70s, as a writer and interviewer and as a musician on its front covers. We had so much great material from this wide-ranging conversation that we’ve turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this first half ...  … the NME article he and his brother pinned to their bedroom wall. … the event at a Sex Pistols show “which stopped me going to gigs for about three years”. … the first time he saw his name in print. … interviewing Marc Bolan in his “fat phase”. … a barbed chat with Morrissey. … the pop press shift from “super-showbiz to super-counter-culture”. … Television, the Clash and other music he discovered through the NME. … meeting John Taylor 35 years after interviewing him.   … the pop decade when “something extraordinary happened every day”. … his mother’s horrified reaction when he left Smash Hits to start the Pet Shop Boys. … the Human League in their Imperial Phase. … Phil Collins showing him round Abba’s studio in Stockholm. … and why ‘80s pop stars were “the most controlling”.------------------------------------- PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852 Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF-------------------------------------Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We lobbed the cracked wooden ball of enquiry at the rock and roll coconut shy this week and a few choice items dropped off their perch, among them …… was Kate Bush ‘the Queen of Prog’? … ELP, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple playing to 350,000 people on a Speedway track. … the three things that sparked the Abba revival. … the Further Adventures of Desmond and Molly Jones, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, Father McKenzie, Rocky Raccoon, Maxwell Edison, Rose and Valerie, Sweet Loretta Martin, Vera, Chuck and Dave … Beatles characters awaiting development deals. … was Britpop the moment the engine went into reverse? … the two years went rock went ‘fancy dress’. … why the Stones in 1964 were five walking fashion statements. … Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel and its Yes connection. … how the Beatles were in uniform on every album cover. … David Vine at the 1974 Eurovision: “if all the judges were men, this lot would get a lot of votes and you’ll see why in a moment!” … plus a birthday guest party - Al Hearton’s life in a Kate Bush tribute band and Stephen Lambe on the complicated birth of 90125 by Yes.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve applied our celebrated sheep/goats separation technique to the rock and roll pasture and shepherded the following into this week’s pod … … Beyoncé and why it’s hard to connect with songs written by committee. … are we too old for biopics? … Marvel films, the Arctic Monkeys and other things you either love or avoid.   … reviewing Human Touch and Lucky Town in a high-security studio (and how you can only tell if an album’s any good if you’ve lived with it for two months). … why Tony Blackburn is the greatest British DJ. … “Bing was no more Bing than Sinatra was Sinatra”. … hoary old tales that were the engine of the rock press - the Clash shooting pigeons, Kevin Rowland stealing his own master-tapes, Cliff v Elvis, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v the Pistols, Spandau v Duran, Oasis v Blur. … are Oasis songs mostly about being Oasis? … “fame is no longer enacted in the public space”. … indie cliches – escaping the drudgery of the Man and mundanity of Small Town life. … “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”. … Scots punk act get movie soundtrack windfall! … Alex is arranging a woke stag do - “you go to places where ladies put clothes ON”. … plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury wonders if Country is more than “the three Ds - driving, dogs and divorce”.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Cook’s post-Pistols band the Professionals were once, rather surprisingly, on the cover of Smash Hits - “the pinnacle of our success!” – and they’re including the 100 Club on their upcoming tour, the location of another career highlight. He talks to us here about how the first time he played live was also the Pistols’ first appearance (Saint Martin’s College of Art - “utter chaos”), how their old Denmark Street rehearsal room is now an AirBnB (Rotten’s cartoons still on the wall), old punks in the audience, Danny Boyle’s TV series and the very slim chance of a reunion (“never say never”). But much of this is about climbing through back windows to see bands in the early ‘70s, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Queen and Mott the Hoople among them. And seeing Alex Harvey on the day the whole of Scotland descended on London for the match against England at Wembley. The Professionals are playing four UK dates (and often chuck in a couple of Pistols' tunes):https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/the-professionals-1-1Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

exas are touring in the autumn and she talks to us here about what’s required to make it all look easy, a conversation that includes …  … why working in a Glaswegian hair salon was the perfect preparation for pop stardom. … the difference between the first second onstage and everything that follows.  … the advantage of being a singer with an instrument.   … seeing Jim Kerr in his mother’s blouse at Tiffany’s in Glasgow when she was 15. … how Dusty Springfield remembered lyrics. … Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie, Depeche Mode, Cameo and the Clash. … the overpowering spectacle of Prince’s Sign O’ The Times tour in Paris. … playing racecourses and the unsettling sight of an audience wearing fascinator hats. … supporting Fleetwood Mac (her second gig) and something useful learnt from Stevie Nicks. … and the nocturnal sound of lions “going at it full swipe” near her house by Regents Park. Texas tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/texas-tickets/artist/742180 Texas & Spooner Oldham sessions: https://www.texas.uk.com/Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The all-seeing telescope of truth scanned this week’s rock and roll heavens and noticed a few patterns emerge, among them … … the real story of the writing of Layla and who nicked what from where. And who didn’t get paid. … why Sally Grossman was on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home.   … album sleeves with overflowing ashtrays that screamed ‘welcome to my bohemian world!’ – Soft Machine’s Third, Man’s Rhinos, Winos + Lunatics, Back Street Crawler …   … album sleeves that said “meet my girlfriend!” – McDonald And Giles, the Madcap Laughs, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Love Chronicles, the Paul Simon Handbook …   … album sleeves suggesting the powerful aphrodisiac of music and the allure of ‘the bachelor pad’ … .. our night out at a Leo Sidran show and what we’ll expect – indeed insist upon - at all gigs in the future. … when rock stars read 12th Century Persian poetry. …the time Lucinda Williams toured with Dylan and Van Morrison and never met either of them. … the glorious squalor of ‘70s flats. … “comedy is tragedy at a different speed”. … mentioned in despatches: Sharleen Spiteri, John Mellencamp, James Burton, Bobby Whitlock, Daniel Kramer.   The Everly Brothers’ Walking The Dog. Is that the original Layla riff at 2.20? …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072OpLw-l_sSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phil Manzanera – who thought “every day in the band felt like Christmas” – has just published his memoir, Revolución to Roxy, and talked to us about it in front of a rammed and captivated audience at London’s 21Soho, an evening so full of detail, intrigue and revelation we’re putting it out as two podcasts. This is the second. He lifts the bonnet of the Roxy Music “art collective” in its various line-ups and shows you how the engine worked and why the idea of Eno onstage was “frightening”. He remembers working with a whole range of people – David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt, Heroes De Silencia, Quiet Sun, 801, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce and Tim Finn among them. He talks about the five seconds of guitar he knocked off in 1975 that’s made him “more money than all my Roxy earnings put together”. He reflects – and very poignantly – that bands never talk to each other and how he hopes the other members read his memoir as they’ll discover things about him they never knew. And he tells the fantastic story of the Guitar Legends festival in Seville and the way he managed Bob Dylan.   And you can order a copy of ‘Revolución to Roxy’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revoluci%C3%B3n-Roxy-Phil-Manzanera/dp/1783242817Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phil Manzanera – whose relatives include a Colombian pirate, a spy and an Italian opera musician - has just published his memoir, Revolución to Roxy, and talked to us about it in front of a packed and enthralled house at London’s 21Soho, a life so fascinating, detailed and colourful we’re releasing the conversation as a two-part podcast. Here’s Part One which looks back at an exotic childhood in Hawaii, Caracas and Cuba – with first-hand memories of Castro’s revolution in 1959 – and then his school days, early bands (the Drag Alley Beach Mob, Pooh & the Ostrich Feathers, Quiet Sun), the audition for Roxy Music, how they were styled, supporting David Bowie and their rapid and eventful ascent to the first hit single. When he joined the band, he said, “every day felt like Christmas”. Part Two to follow! Order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revoluci%C3%B3n-Roxy-Phil-Manzanera/dp/1783242817Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fish has announced a Farewell Tour in 2025. “I’ve been there, done that and sold the t-shirt.” He’s moving to a croft on a remote Scottish island with nesting eagles, a flock of sheep named after the Hibernian FC team of 1972 and part-ownership of what’s just been voted “the best beach in the world”. Getting there is like the journey in Brigadoon. This covers a wide range of bases, among them … … how the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the tour circuit.   … his first gig as “a big, gangly, geeky teenager” at the Golden Lion in Galashiels playing Steely Dan and Ry Cooder covers. … the lies boys tell when trying to get into bands. … supporting Queen for an audience of 200,000 and how he “over-toured” Europe. … how it feels to be “the Anti-Christ in the Church of Marillion” and their very public divorce in 1988. … seeing Yes at the Usher Hall in for £1.25 and Genesis on the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour. … the music press v the New Wave of British Prog. … girls called Kayleigh whose mothers fancied the singer from Marillion. … irate fans on social media. … the fine art of “guerrilla touring”.    … plus the Faces, Sven Hassel, Edgar Rice Burroughs and a curious analogy about Sioux Indians. https://fishmusic.scot/UK tour dates here …https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/fish-tickets/artist/740885Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was a slow-paced, vicious dirge about the band members who forsook and betrayed him which magically evolved into what appeared to be an optimistic love song, a radio staple that never stopped selling. David and Mark remembered its transformation.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Various items set off the alarm in the rock and roll bag-check this week and were hauled back for closer inspection, among them … … when did records first try to sound like the past? … why Karl Wallinger and Robbie Williams fell out over She’s the One. ... how Marillion and Chuck D changed the digital landscape. … the only word for the sound of Free is “lascivious”. … Blood on the Tracks, Here My Dear, Shoot Out The Lights, Tapestry, Tunnel of Love and other accounts of marital fracture.   … proof the mainstream no longer exists: Glastonbury headliner SZA has had 1.7b streams yet people claim they’ve never heard of her. … the poignancy commercial failure lends to pop music. … the Wire’s ‘100 Records That Set the World On Fire (While No-One was Listening)’. … how Marvin Gaye married a woman 17 years older than him and left her for a 17 year-old. … Eamonn Forde - in bed! - talking about his new book ‘1999: The Year the Record Industry Lost Control’, the people who knew the digital revolution was coming and the ones who didn’t believe it. … Big Star, Dwight Twilley, the Raspberries, World Party and why Powerpop appeals to music snobs like us. … “a Golden Age is when things behaved in such a way that you believed they’d behave that way forever”. … plus Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Andy Fraser, Steve Winwood and the days when “music down a phoneline” felt like science fiction. Order Eamonn Forde’s 1999: The Year the Record Industry Lost Control here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/1999-Year-Record-Industry-Control/dp/1913172775Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Fall wrote reviews of his records, one a day, to make him a better listener. A decade later he published them in a book so colossal that we drop it on a desk to prove it’s passed the Boff Test. ‘Reviewing My Record Collection: 3,333 Albums from A to Zuma’ is a laudable labour of love, records he bought years ago and revisited, records he found in charity shops and took a punt on, records with reputations, records that deserve “a mauling”, records he wants the world to hear, records arranged alphabetically by title from A by Jethro Tull to Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. He’s evangelical about the album format and never skips a track. It’s an attractively personal view and often mentions when the relationship began – “I found Moon Pix by Cat Power for £1.50 in a Cancer Research in North Finchley”. This fascinating conversation about a love that knows no bounds touches on CDs you always find in charity shops (eg by REM, Dido and Travis), how strange it is that the same records you can pick up for 50p are often being repackaged as “top-end super-deluxe vinyl reissues” and how he felt a sense of bereavement when he finished the book. Which he’s why, oh yes, he’s begun Volume Two. You can buy the first one for £17.99 from Amazon …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reviewing-My-Record-Collection-Albums/dp/B0CV53YD22#:~:text=Book%20overview,collecting%20records%2C%20tapes%20and%20CDs.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arthur Brown – enduring psychedelic godfather – is out on tour again 57 years after first performing Fire in a flaming metal crown. He’s nearly 82. This is the most old-school podcast we’ve ever done, talk of seeing Salvador Dali in his audience in a Paris nightclub, jazz bands on the back of trucks, his grandmother’s hotel being bombed in WW2, the birth of Flower Power, gigs at the UFO club, Palaeolithic art, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, panicked security personnel with fire blankets and memories of the key components of his incendiary headgear over the years among them cow gum, Army gaiters and a pie dish full of petrol. As you’ll discover – and this couldn’t be more old-school either – Zoot Money once had to extinguish the flames with two pints of Newcastle Brown. Arthur’s keeping the home fires burning on a European tour. Dates here …https://www.songkick.com/artists/333715-crazy-world-of-arthur-brown/calendar Website - thegodofhellfire.comSubcribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzi Ronson was working in a hairdressers in Beckenham in 1970 when a Mrs Jones dropped in for a shampoo and set talking gaily about her son, “an artistic boy who plays guitar and piano”. The same son who’d had a hit with Space Oddity and occasionally drifted down the High Road in a dress. Within weeks she’d become the first rock stylist, transforming Bowie’s hair, image and stage clothes and launching him in the direction of Ziggy Stardust and an international audience. She was a key part of his entourage that toured the UK, America and Japan and she talks about later life married to Spiders’ guitarist Mick Ronson, the role he played in Bowie’s success and the trials of his solo career in its aftermath. Both this podcast and her memoir (Me And Mr Jones: My Life With David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars) look at Bowie’s early career from a wholly new and original angle - in fact someone should base a film on it. A few highlights ... … Haddon Hall and its exotic inhabitants. … Schwarzkopf Red Hair Dye and other trade secrets. .. how it feels to see an audience with the haircut you invented. … expeditions to Liberty’s and Mr Fish with Angie Bowie.   … the Spiders’ northern sensibilities adjusting to the brave new world. … how Tony Defries made Bowie mysterious and unreachable. … why Lou Reed was a revelation. … America’s Southern states reacting to the 1972 tour. ... and the magnetism of Bob Dylan and why Mick Ronson ended the Rolling Thunder tour with an invoice not a wage packet. Order Suzi’s book here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Me-Mr-Jones-Suzi-Ronson/dp/057137185X Suzi’s the special guest on the Lust For Life tour reading extracts from the book …https://www.lustforlifetour.com/special-guest-supportSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nutritious items on the rock and roll tasting menu this week include … … the curious life of Tom Verlaine, his grocery cart and his 50,000 books.   … was March 9 1984 the worst week ever for the British album charts? … what all great records have in common. … Yesterday’s news today! ‘Soundies’ at the cinema and the Scopitone colour video jukebox. … why A Hard Day’s Night was the greatest advert for the magical qualities of the Beatles and the scene that was the blueprint for the pop promotional clip. … comforting acts with a narrow range – JJ Cale, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, U2 (“like getting into your parents’ car after a school trip”). And what made JJ Cale’s recordings so mesmerising.    … did Johnny Marr ever play a guitar solo? … “I work in advertising but tell my mother I play piano in a brothel”. … the link between JJ Cale’s Call Me The Breeze and Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone. Mentioned in despatches … Cab Calloway and the Hondells, The Hoodoo Gurus, the Style Council, Jimmy Reed and the Inkspots. Tom Verlaine’s 50,000 books …https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/march/at-the-tom-verlaine-book-sale?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240306blog&utm_content=20240306blog+CID_6b4a1bd19ed9ca733f5ffca04056ca8b&utm_source=LRB%20email&utm_term=Read%20moreSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caught in the piercing super-trouper of perusal this week … ... the BRITS 2024, a howling embarrassment. … Medieval Beatles! She Came In Through the Privy Window, Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Kestrel, Comely Rita, I’m Happy Just To Joust With You … … the wisdom of Tony Hancock. … The Last Dinner Party and other ‘art concepts’. … the Pattie Boyd/George Harrison/Eric Clapton love triangle. … the days when “forming a band was a conspiracy against the tedium of life”. … is it all over for young blokes in pop music? And is being in a band still considered sexy? … the oldest musicians still touring: if Willie Nelson’s still going at 90, won’t Ed Sheeran be on the road at 100? … “these days hanging a guitar round your neck insinuates that you might be homeless”. .. and a whole range of facts that make starting groups seem less attractive (the cost, the likely profit, the decreasing appeal of ‘abroad’, digital gangs, how big ticket prices soak up all the live circuit cash).   ... plus new patrons piped aboard!Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, alongside a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Henry Normal set up Baby Cow Productions with Steve Coogan, co-wrote the Royle Family, Coogan’s Run and Mrs Merton and produced Gavin & Stacy and Red Dwarf. He’s been a central plank in British comedy since the early ‘90s and, throughout it all, developed his own stage show built around poems and stories. He’s touring the UK with Brian Bilston. This podcast is full of hard-won insight into what makes comedy work and how the best poetry connects with “a greater truth”. And much besides including … … what middle-class BBC execs wanted to change about the Royle Family and why it worked as it was. … touring with John Cooper Clarke “who lived by a cemetery and had egg custard for breakfast”. … putting on a Pensioners’ Disco, aged 14, that featured The March of The Mods played at 33. ... the influence of Roger McGough and the Liverpool poets. … how, apart from the Office, American versions of British comedies mostly fail to get the point. … seeing Juicy Lucy at the Nottingham Boat Club when he was 17. … what made Spike Milligan’s Small Dreams Of A Scorpion so original. … working with Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash and the Guardian’s first review – “three middle-class writers”. … how to structure spoken word shows – “salad rather than soup”. … and reflections about Mr Inbetween, Derry Girls, Clive James and Norman Gunston.   Get tickets for Henry Normal and Brian Bilston here: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/henry-normalSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.