Word In Your Ear

John Lydon is among us in 2025 - with Public Image in May and on his Spoken Word tour in September. Entertainment is guaranteed, as it is in this podcast with Mark where he considers … Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper and the “sadness in all comedians”, stage fright, the day his dad threw him out of the house, why PiL is like opera, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, the “crippled emotions” of youth, why people open their hearts to him, the ghost of Johnny Rotten in Gladiator 11, the lost world of conversation in pubs, and missing his wife, best friend Rambo and Sid Vicious.  

Order tickets for his spoken word tour here:

https://www.johnlydon.com/tour-dates/

PiL tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/public-image-limited-tickets/artist/241

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In which we feed the week’s events through our heat-seeking Fun-Filter®️ to see what makes the bell ring. Which includes …

 

… Richard Ashcroft in the new John Lewis Christmas ad.

 

… U2 v Coldplay, the Beatles v Pink Floyd – rock bands and the “diploma divide”.

 

… why can we still recite entire song lyrics we learnt when teenagers but can’t remember the shopping list we wrote this morning?

 

… “they couldn’t find their backside with the flashlight”.

 

… the new form of tribute group: the Fall, Thin Lizzy and Talk Talk and the bands made up of ex-members who are recording their ‘new music’.

 

… Elvis, Noel Coward, Churchill, Dylan, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Bowie, the Stones, Frank Sinatra … who should Craig Brown write about next?

 

… the very few people more famous than Paul McCartney.  

 

… our search for the poshest pop star.

 

… Beatles fans v the National Anthem.

 

… is this the only podcast on God’s green earth to mention the Wars Of Spanish Succession?

 

… and birthday guest Giles Fraser on Phil Manzanera, Neil Tennant, Clare Grogan, Midge Ure and other musicians with fabulous speaking voices.

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He’s written some of the darkest entries in the American songbook but became world famous with a sunny celebration of friendship on the soundtrack of “Toy Story”. Inbetween can be found a staggering range of songs dealing with everything from short people to Vladimir Putin, from performing bears to the Louisiana Flood., from ELO to the Great Nations Of Europe, all of which show up in this authoritative new biography from Robert Hilburn, for years the rock writer of the Los Angeles Times. Topics touched on in his chat with David Hepworth: 

 

… when you called your book “A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country”, did you know it was coming out in Election week?

 

… why Robert’s review of Elton John at the Troubadour in 1970 transformed the life of one piano player from Pinner while his review of Randy in the same same venue in the same year didn’t have the same effect on this local hero.

 

… how Randy finds his inspiration by sitting in front of the TV with a big stack of hardback books.

 

… what his famous uncles taught him and how he has spent a lifetime trying to follow their lead.

 

… how he got his first break from Cilla Black, Alan Price and the British chart,

 

… what he said when he finally got as Oscar after years of nominations.

 

… why he can write quickly when commissioned but moves agonisingly slowly when relying on inspiration.

 

… why he’s the only biographical subject to insist his children are interviewed.

 

… what he thinks of Donald Trump.

Order Robert’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Few-Words-Defense-Our-Country/dp/1408720361

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After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves …

 

… what time he goes to bed.

 

… “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent’s review was an insult.

 

… seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975.

 

… the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”).

 

… supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland.

 

… memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers.

 

… the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground’s What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance.

 

… the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet.

 

… “I never thought I’d retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian’.  

 

… the role reversal of being produced by your own son.

 

… and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour.

 

Peter Perrett tour dates here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432

 

Order his new album The Cleansing here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDL

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Things this week that sent the needle into the red included …

 

… the last dance craze the whole world noticed.

 

... “Rock stars used to be anti-establishment. Now they ARE the establishment.”

 

… artworks, flags, bespoke I-Ching Coins … would YOU pay £1,350 for a box set?

 

… why Quincy Jones made records like a movie director.

 

... how Dylan’s Biograph and Springsteen’s live box started a gold rush.

 

… “an unprecedented event in popular recording".

 

… Hot Night, Starlight, Give Me Some Time, Lights Out and other working titles for Thriller.

 

… “We’re here to save the record business!”

 

… the speed of the Beatles: two years between Ed Sullivan and Tomorrow Never Knows; two years from the Cavern to Shea Stadium.

 

Plus birthday guest Phil Hopwood: moments in rock history you’d like to have witnessed to see what really happened.

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The most streamed Beatles song – 700 million plays more than any other – is not by Lennon/McCartney but George who, as author Seth Rogovoy points out, is still widely considered “an economy-class Beatle” though his contributions were central to the success of their records. Seth’s new book ‘Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison’ sets out to right this monstrous wrong! As does this conversation with the two of us which covers …

 

… did My Sweet Lord’s court case puncture his sense of ambition?

 

… how he changed Taxman for American audiences.

 

… the statement made by starting All Things Must Pass with a Dylan/Harrison composition.

 

… how he was fleeced by not one but two managers - Allen Klein and Denis O’Brien.

 

… what we learnt from watching ‘Get Back’.

 

… Broadway ballads, Vaudeville, jazz and the solo on ‘Til There Was You.

 

… remortgaging Friar Park for Life Of Brian and pushing for the Anthology “payday”.

 

… his glorious spiritual/material contradiction – “the Pisces sign is two fish going in opposite directions”.

 

… a social mobility that John and Paul both envied.

 

… falling out of love with live performance.

 

… the beliefs of his early ‘20s he sustained all his life.

 

… and the staples of George Harrison’s Jukebox.

 

Order Seth’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Within-You-Without-Listening-Harrison/dp/019762782X

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Ian Broudie and the Lightning Seeds are about to set out on their 35th Anniversary Greatest Hits Tour – aka “beery parties”. He talks to us here about the first bands he ever saw and played in, which involves …

 

… memories of the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun.

 

… the secret of seeming enigmatic: “Never finish your sentences …”

 

… how Three Lions brought a whole new audience and the irony of a singer who didn’t front his biggest hit.

 

… why the Ramones and Talking Heads made him sell his old records.  

 

… first requirement for success: “being able to make a fool of yourself”.

 

… when Captain Beefheart forgot he was booked for an art show and painted all the pictures the night before.

 

… how a part in a Ken Campbell play launched his career.

 

… seeing the Beatles, aged seven – “Shut your eyes and put your fingers in your ears”.

 

… when Eric’s in Mathew Street seemed the centre of the universe.

 

… “for the first time ever I’m not suffering from Imposter Syndrome – I AM THE SINGER!”

 

… Free, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, XTC, Big In Japan and the Sausages From Mars.

 

… making records that are “an Andy Warhol pop-art splash of colour on a wall”.

 

Lightning Seeds tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/lightning-seeds-tickets/artist/735512

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Our crack pair of inquisitors tackle the week’s events and sift out the good, the bad and the riveting, which includes …

 

… whatever happened to savage reviews?

 

… “For God’s sake, keep the robots out of music!”: the 50th birthday of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

 

… a Naked Nick Cave Plush Doll (£24) and some Jonny Greenwood olive oil.

 

… strange tales about the making of Disraeli Gears.

 

… what keeps Kamala Harris awake at night.

 

… the staggering bill at Murray the K’s ‘Music In The Fifth Dimension’ in 1967.

 

… Teri Garr, Diane Keaton and other fantasy girlfriends.

 

... “Twas nought but an skellington covered in skin”.

 

… rock stars never seen without shades.

 

… and birthday guest Cathal Chu cooks up another 45 ways to leave your lover – ‘Give two weeks’ notice, Otis’.

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Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them …

 

… “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …”

 

… how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment.

 

… being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.

 

 … how he heard the news of Lennon’s death.

 

… booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’.

 

... the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days.

 

… how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions.

 

… abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.

  

 … ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants.

 

… “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”.

 

… John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney.

 

… “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”.

 

Order Elliot’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Shine-extraordinary-friendship/dp/0857506072

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Brushing aside the cobweb spray and luminous flashing skulls, we ring rock and roll’s doorbell in pursuit of both tricks and treats. Among which you’ll find …

 

… the gothification of entertainment … Harry Potter, Creedence Clearwater and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

 

… Donald Trump dancing to Jeff Buckley. 

 

… why Phil Lesh was the heart and soul of the Grateful Dead.

 

… John Cooper Clarke playing a 23,000-seater and the rise of Spoken Word.

 

… Bah! Humbug! The full horror of Halloween and its infernal TV specials.

 

… Allen Ginsberg’s International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965.

 

… Rihanna’s dietician, therapist, spiritual advisor and hospitality liaison manager.

 

… the auditions for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

 

… the curse of having everything you want.

 

… John Lennon imprisoned in the Dakota – without the internet! And his mishandling of an Austin Maxi.

 

 … Helen Mirren’s thing about Kurt Cobain.

 

… why Phil Lesh, John Entwistle, Jack Casady and Paul McCartney were a breed apart.

 

… when Mark King’s father kicked him out of the family home.

 

… plus Abraham Lincoln, Fields of the Nephilim, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Eraserhead, the Batcave and birthday guest Matthew Elliot wonders if anyone had greater love songs written about them than Rosanna Arquette (by Toto and Peter Gabriel)?

 

Mama Tried by the Grateful Dead. Just LISTEN to Phil Lesh’s bass playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4gy0TBDfU

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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