Word In Your Ear

Paul Gorman, biographer of Malcolm McLaren and friend of the pod, tells the extraordinary story of the three young hipsters behind Granny Takes A Trip, the Kings Road store that was a magnet for rock’s glitterati in the late 60s.

•⁠ ⁠Sheila Cohen, the first queen of cool; she invented the whole idea of vintage

•⁠ ⁠Nigel Waymouth, who never went to art school but changed the face of London with his posters

•⁠ ⁠John Pearse, who could make a jacket out of anything - and did

•⁠ ⁠The days of aatering to the 200 fashionable people in London

•⁠ ⁠Why the Beatles, Stones and Pink Floyd beat a path to Granny’s door

•⁠ ⁠How the three walked away in 1969, the shops were exported to the USA

•⁠ ⁠How GTAT became the outfitter of choice for the rock aristocracy

•⁠ ⁠Some of its clothes are immortal thanks to album covers from Lou Reed, the Isleys and Todd Rundgren

•⁠ ⁠All the rest are in secure storage

Paul’s book, which is lavishly illustrated and contains a pictorial catalogue of the wardrobe of the Rolling Stones, is here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Granny-Takes-Trip-Fashion-Boutique/dp/1399623613

You can read a preview here: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Granny_Takes_a_Trip/_SZSEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT6&printsec=frontcover

The Rolling Stones London 1962-71 map can be found at: https://www.herblester.com/products/down-the-road-apiece-the-rolling-stones-london

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News, rants, theories, stories and assorted old hokum which this week stumbles into …

… Kate Bush, Thunderbirds, Tim Buckley, the Blind Boys of Alabama … the magical bass adventures of Danny Thompson (and the time he headlined over the Beatles)

… how Claudia Cardinale wound up on the sleeve of Blonde On Blonde

… would Roxy Music have made it if their albums had been released in brown paper bags?

… how TikTok is destroying the “superfan”

… do late night TV hosts need us more than we need them?

… Boris Johnson chose the Clash? Charles Kennedy chose Toploader? Theresa May chose ‘In These Shoes’ by Kirsty MacColl? MPs on Desert Island Discs

… packaged goods: how CDs removed music’s greatest marketing tool

… the peculiar life of Johnny Carson

… have you ever bought an album solely on the strength of its cover?

… and Carmel, Andrew Ridgeley, Jay Leno’s pay packet and birthday guest Jon Pickles on high-impact sleeve art.

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

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We’ve always liked Thea Gilmore who once crossed America with Joan Baez in a pre-Election campaign tour and has released 21 albums (“I’ve got musical ADHD!)”. She looks back here at the first shows she ever saw and played which involves …  

… a deep dive into Jake Thackray – “Last Will And Testament still makes me cry”

… spotting her dad in the crowd in the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival movie and why “My dad treated Dave Pegg’s dog” jump-started her career…

… what Joan Baez did on their pre-Election American tour the night George W Bush won a second term

… “Thea Gilmore looks Borstal-bound”: her first review, in Mojo in 1998

… two weeks’ life-changing work experience at Fairport’s Wormwood studios

… “there’s no point writing songs if you don’t perform them”

… which are easier, small gigs or big ones?

… Ani DiFranco getting the audience to harmonise on When Doves Cry, “an epiphany”

… intense stage fright versus the “precocious teenage belief that I was interesting”

… the impact of first hearing It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

… and when someone leaving “reduces your audience by a fifth”

Tickets for Thea Gilmore’s tour here: https://www.theagilmore.net/live

Order ‘Thea Gilmore - My Own Private Riot 2008-2015,' 7CD Box Set here: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/thea-gilmore-my-own-private-riot-2008-2015-7cd-box-set

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

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Roger Armstrong co-founded the legendary Rock On record shop and was running the Chiswick label long before the punk rock explosion of independents, a believer that you could license rare R&B, soul and rockabilly classics while cutting new records with rising stars (Shane MacGowan, Kirsty MacColl and Joe Strummer among them). He then co-founded Ace Records and talks to us here about the thrill of trawling through American label vaults, locating vintage tracks and finding them a whole new audience. Along with …

… seeing Ella Fitzgerald and the Beatles in Belfast in the early ‘60s

... inventing a new Irish rock circuit and turning showbands into soul bands

… how American Graffiti, Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues and the mod revival all chimed with Ace Records’ re-issues

… promoting ‘Tin’ Lizzy (“that’s what it sounded like on the phone”) and being immortalised in one of their lyrics (“I get my records at the Rock On stall”)

… Joe Strummer in the 101-ers – “sensational, full-tilt, as if playing a stadium”

… releasing Dylan’s Theme-Time Radio Hour box-sets and the size of his record collection

… finding a Little Richard demo and making an Elvis Presley speech album a money-spinner

… being a pioneer tape rat and crate-digger and Ace Records quality control – “Stack ‘em low, sell ‘em high!”

… “think of the strapline, then choose the tracks”: making compilations with Jon Savage, Bob Stanley, Bobby Gillespie and Paul Weller

… plus reflections on John Martyn, Carol Grimes, Brinsley Schwarz, Rocky Sharpe, Irma Thomas, Arthur Alexander and the Count Bishops (“like the Stones at 78”).

Order ‘Chiswick Records 1975 - 1982 Seven Years At 45 RPM’ here: https://www.acerecords.co.uk/chiswick-records-1975-1982-seven-years-at-45-rpm

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On the menu at the rock and roll state banquet …

… Into the Mystic, Meet On The Ledge, In My Life, Tom Waits’ Take It With Me and other perfect songs for a last farewell

… the day we joined the world’s best band

… Robert Redford’s blinding handsomeness and the greatest moment – all three seconds of it – in Butch Cassidy And the Sundance Kid

… best-looking rock stars

… were the Shadows really a UK Eurovision entry?

… “very special guests” and the new age of the stadium rock “bring-on”

… how John Prine and Iris DeMent won the big door prize

… “the movie camera is the biggest lie-detector in the world”

… strange double bills of our time - the Foo Fighters and Rick Astley, Bo Diddley and the Clash

Plus Cary Grant smoking, watching Brad Pitt do ordinary things and birthday guest Steven Way on the subtle billing of support acts.

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

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Novelist and journalist Tom Piazza struck up a friendship with the irreplaceable John Prine in the last years of his life. This relationship, which began as a profile for a magazine, almost blossomed into an autobiography and involved a road trip in an inadvisable vehicle, has resulted in a new book “Living In The Present With John Prine”. Which involves:

•⁠ ⁠setting off in a 1977 Coupe De Ville and driving “until the engine burns up”.

•⁠ ⁠sitting up all night playing old country songs.

•⁠ ⁠remembering how he came to write some of the greatest songs of the last fifty years

•⁠ ⁠an evening’s swapping stories with Elvis Costello which ends with the alarming word “the jukebox is on fire!”

•⁠ ⁠what Prine’s last album “The Tree Of Forgiveness” has in common with Beethoven’s late quartets

Buy Living In The Present With John Prine: https://amzn.eu/d/9vWv9rg

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Having disposed of the surprising history of pop stars who posed for Playboy, discussing whether the universe really needs another album called "Play", come up with a couple of nominations for Best Album Title Of All Time, we hear about Alex's experiences seeing Oasis in the midst of 90,000 who have never been to Manchester and how he "used the force" to get some face time with Jack Black and Dave Grohl.

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Peter Hammill, adored by Bowie, Mark E Smith and many others, co-founded Van Der Graaf Generator when he was 19. And he’s made 47 albums since, powered by “hubris, enthusiasm and sheer bloody-mindness” and celebrated in a new 18-CD box set. He talks to us here from Somerset about …

… supporting Hendrix at the Albert Hall and being ‘the Shirley Bassey of the Underground’

… meeting David Bowie - who asked for Hammill’s new music to be sent to him all his life

… Van Der Graaf Generator being bottled off by medical students in the days when you rang from a phone-box to see what gigs you were playing

… the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Champion Jack Dupree and Jimmy James & the Vagabonds at the Locarno in Derby

… Tony Stratton-Smith and the Six Bob Tour – 30p! – with Lindisfarne and Genesis

… Nut Rocker, Theme Of Exodus and other teenage keyboard staples

 … the value of “Boswellian superfans” who know more about you than you do

… breaking the £100 barrier for a live performance

… writing blues songs, aged 16, with “a gnat’s experience of life”

… the unsettling lyric to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘You've Got to Be Carefully Taught’

… and his new young audience via the internet and “that right of passage, your parents’ records”

Order The Charisma & Virgin Recordings 1971 - 1986’ here: https://peterhammill.lnk.to/CVRecordingsPR

Pre-order 'ROCK and ROLE: The Visionary Songs of Peter Hammill and Van der Graaf Generator' here: https://burningshed.com/store/kingmaker

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Has there ever been a group like Talking Heads? Jonathan Gould’s Burning Down The House explores their affluent background, the root of their ambition and the springboard of the New York scene of the late ‘70s (he was a regular at CBGB). Along with …

... the romanticised image of CBGB and the reality

… their black music roots: “the same instrumentation as Booker T & the MGs”

… the influence of the Modern Lovers: “Jonathan Richman and Byrne were both oddballs, appealing but peculiar”

… how the economy of New York’s real estate let them rent a 2,000 square foot loft for $289 a month

… bands from affluent backgrounds take greater commercial risks: “there was always a Plan B”

… the art-school drop-out lineage that began John Lennon and Keith Richards

… how different they were from the CBGBs acts, a band that sang verses in French and “didn’t dress like the New York Dolls”

 … the band’s dynamic, Chris and Tina “effectively one person”

... did Byrne really make Tina Weymouth “re-audition”?

… the success of the Tom Tom Club and the tension that caused

… Byrne’s invention of his own “white choreography”

… Stop Making Sense, as big a part of their legacy as any album

… and why there can never be a reunion

Mentioned in dispatches: Brian Eno, Adrian Belew, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Ramone and Fela Kuti.  

Order ‘Burning Down The House’ here:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780063022980

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Freddie Mercury had an affair with a close friend’s wife and, in 1977, became a father. He’s now a grandfather. That’s the foundation of a new book ‘Love, Freddie’ by his highly respected biographer Lesley-Ann Jones which details a four-year, detailed exchange with his daughter ‘B’, now 48, and the contents of the 17 notebooks he gave her before he died in 1991. We talk to Lesley-Ann here about this gripping new tilt on his story which covers …

… the 41-page document B sent her in 2021 and how the author assumed it was a hoax

… why B was outraged by his portrayal in the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic

… how the notebooks Freddie gave her are legally owned by Sony “and she would burn them if they tried to collect them”

… Freddie’s turmoil at the time of her conception - engaged to Mary Austin, a love affair with David Minns

… B’s secret life in Kensington and Montreux and her father’s “scary knitwear” disguises

… “in the age of AI, even a real photo of Freddie and his daughter would be reckoned a scam”

… the unheard – surely priceless - recordings Freddie made of the two of them singing together

… how B’s existence stayed a secret and the members of Queen’s inner circle who might have known about her

 … the photo of B, aged four, with her dad and David Bowie

… and how there were no denials about B’s existence from Queen or any Cease & Desist demands when the book extracts published.

Order ‘Love, Freddie’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Freddie-Mercurys-Secret-Life/dp/1916797962

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

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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