Word In Your Ear

Ian Hunter – an image so familiar you’d recognise his silhouette - now lives in Connecticut and he’s just released expanded versions of two of his best-selling solo albums, You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and Short Back N' Sides. He’s 85, born before any of the Beatles. We talk to him here about life growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s when your father’s a copper and “music wasn’t allowed in the house”, and touch upon …

… the debt he owes Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee.

… café jukeboxes full of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.

… beating 165 acts at a talent contest at Butlins.

… the record that made the Beatles (which they didn’t write).

… “a two-piece corduroy suit, open-toed sandals, overweight …”: the Mott the Hoople audition.

… Bowie playing All The Young Dudes – “a monster” – cross-legged on the floor in Denmark Street after they’d turned down Suffragette City.

… why Hendrix was thrown out of Regent Sound studios.

… playing the Reeperbahn in 1963.

… recording ‘Schizophrenic’ with three members of the E Street Band.

… “Do you want a cuddle?” The Mick Ronson recording method.

… the good thing about Covid.

… watching punk bands with Mick Jones.

… plus a ‘dyed-black’ Ford Anglia and the Greatest Record Ever Made.

Order Ian’s re-released albums here:

Buy link: https://ianhunter.lnk.to/sbns

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As the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness draws in, we poke the embers of this week’s rock and roll bonfire and rake out the following chestnuts …

… Maggie Smith on ‘70s chat shows.

… when Radiohead meets Shakespeare.

… the strange, circuitous and downright disgraceful launch of Francis Ford Coppola’s majestically bonkers Megalopolis.

… Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter: the slow ascent of two ‘overnight sensations’.

… is it big events anymore or just a low-level hum of distraction?

… Bryan Ferry as an interpreter: why we love his clubby renditions of Dylan, Amy, Frank, Elvis, Broadway ballads and old sea shanties.

… Movies In Waiting no 97: Butlin’s, skiffle, Hamburg and Ian Hunter’s 26-year clamber to the top.

... can any film still have instant world impact?

… the unsettling structure of the Graham Norton show.

… Simon Raymonde’s dad’s oceanic jazz adventure, 1949.

… plus birthday guest Matthew North sees Wayne Rooney doing Ring Of Fire at a Plymouth open mic night.

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Simon Raymonde’s affecting and beautifully written memoir ‘In One Ear’ records life in the ‘60s growing up with a father who wrote and arranged for Dusty Springfield, Helen Shapiro and the Walker Brothers, the impossibly shy promotional activities of the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and the struggles and eventual jackpot of the Bella Union record label he founded. He’s so perceptive, observant and self-mocking and we loved this energetic podcast which, among much else, lands upon …  

... why 1979 was the Golden Year.

… the time Scott Walker came to his parents’ house.

… why the Cocteau Twins might have tanked in the current age of self-promotion.

… how a loathing for Phil Collins was a Sliding Doors moment.  

… the problem with bands that don’t talk to each other.

… why they refused to appear on Top Of The Pops.

… following Rancid and the Ramones at Lollapalooza in 1996 and the sobering events that ensued.

… why the Old Grey Whistle Test was “not a happy experience”.

… the cryptic language of Elizabeth Fraser’s lyrics why he never asked her what they meant.  

… “if I hadn’t worked at the Beggars record shop I wouldn’t be talking to you now”.

… why bands are “less naïve now”.

… and “Cocteau Twins - swirling sepulchral shards of sound that patter like raindrops against the windows of your mind” – ©️ the Music Press in 1985.

Order Simon’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Ear-Cocteau-Twins-Raymonde/dp/1788709381

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Abba’s biographer Jan Gradvall met and interviewed Abba many times and builds a fresh picture of their internal chemistry in his new book Melancholy Undercover. Highlights of this illuminating pod include …

… how Sweden rejected their early hits for not being sufficiently “socialist”.

…. the discomfiting early life of Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

… what Max Martin and Denniz Pop thought made Abba’s music so durable. 

… Strindberg, Bergman, the climate, the eight months of darkness and the role of melancholia in Swedish pop culture. 

… the influence of the Human League on their later catalogue.

… why manager Stig Anderson “became a burden”.

… “Norway has Grieg, Finland has Sibelius, Sweden has Benny …”

… the first band to write about divorce.

… the Abba song with 57 chords and the only two samples Abba ever approved.

… Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and Ian Dury backstage at a 1979 London show.

… when Sid Vicious ran into Abba at an airport on the Pistols’ 1977 Swedish tour. 

… the role of the Lionesses football team, Kurt Cobain, Erasure, U2, Madonna and the Sydney gay community in the Abba revival. 

… why the Abbatars are better than Abba. 

… the myth of Agnetha as “the Greta Garbo of Pop”. 

… and why The Day Before You Came is more than the Abba swansong.

Order Melancholy Undercover here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-ABBA-Melancholy-Undercover/dp/0571390986

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A free-form spontaneous jam this week - the Dark Star of podcasts – which navigates the outer reaches of the rock and roll stratosphere by way of the following …

… was Michael Stipe’s father a military helicopter pilot in Korea?

… our fantasy Odd Couple tragi-comedy: Morrissey and Marr in a thin-skinned middle-aged flat share.  

… how the Golden Egg launched Roxy Music.

… can anyone name more than one member of Coldplay?

… did Paddy McAloon’s mum make the sets for the Clangers?

… the ’80s version of the Internet.

 … memories of lost London: international magazine shops, drinking in offices, Protein Man, roaming Hare Krishnas, “floating a curry”, wasp-covered sarnies in café windows, band flyers on derelict buildings, the romance of old Fleet Street.

… the tangled saga of Bonfire Of The Teenagers.

… “Oasis is the last of the household-name bands”.

… why Toyah is a movie waiting to happen.

… and birthday guest Jelltex on bands he thought had given up now filling stadiums.

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Mike Batt still wrestles with the emotional legacy of the Wombles, the act that simultaneously made him and cast a shadow over the rest of his career, not least his early days as a songwriter at Liberty Records, discussed here, hired after he’d answered the same ad as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, a time when A&R men wore kipper ties and had Picassos on their wall. He forged a path through psychedelia and into TV and films, taking huge financial risks with musicals, orchestral works and big-selling acts like Katie Melua, his Art Garfunkel hit ‘Bright Eyes’ eventually promoting him from the Haves to the Have-Yachts. Life, he says, has been “like running through traffic”. His memoir is just out, ‘The Closest Thing to Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’. All sorts discussed here including ...

… his brief satin-jacketed tenure in Hapshash & the Coloured Coat.

… parallels between record producers and traffic cops.

… Happy Jack and songs about outsiders.

… being in Savile Row when the Beatles played the Apple roof.

… life as “a square” during psychedelia.

… a snatch of abandoned teenage composition ‘The Man With The Purple Hand’.

… John D. Laudermilk and the magic of writing credits.

… how Bright Eyes “got me into the Officers’ Mess of Songwriters”.

… his publishers insisting there was a Womble on the book jacket.

… “circumcising” the world in a seven-crew yacht.

... and feeling simultaneously smug and guilty when driving a Roller.

Order ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Closest-Thing-Crazy-Musical-Adventures/dp/1785120840

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Joe Boyd produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others, released acts from all over the globe on his Hannibal label and has just written a mighty and definitive account of the history of popular music, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, tracing the way different sounds from different countries became interwoven. Nobody is better qualified to write this book as you’ll discover from this enthralling conversation. Among the highlights …

… “if Mick and Keith had had Spotify there’d have been no Rolling Stones.”

… the African roots of Little Richard’s horn section.

… how a Zulu folk tune from 1939 ended up on the Lion King soundtrack.

… “Western musicians are governed by keys, valves and frets but what matters is the notes in between”.

… the evolution of ska as rock and roll was too exhausting in the heat of Jamaican dancehalls.

… Alan Freed, the “Pied Piper” that led white American teenagers into black music.

… Duke Ellington and music “too complicated for white audiences to follow”.

… the bossa nova in Nick Drake’s River Man.

… Paul Simon’s Graceland and the meaning of authenticity.

… world music’s problem with drum machines.

.. the attraction of music whose origin you can hear before the vocal comes in.

Order Joe’s highly recommended book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Rhythm-Remain-Journey-Through/dp/0571360009

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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 rich and famous rock stars

•⁠ ⁠whether his recent admission will in any way detract from the most winning smile in rock

•⁠ ⁠is this an opportunity for Jon Bon Jovi to step up?

•⁠ ⁠how a quick word from Taylor Swift is worth all the five star reviews in the world

•⁠ ⁠Nick Lowe’s infallibly entertaining story of Jet Harris and seven pints of Kaliber

•⁠ ⁠When they organised a reunion of all the progeny of Screaming Jay Hawkins

•⁠ ⁠... and the greatest music book ever with Patreon supporter Ed Newman

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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 compilation tape the fictional Emma made for Dexter in 1989 featuring the Smiths, Prefab Sprout and Public Enemy. We talk to him here about the glorious pitfalls of using pop music to broadcast your personality. All bases covered, from the Geoff Love Orchestra to Joy Orbison, along with …

… prog rock drummer replacement fantasies.

… when a compilation tape is a Valentine’s card.

… music as a way of telegraphing a time.

… what the 1812 Overture does to a five year-old.

… the eternal impact of Shipbuilding and Running Up That Hill.

… “punk terrified me”.

… classic male musical taste paranoia.

… memories of Live Aid – Bowie onstage, Kiki Dee in the car park.

… buying a knock-off cassette of Sgt Pepper.

… remembering every note of a record you haven’t heard for 50 years.

… and the greatest record of all time!

Order the One Day Netflix soundtrack here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jessica-Jones-Morrish-Anne-Nikitin/dp/B0CXJNM4WV

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

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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 and takes in the following …

… the secret of a long career.

… why he resolved “not to get that famous again”.

… touring Germany aged 15 in Brinsley Schwarz’s dad’s Dormobile.

… the Small Faces at the village hall in Hornchurch.

… to the Six Bells for seven pints with “photographer for all occasions” Jet Harris.

… playing Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent in the school band and wrestling with the chords to Cliff’s Living Doll.

… Kippington Lodge at Ally Pally, New Year’s Eve 1968, supporting Joe Cocker, the Bonzos and Amen Corner - “the Grand Canyon with a roof”.

… 270 dog walks with his son Roy during Covid and the things they discussed.

… the unique magic of working with “America’s premier instrumental surf band”.

… how ‘I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll’ is now a wedding staple.

… and the sole mention of ‘freakbeat’ vendors the Fleur De Lys in the history of our podcast.

Nick’s tour starts at the London Palladium on September 24:

https://nicklowe.com/tour-dates/

Order Indoor Safari here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indoor-Safari-Nick-Lowe/dp/B0D5TXRLDD

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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