Word In Your Ear

Entertainments, thrills and diversions at the end of the rock and roll seaside pier this week include …

Things we want to see in a Bob Dylan museum.

Why the upcoming Spinal Tap sequel fills us with excitement and dread in equal measure.

The pub in Cornwall that Vogue magazine tried to sue. 

Is ‘Exile’ the best Stones album or just their most fashionable? And a new book about Nellcôte – “urchins living in wealth and splendour”.  

The brief return of the Stackwaddy game - Springsteen or Taylor Swift lyric? YOU be the judge! 

The fizzing cacophony of the Smash Hits office.

Why do most TV series (apart from Breaking Bad) start well and fizzle out?

A trailer for ‘The Curious Chronicles of Villa Nellcôte’ by Geir Hornes here …

http://www.nellcotechronicles.com

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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The dazzling super trouper of gentle enquiry is trained this week upon:-

Our recent encounter with John Lydon – his high viz shirt, his smoking habit and his usefully commercial righteous indignation about the upcoming Danny Boyle-directed ‘Pistol’ TV series.

Why Spinal Tap was a blessing and a curse for their real-life drummer Ric Parnell (RIP).

The magnificent bucolic frolic held in the memory of the Old Grey Whistle Test producer Mike Appleton.

The sad fate of Jackie Wilson.

The “pleasant illness” of record collecting.

Musicians who died onstage.

Why comedians might start to need bodyguards

The curious meaning of a “stone fox chase”.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: 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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Folk deity, songwriter and festival figurehead, Kate Rusby was raised on Planxty and De Dannan but staged a rebellion with Smash Hits and “storytelling songs” by A-ha. High in the mix in this splendid pod are “people who sing like a bird”, Nanci Griffith, Nic Jones’ Penguin Eggs, being on Top Of The Pops with Ronan Keating, “2p bus rides anywhere in Yorkshire”, Lyle Lovett, stage fright in Hyde Park, winning a folk competition aged 15, Dan Tyminski as George Clooney and why she’s evangelical about Bob Fox and Stu Luckly.

30th Anniversary album …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/30-Happy-Returns-Kate-Rusby/dp/B09VPMYB1F

Tour dates …

https://katerusby.com/gigs/

Underneath the Stars Festival …

https://underneaththestarsfest.co.uk/

https://katerusby.com/

@katerusby

Tickets for Word In The Park on Saturday June 18th in London here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word In Your Attic before the rest of the world - alongside a whole lot more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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… which may or may not feature Noel Coward, Slade, the KLF and the Spice Girls.

Other key items in pursuit of entertainment this week include:-

When did British pop turn female?

The glorious notion that boyfriends who don’t work out are “Near Mrs”.

The best band this decade! (clue: it’s Wet Leg).

The endlessly rewatchable qualities of Moneyball and The Big Short.

Cary Grant: “All men want to be Cary Grant? I want to be Cary Grant!”

The singular magic of the Hot Club of Cowtown.

Who invented the term “rock and roll”?

Who bought a song called Real Ugly Woman from the teenage Leiber & Stoller? 

Band members who slept with each other.

Alan Freed being sued by Moondog.

And the certifiable fact that only one person was ever better as a solo artist than in their original band (and we name him).

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Make a pact to make better coffee. If you haven’t tried Pact Coffee yet, we’ll help you get started with 50% off your first and third order when you create a new Pact Plan.

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Create your flexible coffee subscription.

Enter the code YOUREAR at checkout.

And get speciality coffee, through your letterbox.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

White-hot topics examined this week include:-

The sweeping return of Britpop (Shed Seven, Reverend and the Makers, how did they get so huge?)

Has Nick Mason won Pink Floyd? Has Liam Gallagher won Oasis?

Record shops that shaped our lives like the Record Bar in Wakefield.

The amazing Nick Cave merchandise range (now encompassing tea-sets, crockery, tiles, wallpaper, jewellery and “the Warren Ellis Pure Exploitation Egg Cup”).

What Frank Sinatra claimed was a “filthy Communist lie”.

Is there a better chronicler of the shades of middle age than Nick Lowe?

Can the current Little Feat line-up really be called Little Feat?

Acts that stand for something.

Happy 40th birthday to Moon Zappa’s Valley Girl!

Is there a more irritating adjective than “awesome”?

‘Dogs with fleas, allergies/A book of Greek antiquities …’

Plus birthday patron John Montagna gets to call a meeting. 

--------------------------------

Make a pact to make better coffee. If you haven’t tried Pact Coffee yet, we’ll help you get started with 50% off your first and third order when you create a new Pact Plan.

Go to https://www.pactcoffee.com/

Create your flexible coffee subscription.

Enter the code YOUREAR at checkout.

And get speciality coffee, through your letterbox.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world, ad-free and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among the key questions being booted round the block this week in hot pursuit of entertainment:-

Why is the billing of the Rolling Stones as just “Stones” on the current tour posters a monstrous affront to human decency?

Why are Mozart and PG Wodehouse “like two peas in a pod”?

Is there a better literary simile than “the drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded like GK Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin”?

Would pub rock, punk and the ‘80s club boom have ever happened if it hadn’t been for the mighty Time Out?  

What’s the howling error in all the Battle of Britain movies?

And what pitiful fee did Yvonne Elliman choose to accept instead of royalties for the Jesus Christ Superstar album?

And birthday patron guest Stephen Lambe has a couple of questions for the panel.  

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world... and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Among the delights this week:-

Pink Floyd’s single for Ukraine (the best peace anthem ever?) and the song Bruce Springsteen played the night Saddam Hussein’s statue came down in Baghdad.

A man who has 227 Kiss albums.

Warners’ talent scout Andy Wickham (RIP), the house hippy who opened the door for Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Gram Parsons and a-ha (a movie waiting to happen).  

The members of Big In Japan (a book and documentary waiting to happen).

The snack bar Brimful Of Rasher, the Greek restaurant I Should Be Souvlaki and other sparkling retail puns.  

The welcome return of “What gets my goat?”

And birthday patron Chuck Loncon on the comedy classics of Kinky Friedman and Bob Newhart.

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Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox singing the WW1 folk protest song "The Red Viburnum In The Meadow" by St Sofia Cathedral in central Kyiv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYpOrwksgbA

Pink Floyd’s video for Hey Hey Rise Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saEpkcVi1d4

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: 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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Will Smith did something at the Academy Awards which showed what he cared about most - did you notice it too? Our blow-by-blow account of the moment everyone missed. 

* Plus … a man who has 25 Big Country albums (and other unlikey acts whose records we obsessively collect).

* Is there any band still going after 50 years with more original members than Roxy Music?

* The enduring joy of Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp! and Night And Day.

* And the kind of thing they let you put on an album cover 50 years ago.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In which we salute the charismatic Taylor Hawkins – and the magnetic appeal of brothers in arms (Taylor & Dave, Pete and Carl, Bruce and Clarence, John and Paul) - invent some rock and roll retirement homes (Itchycoo Park, Barrytown, In The Land Of Grey And Pink), stage an album sleeve style-off and wonder if ‘80s hair will ever make a comeback. Other things mentioned in despatches include Cruising With Ruben & the Jets, the Wailing Wailers, Broadcast News, Working Girl and whether Strawberry Switchblade and Pete Wylie have their Smash Hits covers on their living room walls.

Steve Lamacq’s Drumming Masterclass with Taylor Hawkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwjEc8S0PRo

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Entertaining things subjected to wry and rigorous scrutiny this week include:-

* The most bizarre and tenuous rock autobiographies – eg the tell-all revelations of Elvis Presley’s nurse, Primal Scream’s tambourine player, Sinatra’s valet and the girl who made John Lennon a cheese sandwich.

* How Roger Daltrey wound up living in a van.

* Aimee Mann v Steely Dan and the curious world of support acts.

* Would you rather see a “legend” or the next big thing?

* The noble tradition of song stealing in reggae.

* “Your bus leaves in ten minutes, be under it!” and other inspired ways of dealing with hecklers.  

* If you mailed a letter to 'Andy Partridge, Swindon' or 'Rod Stewart, Essex', would they get it?  

* And Dolly Parton’s dignified escape from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Plus there’s a ceremonial reading of Bono’s piss-poor poem about Ukraine.  

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast before the rest of the world - and with full visuals!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.