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Word In Your Ear

Word In Your Ear

By: Mark Ellen David Hepworth and Alex Gold
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About this listen

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.


Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.


Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.

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

Word In Your Ear
Music
Episodes
  • Kenney Jones remembers the Small Faces’ masterpiece
    Jan 20 2026

    Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake is being reissued on Kenney Jones’ Nice Records, along with unheard outtakes discovered when the original master was found in one of his battered old drum cases. He talks to us here – with the compiler Rob Caiger – about the chaotic construction of the Small Faces’ 1968 masterpiece and his mission to “carry on the legacy”. Are you all sitting comftybold two-square on your botty? Then we’ll begin. Among the highlights …

    … the Thames boating accident that inspired the album

    … booking Stanley Unwin when Spike Milligan turned them down – and the day Stanley invented ‘Unwinese’

    … insomniac days in the band’s Westmoreland Terrace

    flat

    … the value of Marriott’s stage school background: “he could always ham things up”

    … hidden treasures on the original tape – “you hear Steve and Ronnie talking”

    … the magic of that fragile tobacco-tin artwork

    … possession is nine-tenths of the law!

    … Marriott’s wall-banging Chiswick neighbours that inspired Lazy Sunday

    … “I’m the only one left and want to carry on the legacy”

    … other lost Immediate sessions to be released on Nice Records

    Order the Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake expanded 3CD set here, direct from Kenney’s Nice Records imprint: https://www.nicerecords.co.uk/collections/ogdens-nut-gone-flake


    Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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    26 mins
  • The fabulous Bob Weir and how the Grateful Dead invented the internet
    Jan 18 2026

    A tie-dyed-in-the-wool rock & roll space odyssey to infinity and beyond which stops off this week at …

    … why the Dead’s music was “like lighting a match in the wind”

    … Ha Ha Harlem! Rebels Without Applause! – Morrissey song or Lenny Bruce comic routine?

    … Sting v Sumner & Copeland and what Every Breath You Take makes daily just from streaming

    … is Oasis “the biggest exchange of money for old rope in the history of commerce?”

    … rock stars in shorts

    … John Hartford and his Willie Nelson Sliding Doors moment

    … how Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions became the most hi-tech band on the planet

    … Rock ‘babes’ in the Bob Weir mould – eg Michael Clarke of the Byrds, Evan Dando and Mark Gardener from Ride

    … has anyone made more by doing less than JJ Burnel on Golden Brown?

    ... plus Warren Zevon song titles, Mary Coughlan in a coracle and the first records we reviewed for money.


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

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

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    39 mins
  • Steve Cradock on Ocean Colour Scene, Mod hair & the ghost of Ronnie Lane
    Jan 16 2026

    Steve Cradock’s touring with Ocean Colour Scene in 2026 and in his own show, Travellers Tunes, with his wife and son Steve – “we’re like the Von Trapps!” This highly original night involves them “living like gypsies in the spirit of Ronnie Lane”. He looks back here, from his psychedelic Mod-shrine converted garage in Totnes, at the first shows he ever saw and played, which touches on …

    …seeing UB40 at Birmingham Odeon, aged 13 – “I was bruised for days”

    … an after-school Duran Duran video shoot

    … “three 45-minute sets a night”: doing J Geils Band and Lennon covers pre-Bingo in working men’s clubs, aged 15

    … playing Scooter Rallies in Gorleston-on-Sea in pilled-up homage to the Purple Hearts, the Jam and Secret Affair

    … the imperishable sound of the early Small Faces – “the tone, the feedback, Plonk smashing his bass”

    … an intense love of Northern Soul, Soft Cell, the Pretenders, Costello and the La’s

    … the Stones Roses, “the most important show I ever saw – the hair, the clothes, the songs, the guitars”

    … supporting Oasis at Knebworth

    … “musicians’ books bore me”

    …. three days in a pub with Chris Evans and regrets about “the double-edged sword” of the Riverboat Song on TGI Friday

    … and Paul Weller with love beads

    Buy Steve Cradock tickets here: https://www.stevecradock.com/tour/


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

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

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    28 mins
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David Hepworth and Mark Ellen have been hosting this podcast for many years. They have both been music journalists and David Hepworth has written many books about the subject, while Mark Ellen has also written one memoir. They are music journalists, have presented many music programmes, and what they don't know about rock and pop music is not worth knowing. If you like music from the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, give this a listen. They are extremely enjoyable company and the two are both knowledgeable and funny. A great listen.

Word in Your Ear

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Dave, Mark & Alex have been plying the podcast furrow for a number of years - it never ceases to entertain!

A Must - Listen Every Week!

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