Peter Hammill has spent nearly six decades building the most devoted following imaginable – Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Mark E Smith among them. ‘Rock And Role’ tells his invigorating story, beautifully illustrated with photos, cuttings, artwork and memorabilia. Author Joe Banks looks back at his life, impact and captivating way with words, and stops off at …

… the value of looks and charisma in the days when labels hadn’t the faintest idea of the future

… how Hammill “created a world to live inside and broadcast from”

… psychedelic cabaret with wolf masks and blood capsules

… meeting Hammill’s muse and former girlfriend Alice: “50 years later, each still think the other one left them”

… “songs that ask the big questions about life”

… discovering VDGG in 1984 (via Marillion) and piecing together their story in the days before the internet

… public school, Gilbert & Sullivan and the Hallelujah Chorus

… the influence of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers on Genesis’ Supper’s Ready

… his plans with Mark E Smith and how Bowie had every new album delivered to him all his life

… Charisma, Tony Stratton-Smith and the freedom to experiment

… the intensity of his following in Japan and Italy: “there’s no such thing as a casual Hammill fan”.

Order ‘Rock And Role’ here: https://burningshed.com/store/kingmaker

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

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Deck the halls with cheese and Bolly! … and a dish of the usual rock and roll distraction which this week throws the following logs on the fire …

… the greatest Xmas single ever?

… Metal Machine Music, Cut the Crap, Two Sides of the Moon … can panned records ever be rehabilitated?

… how Roxy Music invented ‘rock brand-value’ and turned it into pictures

… Joe Ely and the romance of songs about the American landscape

… Rob Reiner and why that scene in When Harry Met Sally is the greatest marriage of people and ideas

… the real-life moment that inspired Spinal Tap

… “most American pop music is about geography”

… "I keep my fingernails long so they click when I play the piano"

… Jordan Carl Wheeler Davis? Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr? Mystery acts playing Wembley Arena

… the British think America is “fabulous and otherworldly”. Americans think Britain is “quaint”

… plus the magnificent McGarrigles’ Christmas Hour, farewell Hofner and we name the Finnegan’s Wake of rock music!

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

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Beloved Australian songwriter Paul Kelly has just turned 70 – “it sounds Biblical, threescore years and ten.” He looks back here at the road he took to get there, from early days in Adelaide to the pub circuit to his catalogue

of stirring and eloquent songs about the big issues of life and love, as Neil Finn says, “with not a trace of pretence or fakery”. You’ll find …

… the moment he felt he’d arrived

… the story of How To Make Gravy – “a Christmas song with no chorus about a man in prison” – and Rita Wrote A Letter, its ghostly sequel

… early records he loved – Tommy Roe, Peter Paul & Mary, Yes, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, the “chaotic” Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong

… life on the Melbourne pub circuit playing Neil Young, Gram Parsons and Hank Williams

… touring with Leonard Cohen – “a masterclass in performance, like a prayer, a ritual, like a Vaudevillian Rabbi”

.. the storytelling songs of the Stanley Brothers, the Louvin Brothers and Buck Owens

... the great Calypso cricket tradition and the track he wrote about Shane Warne

… “the odd-sock drawer”: the file in his computer where he stores early sketches

… I’m In Love With A Blue Frog, the five chords that underpinned 50 years of songwriting!

… the intricacy of Neil Finn’s impressionistic lyrics

… and the things you hear in your songs when someone else sings them.

Order Paul Kelly’s ‘Seventy’ here: https://paulkelly.lnk.to/seventy

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

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