Helen’s violin at the start of Come On Eileen has filled a million wedding dancefloors. She was a member of Dexys Midnight Runners, later their musical director, at the boom time of Too Rye Ay (and its wobbly sequel) and captures the thrill of it all in her just-updated memoir, What’s She Like: A Violinist’s Tale. You’ll love this conversation - warm, candid, forgiving and touching on all the following …

… the day the dungarees arrived

… the tribal nature of bands

… the social skills required in a group as tangled as Dexys who’d “go to the caff and just … not talk!"

… what she learnt from the memorabilia found in her shed

… the myth that she met Kevin Rowland at a bus-stop and her reinvention as “the belle from Ballymena”

… working with Nicky Hopkins (“my hero”), Tom Dowd, Woody Woodmansey and Tanita Tikaram

… Dexys studio method: “focus, discipline, tightness” and trying to record a 12-minute track in one take

… hearing hits by Rod Stewart and Slade that featured violins

… and her swansong: recording Because Of You for the TV sitcom Brush Strokes.

Order copies of ‘What’s She Like’ here: https://www.route-online.com/all-books/whats-she-like

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.

We first met Nigel Dick in the late ‘70s when he was the motorbike messenger for Stiff Records and watched him rocket to success in the video boom, directing career-launching clips for Guns N’Roses, Tears for Fears and Britney Spears and working with Cher, Joni Mitchell and McCartney, all recorded in his memoir ‘Music Video Mischief’. He looks back here on that big-budget golden age and the rise of the amateurs from his home in Colorado and stops off at …

… ‘You have to work out where the power lies’

… the story of the million dollar video

… how he finally found the Axl Rose charisma

… New Boots And Panties, ‘the most radical album to have that level of success’

… Stiff’s ‘frightening, lovable, devious’ Dave Robinson, characteristics every label boss requires

… ‘I’ll make sure you never work in this town again!’

… why the 16 year-old (ex-Mickey Mouse Club) Britney Spears was born for video

… working with his teenage heroes Yes: ‘the beautiful castles I’d built in my mind just collapsed to sand’

… the rise of AI – ‘best to check people haven’t got six fingers and a changing haircut’

… and working with McCartney, Cher, Band Aid, Oasis and Claude Van Damme.

Order copies of ‘Music Video Mischief’ in the UK from: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/music-video-mischief-ozzy-to-britney-oasis-to-gn-r-mccartney-to-cher-a-lifetime-of-rock-and-chaos-nigel-dick/619386081ce90352?ean=9798999048783

And in the U.S. from: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com

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.

Two fearless men journey to the Edge Of News so that you don’t have to. Some highlights of this week’s report …

… when a gig’s all about the performer not the audience

… the power of singing other people’s songs

… can you ever trust a film critic?

… what connects Richard Thompson, Neil Tennant, Loudon Wainwright and Randy Newman?

… “bands can’t look like gangs if they’re not all the same height”

… can you picture ‘50s jazz without cigarette smoke?

… who – dear god – is “achingly cool” according to critics? Miles Davis? The Portico Quartet? Annie Lennox?!

… should we call time on the ailing Mike Love?

… biopics that can’t afford the music

… why Robert Evans hated the American Graffiti soundtrack

… people who perform sitting down

… plus BB King, Jack Bruce, Philip Roth, Woody Guthrie, Woody Allen, James McMurtry and the 15-year old “Michael” Jagger’s gym shoes.

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.