Word In Your Ear

Cheap tickets, warm beer, draughty halls and refectories, a whole new cobbled-together rock circuit was born in the ‘60s for an audience who watched and listened intently. Which allowed the music to take a different route. Paul Sexton spoke to Mark Knopfler, Nick Mason, Justin Hayward, Phil Manzanera and many others to piece together ‘Rock Goes To College: the Campus Music Scene That Shaped A Generation’ and talks to us here about the fans and amateurs who ran it and the lost world of motorway caffs and Ford Transits, stopping off at … … Hendrix, Fairport, Free, Queen, Dire Straits: tales of the campus gig foot-soldiers … no security, no lightshow, no seat, no stage: how the idea of live entertainment changed in 50 years   … Pink Floyd not being allowed front-of house in Top Rank theatres without a tie … the Stranglers and the Damned refusing to play college shows “unless townies were allowed in” … the “chart clause” - £50 extra if a band’s in the Top 3! … the Stones playing an Oxford ball … bands market-researching songs before recording them … why Leeds could afford the Who and Leonard Cohen … what Harvey Goldsmith, Paul Conroy and Chris Wright learnt from booking bands … why Wings chose the college circuit … and the arrival of DJs and disco that put a nail in the college gig coffin, “a golden age with nothing like it before or after”. Order ‘Rock Goes To College’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rock-Goes-College-campus-generation/dp/0008722412/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.EWpbXfJjfIq6DOGDGU8HMQMTbZ6fxtMSFJLLqnswcYo.7mGYWOOBglb6F5p42gs88d1lJ0uLxzWS4w3W0vPrwN0&qid=1775764128&sr=1-1Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s polling day for this week’s news and these are the stories that got our vote … ... Pussycat Dolls, Meghan Trainor and how ‘Blue Dot Fever’ is wrecking ticket sales … how can you judge a songwriter with eight collaborators? … Dylan’s ‘Judas’ moment 60 years later … is everything becoming binary: thumbs-up or thumbs-down? … Grandmaster Flash, Augustus Pablo, George McRea, Tangerine Dream and the times brand new music was invented … when certain dances got you arrested … Alice in Sunderland? See You In My Drums? Shadows’ song titles rebooted … the hilarious self-positioning of the NME critics’ poll… plus jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden and thrill of imagining the sound of acts who were never recorded.Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imogen Willetts, author of Up All Night and cultural historian of nightlife, traces 350 years of going out from 1657 Yoshihara to Studio 54 and modern raves. She explores pleasure gardens, cabaret Paris, Jazz-era New Orleans, scandalous dances like the Can-Can and Tango, Weimar decadence, the electric light’s role, and how smartphones and dating apps have reshaped nights out.

Andy Earl helped create the new dawn of colour photography in the ‘80s pop video age and went on to shoot a series of unforgettable portraits, album sleeves and magazine covers, many featuring in his new exhibition in Bankside Yards, London. He looks back here at some of his subjects and the analogue days when you flew halfway round the world for the right light and backdrop and every prop in the picture was real. Along with … … that controversial BowWowWow shoot and how he got the job … Johnny Cash in a cornfield near Melbourne and the dogs he called “Hell” and “Redemption” … Duran Duran (and a mysterious nun) in Sri Lanka … “my job was to create a look” … why the age of digital photography brought a loss of control … the Robbie Williams Life Thru a Lens “law court” shoot … “he couldn’t have been more eccentric”: Prince in Monte Carlo and the confiscated camera … Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder for Hipgnosis: where Dali met Magritte … “in Monument Valley with a truckload of giant prosthetic eyeballs”: the Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet cover … how covers changed when the CD arrived  … and Madonna opening the hotel window and inhaling the sound of screaming fans: “I just need my hit!” Andy’s show at Bankside Yards runs from May to August and is free to enter. Details here: https://banksidelondon.co.uk/events/andy-earl-x-bankside-yards/Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graeme Thomson, author and music journalist who wrote the memoir In Another World, dives into the mysteries of Talk Talk and Mark Hollis. He recounts discovering Spirit of Eden, the band’s ‘human sampling’ studio method, Tim Friese‑Greene’s pivotal role, the costs of unlimited studio time, Hollis’s retreat from releasing music, and the strange 92‑second return for a TV show.

Penny Kiley, journalist and author of memoir Atypical Girl, recalls arriving in 1976 Liverpool and finding punk as liberation. She revisits nights at Eric’s, iconic gigs from The Clash to the Cramps, DIY fashion and female punk role models. She also reflects on life as Melody Maker’s Liverpool correspondent and punk’s shift into the 1980s.

Paul Charles, longtime music agent for Tom Waits and Van Morrison and author of the Max McCusker mysteries. He recalls first hearing the Beatles, meeting Tom Waits in Tower Records, watching how bands take the stage, why touring rules artists’ lives, rising ticket prices and dynamic pricing, and how he balances managing acts with writing crime novels set in Portstewart.

This week’s news stories charge out onto the pitch but which are heading for promotion? In the running at the final whistle … … “a ghoulish, soulless cash-grab”: the multiple disasters in the making of the Michael biopic … how spectacle is replacing music … which do we prefer, the truth or the myth? … did Steve Reich re-invent music? … when the Dalai Lama appeared at Glastonbury … how does it feel to perform to a sea of non-clapping motionless mobile phone users? … the remodelling of Coachella … “producers are in the business of creating of high-profile communal rights” … Vilma Jaa: “like Sandy Denny making music with Massive Attack” … how festivals are all about special guests and social media … the 1974 Diana magazine quiz: “how tall is Alvin Lee?” … 20 year-old Word in Your Ear podcast unearthed! ... plus Luciano Berio, Slow Club and “the bawdy harridan and her jive muse”.Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A nostalgic run-through of Andy Kershaw’s home radio sessions and the infamous jar-of-jam Dylan encounter. Tales of wild promotion tactics, from Jay Leno’s $50 trick to Oasis gate-crashing. Debates about manufactured bands, the power of publicity and whether halls of fame mean anything. Plus birthday reflections on Focus and other musical dead-ends.

Take your protein pills and put your helmet on as we voyage to the far side this week to take a picture of … … the Kanye West & Wireless ding-dong … Springsteen with Tom Morello, Pet Shop Boys with Johnny Marr: the fine art of the ‘special guest’ … when Time Magazine invented Swinging London … Gregg Allman and the judge’s wife … Fake Plastic Trees! Pressure Drop by the Clash! Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)! Politicians trying to be hip … a primal howl from the Troggs written by the son of a golf professional from Westchester County (Chip Taylor RIP) … why all bands should have ‘membership’ gigs ... Back Home! This Time We’ll Get It Right! Are we still making World Cup anthems? … never drive a car listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra followed by the Sun Ra Arkestra and Trout Mask Replica … plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon is listening to every record he owns.Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.