Tanita Tikaram - from ‘girl with guitar in bedroom’ to Hammersmith Odeon in six months

Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train home.” She was 17. In this podcast she tells us the story of the one of the fastest career ascents on record which stops off at … … an open-mic night with a girl who cut up newspaper – “what happened to her?” … Basingstoke alumni –Tanita Tikaram, Jane Austen, Liz Hurley … … ignoring Wham! in favour of Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits. … the lure of school theatre groups – “a skive, you could basically be arty and smoke”. … “Ringo Starr gave me an award!” … supporting Warren Zevon and Jonathan Richman - and John Martyn (with Tracy Chapman). … the faint absurdity of promoting Twist In My Sobriety on Kids TV. … “when you’re young, you’re adaptable”. … mourning the loss of mainstream music. … a summer spent miming on European pop TV shows. … the thrill of hearing Ancient Heart was Top Ten when playing the Cambridge Folk Festival – “they all thought, that’s one of us in the charts!”  … and today’s imbalance between new music and nostalgia. Order Tanita Tikaram tickets here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/live/ Order Liar: Love Isn’t A Right here: https://www.tanita-tikaram.com/music/Find out how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Om Podcasten

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.