Big Characters we have loved and why the Clash wouldn’t last ten minutes in 2024

We’ve applied our celebrated sheep/goats separation technique to the rock and roll pasture and shepherded the following into this week’s pod … … Beyoncé and why it’s hard to connect with songs written by committee. … are we too old for biopics? … Marvel films, the Arctic Monkeys and other things you either love or avoid.   … reviewing Human Touch and Lucky Town in a high-security studio (and how you can only tell if an album’s any good if you’ve lived with it for two months). … why Tony Blackburn is the greatest British DJ. … “Bing was no more Bing than Sinatra was Sinatra”. … hoary old tales that were the engine of the rock press - the Clash shooting pigeons, Kevin Rowland stealing his own master-tapes, Cliff v Elvis, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v the Pistols, Spandau v Duran, Oasis v Blur. … are Oasis songs mostly about being Oasis? … “fame is no longer enacted in the public space”. … indie cliches – escaping the drudgery of the Man and mundanity of Small Town life. … “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”. … Scots punk act get movie soundtrack windfall! … Alex is arranging a woke stag do - “you go to places where ladies put clothes ON”. … plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury wonders if Country is more than “the three Ds - driving, dogs and divorce”.Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon 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. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.