One-word rock star mimicry, bands who shouldn’t reform & the best thing about Taylor Swift

With David asleep on a French sun-lounger beneath a copy of Summer Lightning, Alex and Mark pour themselves a cold drink and consider … … the great ska floor-fillers. … taking kids to rock concerts. … the fate of all bands: “as musicianship improves, vocals decline”. … left-field Beatles songs reworked as nursery rhymes. … why 2-Tone had pop’s “triple threat” (and the genius of Mike Barson). … of the five big acts with all original members intact, only one should reform. … how “Tay-gating” became a thing. … the secret life of Chris Ballew, former leader of minimal grunge trio the Presidents Of The United States of America. … is the Jam a “young man’s concept”? … the downside of “Cuddly Liam”.  … Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran: has normality replaced escapism? … and Frank Carter as the new Johnny Rotten.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: 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.