Only Clare Grogan knows how it feels to burst onstage from a giant birthday cake

Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more and talk here about the first gigs she ever went to and played herself, which involves … … what she wore (aged 13) to see the Bay City Rollers at the Glasgow Apollo (includes “cork platform clogs”). … winning the Alternative school beauty pageant dressed as Debbie Harry in a bin bag. … her sister Margaret’s re-enactments of David Bowie, Leo Sayer and Roxy Music. … why the furniture at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden was screwed to the floor. … memories of 2-Tone, the Banshees, Madness, the Stranglers and the Blockheads. … the riot at a Scottish festival when they ran out of alcohol. … violence at early ‘80s gigs when your only security was “Ginge the Roadie”. … Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs at the Bungalow Bar in Paisley. … do you focus on the people in the crowd who are enjoying it or the ones that need winning over? … horizontal rain when wearing a ballet dress and playing to “a sea of cagoules”. … the best way to tell the audience you’re about to play a new song. … David Hepworth’s Altered Images album review in Smash Hits: ouch! … and her daughter watching old Altered Images clips on YouTube.  ---------------- Altered Images autumn tour dates and tickets here: http://alteredimages.band/Find out more about how you can help us keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyouear 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.