Why Kirsty MacColl was so funny, honest, original and impossible to sell – by Jude Rogers

Jude Rogers – writer, broadcaster, old pal of the pod - first heard Kirsty MacColl when she was nine and felt a connection ever since. She’s just written the sleevenotes for ‘See That Girl’, the best, most diverse and exquisitely packaged compilation of her music ever assembled, an eight CD box-set of singles, rarities, unheard songs, live and Glastonbury appearances, demos, BBC sessions and collaborations, along with an entire unreleased album. As Jude points out she wasn’t overlooked, but all the things you applauded about her made her very hard to market. She wouldn’t play the game. She refused to be fashionable. She was funny and honest and wrote about an unvarnished, real world which robbed her of a sense of mystery, and a lot of her songs were about fallibility and failure. Among the highlights here …   … a long-running lyric thread that began with There’s a Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis.   … why what she wrote about men (and women) was so original. … her strained relationship with her father. … what Johnny Marr admired about her and the power of her “Elysian chorus”. ... why you’ll never find another song like ‘Autumnsoupgirl’. … how she and Dave Robinson’s hairdresser launched Tracey Ullman’s career. … and David Hepworth’s inspired idea for ‘In These Shoes?’, the West End Kirsty MacColl musical. Order the 8CD box set ‘See That Girl’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/See-That-Girl-1979-2000-8CD/dp/B0C9GCDZSTTickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho in London on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxiSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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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.