Word In Your Ear

Mari Wilson has drunk deep of all that London nightlife has to offer, from a London Transport social club in Wembley to a posh venue in Chelsea via the Cooks Ferry Inn in Edmonton, and she remembers it well. Here she marks the release of her new album “Girl About Town” by talking about:

•⁠ ⁠making bacon sandwiches for Mott The Hoople
•⁠ ⁠entertaining her dad’s mates with her Alma Cogan impression
•⁠ ⁠Half of Scotland coming to stay for the Home Internationals
•⁠ ⁠touring in a Commer van
•⁠ ⁠taking her “Klute” hairstyle to watch Stray and the Pink Fairies
•⁠ ⁠playing Dusty Springfield on the musical stage
•⁠ ⁠audiences who want to get home in time for Antiques Road Show
•⁠ ⁠bringing it all back home to the Cadogan Hall, Chelsea, on October 4th:⁠ ⁠https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/mari-wilson-girl-about-town/
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Another over-heated week put through the conversational air-conditioner, which involves …

… the man who got rich writing words that could never be sung

… Anna Bullock? Stefani Germanotta? People who’d never have made it if they hadn’t changed their names

… and the best stage name ever!

… Marco Pirroni’s jukebox

… when the Rock'n’Roll rulebook declared ‘Thou Shalt Not Dance!’

… how David Dundas made a fortune from just four notes

… Ringo, Dylan, Hank Marvin, Bill Wyman and the magic of cowboy culture

… who lost out on ‘It’s Only Rock’n’Roll’ and ‘Jessica’?

… and the biggest star of the 20th Century and how he got his name

Plus the Bingville Bugle and birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana looks back at when dance music came in for a kicking.
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Marco Pirroni’s moment in the sun was big, lucrative but incredibly short. It was under a year from Adam & the Ants’ first hit to their last and immediate break-up. Adam, he remembers, was the perfect writing partner – driven, intensely competitive and with “a pathological fear of only being Number 2”. He’s got no regrets, hasn’t had to do day’s work since, and looks back here at …

… being the first band writing songs for the video age

… “you can’t confuse fans buying records with love, it’s nothing personal”

… Telstar, Fireball XL5, Roxy Music and the “moon-stomping hits of Slade”

… playing covers of songs they didn’t like with Siouxsie at the 100 Club: “punk rock and my part in its downfall”

… Adam’s “Shakespearian tirade” at the legal meeting with Rolf Harris when he sued over Prince Charming and War Canoe

… Malcolm McLaren’s jukebox: the Flamin’ Groovies, Alice Cooper, the Troggs, “songs that weren’t very good”

… “we stopped being a punk band or a pop band or a glam band – or any sort of band at all”

… never tour America when you don’t have a bank account.

Order ‘Your Money Or Your Life’ here: https://tr.ee/P2_qxNZ6jC
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The Specials have officially disbanded, bowing out with a swansong album recorded in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. Horace Panter looks back at the first shows they played - when Jim Callaghan was still PM! - and the rigours of mastering ska when some of the group thought it was “old man’s music”. Along with …

… the dignified way for any band to retire

… the 2-Tone tour of 1979 – “like a school trip with no teachers”

… bonding with Terry Hall over comedian Ken Platt: ‘I won't take me coat off, I'm not stoppin'!"

… the day Jerry Dammers came to rehearsal with Prince Buster’s Greatest Hits – “for all your rebellious needs!”

… the poignancy of playing in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral when you start the set with an air-raid siren

… seeing the Faces and Mott the Hoople, “once in my school uniform”

… the sensory overload - “The space! The volume!” - of Led Zeppelin at the Albert Hall when you’re 15 and from Kettering

… “strange to think few people under 60 have ever seen the Specials”

… the bassist he pretended to be when posing in the mirror

... the Bilzen Festival in 1979 “when the chain-link fence was broken down and I came offstage like I was walking on air”

… and creating the 2-Tone look with ex-Mod tonic suits

Order ‘Live From The Cathedral’ here: https://shop.thespecials.islandrecords.com/
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As this week’s news hurtles over the net, we sort the aces from the double-faults. The final score …

… Madonna, Shakira, Chris Martin and World Cup 11-minute half-time overload!

… how many Stones albums were “the best since Exile On Main Street”?

… Kevin Rowland’s heart-breaking songs about Life’s Third Act

… 10 good reasons to miss the Nineties

… Country & Western is about travelling through the vast geography of America. “Go 200 miles in Britain and you fall off the edge”

… Florian Pilkington-Miksa, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond: rock’s real (or invented?) double-barrelled names

… how “travel and never arrive” is the new entertainment experience

… plus Sly Stone’s Babies Makin’ Babies, the comforting cry of “Gambo’s in the building!” and birthday guest Patrick Butler.
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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