Word In Your Ear

Richard Thompson has a new album, ‘Hippies, Thugs and Heroes’, and he’s touring again in 2027, the perfect excuse to get another of our favourite guests back in the chair again. He joins us here for a brilliant, free-wheeling conversation with a cast list including …

Arnold Schwarzenegger (and his son Wolfie)
William Shakespeare
Mandy Miller
Shostakovich
Fairport Convention
William Walton
Fellini
John Lennon
Louis Armstrong
Post-War Brighton gangsters
Nellie the Elephant
Les Paul
Harold Pinter
Booker T & the M.G.’s
Bix Beiderbecke
Stephane Grappelli
Ennio Morricone
John Coltrane
Django Reinhardt
My Fair Lady
‘50s radio show Journey Into Space
Once Upon A Time In The West
… his dad (a policeman) and his first girlfriend Deirdre.

Order copies of ‘HIPPIES, THUGS AND HEROES’ here: http://newwst.com/hippies

And tickets here: https://www.richardthompson-music.com/tour-dates/
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You forget how huge and ubiquitous Rory Gallagher was in the ‘70s, just 22 at the Isle of Wight and auditioning for the Stones four years later, an inspiration for Johnny Marr, Andy Partridge, the Edge, Slash and countless others. And for his brother and manager Dónal - “it was a big wide world I wasn’t going to see unless I hung onto his coattails”. He’s just published a memoir, ‘Edged In Blue, A Rock’n’Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher’, and looks back here at some of the highlights, these among them …

… watching Six-Five Special through a closed TV shop window at night and adding vocals to entertain the crowd

… hearing jazz, Lonnie Donegan and Big Bill Broonzy on Forces Radio in Ireland

… auditioning for the Stones in 1974

… joining the Fontana Showband aged 15 playing ceilidh, Chuck Berry and Georgie Fame

… Taste on the chaotic Blind Faith US tour when Ginger Baker attacked the security

… when Johnny Marr and Joe Bonamassa asked to borrow his old guitars

… and “the BBC’s most recorded artist of the ‘70s” and managing his expanding legacy.

Order ‘Edged in Blue: A Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edged-Blue-Rock-Odyssey-Gallagher/dp/1786052539
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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In this week’s extension of The Longest Conversation In Pop History™️ you’ll be happy to find …

… the front row audience driving Gillian Anderson mad and why we feel for her

... can you still buy anything for £1.10?

… when did rock nostalgia begin?

… what Andy Partridge paid “the Hermit of Mink Hollow”

… the famous playwright who wrote a Beatles film script

… Spirit of Eden, Trout Mask Replica, Bitches Brew? Unlistenable?!

… whatever happened to the pop instrumental?

… My Bloody Valentine and bands who were “a challenge”

… Japanese noise pioneer Merzbow’s 53-hour marathon at Colchester Arts Centre

… Bricknasty, Tooth, Clutter, Sleepazoid … real or invented new bands?

… and memories of first hearing Sister Ray.

Plus Widowmaker, Stan Ridgway, the long-suffering hero who’s heard every one of our podcasts and birthday guest Matthew Elliott.
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The third instalment of ‘The Island Book of Records’ is out, another sumptuous, elegantly designed, LP-sized chronicle of every album released on this most fabled of labels, in this case between 1971-72. They’re edited by Neil Storey who worked in the press office for years, and they’re magnificent, a painstaking assembly of the memories of producers, musicians and label staff involved in those records with photo outtakes, press cuttings and concert bills to illustrate. We talked to Neil in Jamaica, on his way to present Chris Blackwell with a copy, and touched on the following …

… why anything on Island still quickens the pulse

… how Blackwell understood “the packaged goods business” and only signed Roxy when he saw the shot they wanted on their first album cover

… Jess Roden, John Martyn, Tír na nÓg, John Wood, Jethro Tull, Hackensack and the record everyone forgot

… ‘the deification of Nick Drake is not a good thing”

… the misfortunes that derailed Bronco

… the ‘Renaissance’ look of Amazing Blondel and the member permanently dressed as an Elizabethan

… “Bless The Weather was the first John Martyn record where he didn’t want to be somebody else”

…. Spooky Tooth - “grunge before grunge was invented”

… and the Island albums that should have sold more.

Order ‘The Island Book of Records 1971-72’ here: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781807072995/

And here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-III-1971-72/dp/1807072991/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_1/525-3021267-6645350?pd_rd_w=s0hPN&content-id=amzn1.sym.bb13d3fc-af40-4fff-a822-e0e4c415da96&pf_rd_p=bb13d3fc-af40-4fff-a822-e0e4c415da96&pf_rd_r=WV2V75TAD07MAYDF00D9&pd_rd_wg=6Znhw&pd_rd_r=94f67c6f-23f0-4a15-afc6-890c382a264d&pd_rd_i=1807072991&psc=1
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A lifelong Beatles obsessive, Gary Kemp bought Epstein’s black leather address book at auction and (with Simon Halfon) researched its 404 names to construct a picture of him, “a 360-degree look” built around musicians, managers, impresarios, hustlers, grifters, ‘walkers’, tricksters, writers, deejays, scene-makers and assorted fashion and media folk. It’s fascinating. As is this podcast where he talks about what he discovered compiling ‘1967: the World of Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ and how the contacts were like “an Advent Calendar leading to his death in August 1967”. We touch on …

… what he paid for the address book (but couldn’t tell his wife!)

… the last person Brian spoke to

… how the Age of Innocence became the Age of Experience

… the legal, contractual and social problems overwhelming him in 1967

… cracking the code that hid the Beatles’ phone numbers

… “these days Lennon would be cancelled many times over”

… the crisis just before Shea Stadium in 1965

… why Brian missed the last Beatles show and his absurd idea for the Sgt Pepper cover

… and “how different all our lives would have been if he hadn’t walked down those steps to the Cavern”.

Order copies of ‘1967: the World of Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/1967-the-world-of-brian-epstein-and-the-beatles-the-address-book-that-defined-an-era-gary-kempsimon-halfon?variant=56206336885115
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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