Episódios
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We ran our patent heat-sensing Scrutiniser®️ over the week’s news and here’s what set the bells off …
… are buskers now more expensive live entertainment than Taylor Swift?
… a Dickensian oik in Chapel Market and other riddles of modern etiquette.
… ‘Holiness and horniness’: how Hallelujah rebooted Leonard Cohen and became a one-song industry.
… the teenage self-promotional flair of Robert Plant and Marc Bolan.
… are singles a social experience and albums a solitary one?
… “Would you like a fruit gum?”: the 1950s in a single phrase.
… highly recommended: Wendy Waldman, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band and ‘The Room’ by Fabiano do Nascimento.
… rock snobs’ alarm about the revelations of their Spotify Wrapped.
… why the Sherman Brothers are as enduring as Lennon-McCartney.
… Hallelujah cover versions - from kd lang and Rufus Wainwright to Johnny Mathis and the Osmonds.
... how King David removed ‘love rival’ Uriah the Hittite.
… reconnecting with records you haven’t heard for 40 years.
… whatever happened to She Sherriff?!
… Loudon Wainwright’s early inference about the YMCA.
… plus Lindsey Buckingham, Hugh Lloyd, Tony Hancock and fond memories of “stolen cheese guy”.
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Paddling the three-man conversational kayak across the rock and roll rapids this week involved …
… Olive Mess, Candied Yams, Gorilla Biscuits …? Challenging indie act or seasonal vegan recipe?
… the amount YMCA earned through Donald Trump and why the man who wrote it is complaining.
… Tom Hanks’ valuable words of wisdom.
… Neil Tennant’s favourite bridge in a pop song (and it’s not We Can Work It Out or I Will).
… musicians and the modern world of the “one-night stand” circuit.
… Baker Street, Money, Careless Whisper, Giant Steps, Jungleland … and the sax solo that outranks them all.
… the genius of Henry Mancini and the powerful DNA of film music.
… the lost world of small ads – eg this pasted by Roxy Music: “The perfect guitarist for avant rock group: original, creative, adaptable, melodic, fast, slow, elegant, witty, scary, stable, tricky. Quality musicians only.”
… Beatles ’64 - “randomly assembled and directionless”, a listener declares!
Here’s Plas Johnson playing the Pink Panther theme with Henry Mancini:
https://youtu.be/jBupII3LH_Q?si=brjVwsPlmcnii1Md
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Joni Mitchell called it “stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song”. Every record sent out for review used to come with a press release knocked together by an over-excited PR before terms like “psychedelia” or “prog” had been invented. They were scanned once for the odd fact or quote and usually chucked in the bin. Richard Morton Jack has tracked down scores of these handouts from 1962-1972, and the news stories they sparked, and published them in the sumptuous ‘Pressing News’, a fascinating window into how acts were sold in the days when pop stars liked rump steak, sports cars and “sincere people” but disliked “bad music, traffic wardens and people who say I look like a girl”. We leaf through his book here and talk about ….
... the ingenuity of '60s PRs and why Marc Bolan was a turning point.
… Robert Plant and David Bowie’s genius for self-promotion.
… the pop hopeful whose favourite tipple was tooth-rotting, crystal-based ‘Creamola Foam’.
… how PRs sold rebels and outsiders.
… a £900 Olivia Newton-John press release.
… Beta Male pin-ups Nick Drake and Scott Walker.
… confected outrage over the Small Faces’ Lord’s Prayer.
… Joe Cocker, eternally a gas-fitter from Sheffield with “a face like the back of a Sheffield Corporation bus”.
… mysterious pop acts that never made it like the Virgin Sleep, the Accent, Bread Love & Dreams, Fresh Maggots and the Tickle whose songs were supposedly chosen by computer.
.. the Kinks – “four art students who dress like characters from Dickens”.
… the promotion of pre-psychedelia Pink Floyd – “a lyrical atmosphere whose words express a feeling rather than tell a story.”
… “the Zombies have 50 GCSE passes between them!” and other press release fiction trotted out in the papers.
… the mass 1966 adoption of the kaftan and Charlie Chan moustache.
Order copies of Pressing News here:
https://lansdownebooks.com/products/pressing-news
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Reversing into tomorrow! This week’s news events given a vigorous once-over include …
… what will a Trump guitar be worth in 30 years’ time?
… the average age of a Glastonbury goer and how it sells its TV coverage.
… “the Beatles in America was like Cortez arriving in South America, the clash of two civilizations. How did this film manage to balls the story up so catastrophically?”
… Leonard Bernstein’s daughter’s dreams about George Harrison and the Fabs v the all-American alpha male.
… who should be next for a rock and roll blue plaque?
… the Beatles’ Ed Sullivan support act who became almost as famous as they did.
… why Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater is the most-streamed ‘60s track.
… Hendrix and the Isley brothers’ night in watching telly.
… and Rod Stewart’s genius for generating publicity.
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R.E.M. considered themselves missionaries against the prevailing pop culture – no solos, no old-school stagecraft, no printed lyrics, no lip-syncing, no hard-sell videos, no obvious leader – and mapped out a whole new route to international success. Peter Ames Carlin, whose books include biographies of Springsteen, Brian Wilson and Paul Simon, talks to us here about ‘The Name of this Band is R.E.M.’, what they pioneered and how it rearranged the rock and roll furniture. Which involves …
… why their Letterman Show was a statement of intent.
… “rather than bending to the mainstream, they did what they wanted ‘til the mainstream bent to them.”
… where you can see “the R.E.M. model” - from Sleater-Kinney to Taylor Swift.
… when ‘Mike Stipe’ became Michael.
… Stipe’s first TV appearance, dressed as Frank-N-Furter at a Rocky Horror Show screening.
… why rock critics connected with them.
… the strategies they share with U2, Radiohead and Coldplay.
… “Springsteen = Elvis + Dylan”.
… what was in the water in Athens, Georgia, that produced such unconventional
acts - R.E.M., the B-52’s, Pylon, Love Tractor.
… their ‘straight’ but supportive parents – Stipe’s dad in the military, Mills’ dad a marine helicopter pilot.
… how R.E.M. “channelled popular culture”.
… their pioneering approach to record deals, royalties, videos, mixing and song-writing.
… and which of them most wants a reunion.
Order ‘The Name Of This Band Is R.E.M.’ here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-This-Band-M-Biography/dp/0385546947
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Neil Storey worked in the Island press office in the ‘70s and ‘80s and has set out on mammoth undertaking, to compile a series of gorgeous, album-sleeve-sized books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history and talking to all involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. This latest edition, ‘the Island Book Of Records 1969-1970’, has transported us back to our teenage selves when albums by Fairport, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Free, King Crimson etc were unmissable. We talked to Neil at his home in France which happily involved …
… the extraordinary story of the Unhalfbricking album shoot.
… when album sleeves were assembled by hand.
… how Island pioneered the ‘underground’ aesthetic and the cheap sampler album.
… the mystery of Ian Anderson’s 11 fingers.
… the “worst sleeve” in the label’s history (which involved a trip to the butchers).
.. the day the Island roster met in Hyde Park at six in the morning.
... the curious marketing of Nick Drake – “who doesn’t have a telephone and will disappear for four days at a time”.
… and Roxy Music, Sparks, Head Hands & Feet and what else to expect in Volume 3.
Order the Island Book Of Records Volume 2 here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-II-1969-70/dp/1526182246
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Danny Baker, the act you’ve known for all these years, is kicking his legs up again in 2025 on a thundering new theatre tour, ‘Aye Aye! Ahoy Hoy!’ “Dead men tell no tales,” he points out, “so we might might as well get ‘em all told now.” This will be another barnstorming one-man circus - as, naturally, is this barrelling conversation with the two of us which collides with the following …
… being shot, Welsh cake, an olive green Humber, goldfish, when videos were the size of a loaf of bread, why half his Maidstone audience got up and left, stolen gear being hustled over Waterloo Bridge, bad things done by Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, ELP, the Average White Band, Max Miller, Kenneth Williams’ loathing for Michael Aspel, when records become like furniture, getting £4k for a Ziggy Stardust white label, why he doesn’t miss the 14,000 albums he sold, and the record that came out the same day as Sgt Pepper and Bowie’s first album but is better than both.
The podcast includes an extract from Ronnie Barker’s “A Pint Of Old And Filthy” and Terry Thomas reading PG Wodehouse.
Order tickets for Danny’s 2025 tour here:
https://www.dannybakerstore.com/
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This week’s events piled into a pipe and enthusiastically smoked include …
… our memories of being at the Band Aid recording in Sarm studios, November 25 1984.
… why it was the last dance of the mass media and why nothing could have the same impact now.
… the “household name” that made all the difference.
… the real reason Bob Geldof could be involved.
… James Bond, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Spaghetti Westerns … how music is the real DNA of film franchises, the fingerprint that connects you with the original.
… why should a teenager know what a radio is?
… “Live vivid! Delete ordinary! Break moulds! Copy nothing!” The tortuous rebranding of Jaguar.
… what the BBC spends 95 per cent of its time doing.
… how Bee Gees’ drummer Dennis Byron unwittingly invented the tape loop.
… the appeal of inconvenient technology.
… David’s second Deep ‘70s compilation, “a dream fulfilment” – Americana, Skinny Tie music, cover versions, the outer limits of Island Records.
… plus birthday guest Mike Sketch on discovering music late in life (Dylan, Tom Waits etc).
David’s ‘More Deep 70s’ 4-CD compilation is available for pre-order now:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Hepworths-More-Deep-Misunderstood/dp/B0DCGGQDNK
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One of our rays of sunshine in the dark days of Lockdown was Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch, fizzing clips of the two of them in their Dorset kitchen, him playing off-brand rock and roll, her singing in extravagant finery, occasionally on an exercise bike. Their version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman got 8.6m views alone. One time they were dressed as bees, another re-staging Swan Lake wearing tutus. This has now flowered into an all-the-trimmings Christmas show with a full rock band touring in December. They look back here at how it started and where it’s ended up, which includes …
… the teenage Fripp doing the twist at the Cellar Club, Poole.
… Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood’s reaction when Robert booed him on set.
… when the “elite newspapers” declared their kitchen shows were “genius”.
… where their two different audiences meet.
… plans for an upcoming Fripp memoir and his 1981 King Crimson diary.
… things you find in old boxes in the attic.
… how the grumpier end of King Crimson’s supporters regard the “other Robert Fripp”.
… what Tony Iommi and Robert Plant thought of their lockdown clips.
… and what you can expect from their Christmas Party show – which involves Bowie, Blondie, Neil Young, Slade, Metallica and an inflatable penguin.
Toyah and Robert’s Christmas Party tickets here:
https://toyahwillcox.com/gigs/
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John Lydon is among us in 2025 - with Public Image in May and on his Spoken Word tour in September. Entertainment is guaranteed, as it is in this podcast with Mark where he considers … Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper and the “sadness in all comedians”, stage fright, the day his dad threw him out of the house, why PiL is like opera, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, the “crippled emotions” of youth, why people open their hearts to him, the ghost of Johnny Rotten in Gladiator 11, the lost world of conversation in pubs, and missing his wife, best friend Rambo and Sid Vicious.
Order tickets for his spoken word tour here:
https://www.johnlydon.com/tour-dates/
PiL tickets here:
https://www.ticketmaster.com/public-image-limited-tickets/artist/241
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In which we feed the week’s events through our heat-seeking Fun-Filter®️ to see what makes the bell ring. Which includes …
… Richard Ashcroft in the new John Lewis Christmas ad.
… U2 v Coldplay, the Beatles v Pink Floyd – rock bands and the “diploma divide”.
… why can we still recite entire song lyrics we learnt when teenagers but can’t remember the shopping list we wrote this morning?
… “they couldn’t find their backside with the flashlight”.
… the new form of tribute group: the Fall, Thin Lizzy and Talk Talk and the bands made up of ex-members who are recording their ‘new music’.
… Elvis, Noel Coward, Churchill, Dylan, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Bowie, the Stones, Frank Sinatra … who should Craig Brown write about next?
… the very few people more famous than Paul McCartney.
… our search for the poshest pop star.
… Beatles fans v the National Anthem.
… is this the only podcast on God’s green earth to mention the Wars Of Spanish Succession?
… and birthday guest Giles Fraser on Phil Manzanera, Neil Tennant, Clare Grogan, Midge Ure and other musicians with fabulous speaking voices.
Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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He’s written some of the darkest entries in the American songbook but became world famous with a sunny celebration of friendship on the soundtrack of “Toy Story”. Inbetween can be found a staggering range of songs dealing with everything from short people to Vladimir Putin, from performing bears to the Louisiana Flood., from ELO to the Great Nations Of Europe, all of which show up in this authoritative new biography from Robert Hilburn, for years the rock writer of the Los Angeles Times. Topics touched on in his chat with David Hepworth:
… when you called your book “A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country”, did you know it was coming out in Election week?
… why Robert’s review of Elton John at the Troubadour in 1970 transformed the life of one piano player from Pinner while his review of Randy in the same same venue in the same year didn’t have the same effect on this local hero.
… how Randy finds his inspiration by sitting in front of the TV with a big stack of hardback books.
… what his famous uncles taught him and how he has spent a lifetime trying to follow their lead.
… how he got his first break from Cilla Black, Alan Price and the British chart,
… what he said when he finally got as Oscar after years of nominations.
… why he can write quickly when commissioned but moves agonisingly slowly when relying on inspiration.
… why he’s the only biographical subject to insist his children are interviewed.
… what he thinks of Donald Trump.
Order Robert’s book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Few-Words-Defense-Our-Country/dp/1408720361
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After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves …
… what time he goes to bed.
… “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent’s review was an insult.
… seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975.
… the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”).
… supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland.
… memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers.
… the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground’s What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance.
… the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet.
… “I never thought I’d retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian’.
… the role reversal of being produced by your own son.
… and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour.
Peter Perrett tour dates here:
https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432
Order his new album The Cleansing here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDL
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Things this week that sent the needle into the red included …
… the last dance craze the whole world noticed.
... “Rock stars used to be anti-establishment. Now they ARE the establishment.”
… artworks, flags, bespoke I-Ching Coins … would YOU pay £1,350 for a box set?
… why Quincy Jones made records like a movie director.
... how Dylan’s Biograph and Springsteen’s live box started a gold rush.
… “an unprecedented event in popular recording".
… Hot Night, Starlight, Give Me Some Time, Lights Out and other working titles for Thriller.
… “We’re here to save the record business!”
… the speed of the Beatles: two years between Ed Sullivan and Tomorrow Never Knows; two years from the Cavern to Shea Stadium.
Plus birthday guest Phil Hopwood: moments in rock history you’d like to have witnessed to see what really happened.
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The most streamed Beatles song – 700 million plays more than any other – is not by Lennon/McCartney but George who, as author Seth Rogovoy points out, is still widely considered “an economy-class Beatle” though his contributions were central to the success of their records. Seth’s new book ‘Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison’ sets out to right this monstrous wrong! As does this conversation with the two of us which covers …
… did My Sweet Lord’s court case puncture his sense of ambition?
… how he changed Taxman for American audiences.
… the statement made by starting All Things Must Pass with a Dylan/Harrison composition.
… how he was fleeced by not one but two managers - Allen Klein and Denis O’Brien.
… what we learnt from watching ‘Get Back’.
… Broadway ballads, Vaudeville, jazz and the solo on ‘Til There Was You.
… remortgaging Friar Park for Life Of Brian and pushing for the Anthology “payday”.
… his glorious spiritual/material contradiction – “the Pisces sign is two fish going in opposite directions”.
… a social mobility that John and Paul both envied.
… falling out of love with live performance.
… the beliefs of his early ‘20s he sustained all his life.
… and the staples of George Harrison’s Jukebox.
Order Seth’s book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Within-You-Without-Listening-Harrison/dp/019762782X
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Ian Broudie and the Lightning Seeds are about to set out on their 35th Anniversary Greatest Hits Tour – aka “beery parties”. He talks to us here about the first bands he ever saw and played in, which involves …
… memories of the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun.
… the secret of seeming enigmatic: “Never finish your sentences …”
… how Three Lions brought a whole new audience and the irony of a singer who didn’t front his biggest hit.
… why the Ramones and Talking Heads made him sell his old records.
… first requirement for success: “being able to make a fool of yourself”.
… when Captain Beefheart forgot he was booked for an art show and painted all the pictures the night before.
… how a part in a Ken Campbell play launched his career.
… seeing the Beatles, aged seven – “Shut your eyes and put your fingers in your ears”.
… when Eric’s in Mathew Street seemed the centre of the universe.
… “for the first time ever I’m not suffering from Imposter Syndrome – I AM THE SINGER!”
… Free, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, XTC, Big In Japan and the Sausages From Mars.
… making records that are “an Andy Warhol pop-art splash of colour on a wall”.
Lightning Seeds tickets here:
https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/lightning-seeds-tickets/artist/735512
Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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Our crack pair of inquisitors tackle the week’s events and sift out the good, the bad and the riveting, which includes …
… whatever happened to savage reviews?
… “For God’s sake, keep the robots out of music!”: the 50th birthday of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.
… a Naked Nick Cave Plush Doll (£24) and some Jonny Greenwood olive oil.
… strange tales about the making of Disraeli Gears.
… what keeps Kamala Harris awake at night.
… the staggering bill at Murray the K’s ‘Music In The Fifth Dimension’ in 1967.
… Teri Garr, Diane Keaton and other fantasy girlfriends.
... “Twas nought but an skellington covered in skin”.
… rock stars never seen without shades.
… and birthday guest Cathal Chu cooks up another 45 ways to leave your lover – ‘Give two weeks’ notice, Otis’.
Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them …
… “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …”
… how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment.
… being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.
… how he heard the news of Lennon’s death.
… booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’.
... the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days.
… how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions.
… abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.
… ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants.
… “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”.
… John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney.
… “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”.
Order Elliot’s book here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Shine-extraordinary-friendship/dp/0857506072
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Brushing aside the cobweb spray and luminous flashing skulls, we ring rock and roll’s doorbell in pursuit of both tricks and treats. Among which you’ll find …
… the gothification of entertainment … Harry Potter, Creedence Clearwater and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.
… Donald Trump dancing to Jeff Buckley.
… why Phil Lesh was the heart and soul of the Grateful Dead.
… John Cooper Clarke playing a 23,000-seater and the rise of Spoken Word.
… Bah! Humbug! The full horror of Halloween and its infernal TV specials.
… Allen Ginsberg’s International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965.
… Rihanna’s dietician, therapist, spiritual advisor and hospitality liaison manager.
… the auditions for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
… the curse of having everything you want.
… John Lennon imprisoned in the Dakota – without the internet! And his mishandling of an Austin Maxi.
… Helen Mirren’s thing about Kurt Cobain.
… why Phil Lesh, John Entwistle, Jack Casady and Paul McCartney were a breed apart.
… when Mark King’s father kicked him out of the family home.
… plus Abraham Lincoln, Fields of the Nephilim, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Eraserhead, the Batcave and birthday guest Matthew Elliot wonders if anyone had greater love songs written about them than Rosanna Arquette (by Toto and Peter Gabriel)?
Mama Tried by the Grateful Dead. Just LISTEN to Phil Lesh’s bass playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4gy0TBDfU
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Mark King and Level 42 have just announced 2025 tour dates and he talks to us here about …
… the value of what you learn in covers bands from being ignored.
… why being thrown out of home for being thrown out of school was the best thing that ever happened to him.
… Level 42’s first gig, kicked off after four songs.
… Chile, Turkey and other new markets on the “flatter world” tour circuit.
... supporting the Police, Tina Turner, Queen and Madonna in the ‘80s.
… how John McLaughlin (from Doncaster) and Allan Holdsworth (Bradford) inspired other people “from far-flung places like us”.
… Rockin’ Robin, Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and playing three nights a week in an Isle of Wight novelty act, aged 11.
… the onstage dynamic between Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.
… the complications of having to book big venues two years in advance.
… being the bassist in the Prince’s Trust house band backing Bowie and Mick Jagger.
… Billy Cobham, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and “the genius” of Steve Winwood.
Level 42s World Machine 40th Anniversary Tour here:
https://www.level42.com/
Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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