How Al Stewart struck gold, the folk boom and a flat-share with Paul Simon

Word In Your Ear

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/al-stewart

22:08

Host Francesca Amiker sits down with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, producer Angela Russo-Otstot, stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, and more to uncover how family was the key to building the emotional core of The Electric State . From the Russos’ own experiences growing up in a large Italian family to the film’s central relationship between Michelle and her robot brother Kid Cosmo, family relationships both on and off of the set were the key to bringing The Electric State to life. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts . State Secrets: Inside the Making of The Electric State is produced by Netflix and Treefort Media.…

about a year ago 40:16

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The 17 year-old Al Stewart played electric guitar in a dance band in Bournemouth in 1963. When he borrowed an acoustic and sang Masters Of War in the break, he heard the sweet sound of applause. The next night he played three Dylan songs and sensed which way the wind was blowing. He talks here about moving to London, playing at Bunjies and becoming the compere at Les Cousins as his now 60-year career began to lift off. And about his Farewell Tour which kicks off in the UK in October 2025, a combination of songs and story-telling coloured by two great heroes, Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke.

This cracking exchange steers by way of Bert Jansch, Bob Dylan, Helen of Troy, Stalin, Hitler and the Battle of Moscow, the Weeley Festival of 1971, the three songs he always plays, the young Cat Stevens and what he told Paul Simon he should do with the just-composed Homeward Bound.

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781 episodes

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How Al Stewart struck gold, the folk boom and a flat-share with Paul Simon

Word In Your Ear

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published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

Order Al Stewart tickets here:

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/al-stewart

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

781 episodes

#Early Access

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Word In Your Ear

1
Nik Kershaw remembers Live Aid, snoods, fingerless gloves & a sudden male-female audience shift 27:04

19 hours ago27:04

27:04

Someone else we put on the cover of Smash Hits 40 years ago who’s touring in 2025! He’s playing European festivals, ‘80s packages, dates with his band and a string of solo shows billed as ‘Musings & Lyrics With Nik Kershaw’, and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves … … a bad case of Imposter Syndrome. … how the relationship with your audience changes over 40 years. … “it all seemed so important back then. I was in this little bubble where I thought the world was waiting for my next statement.” … seeing Rory Gallagher, Wishbone Ash, Lindisfarne, Slade, T Rex, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band – and Vinegar Joe at St Matthew’s Baths in Ipswich. … the sole appearance of his first band Thor at Rushmere Village Hall. … instant success in 1983: four nights at Hammersmith Odeon without playing clubs first - “We’re going to need a bigger PA!” … playing Steely Dan and Weather Report one night and The Birdy Song and Country Roads at a wedding the next. ... appearing between Elvis Costello and Sade at Live Aid – “quite a sandwich” - and forgetting the words. …and the ‘80s festival circuit: “one big club”. NIK KERSHAW TOUR DATES HERE: https://www.nikkershaw.net/tour-dates/ Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Gang Of Four’s Jon King now sees the comedy in their endless self-sabotage 52:24

3 days ago52:24

52:24

Gang Of Four’s moment was dramatic but brief. It was littered with times when the future seemed impossibly bright before disaster crept up with a cosh in their relentless “refusal to do the obvious”. Being a musician, he points out, is a ridiculous life best not taken seriously. His memoir ‘To Hell With Poverty!’ rightly describes itself as “rich with stories”, many remembered in this spirited exchange with David and Mark, among them … … the transformational effect of a scholarship to the boarding school where he met GO4 guitarist Andy Gill and future film-makers Adam Curtis and Paul Greengrass. … life-changing records he heard in the school art department – Highway 61 Revisited, the Stooges, the MC5. … “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”. … aged 11, bumping into John Lennon in Sevenoaks who’d just bought his Mr Kite poster. … signing a contract with the manager that robbed them and whose busy and efficient office of “ripped and buffed” staff turned out to be hired actors. … being thrown off Top Of The Pops for not changing an ‘offensive’ song lyric – “EMI were “mortified”. … the old hippy world of the ‘70s – Hawkwind, the Whole Earth Catalog and “a Withnailesque flat where we had an airgun to shoot the mice”. … hopeless online misinterpretations of his song lyrics - “there may be soil under fuck all” (aka “there may be oil under Rockall”). … the rigours of trying to promote “outsider music”. … reaching “the point where the game is up”. … the Bourgeois Brothers, the ‘comedy’ duo he formed with Andy Gill at Leeds University and why they returned to England to form a band in the mould of Talking Heads, the Ramones and Richard Hell. … and why recording the audiobook moved him to tears. Order ‘To Hell With Poverty!’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hell-Poverty-Class-Inside-Gang/dp/1636142346 Gang Of Four tour dates: https://www.songkick.com/artists/393675-gang-of-four/calendar Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Has politics eaten entertainment? What’s ‘perfect sound’? Plus Brian James & how to make a speech 55:34

6 days ago55:34

55:34

Tyres pumped, engine cranked, chromework winking in the Springtime sun, the two-man conversational jalopy sets off on its weekly spin and visits … … the day America broke the news and showed its dark side. … Brian James RIP and Stiff’s brilliant ad campaign for the first Damned album: “Play it at your sister!” … has entertainment been dwarfed by world events? … why the Oscars were invented and what it said about American life. … “negative publicity is the first response to everything”. … why Adrien Brody’s speech set back the cause of actors being taken seriously by about 40 years. … Will Smith v Chris Rock, Chumbawamba v John Prescott, David Niven and the streaker: Awards show bombshells and what today’s media would make of them. … The Wizard Of Vinyl and his mission to “save the world from bad sound”. … the days when Hi-Fi was considered a hobby. … are musical memories mostly about context? David relives ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ on a jukebox in the Shady Nook café in Wakefield. … how not to make a speech. … and the band that called Nick Lowe “granddad” (when he was 27). Plus birthday guest Adrian Ainsworth on the worst and most insulting Greatest Hits compilations of all time. Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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Film-maker Denny Tedesco on dad’s old band The Wrecking Crew and new doc “Immediate Family” 24:06

10 days ago24:06

24:06

We’re long-time admirers of Denny Tedesco’s “Wrecking Crew” doc which celebrated the studio musicians of 60s Hollywood, the unseen hands who can be heard on all those Beach Boys and Spector hits. Now he’s done something similar with the musicians who were so much part of the success of James Taylor, Carole King and Warren Zevon in the next decade in “The Immediate Family”. We’re delighted to have been able to organise a screening of the film at The Art House in Crouch End after which he spoke to David Hepworth about what it was like to grow up married to the music business, how the culture of session players changed over the years, what has kept the likes of Leland Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel at the top of their game for fifty years and whether anybody else is still keeping their craft alive. The film is streaming on a platform near you now! The Immediate Family: https://www.immediatefamilyfilm.com/ The Art House: https://www.arthousecrouchend.co.uk/ Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Lennon & McCartney seen in a fresh, stirring and original new light by Ian Leslie 44:21

11 days ago44:21

44:21

Ian Leslie posted his ‘64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney’ in 2020 and the viral reaction to its piercing and original points encouraged him to write ‘John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs’. Do we need another Beatles book? We do if it’s this one! It’s exceptionally good and highly recommended. The conventional wisdom for decades was that John was the tormented, anti-establishment genius and Paul the effortlessly tune-churning, bourgeois poser. Ian’s book points up that their deep devotion to each other and telepathic, close relationship was the root of the supernatural partnership that made those songs possible. The two of them were, as he puts it, “the bubble within the bubble – and the deeper you get, the more mysterious the story becomes.” He talks to us here about … … their powerplays and their underlying rivalries for the leadership of the group. … why the Beatles were in another league - “like Shakespeare versus Johnson or Marlowe”. … how a songwriting duo where both wrote words and music gave them an extraordinary advantage. … the writing of Yesterday and John’s fear that Paul might no longer need the group and leave. … Paul’s discovery of his “superpowers” between ‘64 and ’66. … how current groups now have “intimacy councillors” and in any other band the unmanageable Lennon would have been ejected. … In My Life, Hey Jude and other songs they wrote about each other. … how there was “an element of their fathers about them, of stiff upper lip” and displays of physical affection were rare. … Paul as “the omnivorous culture-vore” in avant garde London while John was horizontal in suburbia. … why Paul’s pace and creativity must have been psychologically punishing for the others. … and how the emotional landscape shifted with the arrival of Yoko and Linda. Order Ian’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Paul-Story-Beatles-decades/dp/0571376118 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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The threat of AI, the appeal of Gene Hackman & the filthy glamour of Exile On Main St 54:01

13 days ago54:01

54:01

In which we pedal the conversational tandem uphill and down dale, like a rabbit through the pea-vine or a turkey through the corn, stopping for moments of reflection which include … … “If someone wants to steal your music, it means your music’s worth stealing.” … cats, birdsong: spot the ‘silent track’ by Kate Bush. … when Gene Hackman smiles, be very afraid. … what was written on Walter Matthau’s funeral card. … “Home-Taping Is Killing Music!” and other threats that failed to sink the business. … double albums: never mind the quality, feel the width. … how Exile On Main St became a symbol of peak-Stones grimy decadence. … Hunter Davies, Mark Lewisohn, Ian Leslie, Richard DiLello?: the best Beatles book ever written? … “is genius worth the collateral damage?”: homelife in Frank Zappa’s house. … things we never say on the Word podcast. … when rock critics get it wrong. Plus birthday guest Nick Foreman flies the flag for Hunter Davies. Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Graham Fellows, “the comedy of the underdog” and inventing John Shuttleworth and Jilted John 26:09

15 days ago26:09

26:09

We first saw Graham Fellows as Jilted John on Top of the Pops in 1978 and we’ve followed his characters ever since, especially drawn to the keyboard-prodding, car-coated John Shuttleworth and his deathless pop anthems ‘Pigeons In Flight’, ‘Up And Down Like A Bride’s Nightie’ and ‘I Can’t Go Back To Savoury Now’. Graham talks here about how and why he created them (and rock media studies lecturer Brian Appleton) and his new book ‘John Shuttleworth Takes The Biscuit’, along with … the allure of romantic punk rock (Patrik Fitzgerald, Buzzcocks, the Undertones), Sheffield mouse-breeders, comic melancholy, whether Northern humour is funnier than Southern, kissing Debbie Harry for a publicity shot, the advice his father gave him and the finer details of the Shuttleworth live experience. Order 'John Shuttleworth Takes The Biscuit' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Shuttleworth-Takes-Biscuit-Selection/dp/1915841305 John Shuttleworth tour dates: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/john-shuttleworth Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Eternally cool rock stars, the Bond takeover and remembering Rick Buckler 57:36

20 days ago57:36

57:36

As sinister autocrats stroke Persian cats in shark-pooled underground bunkers, their bony fingers reaching for the nuclear button, we shake another Vodka Martini and reflect on the week’s events, among them … … Amazon buys Bond: but isn’t the essence of 007 its droll and unimpressible Britishness? … and haven’t the lunatics taken over the asylum? Can you still invent unhinged fantasy villains with real life versions in the Kremlin and White House? … why a Jam reunion would never have worked. … when did ‘cool’ change from meaning exotic and unconventional to being just like everyone else? And why do we picture the concept of ‘cool’ in black and white? … in stout defence of the pilloried record reviewer! … why the Olympics was payday for Justine Frischmann. ... when Johnny Cash was on the Muppet Show and was photographed with Richard Nixon. … how come no-one complains about old online reviews but they do if they were physically printed? … how Lonnie Donegan made a fortune from Nights In White Satin. … hurrah for the silencing of the Pedicab boombox! … newspaper sellers, milkmen, shifty ‘hot goods’ vendors: whatever happened to the street cries of London? … plus birthday guest Paul Monaghan and rock stars who were architects – Art Garfunkel, Ice Cube, Pete Briquette, Chris Lowe, Ralf Hutter …– and teaching Damon Albarn and Justine Frischmann. Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Justin Hayward – ‘60s package tours, lost profits & the highpoint of the Moody Blues 28:32

24 days ago28:32

28:32

Nights In White Satin - 260 million streams on Spotify - is still the central plank in the set Justin Hayward’s touring in October. He talks to us here about the first shows he ever saw and played, the ballroom circuit of the mid-’60s remembered in particularly vivid detail and involving the odd burst of song - “My kind of town, Great Yarmouth is …!”. Along with … … the appeal of “a Moody Blues crowd”. ... “Name Singer seeks guitar player”: the Melody Maker ad that got him into the Marty Wilde band, aged 17. … playing a summer season on the same bill as a water feature – aka the Waltzing Waters. … his early band All Things Bright and their Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Coasters setlist. … the “onerous” publishing deal he signed with Lonnie Donegan that siphoned off the profits of Nights In White Satin. … seeing Tommy Cooper at the Bournemouth Pavilion and the Barron Knights at the Locarno in Swindon. … “Terry the Pill” in Eric Burdon’s office. … toying with the idea of “a rock version of Dvorak”. … the uncertain fate of Nights In White Satin and the plugger who threatened to resign over it. … how Days Of Future Passed was the “Deramic Sound” demo record. … and the highpoint of the Moody Blues story and their Second Coming. Justin Hayward tickets here: https://justinhayward.com/pages/current-tour-dates https://justinhayward.com/ Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

1
Your guided tour of David Bowie’s London with Paul Gorman’s stories about its key locations 55:16

26 days ago55:16

55:16

No musician is more closely associated with London or left more footprints than Bowie, and you can trace its influence on his life and work (and vice versa) through a series of landmarks from the suburbs to the centre. Author and curator Paul Gorman has just published an annotated street-map – David Bowie’s London - listing the places that played a formative role in his world and music, the places he rehearsed, performed, filmed and recorded, the homes of friends and managers, his schools and the addresses where he lived, worked and was photographed, made connections, bought clothes and generally raised the temperature. We talk here about many of those old haunts and the stories attached to them, which include… … mysterious manager Ralph Horton who got him to change his name to Bowie and then vanished from the face of the earth. … the fate of Heddon Street, home of K-West and the Ziggy phone-box. … Marc Bolan refusing to let him sing at an all-night benefit at Middle Earth. … “the Fairy Godmother of the New Romantics” at the WAG Club. … when Lionel Bart came to Haddon Hall. … Bowie and Steve Marriott auditioning for the Lower Third. … how he levered his way into a Fabulous magazine fashion shoot. … “the end of the age of Showbiz”: performing Chim Chim Cher-ee at the Marquee when at a crossroads between rock and roll and cabaret. … the magical piano at the Trident Studios. … a chance encounter with the otherworldly Vince Taylor whose ‘UFO map’ helped inspire the concept of Ziggy Stardust. … the legend of Mr Fish, creator of the man-dress on the cover of The Man Who Sold The World. … the days when people had a white Rolls Royce and matching Alsatian – and “the Great Sarong Scare of the ‘90s”. … and various fringe figures including his art teacher Owen Frampton, Konrads agents Bob Knight and Eric Easton, muse and heartbreaker Hermione Farthingale, producers Shel Talmy and Tony Hatch (“the original Mr Nasty from Opportunity Knocks”) and slum landlord and racketeer Peter Rackman. Order Paul’s street-map here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Bowies-London-Paul-Gorman/dp/1068523476 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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Eddi Reader - busking, singing radio jingles and “men you put on the shoulder-pads for” 40:27

26 days ago40:27

40:27

We first saw Eddi Reader singing with the Gang Of Four on Whistle Test in 1982. This eventful pod traces her story from seven kids in a two-bedroom council flat (“me in the toilet with a guitar singing Your Cheating Heart”), to the Scottish folk clubs, busking with circus acrobats on the Left Bank, to radio jingles, life as a backing singer and the rapid rise of Fairground Attraction who reformed last year, 34 years after they split in 1990. It's highly entertaining from the kick-off, not least …. … snogging the Earl of Moray’s son during Dylan at Blackbushe. … the jingles she sang on ‘80s radio ads. … what she learnt from Annie Lennox when touring with Eurythmics. … backing singer stage-wear etiquette. … performing Love Me Tender aged eight in the school classroom. … singing Three Drunken Maidens and Lord Franklin at the Irvine Folk Club, over the road from Amanda’s Wet T-Shirt Night. … busking in Paris and the songs that pulled the most money (eg Tupelo Honey and All Along the Watchtower). … “men you put on the shoulder-pads for.” … what Billy Bragg called “a civilian”. … Chou Pahrot, Cado Belle, Café Jacques, Stone the Crows and other great lost Scottish bands. … Hamish Imlach’s advice about how to project onstage. … how to use a pencil as a pop-shield. … and her Grandad “who loved his wife so much he nearly told her”. Eddi Reader tickets here: https://eddireader.co.uk/gigs/ Fairground Attraction’s Beautiful Happening album: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Happening-Fairground-Attraction/dp/B0CZ7NMJYV https://eddireader.co.uk/ Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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Why all great pop stars are cartoons, Bowie doing mime and people whose voices we’ve never heard 46:29

27 days ago46:29

46:29

Passing the Dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, we sift through this week’s events, rants and theories which absorbingly include … … that Drake v Kendrick Lamar beef in full! … was Bowie only as good as his collaborators? … Kingmaker, Toploader, Feeder, Slayer, Longdancer, Widowmaker …. has there ever been a good band with a name ending ‘-er’? …… seeing the Jam at the Hope & Anchor. … John Lennon was not a working-class hero. Bob Marley shot no sheriffs. Joe Strummer’s daddy wasn’t a bankrobber. Starship patently never built any cities on rock and roll. Monstrous rock and roll untruths exposed! … why Film Star Good-Looking is different from Rock Star Good-Looking. … one glove, a swan dress, comedy specs, a snake, a bat …. Pop stars with a cartoonable signature. … Woody Allen, Lisa Kudrow, Scarlett Johansson and the Kanye West clip that was never sanctioned. … JD Salinger, Scott Joplin, Thomas Pynchon, Banksy – people whose voices we’ve never heard. … the gripes of Taylor Swift. … ‘An Interminable Appetite For Spite’ and other album titles in waiting. … and Buffy Sainte-Marie and the perils of misrepresentation. Plus birthday guest Chris Lintott remembers seeing Bowie as a mime artist. Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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Bob Marley in London, Chappell Roan’s outburst & records that sound best in the dark 45:21

5 weeks ago45:21

45:21

Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them … … how Bob Marley, the Walker Brothers, the Byrds, Hendrix, Ramones, Blondie and Nirvana “got the dust of England on their boots”. … Chappell Roan’s demands for “a living wage” in a business built on inequity. … why audio books surprise you in ways the print edition can’t. … Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure? … “separate immediately”: Marsha Hunt and the secret of a successful marriage. … Bowie, Queen, the Velvet Underground: how the most streamed songs are rarely what you’d expect. … when London, New York and LA were the centres of the universe. … Bookends, Randy Newman’s Good Old Boys and other albums with a narrative. … when the Police, Pistols and Clash tried to conquer America. … Miles Copeland Senior in Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends. … “the film world is constructed around 100 actors, eight of whom are celebrated every year”. … plus birthday guest Keith Adsley turns the lights out for Pitchblack Playback – albums you should hear in the dark. Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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The rise of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars through the eyes of Woody Woodmansey 36:41

5 weeks ago36:41

36:41

The teenage Woody Woodmansey was offered the job of under-foreman in the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull but then got a call from Bowie inviting him to move to London and play drums on his new album - “plus food and somewhere to stay”. It took him all weekend to decide. And involved some cultural readjustment when he did. 56 years later he’s a founding member of Holy Holy and touring the UK in May – along with Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory – performing songs from Bowie’s breakthrough early ‘70s albums. He talks here about … … the life-changing sound behind the silver door of an air-raid shelter in Driffield. … supporting the Kinks in Bridlington and the Herd at Leeds University - and why Peter Frampton told him, “I’ll see you at the top”. ... his first paid gig at the local girls’ school. … the Spiders’ instructional group outings to see ballet, mime and theatre. ... “never more than three takes”: how Bowie wrote and recorded and the sketches he drew for their stage gear. … life at Haddon Hall and its “Gone With The Wind staircase”. … Yorkshire to London and the cultural collisions involved. … what Bowie realised was “the missing ingredient”. … Woody’s checklist to assess Bowie’s talents when he met him: “He wasn’t Paul Rodgers or Roger Daltrey. He could write. He could communicate.” … “I’m not wearing that!” The day Mick Ronson packed his bags and left. Order Holy Holy tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/tony-visconti-tickets/artist/2003254 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Word In Your Ear

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So Long, Marianne Faithfull plus the Shipping Forecast as read by Nick Cave 53:40

6 weeks ago53:40