David Hepworth And Alex Gold

Shows

Word In Your EarThe entertaining fictions of Max Romeo and Robert Smith and tech that actually works!While Mark Ellen is hanging out with the other old ruins in Athens, David Hepworth and Alex Gold compare and contrast the organisation of the London Marathon with the Travellodge in Frimley and wonder……Rolling Stone cover stars or members of Trump’s clown cabinet?…if you were interviewed as often as a rock star would you too make stuff up?…was Max Romeo’s innocent explanation of “Wet Dream" convincing?…where do you listen to the Word In Your Ear Podcast?All this and more in your favourite p...2025-04-2936 min

Word In Your EarScreaming Jay Hawkins 75, Dave Grohl 1With Mark Ellen rambling in the West Country it’s left to David Hepworth to talk Alex Gold down from the ledge in the light of the Dave Grohl news and discuss:•⁠ ⁠just how many offers come the way of rich and famous rock stars•⁠ ⁠whether his recent admission will in any way detract from the most winning smile in rock•⁠ ⁠is this an opportunity for Jon Bon Jovi to step up?•⁠ ⁠how a quick word from Taylor Swift is worth all the five star reviews in the world•⁠ ⁠Nick Lowe’s infallibly e...2024-09-1646 min

Word In Your EarDavid Hepworth on the glory, comedy and tragedy of rock stars who can't retireDavid’s seventh book in his ‘orange series’ is just out and you’re guaranteed to love it. He and Mark discussed ‘Hope I Get Old Before I Die’ at a sold-out launch event at Waterstones in Piccadilly on the evening of September 3, recorded here. Among the highlights you’ll find … … the rock career as a three-act play. … the tour that started the Age Of Spectacle. … why Live Aid was the dawn of pop nostalgia. … the rock star who retired from retirement. … Woodstock – “the...2024-09-0453 min

Word In Your EarBuddy Holly airlines and the inimitable Bob DylanAs Mark Ellen goes shrimping at Frinton David Hepworth and Alex Gold links hands across the Atlantic to discuss:….why a quick turn around Mount Hood in a Cessna should never be confused with pleasure….why all the highly-rated albums are actually over-rated.….why Timothee Chalamet has no hope of being able to capture more than one facet of Bob Dylan….the name of the only music-related location in the whole of Oxford Street which has managed to survive the great hollowing-out….why there really is no point corporatio...2024-08-1238 min

Word In Your EarOnly Clare Grogan knows how it feels to burst onstage from a giant birthday cakeClare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more and talk here about the first...2024-06-2138 min

Word In Your EarThe “amniotic throb” of modern pop, the eternal life of the Top Gear theme and the Blue Nile’s lucky breakWith Mark Ellen in foreign parts David Hepworth and Alex Gold light cigars, pass the port in the correct direction and discuss…..…..the fact that there is only one way to play a Beatles song and that is the way the Beatles did it.…..the chances that Taylor Swift is reaching her imperial phase and nobody is prepared to tell her what she really needs to hear.….the very good reason that all contemporary pop records do literally sound the same.…the 50th anniversary of Richard...2024-04-2147 min

Word In Your EarPulitzer Prize winner David Remnick takes the long view of Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Macca and moreDavid Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of music’s legends during their final acts, some of which is gathered in “Holding The Note”, a collection of his writings on music. From his ill-lit Manhattan eyrie he talks to David Hepworth of many matters, including:….what was in the handbag which remained on the piano during Aretha Franklin shows….what it was like being on the receiving end of an almighty dressing-down from the elderl...2023-09-1729 min

Word In Your EarThe things Bruce and Bing have in common and the adventures of Punch in 1976 clublandAs Mark Ellen had taken his shrimping net to the coast Alex Gold steps into the breach to talk to David Hepworth about….how solo acts like Bing Crosby and Bruce Springsteen get to play the common man in a way they never could if they were in a band….the extraordinary sight and sound of the band called Punch trying to make their name on “Opportunity Knocks” in the vanished land of 1976….what to do with your wedding ring if you find yourself on the world’s la...2023-07-1745 min

Word In Your EarWhy half the people at a gig don't really want to be thereWhile Mark Ellen is away in his French chateau, David Hepworth goes off on one about Bruce Springsteen tours and why you can't use "dynamic pricing" in the world of live music and why the concert-going audience can always be divided into the bringer and the brung.Plus Alex Gold explains why he chose to go to southern Italy in the middle of an unprecedented heat wave with not one but two pairs of Doc Martens while also throwing light on the eternal mystery of why young men will put up with discomfort and privation on...2022-07-2436 min

Word In Your EarDoes anyone capture the spirit of a place better than Van Morrison’s Belfast? – plus some underrated ‘70s tracksAmong the items for your distraction and entertainment this week … Do people still form bands? The tangled story of the Aqualung artwork. The skull-cracking number of albums released every day. Instructions on record sleeves – “Horslips: “file under reasonably popular”. The Atom Heart Mother cow. The Wagatha Christie legal costs. Art critics’ lofty pronouncements about the fate of “the average band”. The link between the 12-inch sleeve and the shield of the native American warrior. And the thrilling and imminent arrival of David Hepworth’s 4-CD compilation ‘Deep 70s: Underrated Cuts From A Misunderstood Decade’ and the monstrous fun he had compiling it (pagi...2022-02-1455 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 348 - David Hepworth book launch CrowdcastMark Ellen talks to David Hepworth about his new book "Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There" which describes how British imitations came out from under the shadow of American originators in the early 60s, how a handful of acts from the UK went on to command the heights of the worldwide music industry, the things they learned, the things they taught and the transatlantic traffic in sounds and styles which led from the Beatles to Boy George. Also includes: the amazing story of the Dave Clark Five, the strange genius of the Animals, how the British invented the guitar hero, what...2020-09-1847 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 319 - another unashamedly trivial podcast...... in which Mark Ellen and David Hepworth discuss milk in rock, read your correspondence and invent a game you can play with Alexa.Massively encouraged by the fact that nobody tried to physically stop them doing it again, Mark and David podcast from their lofts to anyone who has nothing better to do for the next half an hour. Subjects covered include: the musical tastes of "Parks And Recreation"'s April Ludgate, when dad bought his hifi on hire purchase, why the current lockdown is good news for the Abbey Road zebra and a really funny list from an old...2020-04-0129 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 318 - A "for the duration" podcastIn which Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk about Joni Mitchell, Krakatoa and the importance of dressing properly while WFH.Since they're spending a proportion of the Current Unpleasantness talking to each other anyway. Mark Ellen and David Hepworth thought they may as well record some of it, explaining what's happening with Word In Your Ear in the light of the current situation, how they're getting by at home, what they're reading, what they've been listening to and what it might all mean for the return of long form listening. Well, it's not as if they've got anything else to...2020-03-2628 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 298 - Gary CrowleyGary Crowley has just put together “Gary Crowley’s Lost 80s”, a lovingly-curated four CD set of the kind of oldies that the radio station computer doesn’t automatically reach for. It’s the kind of stuff that might have soundtracked his teenage discos, his nights at the Wag, his shows on Capital Radio and GLR or served to warm up the crowd as he presided over shows by Wham or the Style Council. He came along to Word In Your Ear to talk to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his extraordinary career, which began with meeting Joe Strummer in the str...2019-04-1746 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 296 - A Fabulous CreationDavid Hepworth's new book "A Fabulous Creation" is about the era of the LP, from "Sgt Pepper" in 1967 to "Thriller" in 1982. The book was launched at Foyles in Charing Cross Road with a chat between David and Mark Ellen in front of a packed house. This was illustrated with the usual magic lantern show which you can probably reproduce in your head. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2019-03-2659 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 294 - David Hepworth & FriendsIn introducing this session, which was inspired by David Hepworth's new book "Nothing Is Real" Mark Ellen said "I've know this man for over forty years and I've never won an argument with him". On this occasion the two of them were joined by old friends, writer Jude Rogers and broadcaster/podcaster Geoff Lloyd, to chew over some of David's theories, such as why the Beatles were underrated and why you should never play pop records at funerals, and to add a few of their own, which cover such topics as the girlfriend who changed the direction of popular music...2018-11-101h 07

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 278 - Danny BakerIn the course of a packed conversation with David Hepworth the Damon Runyon of Bermondsey touches upon Keith Chegwin and the Third Ear Band, carrying a coffin and recovering from cancer, the breathtaking profanity of Hughie Green and the staggering stupidity of certain BBC executives, the difficulty of dealing with 12-year-old TV producers who are labouring under the misapprehension that they understand pop history and what happened when he and Danny Kelly decided it was finally time to try getting stoned. As ever, all human life is there – as it is in his latest autobiographical volume, "Going On The Turn". Get...2017-12-141h 27

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 275 - Dylan JonesAs a teenager Dylan Jones was one of that generation who saw David Bowie on “Top Of The Pops” in 1972 and felt he was talking directly to them. As an art student he worked as an extra on a Bowie film and even gave him a light for his cigarette. As the editor of such magazines as Arena and GQ he went on to interview Bowie numerous times. Now he’s put together “David Bowie: A Life”, a massive oral history of the man’s life and brilliant career. It draws on the recollections of everyone from old school friends like George...2017-10-231h 12

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 271 - with Sarfraz ManzoorUsually our guests are talking about freshly-published books. It's actually ten years since Sarfraz Manzoor put out Greetings From Bury Park, his memoir about growing up in a traditional Pakistani family in Luton with an obsession with Bruce Springsteen. With the prospect of the story being transferred to the screen in the offing, Sarfraz came along to talk to David Hepworth about how he found parallels between Springsteen's songs and the challenges he faced in his life and how his desire to identify with the Boss led him into the odd unfortunate fashion choice. At the same time the two...2017-07-1835 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 270 - Uncommon PeopleWe loved them because they could do things we could never do. We adopted them as our fantasy friends when we were teenagers and were still measuring ourselves against them forty years after. David Hepworth talks about his best-selling book "Uncommon People" which traces the history of the cult of the rock star from Little Richard to Kurt Cobain. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2017-06-0734 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 269 - Thomas DolbyThomas Dolby’s career has seen him sharing a helicopter with a terrified David Bowie over Wembley Stadium, labouring on the nightshift at a New York studio in search of noises that Foreigner might like and dropping in on Michael Jackson at home in the days before scandal consumed him. All this and a good deal more is in his memoir The Speed Of Sound, which also covers his pop success and his adventures at the heart of the great Internet revolution. He came to Islington to talk to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth all about it. Get bonus content on...2017-05-2557 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 267 - Miranda Sawyer and Barry McIlheneyDavid Hepworth started at Smash Hits in the late 70s, Mark Ellen joined in the early 80s, Barry McIlheney arrived in the middle of the decade and Miranda Sawyer came along in the late 80s. Therefore they were well placed to talk about such key Smash Hits experiences as being pinned to a door by Jimmy Pursey, taking Bananarama to Burger King, asking U2 to draw a duck and getting a bit tired and going home halfway through a Stone Roses interview. All this and more in this bumper ish. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See...2017-04-3057 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 265 - David “Ram Jam” RodiganThere’s a rich British tradition of well brought up young men from the leafier suburbs developing a fixation on music from a very different culture and somehow getting themselves a job playing said music on the radio. Nobody has done it more successfully and more unexpectedly than David Rodigan. For a part of the career he’s run it alongside his work as an actor. No wonder there’s so much interest in turning his book “My Life In Reggae” into a film. It’s a story rich in humour and packed with incident, some of which he recounted to Mark Elle...2017-04-0649 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 263 - Jon Savage shortcastIn this shortcast Jon Savage talks to David Hepworth about his new compilation album, “1967 - The Year Pop Divided”. Forty-eight tracks of psych-flavoured pop, rock and soul from the last year before music went off into its own ghettoes, from the Byrds to Captain Beefheart, from Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers to the Shag, from the Thirteenth Floor Elevators to Gladys Knight and the Pips, from the Monkees to The Mickey Finn. “Do the lyrics have anything in common? Yes. Drugs." Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2017-03-0718 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 260 - Jeff EvansIn which Jeff Evans returns from researching the full history of "Rock and Pop On TV" for his new book and talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about not just "Six Five Special" but also "Cool For Cats", not just Legs and Co but also Ruby Flipper, not just "The Tube" but also "The White Room", and wonders whether, now that we have You Tube, we have finally come to the end of music television as a genre. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2017-02-0953 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 259 - with Paul GambacciniIn which Paul Gambaccini, that son of New York who became an institution of British broadcasting, talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about how the Beatles changed his life, how he got into broadcasting, what brought him to Britain, his experience of Radio One in the 70s, his recent ordeal at the hands of the Metropolitan police – fully documented in an amazing book "Love, Paul Gambaccini" – and how this experience has changed his view of the BBC and the Labour Party but not the British people. It's an extraordinary listen, one that goes the full distance from hilarity to horr...2017-01-291h 16

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 258 - Mick Houghton & Adam WhiteIn which Mick Houghton, the author of a book about the legendary folk-rock label Elektra, and Adam White, the man behind a huge tome about the history of Motown, talk to David Hepworth about the unique challenges faced by independent labels, the charismatic men who founded them, the occasionally difficult stars they had to deal with and what keeps both Jac Holzman and Berry Gordy going at an age when most people are happy just to look at their great-grandchildren. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2016-12-111h 15

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 257 - Richard HoughtonIn which Richard Houghton, the author of “I Was There”, a collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who saw the Beatles back in the sixties, from under-attended dance halls in England to over flowing stadia in the United States, talks to David Hepworth about how he wrinkled out their stories. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2016-12-0929 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 256 - Paul Morley on David BowieIn which David Hepworth talks to legendary journalist and author Paul Morley about how David Bowie inflamed his young imagination and his new book The Age Of Bowie. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2016-09-2258 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 255 - Hunter DaviesIn which David Hepworth talks to legendary journalist and author Hunter Davies about his time as a fly on the wall with the Beatles in the middle sixties and his newly-published Beatles Book. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2016-09-1753 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 250: 1971 - Never A Dull MomentIn which David Hepworth instructs Mark Ellen in the theory behind his best-selling book about the the annus mirabilis of the rock album, “1971: Never A Dull Moment”. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2016-04-231h 06

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 247 - with Jon SavageJon Savage has written celebrated histories of Punk Rock and the Teenager. Now he turns his attention to 1966, the year when pop went fuzzy at the edges, when psychedelic drugs, protest about Vietnam and anxiety about nuclear war helped inspire some of the greatest pop music ever made, by everyone from Bob Dylan to the Stones to Norma Tanega. He talked to David Hepworth about it in front of an audience at The Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-11-2040 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 244 - The SkypecastDavid Hepworth and Mark Ellen talk bout Tracey Thorn’s Naked At The Albert Hall: The Inside Story Of Singing and John Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside The Hit Factory via the miracle of Skype. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-10-2322 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 241 - The McCartneycastWIYE McCartney Special. Paul Du Noyer, who’s interviewed him more than anyone (much of which is reflected in his new book, “Conversations With McCartney), and Laura Barton, who need her cat after him, discuss a national institution with Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. Best look, best song, best story, it’s all here, including the answer to the perennial question - what was Paul McCartney’s best song for The Beatles? Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-09-2559 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 240 - with Patrick WoodroffePatrick Woodroffe is the world's foremost live show lighting designer. He's the man the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and many others ask for by name. He's been behind some of the most ambitious and technically demanding stage presentations, from vast crowds on Copacabana Beach to a world TV audience for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. He talked to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his work in front of an audience at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-09-2443 min

Word In Your EarPodcast 239 - with Peter DoggettPeter Doggett is one of the most respected authors in the music field, with highly-praised works devoted to David Bowie and the Beatles to his name. Here he talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his magnum opus “Electric Shock”, a panoramic history of popular music from the gramophone to the iPhone. This was recorded in front of an audience at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-09-1349 min

Word In Your EarPodcast 233: Mick Taylor’s got the shits…Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry talk to “Magic” Alex Gold about his playing ukulele in Alaska, schlepping the length and breadth of Britain to play to one man and Fido and learning the entire repertoire of the Rolling Stones in just one day. Plus: Tidal, Rick Buckler, the unquiet life of AC/DC and how to leave your records in your will. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-04-301h 02

Word In Your EarWord Pod 227 - Mark Billingham and Martyn WaitesMark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites about Great Lost Albums which celebrates some of the records which you may not have actually heard but surely nonetheless exist in some fold of rock’s rich tapestry. We’re talking of course of David Icke & Tina Turner’s collaboration, the first Velvet Underground and Lulu album and Bob Dylan’s legendary collaboration with Liberace. This was recorded in front of an audience at the Islington in London’s swinging Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2015-01-0430 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 158: Is rock dead?In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry chew on the big topics de jour: is rock dead? And did the 80s kill proper music? Plus, David Hepworth comes up with a list of great records made in that unjustly maligned decade. Warning: contains an unexpected intrusion and a controversial opinion about Morrissey. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2011-01-1450 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 151 - with Dougie AndersonDougie Anderson joins Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in the pod to mount a stout defence of Belle and Sebastian, Alex Harvey, John Gordon Sinclair and more. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2010-10-1253 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 150 - with Devon Sproule & Paul CurreriDevon Sproule and Paul Curreri join Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in the pod, while David talks to the men at De Wolde music about the joys of production music. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2010-10-0545 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 132Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry are joined in the pod by returning guest Andy Murray, where we talk about Andy's time at Stiff Records and look back at the election, while Mark receives some genuine David Gilmour guitar strings and joins Fraser singing a short song about horses. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2010-05-1357 min

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 115 with Danny BakerDanny Baker talks about touring with Ian Dury, record shopping with Elton John, when Virgin used to be above a shoe shop, the trick David Bowie uses to avoid answering questions, what happened when a salesman called on Viv Stanshall, the greater glory of King Crimson and the fallacy peddled by punk. Mark Ellen and David Hepworth listen. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2009-10-201h 07

Word In Your EarWord Podcast 39Andrew Harrison, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall talk about Morrissey's throat and the death of celebrity, the pioneering days of the UB40 fan club, the irritating sound of Alex James first thing in the morning and why rock stars can't make speeches.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2008-01-3151 min