September 2014

One small step for Word In Your Ear, one giant stride for Monday nights in the pub

September 23, 2014 David Hepworth 0

Last night’s show was our best yet. Thanks to the people at the Islington we managed to get the visuals working and so we we could put on […]

Stevie Nicks biographer Zoe Howe added to our Ben Watt live podcast recording

September 13, 2014 David Hepworth 0

We’re delighted to say that Zoe Howe‘s joining us at our next Word In Your Ear Podcast recording at the Islington on September 22nd. She’ll be […]

A Quiet Word with Ben Watt at the Islington

September 8, 2014 David Hepworth 0

Ben Watt’s worn a variety of hats in the last thirty years: half of Everything But The Girl, solo artist, deejay, producer, club owner and […]

Word In Your Ear

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and chums cast an occasionally jaundiced eye over the goings-on in the worlds of music and entertainment.

Cheap tickets, warm beer, draughty halls and refectories, a whole new cobbled-together rock circuit was born in the ‘60s for an audience who watched and listened intently. Which allowed the music to take a different route. Paul Sexton spoke to the Who, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Costello and many others to piece together ‘Rock Goes To College: the Campus Music Scene That Shaped A Generation’ and talks to us here about the fans and amateurs who ran it and the lost world of motorway caffs and Ford Transits, stopping off at …

… Hendrix, Fairport, Free, Queen, Dire Straits: tales of the campus gig foot-soldiers

… no security, no lightshow, no seat, no stage: how the idea of live entertainment changed in 50 years

… Pink Floyd not being allowed front-of house in Top Rank theatres without a tie

… the Stranglers and the Damned refusing to play college shows “unless townies were allowed in”

… the “chart clause” – £50 extra if a band’s in the Top 3!

… the Stones playing an Oxford ball

… bands market-researching songs before recording them

… why Leeds could afford the Who and Leonard Cohen

… what Harvey Goldsmith, Paul Conroy and Chris Wright learnt from booking bands

… why Wings chose the college circuit

… and the arrival of DJs and disco that put a nail in the college gig coffin, “a golden age with nothing like it before or after”.

Order ‘Rock Goes To College’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rock-Goes-College-campus-generation/dp/0008722412/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.EWpbXfJjfIq6DOGDGU8HMQMTbZ6fxtMSFJLLqnswcYo.7mGYWOOBglb6F5p42gs88d1lJ0uLxzWS4w3W0vPrwN0&qid=1775764128&sr=1-1