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Month: August 2020

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Word In Your Attic 65 (audio version) – Broadcaster and author Simon Mayo: rare sighting of ceramic Monty Python promotional foot

August 16, 2020 WIYELondon 0

Scala Radio daytime host, podcaster, author – crime thriller Knife Edge just out! – and old pal Simon Mayo on his 1980 copy of Smash […]

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QUIZ LEADERBOARD 14.8.20

August 16, 2020 WIYELondon 0

1. MATT BUTTON (12 points) 2. PHIL KINDERMANN (10) 3. DARAGH O’HALLORAN (9) 4. Andrew Boland (8) 5. Andrew Slattery (7) 6. David Cummings (6) […]

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Word Classic Podcast 010 – ah, the endless joy of rock stars’ kids’ names (Thor, Lux, Jermajesty) …

August 16, 2020 WIYELondon 0

In which David joins a Phil Collins motorcade, a $10m private party secures Aerosmith, Tom Petty, 50 Cent and the Eagles, TV (aka the Sopranos) […]

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Word Podcast 339 – David’s day at Donna Summer’s house

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

In which we applaud the great rock and roll name changes (eg the late Wayne Fontana), get unsettled by ‘Stan’ culture and over-zealous Taylor Swift […]

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Word Podcast 339 (audio-visual version) – David’s day at Donna Summer’s house

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

In which we applaud the great rock and roll name changes (eg the late Wayne Fontana), get unsettled by ‘Stan’ culture and over-zealous Taylor Swift […]

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Word In Your Attic 64 (audio version) – Rob Chapman: and which rock legend sent him this postcard?

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

Music writer Rob Chapman – his fantastic memoir ‘Ad Lib: Repeat To Fade’ just out – flashes back to a world of Guards cigarettes, a […]

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Word In Your Attic 63 (audio version) – Ed Needham: yes it’s Morrissey by Vic Reeves (not for sale)

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

Old pal and one-time Rolling Stone managing editor Ed Needham on his letter from Bono, the magic of ABC’s Lexicon Of Love, mysterious discs hidden […]

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A Word In Your Ear crowdcast event – Joe Banks on Hawkwind: to infinity … and beyond!

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

Word In Your Ear is thrilled to be launching a series of live music author interviews you can join online (and ask questions if you […]

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Word Classic Podcast 009 – the chilling tale of Chrissie Hynde and the paté de foie gras

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

In which we name the best-sounding record on radio, bemoan the irritating new vogue for taking iPhone pictures at gigs, note that global warming is […]

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FRIDAY NIGHT QUIZ LEADERBOARD – 7TH AUGUST 2020

August 13, 2020 WIYELondon 0

1. MATT BUTTON (12 points) 2=. PHIL KINDERMANN, DARAGH O’HALLORAN (9 apiece) 3. ANDREW BOLAND (8) 4. David Cummings (6) 5=. Andrew Slattery, Ian Stewart […]

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The Word Podcast

Word In Your Ear
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.

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Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him
byMark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

A sense of melancholy hangs over the music of songwriters whose lives were tragically short – Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Eva Cassidy, Judee Sill – and we’re left knowing very little about them. Jamie Fisher, writer and New York Times researcher, discovered Elliott Smith 12 years after he’d died and contacted 40 of his friends and fellow musicians to build a picture of him for her memoir Nobody Broke Your Heart. She looks back here at his background and ascent from the Portland club circuit to the Oscars, and touches on …

 

… the emotional impact of first hearing his music walking round Central Park in Lockdown

 

… “goofy, stubborn, wildly smart, addictively listenable”

 

… early life in Omaha and Texas (and the telling tattoo on his arm)

 

… the shy collegiate kid reading Dostoevsky who thought promotion was “distasteful”

 

… how a singer-writer broke through in Portland during the Grunge boom

 

… rejected stage-names – Johnny Panic, Elliott Stillwater-Rotter – and the pivotal moment when Steven became ‘Elliott’

 

.. his sense of humour – “a garbage truck passed him and he said, ‘there’s my ride!’”

 

… the archive of unreleased recordings she’d heard

 

… the Oscars appearance and signing to DreamWorks and Nirvana’s PR

 

… the root of his eventual unhappiness

 

… “he would have been more shielded if he’d been in a band”

 

… and his expanding legacy and adoption by Gen-Z.

 

Order ‘Nobody Broke Your Heart’ here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/jamie-fisher/nobody-broke-your-heart-an-intimate-biography-of-elliott-smith

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock’n’Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear


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