Andy Bown remembers the Herd, Judas Jump and 47 years in Status Quo

Andy Bown remembers the Herd, Judas Jump and 47 years in Status Quo

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold February 10, 2026 Duration: 32:20

Andy Bown found the 20 year-old recordings of “a deep-space love story” he’d written with the sci-fi author Russell Hoban and he’s just reworked and released them. He talks to us here about “Out There” and life in the Herd, Judas Jump and Status Quo, which involves …

 

… playing the Three Tuns in Beckenham with Bowie

 

… “Foot gun, gun foot. I always tell the truth.”

 

… Peter Frampton when he was The Face of ‘68

 

… “we were earning £225 a night and got £15 a week. Where did the money go?”

 

… Quo’s Whatever You Want and how co-writing works  

 

… David’s memories of the Herd supporting Chuck Berry in 1968

 

… opening for Hendrix at Saville Theatre, eight feet from his flaming guitar: “you could feel the heat”

 

… Judas Jump, Don Arden, the huge advance and the “appalling” album

 

… sessions with Jerry Lee Lewis who played the solo with his foot

 

 … early days in Status Quo when he played behind a curtain and how they got to be Live Aid’s opening act

 

… “You’d think John Fogerty would be pleased about Rockin’ All Over The World. Au contraire!”

 

Order ‘Out There: A Deep-Space Love Story’ here: https://andybown.com/


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Word In Your Ear
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