Andy Earl’s memories of photographing Prince, Madonna and Johnny Cash

Andy Earl’s memories of photographing Prince, Madonna and Johnny Cash

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold May 6, 2026 Duration: 33:46

Andy Earl helped create the new dawn of colour photography in the ‘80s pop video age and went on to shoot a series of unforgettable portraits, album sleeves and magazine covers, many featuring in his new exhibition in Bankside Yards, London. He looks back here at some of his subjects and the analogue days when you flew halfway round the world for the right light and backdrop and every prop in the picture was real. Along with …

 

… that controversial BowWowWow shoot and how he got the job

 

… Johnny Cash in a cornfield near Melbourne and the dogs he called “Hell” and “Redemption”

 

… Duran Duran (and a mysterious nun) in Sri Lanka

 

… “my job was to create a look”

 

… why the age of digital photography brought a loss of control

 

… the Robbie Williams Life Thru a Lens “law court” shoot

 

… “he couldn’t have been more eccentric”: Prince in Monte Carlo and the confiscated camera

 

… Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder for Hipgnosis: where Dali met Magritte

 

… “in Monument Valley with a truckload of giant prosthetic eyeballs”: the Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet cover

 

… how covers changed when the CD arrived

 

 … and Madonna opening the hotel window and inhaling the sound of screaming fans: “I just need my hit!”

 

Andy’s show at Bankside Yards runs from May to August and is free to enter. Details here: https://banksidelondon.co.uk/events/andy-earl-x-bankside-yards/


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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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