Can the Michael movie reboot Jacko? & how social media changed festivals

Can the Michael movie reboot Jacko? & how social media changed festivals

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold April 26, 2026 Duration: 1:02:30

This week’s news stories charge out onto the pitch but which are heading for promotion? In the running at the final whistle …

 

… “a ghoulish, soulless cash-grab”: the multiple disasters in the making of the Michael biopic

 

… how spectacle is replacing music

 

… which do we prefer, the truth or the myth?

 

… did Steve Reich re-invent music?

 

… when the Dalai Lama appeared at Glastonbury

 

… how does it feel to perform to a sea of non-clapping motionless mobile phone users?

 

… the remodelling of Coachella

 

… “producers are in the business of creating of high-profile communal rights”

 

… Vilma Jaa: “like Sandy Denny making music with Massive Attack”

 

… how festivals are all about special guests and social media

 

… the 1974 Diana magazine quiz: “how tall is Alvin Lee?”

 

… 20 year-old Word in Your Ear podcast unearthed!

 

... plus Luciano Berio, Slow Club and “the bawdy harridan and her jive muse”.


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

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


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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
Podcast Episodes
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The shameless age of Britpop in ‘the wildest year of the 90s’ [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:31
Dominic Mohan saw Britpop on the inside from the showbiz desk of the Sun in the days when it sold 4.5m copies, a series of heated memories recorded in ‘1996: My Backstage Pass to the Wildest Year of Britain’s Wildest Dec…
How Tony Visconti keeps the Bowie flag flying [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:01
Tony Visconti left Brooklyn for London in 1967, began working with the Move and Marc Bolan and formed a life-long friendship with the teenage David Bowie, playing on his first two albums and producing 10 of ones that fol…
The Jarrett movie, Macca’s secret & when did standing at gigs start? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:24
Whooping, whistling, punching the air, standing on the arm-rests and generally adding our voice to the sound of the crowd this week involves … … the creepy way Google eavesdrops our conversations … the cleverly positione…