Days with Bowie, Prince, the Stones, Hendrix & the Clash by David Sinclair

Days with Bowie, Prince, the Stones, Hendrix & the Clash by David Sinclair

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold February 2, 2026 Duration: 1:02:16

David Sinclair was a long-running rock critic for the Times, Rolling Stone and many others and now makes records himself. He looks back here at some of the first bands he saw and the extraordinary people he interviewed, which touches on …

 

… the day Bowie took him to the Hammersmith Odeon to stand on the spot where he announced his retirement

 

… Keith Richards’ dark side (and what he said about Lady Di)

 

… interviewing Prince “who seemed like a shadow”

 

… seeing Free in 1970: “I still think about it. Some bands are like footprints in fresh snow”

 

… Hendrix on a bill with Cat Stevens and the Walker Brothers when he was 14

 

… singles he wore out in the days when you had to change the needle

 

… his theory about the lyrics of Crossroads

 

… “the Simon Templar of rock journalism”

 

… the purgatory of being a serious musician when Spotify adds 100,000 new tracks a day

 

… and the Shadows, the Scorpions, Sting, ZZ Top, David Coverdale and … Millstone Grit.

 

David Sinclair’s music here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4oMczlXHj1pt6M4ZNGR14E?si=_9Dx_G_UQ3GifCFGFra07A

 

To buy here: https://www.davidsinclairfour.com/shop

 

Tickets to the 100 Club, May19: https://www.solidentertainments.com/100club/index.html


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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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