Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho

Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold July 23, 2026 Duration: 37:16

Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers …

 

… the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic

 

… the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends

 

… why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity

 

 ... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary”

 

… GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club

 

… how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him

 

… and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.  

 

Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: https://www.equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues

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: 50

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