Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing

Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold August 3, 2026 Duration: 46:45

Testing the temperature of this week’s news to see what trips the fire-alarm, which includes …

 

… does having a Number One still matter?

 

… Pauline Black’s sliding doors moment

 

… rock stars you can’t imagine dancing

 

… heatwaves, fire, rain, dust and thunderstorms: how extreme weather’s changing the festival circuit

 

… when Jarvis Cocker was a fishmonger and Bryan Ferry taught pottery

 

… is AI erasing our love of rock history?

 

… Wuthering Heights Day: the lone fabulous amateur appeal of Kate Bush v the polished mass choreography of the 21st Century

 

… all bands vividly remember first hearing themselves on the radio … and then rang their mothers

 

… digital native or digital immigrant?

 

… and when Mark met the Hells Angels in a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

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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

Word In Your Ear
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