Madonna smoking, the first indie PM and have we just witnessed the nadir of pop?!

Madonna smoking, the first indie PM and have we just witnessed the nadir of pop?!

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold June 29, 2026 Duration: 1:02:10

Tapping the barometer of news to see what’s blistering or stormy, which this week includes …

 

… “The Man can’t bust our music!”: the crimes and misdemeanours of Clive Davis

 

… the single biggest change in our lifetimes

 

... when did musicians become ‘artists’?

 

… Johnny Marr’s guitar habit

 

… unlimited cash and what we’d spend it on

 

… Madonna smoking at Paris Fashion Week hoping someone would try to stop her

 

… why Dave doesn’t own any Arista records

 

… which five Paul Simon songs became film titles?

 

… a Prime Minister who loves ‘Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You’ by Big Thief!

 

… 56 year-old takes annual Dark Side of the Moon test: “and I still don’t like it!”

 

… are there more registered songwriters or lorry drivers?

 

Plus the biopic boom and birthday guest Andrew Stocks has a senior moment.

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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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