Pet Shop Boys at 40, missing folk star found! & rock stars’ childhood bedrooms

Pet Shop Boys at 40, missing folk star found! & rock stars’ childhood bedrooms

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold January 11, 2026 Duration: 52:26

‘January,’ a revered pop lyricist once wrote, ‘sick and tired you've been hanging on me.’ And if that’s the mood down your way, this might help crank up the heat, alighting as it does upon the following … 

 

… Guns N’Roses and the imperial age of the pop video: director Nigel Dick remembers the $750,000 budget

 

… ‘lost elfin Scots superstar’: missing Incredible String Band member found after 40 years!

 

… comparing the original West End Girls to the re-made worldwide hit: “like a Top Of The Pops album doing the same song”

 

… the three ages of Bowie and why he’s becoming a religious cult

 

… gangster-wall-papering the Melody Maker office as an Ian Dury promo stunt

 

... the magic of stars’ childhood bedrooms

 

… “he’s got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin”: Star Wars in a nutshell

 

… Tales of Brave Ulysses: psychedelia in under three minutes

 

…. and has there ever been a fictional band as convincing as McGwyer Mortimer?

 

Andy Miller on Licorice McKecknie here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/incredible-band-146577648

 

Nigel Dick’s wonderful video for God Only Knows here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhEkug1G-Q


Help us to keep The Longest 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
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