Prefab Sprout - a tale of mystery, eccentricity and pop’s most famous motorbike

Prefab Sprout - a tale of mystery, eccentricity and pop’s most famous motorbike

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold July 2, 2026 Duration: 41:40

Nige Tassell fell in love with the literary allusions of Prefab Sprout when at school and his new book ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ tells their unique and inscrutable story – and involves some delightfully off-road “deerstalker” investigation. You’ll find self-sabotage, square pegs in round holes, the eternal pressure to have hits, and a devoted portrait of ringmaster Paddy McAloon that leaves you convinced there’s never been anyone quite like him before or since. This sparks off in a million directions, these among them …

 

… the lure of bands who'd clearly been to the library and were unlikely to have a huge hit

 

... Paddy’s stoic defence of their name

 

… his distaste for “diary songwriting” of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen

 

… Jesse James, Elvis, Hey Manhattan: the obsession with the romance of America

 

… the archive of unrecorded songs (one box labelled ‘For Rod Stewart’)

 

… how the success of The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll came to haunt them

 

… the inconceivable moment they appeared on the National Lottery with Bob Monkhouse and Mystic Meg

 

… pop tribalism on the school bus

 

… the dreadful circumstance that lead to I Trawl the Megahertz

 

… Paddy’s visual transformation from tousled pop star to hermetic semi-reclusive Gandalf

 

… and the fate of the Steve McQueen motorbike.

 

Order ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ here …

https://linktr.ee/newmodern_books?lt_utm_source=lt_share_link#566128608.

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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
Podcast Episodes
Kevin Rowland, the new Dexys and what he's learnt from life [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:42
We first saw Kevin in ‘77 wearing jodhpurs onstage with his art-punk band the Killjoys! He’s formed a new version of Dexys, made an album, starts a tour in October, and looks back here at central moments in his life, som…
David Gray’s priceless memories of lessons learned the hard way [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:07
David Gray went through the roof with his White Ladder album in 2000 and he’s toured and recorded ever since, ending this summer’s loop at Latitude. He talks to us here about the rigours of seeing bands when you lived in…
Peter Frampton – ‘the Face of 1968’ looks back! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:16
Peter Frampton, for goodness sake! Part of our lives at Word In Your Ear since we were teenagers. Played guitar on national telly when he was 14. Joined the Herd at 16 and Humble Pie two years later. Had the biggest-sell…
Paul Simon’s Graceland and how the masterpiece was made [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:18
‘Graceland’ was an almighty gamble for Paul Simon, a costly, high-risk departure from the music he’d been making and a complex international venture. And a game-changing, worldwide triumph. When Ashley Kahn taught a cour…
Kate Mossman has strong feelings about rock stars past their prime [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:57
Kate’s an old pal of ours from Word magazine who writes scintillating columns and profiles for the New Statesman and Observer. We loved her book ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters With Rock Royalty’ – just out in paper…