Rock stars we envy, Madonna as a sister-in-law & the British obsession with poshness

Rock stars we envy, Madonna as a sister-in-law & the British obsession with poshness

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold October 5, 2025 Duration: 52:50

Steering the supercar of enquiry round the rock and roll racetrack with the occasional stop for a tyre change. Foot-to-floor moments this week include…

 

… why are the British so hung up about posh pop stars?

 

… the 10-second moment of his stage routine that Springsteen must find addictive

 

… the flaming bra, the flying dress, the human horse: Lady Gaga’s most OTT entrances

 

.. would YOU want Madonna as a sister-in-law?

 

… Fleetwood Mac, the Grateful Dead, the Bee Gees: bands the NME said were finished in 1975

 

… John Paul Jones in Marks and Sparks

 

… musicians’ houses we’d most like to live in (actually one’s a lifeboat)

 

… the goth/fantasy allure of Steve Nicks on TikTok

 

… and the still-haunting times we died onstage “like a louse in a Russian’s beard”.

 

Plus Noel Coward, Julie Andrews, Jem Finer, birthday guest Phil Turner and Tony Bennett’s favourite meal.


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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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