Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it

Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold August 16, 2026 Duration: 45:27

Stuff, nonsense, the white heat of debate and yesterday’s news today! Which this week involves …

 

… which of these didn’t host a TV chat show – Ian Botham, Charlotte Church, Lily Allen or Harold Wilson?

 

… if you’d paid £102 to see two-thirds of the Fugees show up an hour late, wouldn’t you SCREAM for a refund?

 

… Britain’s most rock’n’roll hotel and why the idea of “excess” seems purely American

 

… Dave and Stephane Grappelli at the Sunset Marquis

 

… Reversing Into Tomorrow! We Came, We Saw, We Left! The genius of Stiff Records, “the Motown of Bayswater”, and the oddballs and misfits they signed

 

… “there are only two types of record demand: too little and too much”

 

… “Artistic breakthrough, the first double B-side!” The single that started the Indie boom

 

… and why naked ballet doesn’t work.

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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

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