Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians an...
TV's greatest musical moment - and are we still allowed to laugh at hopeless old rock bands?
50 mins; January 22, 2024
Graham Gouldman knows where to alphabetically file 10cc records
17 mins; January 21, 2024
Annie Nightingale (“the great goth auntie”), choirs on pop records & the music they sent into space
53 mins; January 15, 2024
Jim Gordon - the supernatural gift and tragic fate of “the greatest rock drummer” with Joel Selvin
33 mins; January 13, 2024
Great albums now 50 years old, the best gag ever & the haircut that launched folk-rock
53 mins; January 07, 2024
Noel Coward, Gallagher & Squire’s superpower summit & the art of the Bob Dylan backbeat
54 mins; December 31, 2023
Hipgnosis album art, the hardest working man in showbiz & the moment the world went mad
48 mins; December 18, 2023
Denny Laine, the Move’s catastrophic court case & the man who's made 700 albums in 2 years
59 mins; December 10, 2023
The Beatles as seen by their roadie, co-conspirator & friend Mal Evans – and Kenneth Womack
43 mins; December 05, 2023
A drink to Shane MacGowan, Spinal Tap rebooted and lunch with Randy Newman
40 mins; December 04, 2023
Pauline Murray’s kids have finally found out what Mum did in the Punk Wars
41 mins; December 03, 2023
Glen Matlock and the ‘Sliding Doors moment’ that sparked the punk rock fuse
62 hours 35 mins; December 01, 2023
Does anyone know more about rock stars than Jenny Boyd?
45 mins; November 29, 2023
Who’s next for an AI movie, first use of sampling & rock stars in unsuitable clothes
60 hours 34 mins; November 27, 2023
Kanye West & the billion dollar gym pumps plus the album sleeve that changed the game
38 mins; November 21, 2023
The 2-Tone story - Daniel Rachel remembers the school playground “turning black and white”
44 mins; November 18, 2023
Why Kirsty MacColl was so funny, honest, original and impossible to sell – by Jude Rogers
27 mins; November 14, 2023
Mystery people on album sleeves, Elton dressed as a hornet and Leonard Cohen’s favourite song and why
53 mins; November 13, 2023
Slade, a rambunctious reminder of a vanished world by Daryl Easlea
33 mins; November 09, 2023
The KLF torched £1m "and are haunted by it daily". John Higgs knows why
47 mins; November 07, 2023
What did we think of the Beatles' last hurrah?
60 hours 38 mins; November 05, 2023
For Ian Broudie & the Lightning Seeds, 'Three Lions' has been a blessing and a curse
44 mins; November 03, 2023
Billy Sloan, the man who interviewed Grace Jones in a bath
38 mins; November 02, 2023
The greatest guitarist & the strange tale of Mike Raven - plus a leaked Radio One memo!
44 mins; October 30, 2023
Pin-Ups’ 50th, Morrissey The Eternal Teenager and what the Stones should be writing songs about
53 mins; October 23, 2023
The “gangsterish” charm of Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate Records, by Simon Spence
41 mins; October 21, 2023
Denmark Street, London's Tin Pan Alley, where the Sex Pistols met Pink Floyd and a luverly bunch of coconuts, by Peter Watts
27 mins; October 19, 2023
Madonna’s karaoke show, albums that sound their covers and whatever happened to protest music?
54 mins; October 17, 2023
Jarvis v Jacko and why drummers are like goalkeepers. Let Pulp’s Nick Banks be your guide
39 mins; October 12, 2023
Smoking on album sleeves, Smash Hits The Musical and records you own but have never played
60 hours 28 mins; October 09, 2023
Echo & the Bunnymen, why the rock press were “divs” and the secret of good hair by Will Sergeant
43 mins; October 08, 2023
An Insider’s Guide To Goth by Cathi Unsworth (via Cruella De Vil and the Cure)
36 mins; October 04, 2023
Nick Drake – a whole new perspective by Richard Morton Jack
37 mins; October 03, 2023
Gary Numan, unlikely sex symbols and U2’s £1,000 night in the desert
54 mins; October 02, 2023
Does Gary Numan regret throwing the glo-stick that hit David Bowie?
26 mins; October 01, 2023
Why a sumptuous new book about the Island label is “like entering the record shop of your dreams”.
39 mins; September 27, 2023
Mojo’s 30th birthday plus bands whose t-shirts you’d wear even if you didn’t have any of their records
54 mins; September 25, 2023
The “unknown woman” in McCartney’s photos, the Human League and a new U2 game
39 mins; September 18, 2023
Pulitzer Prize winner David Remnick takes the long view of Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Macca and more
29 mins; September 17, 2023
The Stones return, rock’n’roll marriages and Freddie’s 50 kimonos
46 mins; September 12, 2023
Plaid shirts? Brown ale? A smoke-stained pub rock special with Simon Matthews
31 mins; September 06, 2023
What Kevin Armstrong learnt as the sideman for Bowie, McCartney, Morrissey, Sinead and Iggy Pop
30 mins; September 05, 2023
Which acts will “go down in history” and what matters more than their music?
51 mins; September 03, 2023
Bob Dylan - why he signs autographs left-handed and other mysteries solved by Ray Padgett
25 mins; September 02, 2023
Achtung Baby, rock fantasy friends and the band that inspired the Bad News Tour
47 mins; August 29, 2023
Robbie Robertson, Billy Connolly, Bridge Over Troubled Water and the “fake history” of Punk
63 hours 30 mins; August 21, 2023
Sinead O’Connor, that Morrissey outburst, over-long films and the pitiful plight of roadies
53 mins; July 31, 2023
Tales of Hipgnosis sleeves (and the new film) and why the world needs Steely Dan more than ever
75 hours 8 mins; July 24, 2023
PP Arnold remembers life in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue aged 17
35 mins; July 19, 2023
The things Bruce and Bing have in common and the adventures of Punch in 1976 clubland
45 mins; July 17, 2023
Nick Drake - and what Richard Morton Jack learnt from 200 people who knew him
49 mins; July 14, 2023
Cathi Unsworth was a teenage goth. Think “Robert Smith’s tarantula hair” and “cider like turps”
33 mins; July 13, 2023
Wham!, Rock Follies and lost ‘70s prog foot-soldiers Renia – we will remember them!
49 mins; July 10, 2023
Cocteau Twins song or Farrow & Ball paint colour? plus the day Beatlemania began
52 mins; July 03, 2023
Grotesque/brilliant sleeves plus does upping the price make a ticket more desirable?
60 hours 29 mins; June 27, 2023
Harvey Lisberg – managing 10cc, meeting Elvis and “Peter Noone’s extra tooth”
32 mins; June 23, 2023
Record shops in movies and what Glenda Jackson did that no other actor ever dared try
58 mins; June 21, 2023
Revenge songs, Nick Drake and that sorry tale about Primal Scream
47 mins; June 18, 2023
Word In The Park 2023 #4 – Clare Grogan's adventures in TV, film and music
26 mins; June 16, 2023
Word In The Park 2023: How the Beatles and James Bond shaped us all
20 mins; June 15, 2023
Word In The Park 2023 #2 – 60 years of the Bee Gees with Bob Stanley
22 mins; June 11, 2023
Word In The Park 2023: 60 years of the Stones with Lesley-Ann Jones
18 mins; June 08, 2023
What bands are becoming unfashionable?
37 mins; June 06, 2023
Which is the most two-faced world - movies, music or daytime TV?
38 mins; May 28, 2023
Farewell Tina Turner – “all you needed was Nutbush City Limits and a Watneys Party 7”
23 mins; May 25, 2023
Robert Johnson, Shakespeare and the rock star image of Martin Amis
51 mins; May 24, 2023
Is there a more annoying rhyme than “arms” and “charms”?
28 mins; May 15, 2023
How a nine-year-old boy kick-started Rock’n’Roll (and other stories)
47 mins; May 09, 2023
Groups that look like a check-out line at B&Q? We have a winner!
56 mins; May 02, 2023
“Well I walked up to her and I asked her if she wanted to dance.”
53 mins; April 25, 2023
Jack Nitzche, a “pleat-faced” guitarist and the time Sly Stone got married onstage
71 hours 39 mins; April 18, 2023
John Cooper Clarke reveals “the performing poet’s worst enemy”
29 mins; April 13, 2023
“Fred Flange”, Barry Cryer meets the Pretenders and what we’ve learnt about the Velvet Underground
50 mins; April 10, 2023
The inscrutable King Crimson exposed by their documentary-maker Toby Amies
34 mins; April 08, 2023
Paul Weller as a songwriter? Dylan Jones unpacks his “Imperial Phase"
31 mins; April 07, 2023
What’s Paul Jones of the Manfreds learnt from 60 years onstage?
25 mins; April 06, 2023
Do we still need film and album reviews? Plus Seymour Stein and Keith Reid’s last fandangos
51 mins; April 05, 2023
Why Andrew Lauder is the unsung hero of the record business
39 mins; April 04, 2023
Is U2’s new Songs Of Surrender album just plain *wrong*?
44 mins; March 29, 2023
15 minutes with Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake: it all started on Blackpool Pier (aged two) …
17 mins; March 22, 2023
Is U2’s new Songs Of Surrender album just plain wrong?
39 mins; March 20, 2023
Genuinely rotten albums by brilliant artists plus the band that started cancel culture
44 mins; March 15, 2023
For the love of Wayne Shorter & David Lindley - and are U2 really U2 without Larry Mullen?
41 mins; March 09, 2023
Is Karen Carpenter pop music’s saddest story?
29 mins; March 05, 2023
Was the pop boom of 1996-2006 a comedy or a tragedy?
38 mins; March 02, 2023
What the Beatles said about the Stones plus the most expensive live music in London
60 hours 48 mins; February 28, 2023
Was Chuck Berry the strangest man in the history of rock?
29 mins; February 27, 2023
Word Down Your Way: 15 minutes with Mark Everett – E from Eels - about shows he's seen and played
16 mins; February 26, 2023
What’s the best age to be and when are we at our most stupid?
44 mins; February 22, 2023
Burt Bacharach, Waters v Gilmour and how to save the BRITS
41 mins; February 16, 2023
15 minutes with Midge Ure about shows he's seen and played
14 mins; February 09, 2023
George Harrison and the T-Bone steak, rock fantasy football teams & spot the AI lyrics!
50 mins; February 07, 2023
Ron Sexsmith - heading your way in April – remembers “life-changing” shows seen over the years
20 mins; February 06, 2023
Joel De’ath, “the Indiana Jones of rare vinyl”, describes his hunt for the Holy Grail
46 mins; February 05, 2023
Peter Asher: singer, producer, manager, main role model for Austin Powers
31 mins; February 02, 2023
Farewell Tom Verlaine – plus terrible records we can’t help loving
49 mins; February 01, 2023
The Long Ryders are heading your way - and it all began with a “red negligee” …
15 mins; January 29, 2023
Farewell David Crosby plus “classic” records that leave us cold
35 mins; January 26, 2023
Suzanne Vega: she started at Carnegie Hall and she's coming to a town near you in February
14 mins; January 24, 2023
Jeff Beck “had a boom-tish anecdote about every step of his life”