Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them …

… how Bob Marley, the Walker Brothers, the Byrds, Hendrix, Ramones, Blondie and Nirvana “got the dust of England on their boots”.

… Chappell Roan’s demands for “a living wage” in a business built on inequity.

… why audio books surprise you in ways the print edition can’t.

… Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure?

… “separate immediately”: Marsha Hunt and the secret of a successful marriage.

… Bowie, Queen, the Velvet Underground: how the most streamed songs are rarely what you’d expect.

… when London, New York and LA were the centres of the universe.

… Bookends, Randy Newman’s Good Old Boys and other albums with a narrative.

… when the Police, Pistols and Clash tried to conquer America.

… Miles Copeland Senior in Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends.

… “the film world is constructed around 100 actors, eight of whom are celebrated every year”.

… plus birthday guest Keith Adsley turns the lights out for Pitchblack Playback – albums you should hear in the dark.

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The teenage Woody Woodmansey was offered the job of under-foreman in the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull but then got a call from Bowie inviting him to move to London and play drums on his new album - “plus food and somewhere to stay”. It took him all weekend to decide. And involved some cultural readjustment when he did. 56 years later he’s a founding member of Holy Holy and touring the UK in May – along with Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory – performing songs from Bowie’s breakthrough early ‘70s albums. He talks here about …

… the life-changing sound behind the silver door of an air-raid shelter in Driffield.

… supporting the Kinks in Bridlington and the Herd at Leeds University - and why Peter Frampton told him, “I’ll see you at the top”.

... his first paid gig at the local girls’ school.

… the Spiders’ instructional group outings to see ballet, mime and theatre.

... “never more than three takes”: how Bowie wrote and recorded and the sketches he drew for their stage gear.

… life at Haddon Hall and its “Gone With The Wind staircase”.

… Yorkshire to London and the cultural collisions involved.

… what Bowie realised was “the missing ingredient”.

… Woody’s checklist to assess Bowie’s talents when he met him: “He wasn’t Paul Rodgers or Roger Daltrey. He could write. He could communicate.”

… “I’m not wearing that!” The day Mick Ronson packed his bags and left.

Order Holy Holy tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/tony-visconti-tickets/artist/2003254

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In a courageous stand against AI technology, a pair of old lags communing via two cocoa tins and a piece of string attempt to put the rock and roll world to rights. Which this week involves …

… what David saw in the HMV record store in Oxford Street “that shook me to the ground”.

... music that only works played loud.

… Marianne Faithfull - there’s no middle ground between Sacred Figure and Outrageous Diva.

… why ‘60s fame is like no other fame.

… is there a more enduring example of bad press than Sting’s tantric sex?

… John Mendelssohn’s West Coast adventure with David Bowie.

… which is musically more significant: punk or disco?

… Tom Waits reading the weather forecast.

… which musicians make convincing actors - Sinatra, Lady Gaga, Elvis, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Costello, Mick Jagger?

… Bowie singing Jacques Brel songs on a waterbed in Hollywood.

… why we miss the great press ‘hatchet jobs’.

… do slogans last longer than music?

… what kind of world plays When The Levee Breaks softly and in a Chelsea café?

… why rock music is like the Catholic Church before the Reformation.

… plus birthday guest Kevin Rose wonders which musicians made the best actors.

Order John Mendelssohn’s ‘Peculiar To Mr Bowie’ here:

https://www.nortonrecords.com/a4-peculiar-to-mr-bowie-by-john-mendelssohn/

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When we get off of this mountain, you know where we want to go? Straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. While surveying the week’s events as we paddle, which involves …

… the genius of Garth Hudson and the magnificent way he looked - “part lumberjack, part Old Testament prophet, part Brahms.”

… how Glyn Johns invented the sound of the Eagles.

… Carrie Underwood’s Inauguration catastrophe.

… only male voice choirs or gospel groups should be allowed to perform National Anthems!

… fiery, magnificent, sexy, vaguely threatening – the appeal of the great British rock bands.

… does a protest track have to be a good song to be effective?

… “screw up your eyes and Guns N’Roses, Aerosmith and Van Halen all look preposterous”.

… how the Band hooked up with Dylan.

… was there ever a more dramatic drop-off from hit singles to album filler than in the Eagles?

… can any song called Visions ever be any good?

… why there should be more Band tribute acts.

... “any busker within 35 yards is noise pollution!”

... plus birthday guest Roger Millington wonders why we love the Band Aid single but not We Are The World.

That touching clip of Garth Hudson playing and singing in 2023:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BtfvpS0EyO8

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We put Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1983 billed as ‘the Most Promising New Act’ and, 15 albums and 42 years later, he’s about to set out on another tour, a double-bill with ABC. He looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played which involves …

… rehearsing his Live Aid slot backstage to an audience of one: David Bowie.

… pioneering the “one-man show” in the early days of Moogs and drum machines.

… Emerson Lake & Palmer firing cannons onstage at the Isle of Wight in 1970 (his first gig, aged 15).

… rough treatment from the British “pundits”.

… school band Warrior – sample track title, Squashed Cat’s Intestines.

… being in Ringo’s All-Starr Band and the ELP number he’d play with Sheila E and Greg Lake.

… “bad spectacles, terrible haircut”: early solo gigs in Oxford pubs.

… the current tour with ABC: “lifting people’s spirits, the best job in the world”.

Mentioned in passing: China Crisis, Hendrix, Bill Payne of Little Feat.

Howard Jones tour dates here:

http://howardjones.com/

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Another great hero on the podcast! We first heard Andy Fairweather Low with Amen Corner on jukeboxes in the late ‘60s and he’s touring the UK from February. Ten albums and countless collaborations later, he looks back here at teenage life on the psychedelic circuit and the first shows he saw and played, stopping off at …

… the Stones in Cardiff in ’64 - “they opened with Talkin’ ‘Bout You and it hit me like a virus.”

… Amen Corner – “you gauged how good a gig was by how many people fainted.”

… being The Face of ’69 when Peter Frampton was the Face of ‘68.

… getting Otis Redding’s autograph.

… the package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move, Eire Apparent and the Nice “all in one charabanc together”.

… his first band the Firebrands playing to “literally no audience”.

… buying magical soul singles at Spillers in Cardiff.

… the days when you had a 26-inch waist and played Knock On Wood eight times a night.

… what people loved about Wide-Eyed And Legless.

… recording 50 Words For Snow with Kate Bush.

… the songs that “make the phones come out”.

… the rigours of getting old: “halfway through the set she asked, when’s Andy Fairweather Low coming on?”

... and Don Arden, Andrew Loog Oldham, disappearing cash and the significance of the Spider Jiving sleeve.

Andy Fairweather Low tour dates:

https://andyfairweatherlow.com/about-us/

Order Andy’s The Invisible Bluesman album here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Bluesman-Andy-Fairweather-Low/dp/B0DKSN2CDZ

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David feels a rant coming on. Mark lights the blue touchpaper, pulls on a tin hat and retires to a safe distance as they consider …

… the US closure of TikTok: has a single governmental act ever had such impact on the music business?

… film posters, Dinky Toys, “obscure vinyls”: the new record stores that are effectively antique shops.

.. why Virtually Parkinson is breath-takingly awful and an insult to the interviewers’ art.

… Melania Trump’s monstrous payday.

… Bob Dylan joining TikTok - “Good God, I must leave right away.”

… radio deejays: “the things they hate you for are the same things they love you for.”

… 50 per cent of people “looking for a vinyl fix” don’t have a record player.

… the three-word question all interviewers need.

… Blood on the Carpet: DLT, Danny Baker and the 30-year anniversary of Radio One’s “revolution”.

Plus birthday guest Paul Knox and the value of soundtracks, samplers, tribute albums and compilations “with a point of view” from Nice Enough To Eat and Stardust to the Pet Shop Boys’ Twentieth Century Blues.

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Something happens when he walks out under the lights. He can never predict what but he’s programmed to perform. As he has for over 60 years and will again when he sets out on a 63-date tour in April peppered with stories of an extravagant life and billed as ‘an evening of Francis Rossi songs from the Status Quo songbook and more’.

He looks back here at the acts that showed him the way (Gene Pitney, Slade, ZZ Top, Mott the Hoople and “my uncles, the Stones”), Butlins in Clacton, the “elfin” David Bowie, the value of “dying on your arse”, the evolution of the Status Quo shuffle, the sight of a sea of denim, opening Live Aid (and why the other acts were envious) and memories of Dog Of Two Head and Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon. “There’s a handful who are talented,” he says, “and the rest of us are just winging it and getting by.”

Order tickets here:

https://www.francisrossi.com/tour

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