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Bowie’s early years have been scrutinised repeatedly but people tend to speed through the last act, from the early ‘90s to his death in 2016. Alexander Larman’s ‘Lazarus: The Second Coming Of David Bowie’ looks at his resurrection and the mystery of his final days in Manhattan in attractively honest detail, a book that’s as fondly critical of his artistic decisions as it’s celebratory. Under discussion here …   … ‘David Bowie was a fictional invention and much of his life an act’   … how wrong so many album reviews turned out to be   … “he liked to be liked and he put a lot of effort into being liked”   … Eno, Tony Visconti, Nile Rodgers, Pet Shop Boys and his endless search for collaborators   … the Lucian Freud incident at the Dorchester   … Scott Walker’s taped message: “I see God in the window”   ... “he trusted in the idea he was a genius”   … the sharp contrast been his public image and private life   … how his Lord’s Prayer at the Freddie Mercury tribute was a deliberate attempt to steal the show   … the piercing question Tin Machine were asked on ‘Wogan’   … and the struggle to find anything sincere in his interviews.   Order ‘Lazarus’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lazarus-Second-Coming-David-Bowie/dp/1917923449 Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Sinclair was a long-running rock critic for the Times, Rolling Stone and many others and now makes records himself. He looks back here at some of the first bands he saw and the extraordinary people he interviewed, which touches on …   … the day Bowie took him to the Hammersmith Odeon to stand on the spot where he announced his retirement   … Keith Richards’ dark side (and what he said about Lady Di)   … interviewing Prince “who seemed like a shadow”   … seeing Free in 1970: “I still think about it. Some bands are like footprints in fresh snow”   … Hendrix on a bill with Cat Stevens and the Walker Brothers when he was 14   … singles he wore out in the days when you had to change the needle   … his theory about the lyrics of Crossroads   … “the Simon Templar of rock journalism”   … the purgatory of being a serious musician when Spotify adds 100,000 new tracks a day   … and the Shadows, the Scorpions, Sting, ZZ Top, David Coverdale and … Millstone Grit.   David Sinclair’s music here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4oMczlXHj1pt6M4ZNGR14E?si=_9Dx_G_UQ3GifCFGFra07A   To buy here: https://www.davidsinclairfour.com/shop   Tickets to the 100 Club, May19: https://www.solidentertainments.com/100club/index.html Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A bone-shaking ride on the weekly news cycle, stopping off here to pump up the tyres ….   … Springsteen’s Streets Of Minneapolis: it’s not what he said but the fact that he’s said it     … “they’re all just Sly & Robbie records but with someone different singing on them”   … the price of stadium tickets: if it’s too high, don’t go – but stop complaining!   … Catherine O’Hara’s wit and humanity in Waiting For Guffman and A Mighty Wind, and why Home Alone wouldn’t work without her   … Melania’s deal with Amazon: the most craven act in the history of entertainment?   … is Mick Jones the first cousin of a Tory Home Secretary?   … the secret art of “four-walling”   … are most fans conservative with a small ‘c’?   … the romance of knackered old ‘70s New York: “the cheap pleasures have gone”   … and the whitest rap of all time!   Plus birthday guest Roger Millington and the agony of a band’s “new direction”. Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adele Bertei got a Greyhound to New York in 1977 intent on joining a band. James Chance thought she “looked like a pimp” and hired her as the organist in the Contortions, an instrument she couldn’t play. Her memoir No New York captures the most intoxicating times imaginable, the rise of Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Madonna and her fellow raft of No Wave cheerleaders in pursuit of dismantling music. Highlights include …   … the local priest recommending the Velvet Underground when she was 11   … “imbibe and dream”: her weekend with Lester Bangs   … the rubble-filled New York wasteland of 1977, landlords setting fire to property just to claim the insurance   … the No Wave circuit: crowd violence and singers who either talked or screamed     .. her rivalry with Madonna: “our labels didn’t want people to know we were white”   … the local Cleveland “Rust Belt” - Pere Ubu, Chrissie Hynde, Devo   … why Warhol, Ginsberg and Burroughs seemed laughably outmoded   … Brian Eno’s shopping list   … the power of Tina Weymouth, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry (“sexy but with a snarl”) and why New York’s venues are internationally mythical.   Order Adele Bertei’s ‘No New York’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571386154-no-new-york/?srsltid=AfmBOor2IKVLRyzzZDisLz_8cTGDYIjDXphZVU9Lw5drAd4CdKR1KVhs   Adele with Thomas Dolby on Whistle Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3bGioFCXU Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The job involves being a lightning-rod, cheer-leader, editor, finisher and “as diplomatic as Henry Kissinger”. He looks back here from his ‘Lillypad’ in Bali at the milestones along the way, among them …   … “I’d done my 10,000 hours by the age of 22”   ... “If it ain’t broke, break it!”   … when he screwed up as a tape-op: “you only do it once”   … why bands never want to leave the studio   … breakthrough hits with Johnny Thunders, Siouxsie and the Psychedelic Furs   … “there’s been no new technology in the last ten years”   … the radio plugger who heard Sunday Bloody Sunday and said “sounds like a hit but you’ll have to lose the word Bloody”   … “when Mick and Keith weren’t talking they communicated through me”   … why Muff Winwood wanted to fire Larry Mullen   … why producers can’t hear a hit     … Adam Clayton and Nick Rhodes “aren’t musicians”   … “make the drums less Huntley & Palmers!”   … the Wrecking Crew versus the “One-Man Show" production of today    … and memories of making Vertigo, Fairytale of New York and Making Plans for Nigel. Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scanning the baggage carousel of news to see what sets off the alarm, which this week involves …     … Springsteen: why is America’s most American American so quiet about his President on home turf?   … the Seven Ages of Nepo: in defence of Julian Lennon, Joe Sumner and Brooklyn Beckham    … the Robbie Williams story that gets our goat … why do half the UK music venues make no profit?   … the onstage ‘act’ that did 104 minutes non-stop … pre-testing EDM singles on the dancefloor   … Four Boys in the Wind! What A Night That Day Was! - foreign editions of A Hard Day’s Night   … in praise of the Latin Playboys   … the mid-‘60s mystery album that outsold the Beatles   … and we name the root of all ills in popular music! Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fairport tour again in 2026 and are playing their annual Cropredy Convention in August, its 50th year. The rolling Kent landscape behind him, co-founder Simon Nicol looks back at almost six decades in the line-up, the first shows he ever saw and played, why he can’t wait to get back on the tour bus again, and …     … the intoxication of live music – “lost in a moment that’s never happened before and won’t be repeated”   … Count Basie at the Astoria, aged 7 – “the moulded Turkish ottomans! The massed ranks of brass!”   … December 4 1972, the day he left the band (and why)   … “we’ve been self-governing since we were kicked out in 1979”   … the Ravens in Muswell Hill the night they became the Kinks: “frock coats and hunting boots”   … Professor Bruce Lacey, the mad scientist-inventor celebrated in a Fairport song   … Ashley Hutchings’ Little Black Book where band line-ups were assembled: “like an executive chef who chose the ingredients but didn’t wash up”   … playing Mississippi Fred McDowell and country blues in the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra   … narrative songs and the “shoulders-down” rhythms on Music From Big Pink and how Fairport found their identity   … finding obscure Phil Ochs, David Ackles and Joni Mitchell songs for early Fairport   … and the first Cropredy in the village hall in 1976: you can still arrive by barge!   Fairport Convention tour tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/gigs-tours/   Cropredy 2026 tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/tickets/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miles Hunt is on tour in 2026 – solo, with Vent 414 and the Wonder Stuff - and looks back here at his 40 years on stage, which involves …   … stifling hecklers the John Lydon way: “the exits are clearly marked!”   … what percussion does to your ears   … “when a tout’s selling your £3 ticket for £50 you know you’ve made it!”   … keytars, flat drums, guitars without headstocks: things that are JUST PLAIN WRONG!   … seeing Slade at Birmingham Town Hall when he was 10   … why the Size Of A Cow was “the moment a lot of our audience thought we’d sold out”   … Hunter S Thompson, Charles Bukowski: books that work on a tour bus   … when drummers ‘cramp up’   … and why he won’t perform Dizzy with Vic Reeves.   Order Miles Hunt and Wonder Stuff tickets here: https://thewonderstuff.co.uk/tour/ Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake is being reissued on Kenney Jones’ Nice Records, along with unheard outtakes discovered when the original master was found in one of his battered old drum cases. He talks to us here – with the compiler Rob Caiger – about the chaotic construction of the Small Faces’ 1968 masterpiece and his mission to “carry on the legacy”. Are you all sitting comftybold two-square on your botty? Then we’ll begin. Among the highlights …   … the Thames boating accident that inspired the album   … booking Stanley Unwin when Spike Milligan turned them down – and the day Stanley invented ‘Unwinese’   … insomniac days in the band’s Westmoreland Terrace flat   … the value of Marriott’s stage school background: “he could always ham things up”   … hidden treasures on the original tape – “you hear Steve and Ronnie talking”   … the magic of that fragile tobacco-tin artwork   … possession is nine-tenths of the law!   … Marriott’s wall-banging Chiswick neighbours that inspired Lazy Sunday   … “I’m the only one left and want to carry on the legacy”   … other lost Immediate sessions to be released on Nice Records   Order the Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake expanded 3CD set here, direct from Kenney’s Nice Records imprint: https://www.nicerecords.co.uk/collections/ogdens-nut-gone-flake Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A tie-dyed-in-the-wool rock & roll space odyssey to infinity and beyond which stops off this week at …   … why the Dead’s music was “like lighting a match in the wind”   … Ha Ha Harlem! Rebels Without Applause! – Morrissey song or Lenny Bruce comic routine?   … Sting v Sumner & Copeland and what Every Breath You Take makes daily just from streaming   … is Oasis “the biggest exchange of money for old rope in the history of commerce?”   … rock stars in shorts   … John Hartford and his Willie Nelson Sliding Doors moment   … how Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions became the most hi-tech band on the planet   … Rock ‘babes’ in the Bob Weir mould – eg Michael Clarke of the Byrds, Evan Dando and Mark Gardener from Ride   … has anyone made more by doing less than JJ Burnel on Golden Brown?   ... plus Warren Zevon song titles, Mary Coughlan in a coracle and the first records we reviewed for money. Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Cradock’s touring with Ocean Colour Scene in 2026 and in his own show, Travellers Tunes, with his wife and son Steve – “we’re like the Von Trapps!” This highly original night involves them “living like gypsies in the spirit of Ronnie Lane”. He looks back here, from his psychedelic Mod-shrine converted garage in Totnes, at the first shows he ever saw and played, which touches on …   …seeing UB40 at Birmingham Odeon, aged 13 – “I was bruised for days”   … an after-school Duran Duran video shoot   … “three 45-minute sets a night”: doing J Geils Band and Lennon covers pre-Bingo in working men’s clubs, aged 15   … playing Scooter Rallies in Gorleston-on-Sea in pilled-up homage to the Purple Hearts, the Jam and Secret Affair   … the imperishable sound of the early Small Faces – “the tone, the feedback, Plonk smashing his bass”   … an intense love of Northern Soul, Soft Cell, the Pretenders, Costello and the La’s   … the Stones Roses, “the most important show I ever saw – the hair, the clothes, the songs, the guitars”    … supporting Oasis at Knebworth   … “musicians’ books bore me”   …. three days in a pub with Chris Evans and regrets about “the double-edged sword” of the Riverboat Song on TGI Friday   … and Paul Weller with love beads   Buy Steve Cradock tickets here: https://www.stevecradock.com/tour/ Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary Coughlan – aka “Ireland’s Billie Holiday”, adored by Nick Cave, Shane MacGowan and Elvis Costello - is on tour again in 2026. This warm, funny and circuitous conversation looks back from her home in Wicklow at the first shows she ever saw and played and various milestones along the road, among them …   … singing Two Little Orphans (aged 5) at a Christmas party: “The adrenaline rush! Applause and lemonade!”   … escaping down ladders from school to see Rory Gallagher in Galway and the nuns waiting when she returned   … seeing Donovan on the Aran Islands in 1969, a trip from the mainland by currach   … meeting Mike Stoller and re-recording Peggy Lee’s savaged Mirrors album: “more relevant now than ever” … Elton John (dressed as a hornet) at Watford Stadium and the embroidered floral skirt she’d made to watch him   … her love of cabaret and old 78s and the songs she and Erik Visser chose to launch her career   … her transformative slot on the Late Late Show in 1984: “I played to four people the night before; a week later they were queuing round the block”   … Frank Sinatra’s mysterious autocue and sitting next to Roger Moore in his audience (“very orange”)   … “I adored St Dominic’s Preview and 15 years later Van Morrison was in my dressing-room”   … her cure for insomnia   … why Joe Strummer meant so much to her   … and her 200-song live repertoire – from Meet Me Where They Play The Blues and Don’t Smoke In Bed to Love Will Tear Us Apart.   Order Mary Coughlan tickets here: https://www.marycoughlan.ie/upcoming-shows Help us keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘January,’ a revered pop lyricist once wrote, ‘sick and tired you've been hanging on me.’ And if that’s the mood down your way, this might help crank up the heat, alighting as it does upon the following …    … Guns N’Roses and the imperial age of the pop video: director Nigel Dick remembers the $750,000 budget   … ‘lost elfin Scots superstar’: missing Incredible String Band member found after 40 years!   … comparing the original West End Girls to the re-made worldwide hit: “like a Top Of The Pops album doing the same song”   … the three ages of Bowie and why he’s becoming a religious cult   … gangster-wall-papering the Melody Maker office as an Ian Dury promo stunt   ... the magic of stars’ childhood bedrooms   … “he’s got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin”: Star Wars in a nutshell   … Tales of Brave Ulysses: psychedelia in under three minutes   …. and has there ever been a fictional band as convincing as McGwyer Mortimer?   Andy Miller on Licorice McKecknie here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/incredible-band-146577648   Nigel Dick’s wonderful video for God Only Knows here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhEkug1G-Q Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cartwheeling into 2026 with the usual cast of rock and roll heroes and pantomime villains. Behind you this week you’ll find …   … Boy George? Rick Wakeman? Chas Smash? Vanilla Ice? Pop stars who’ve done panto   … will there ever be another Rock Knighthood?   … Dylan, Elton, Chrissie Hynde and Lil Wayne mention Brigitte Bardot in songs: but who’s seen any of her films?   … “the Brigitte Bardot idea of beauty was conceived at the same time as the idea of rock and roll”   … Chris Rea’s obsession with Miles Davis – and the tale of Benny Santini   … Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ and ‘Hello’ by the Beloved and their roll calls of saints and sinners    … David saw Bob Marley at the Lyceum but now thinks he’s seen a show that was even better   … the great attraction of cinema is “our furtive dreams in the dark”   … what Van Morrison owes Hugh McCracken for the intro to Brown-Eyed Girl   … and birthday guest Andrew Slattery’s Hepworth v Ellen SmashWaddy reviews quiz! Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Hammill has spent nearly six decades building the most devoted following imaginable – Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Mark E Smith among them. ‘Rock And Role’ tells his invigorating story, beautifully illustrated with photos, cuttings, artwork and memorabilia. Author Joe Banks looks back at his life, impact and captivating way with words, and stops off at …    … the value of looks and charisma in the days when labels hadn’t the faintest idea of the future   … how Hammill “created a world to live inside and broadcast from”   … psychedelic cabaret with wolf masks and blood capsules   … meeting Hammill’s muse and former girlfriend Alice: “50 years later, each still think the other one left them”   … “songs that ask the big questions about life”   … discovering VDGG in 1984 (via Marillion) and piecing together their story in the days before the internet   … public school, Gilbert & Sullivan and the Hallelujah Chorus   … the influence of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers on Genesis’ Supper’s Ready   … his plans with Mark E Smith and how Bowie had every new album delivered to him all his life   … Charisma, Tony Stratton-Smith and the freedom to experiment  … the intensity of his following in Japan and Italy: “there’s no such thing as a casual Hammill fan”.   Order ‘Rock And Role’ here: https://burningshed.com/store/kingmaker Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.