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

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.