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/

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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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We both first heard Graham Nash just over 60 years ago when the Hollies’ Just One Look was on the BBC’s swinging Light Programme and we’ve followed him ever since, not least his transformational shift in the late-‘60s from suburban Salford to the wood cabins of Laurel Canyon. He’s touring the UK in October, An Evening of Songs and Stories with Peter Asher in support, and looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played, which involves …

… Bill Haley in 1958 – “he opened the curtains and said ‘See yer later, alligator!’, and I’ve never been the same since.”

… meeting his heroes the Everly Brothers when he was 18.

… the talent contest he won with Allan Clarke in 1959 beating Freddie Garrity, the future Billy Fury and Johnny And the Moondogs.

... the early days of the Hollies – “my acoustic was never plugged in”.

… supporting Little Richard the night he screamed at his soon-to-be-famous guitarist, “never play the guitar behind the back of your head again!”

…. making ‘Two Yanks in England’ with the Everlys, Reg Dwight, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

… playing Woodstock – “it’s hard to reach the back row when it’s raining and two miles away.”

… the songs he always plays and talks about onstage, Marrakesh Express, Our House and Teach Your Children among them.

Order Graham Nash tickets here:

https://grahamnash.com/tour-dates/page/2/

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Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun, it is in fact just two old lags reviewing the current events, which this week include …

… the made-up scene in A Complete Unknown which Dylan apparently insisted was included.

… the Day of the Locust: do the LA fires spell the end of the Hollywood Dream?

… why does no-one write songs about world events anymore?

… the unwelcome return of AJ Weberman.

… can you date records made between 2000 and 2025?

… Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, the Stax horns, Isaac Hayes and David Porter and their purple patch from ‘65-‘68.

… Led Zeppelin’s five song-stealing court cases – but hadn’t what they stole been stolen in the first place?

… why most biopics would be better as a six-part TV series.

… “where there’s a hit there’s a writ”.

… plus birthday guest John Innes and the best and worst bands names – from Roxy Music to Prefab Sprout.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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

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It’s perishing cold in our frostbitten London HQ but we warmed our toes around a blazing conversational fire and roasted the following chestnuts …

… “the job of pop records is to be better than the year before”.

… the real reason new music tends to sound the same.

… Johnnie Walker – “his voice was his instrument”.

… The Kinks, The Shangri-Las, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Righteous Brothers and the relentless change and variety of “the annus mirabilis” of the pop single.

… “Netflix rock documentaries are just there to stop the male member of the family cancelling their subscription”.

… the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man, a cornerstone of psychedelia and indie rock.

… the drum sound that “kicked open the door to your mind”.

… when novelty was 70 per cent of the appeal.

… the key moment in the career of Peter Waters Dingley was the day he changed his name.

… making records defensively.

… the only current match for the thrill and daily drama of the mid-‘60s pop charts is the Premiere League.

… plus a Lego record-player and birthday guest Andrew Slattery.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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

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Among the walnut shells, wrapping paper, dried tangerine peel and broken toys beneath the Christmas Tree Of News we found a few unopened presents, among them …

… Marine Homicide Unit solving murders in Scottish waters or former rock star dumping toxic waste? A crime drama Stackwaddy special.

… Roy Bittan, Duke Ellington: how musical “professors” date back to ragtime.

…’Suzanne’ and the other three songs Leonard Cohen gave away.

… Mary Martin, unsung connector and catalyst of folk-rock.

… how the spare, monochrome simplicity of John Wesley Harding flew against the prevailing wind of Disraeli Gears, Forever Changes and Magical Mystery Tour.

… “I’d rather be dead than wet my bed”.

… the invention of the “blockbuster album”.

… she’s only human: what Judy Collins thought when she met Leonard Cohen.

… Crowded House, John Fogerty, Ry Cooder, Ian Broudie, Patti Smith … when did having your kids in your band become almost compulsory?

… producer Richard Perry’s journey from Beefheart to the “surrealistic vaudeville” of Tiny Tim to the pure genius of ‘You’re So Vain’.

Plus a rare moment - something David Hepworth doesn’t know! - and birthday guest Sandra Austin.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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