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Word In Your EarThe UK's original music chat podcast, est. 2007 and presented by David Hepworth and Mark Ellen. Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold
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 and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Language: en Genres: Music, Music Commentary, Music History Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Mary Coughlan, onstage from the age of five - ‘Applause and lemonade!’
Episode 859
Monday, 12 January, 2026
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-showsHelp us keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
