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.
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.
Tom Bailey’s been based in New Zealand for the last 30 years, making records, DJing and avoiding British winters. He tours the UK in 2026 playing the Thompson Twins’ greatest hits and looks back here from Auckland at the first shows he ever saw and played, all this high in the mix …
... dance music and the British Invasion of America
… the inspiring delights of Some Kind Of Mushroom, his local record shop in Chesterfield
… seeing Blodwyn Pig, Edgar Broughton and Principal Edwards Magic Theatre when he was 15
… “bass players go to bed last”
… when his folk-rock band the Witching Hour supported Mick Farren & the Deviants - and promptly split up
… living in Clapham squats with members of the Pop Group and the Slits
… the Thompson Twins - from “the young angry white-boy funk” to the MTV trio with a policy statement
.. their manifesto and division of labour – “Tom Bailey music, Alannah Currie lyrics, Joe Leeway the live show”
… Live Aid with Madonna when the David Letterman house band became the Thompson Twins
… “a miraculous palette of sound”: how affordable technology changed his life
… and the extravagant talent of his all-female band.
Tickets for Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey & Blancmange 2026 Tour here: https://www.alttickets.com/thompson-twins-tom-bailey-tickets
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.