It’s Happy Hour in the Rock and Roll Lounge of News and we’re working our way through anything over 40 per cent proof. Which means ice, a slice and ….

… how the F-Bomb lost its impact.

… Mick Ralphs and Lalo Schifrin RIP – and chapeau to "There's A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On’.

… the Blush-o-meter! Album sleeves that’d get you lynched in the 21st Century – and that means you Roxy, UFO, BowWowWow, Blind Faith, Tom Waits and Supertramp!

… why the TV comedy W1A was the last record of the world before Covid.

… Irresistible song titles – eg Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Misty Morning Albert Bridge, Jeannie Needs A Shooter.

… where was Instagram when Roxy Music started?!

… the genius of Sabrina Carpenter’s publicity machine.

… “The oldest used to have the power. Now it’s the youngest.”

… Jeff Bezos v a canal full of inflatable crocodiles.

… I’m Getting Buried in the Morning, Paintball’s Coming Home … the eternal joy of Half Man Half Biscuit.

… “Meeting a man from the motor trade - like a line from a TS Eliot poem.”

And birthday guest Guy Constant on the value of lyrics - plus ‘grollies, ‘70 supergroups and Theresa May swearing.

Here’s the link set up by Jon Hotten to help the rock writer (and former podcast guest) Mick Wall after he’d suffered a heart attack: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jon-hotten-2

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

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Bobby Bluebell remembers the “cuddly duffle-coat friendship” of Glasgow bands in the early ‘80s and the Bluebells’ second act rebooted by the Volkswagen ad. The band are touring again and an even bigger part of the city’s thriving musical community, and he looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played, along with …

… singing “When I’m Dead And Gone’ in an old folks home.

… on the town with Siobhan Fahey, her sisters and boyfriends Kevin Rowland and Gary Crowley.

… buying Rocket Man and Wee Neil Reid’s Mother Of Mine, aged 13. And Elton John at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall.

… his side project The Golden Tree (with Grahame Skinner of Hipsway) playing ‘Scottish’ songs by Marmalade, Strawberry Switchblade, Ewan MacColl, Coldplay, the Easybeats, Talking Heads and the Bay City Rollers.

… “Glasgow had six gangs. You had to choose your route home carefully if wearing Kickers.”

… Clare Grogan’s sister’s part in the Bluebells’ fortunes.

… Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne holding HIT and MISS signs in the front row of an Oxfam Warriors gig.

… “A cuddly duffle-coat friendship”: the Glasgow bands of the early ‘80s and memories of Altered Images and Peter Capaldi’s Dream Boys.

… why Dolly Parton was ditched and ‘Young At Heart’ chosen for the Volkswagen ad.

… playing the Old Grey Whistle Test with the Psychedelic Furs.

… “the best way to get an audience to stop talking is to entertain them.”

… “All hits are luck”.

… his Golden Rule when playing festivals.

The Bluebells tickets here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/315250-bluebells/calendar

The Golden Tree: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HO0TGE0vgPgwDoaBUMAJF?si=LUsXAtrURVWYjEkzDpI0mQ&nd=1&dlsi=65dddbf6bf6c45e4

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.

Dennis Bovell has worked his dub magic on everyone from Janet Kaye to the Slits, the Pop Group, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood – and his own band Matumbi. He talks here about the thrill and freedom of making dub records, his new album Wise Music In Dub – which reworks ‘Pass The Dutchie’, Minnie Riperton and the Stylistics – and how the phone never stops ringing with requests for an echo-filled clattery sonic re-boot. And about spending lockdown in a “dub bubble”, how recording has changed since his days with a one-track Phillips tape-machine, and recruiting Swizz The Panist (“who plays steel pans like a classical piano”) and Duke Baysee, the harmonica-playing Routemaster bus conductor.

Pre-order Wise Music In Dub here: https://wiserecords.bandcamp.com/

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.