Word In Your Ear

Adele Bertei got a Greyhound to New York in 1977 intent on joining a band. James Chance thought she “looked like a pimp” and hired her as the organist in the Contortions, an instrument she couldn’t play. Her memoir No New York captures the most intoxicating times imaginable, the rise of Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Madonna and her fellow raft of No Wave cheerleaders in pursuit of dismantling music. Highlights include … … the local priest recommending the Velvet Underground when she was 11 … “imbibe and dream”: her weekend with Lester Bangs … the rubble-filled New York wasteland of 1977, landlords setting fire to property just to claim the insurance … the No Wave circuit: crowd violence and singers who either talked or screamed   .. her rivalry with Madonna: “our labels didn’t want people to know we were white” … the local Cleveland “Rust Belt” - Pere Ubu, Chrissie Hynde, Devo … why Warhol, Ginsberg and Burroughs seemed laughably outmoded … Brian Eno’s shopping list … the power of Tina Weymouth, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry (“sexy but with a snarl”) and why New York’s venues are internationally mythical. Order Adele Bertei’s ‘No New York’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571386154-no-new-york/?srsltid=AfmBOor2IKVLRyzzZDisLz_8cTGDYIjDXphZVU9Lw5drAd4CdKR1KVhs Adele with Thomas Dolby on Whistle Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3bGioFCXUHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The job involves being a lightning-rod, cheer-leader, editor, finisher and “as diplomatic as Henry Kissinger”. He looks back here from his ‘Lillypad’ in Bali at the milestones along the way, among them … … “I’d done my 10,000 hours by the age of 22” ... “If it ain’t broke, break it!” … when he screwed up as a tape-op: “you only do it once” … why bands never want to leave the studio … breakthrough hits with Johnny Thunders, Siouxsie and the Psychedelic Furs … “there’s been no new technology in the last ten years” … the radio plugger who heard Sunday Bloody Sunday and said “sounds like a hit but you’ll have to lose the word Bloody” … “when Mick and Keith weren’t talking they communicated through me” … why Muff Winwood wanted to fire Larry Mullen … why producers can’t hear a hit   … Adam Clayton and Nick Rhodes “aren’t musicians” … “make the drums less Huntley & Palmers!” … the Wrecking Crew versus the “One-Man Show" production of today  … and memories of making Vertigo, Fairytale of New York and Making Plans for Nigel.Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scanning the baggage carousel of news to see what sets off the alarm, which this week involves …   … Springsteen: why is America’s most American American so quiet about his President on home turf? … the Seven Ages of Nepo: in defence of Julian Lennon, Joe Sumner and Brooklyn Beckham  … the Robbie Williams story that gets our goat… why do half the UK music venues make no profit? … the onstage ‘act’ that did 104 minutes non-stop… pre-testing EDM singles on the dancefloor … Four Boys in the Wind! What A Night That Day Was! - foreign editions of A Hard Day’s Night … in praise of the Latin Playboys … the mid-‘60s mystery album that outsold the Beatles … and we name the root of all ills in popular music!Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fairport tour again in 2026 and are playing their annual Cropredy Convention in August, its 50th year. The rolling Kent landscape behind him, co-founder Simon Nicol looks back at almost six decades in the line-up, the first shows he ever saw and played, why he can’t wait to get back on the tour bus again, and …   … the intoxication of live music – “lost in a moment that’s never happened before and won’t be repeated” … Count Basie at the Astoria, aged 7 – “the moulded Turkish ottomans! The massed ranks of brass!” … December 4 1972, the day he left the band (and why) … “we’ve been self-governing since we were kicked out in 1979” … the Ravens in Muswell Hill the night they became the Kinks: “frock coats and hunting boots” … Professor Bruce Lacey, the mad scientist-inventor celebrated in a Fairport song … Ashley Hutchings’ Little Black Book where band line-ups were assembled: “like an executive chef who chose the ingredients but didn’t wash up” … playing Mississippi Fred McDowell and country blues in the Ethnic Shuffle Orchestra … narrative songs and the “shoulders-down” rhythms on Music From Big Pink and how Fairport found their identity … finding obscure Phil Ochs, David Ackles and Joni Mitchell songs for early Fairport … and the first Cropredy in the village hall in 1976: you can still arrive by barge! Fairport Convention tour tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/gigs-tours/ Cropredy 2026 tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/tickets/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Miles Hunt is on tour in 2026 – solo, with Vent 414 and the Wonder Stuff - and looks back here at his 40 years on stage, which involves … … stifling hecklers the John Lydon way: “the exits are clearly marked!” … what percussion does to your ears … “when a tout’s selling your £3 ticket for £50 you know you’ve made it!” … keytars, flat drums, guitars without headstocks: things that are JUST PLAIN WRONG! … seeing Slade at Birmingham Town Hall when he was 10 … why the Size Of A Cow was “the moment a lot of our audience thought we’d sold out” … Hunter S Thompson, Charles Bukowski: books that work on a tour bus … when drummers ‘cramp up’ … and why he won’t perform Dizzy with Vic Reeves. Order Miles Hunt and Wonder Stuff tickets here: https://thewonderstuff.co.uk/tour/Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake is being reissued on Kenney Jones’ Nice Records, along with unheard outtakes discovered when the original master was found in one of his battered old drum cases. He talks to us here – with the compiler Rob Caiger – about the chaotic construction of the Small Faces’ 1968 masterpiece and his mission to “carry on the legacy”. Are you all sitting comftybold two-square on your botty? Then we’ll begin. Among the highlights … … the Thames boating accident that inspired the album … booking Stanley Unwin when Spike Milligan turned them down – and the day Stanley invented ‘Unwinese’ … insomniac days in the band’s Westmoreland Terraceflat … the value of Marriott’s stage school background: “he could always ham things up” … hidden treasures on the original tape – “you hear Steve and Ronnie talking” … the magic of that fragile tobacco-tin artwork … possession is nine-tenths of the law! … Marriott’s wall-banging Chiswick neighbours that inspired Lazy Sunday … “I’m the only one left and want to carry on the legacy” … other lost Immediate sessions to be released on Nice Records Order the Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake expanded 3CD set here, direct from Kenney’s Nice Records imprint: https://www.nicerecords.co.uk/collections/ogdens-nut-gone-flakeHelp us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A tie-dyed-in-the-wool rock & roll space odyssey to infinity and beyond which stops off this week at … … why the Dead’s music was “like lighting a match in the wind” … Ha Ha Harlem! Rebels Without Applause! – Morrissey song or Lenny Bruce comic routine? … Sting v Sumner & Copeland and what Every Breath You Take makes daily just from streaming … is Oasis “the biggest exchange of money for old rope in the history of commerce?” … rock stars in shorts … John Hartford and his Willie Nelson Sliding Doors moment … how Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions became the most hi-tech band on the planet … Rock ‘babes’ in the Bob Weir mould – eg Michael Clarke of the Byrds, Evan Dando and Mark Gardener from Ride … has anyone made more by doing less than JJ Burnel on Golden Brown? ... plus Warren Zevon song titles, Mary Coughlan in a coracle and the first records we reviewed for money.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.

Steve Cradock’s touring with Ocean Colour Scene in 2026 and in his own show, Travellers Tunes, with his wife and son Steve – “we’re like the Von Trapps!” This highly original night involves them “living like gypsies in the spirit of Ronnie Lane”. He looks back here, from his psychedelic Mod-shrine converted garage in Totnes, at the first shows he ever saw and played, which touches on … …seeing UB40 at Birmingham Odeon, aged 13 – “I was bruised for days” … an after-school Duran Duran video shoot … “three 45-minute sets a night”: doing J Geils Band and Lennon covers pre-Bingo in working men’s clubs, aged 15 … playing Scooter Rallies in Gorleston-on-Sea in pilled-up homage to the Purple Hearts, the Jam and Secret Affair … the imperishable sound of the early Small Faces – “the tone, the feedback, Plonk smashing his bass” … an intense love of Northern Soul, Soft Cell, the Pretenders, Costello and the La’s … the Stones Roses, “the most important show I ever saw – the hair, the clothes, the songs, the guitars”  … supporting Oasis at Knebworth … “musicians’ books bore me” …. three days in a pub with Chris Evans and regrets about “the double-edged sword” of the Riverboat Song on TGI Friday … and Paul Weller with love beads Buy Steve Cradock tickets here: https://www.stevecradock.com/tour/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.

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.

‘January,’ a revered pop lyricist once wrote, ‘sick and tired you've been hanging on me.’ And if that’s the mood down your way, this might help crank up the heat, alighting as it does upon the following …  … Guns N’Roses and the imperial age of the pop video: director Nigel Dick remembers the $750,000 budget … ‘lost elfin Scots superstar’: missing Incredible String Band member found after 40 years! … comparing the original West End Girls to the re-made worldwide hit: “like a Top Of The Pops album doing the same song” … the three ages of Bowie and why he’s becoming a religious cult … gangster-wall-papering the Melody Maker office as an Ian Dury promo stunt ... the magic of stars’ childhood bedrooms … “he’s got a tinfoil pal and a pedal bin”: Star Wars in a nutshell … Tales of Brave Ulysses: psychedelia in under three minutes …. and has there ever been a fictional band as convincing as McGwyer Mortimer? Andy Miller on Licorice McKecknie here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/incredible-band-146577648 Nigel Dick’s wonderful video for God Only Knows here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXhEkug1G-QHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cartwheeling into 2026 with the usual cast of rock and roll heroes and pantomime villains. Behind you this week you’ll find … … Boy George? Rick Wakeman? Chas Smash? Vanilla Ice? Pop stars who’ve done panto … will there ever be another Rock Knighthood? … Dylan, Elton, Chrissie Hynde and Lil Wayne mention Brigitte Bardot in songs: but who’s seen any of her films? … “the Brigitte Bardot idea of beauty was conceived at the same time as the idea of rock and roll” … Chris Rea’s obsession with Miles Davis – and the tale of Benny Santini … Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ and ‘Hello’ by the Beloved and their roll calls of saints and sinners  … David saw Bob Marley at the Lyceum but now thinks he’s seen a show that was even better … the great attraction of cinema is “our furtive dreams in the dark” … what Van Morrison owes Hugh McCracken for the intro to Brown-Eyed Girl … and birthday guest Andrew Slattery’s Hepworth v Ellen SmashWaddy reviews quiz!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.

Peter Hammill has spent nearly six decades building the most devoted following imaginable – Bowie, Peter Gabriel and Mark E Smith among them. ‘Rock And Role’ tells his invigorating story, beautifully illustrated with photos, cuttings, artwork and memorabilia. Author Joe Banks looks back at his life, impact and captivating way with words, and stops off at …  … the value of looks and charisma in the days when labels hadn’t the faintest idea of the future … how Hammill “created a world to live inside and broadcast from” … psychedelic cabaret with wolf masks and blood capsules … meeting Hammill’s muse and former girlfriend Alice: “50 years later, each still think the other one left them” … “songs that ask the big questions about life” … discovering VDGG in 1984 (via Marillion) and piecing together their story in the days before the internet … public school, Gilbert & Sullivan and the Hallelujah Chorus … the influence of A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers on Genesis’ Supper’s Ready … his plans with Mark E Smith and how Bowie had every new album delivered to him all his life … Charisma, Tony Stratton-Smith and the freedom to experiment … the intensity of his following in Japan and Italy: “there’s no such thing as a casual Hammill fan”. Order ‘Rock And Role’ here: https://burningshed.com/store/kingmakerHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deck the halls with cheese and Bolly! … and a dish of the usual rock and roll distraction which this week throws the following logs on the fire … … the greatest Xmas single ever? … Metal Machine Music, Cut the Crap, Two Sides of the Moon … can panned records ever be rehabilitated? … how Roxy Music invented ‘rock brand-value’ and turned it into pictures … Joe Ely and the romance of songs about the American landscape … Rob Reiner and why that scene in When Harry Met Sally is the greatest marriage of people and ideas … the real-life moment that inspired Spinal Tap … “most American pop music is about geography” … "I keep my fingernails long so they click when I play the piano" … Jordan Carl Wheeler Davis? Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr? Mystery acts playing Wembley Arena … the British think America is “fabulous and otherworldly”. Americans think Britain is “quaint” … plus the magnificent McGarrigles’ Christmas Hour, farewell Hofner and we name the Finnegan’s Wake of rock music!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.

Beloved Australian songwriter Paul Kelly has just turned 70 – “it sounds Biblical, threescore years and ten.” He looks back here at the road he took to get there, from early days in Adelaide to the pub circuit to his catalogueof stirring and eloquent songs about the big issues of life and love, as Neil Finn says, “with not a trace of pretence or fakery”. You’ll find … … the moment he felt he’d arrived … the story of How To Make Gravy – “a Christmas song with no chorus about a man in prison” – and Rita Wrote A Letter, its ghostly sequel … early records he loved – Tommy Roe, Peter Paul & Mary, Yes, Deep Purple, Frank Zappa, the “chaotic” Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong … life on the Melbourne pub circuit playing Neil Young, Gram Parsons and Hank Williams … touring with Leonard Cohen – “a masterclass in performance, like a prayer, a ritual, like a Vaudevillian Rabbi” .. the storytelling songs of the Stanley Brothers, the Louvin Brothers and Buck Owens ... the great Calypso cricket tradition and the track he wrote about Shane Warne … “the odd-sock drawer”: the file in his computer where he stores early sketches … I’m In Love With A Blue Frog, the five chords that underpinned 50 years of songwriting! … the intricacy of Neil Finn’s impressionistic lyrics … and the things you hear in your songs when someone else sings them. Order Paul Kelly’s ‘Seventy’ here: https://paulkelly.lnk.to/seventyHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucinda Williams was a teenage activist singing We Shall Overcome at protest marches and she’s taken up the cudgels again on her new album World’s Gone Wrong. She talks to us here from her home in Nashville about … … early inspirations - Dylan, Donovan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, Buffy Sainte-Marie – and her love of Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch, Nick Drake and ‘60s British folk … playing Delta blues for tips at Andy’s in Bourbon Street in 1971 … her sudden favourite Beatle switch – “Paul … then George!” … her Dad’s Ray Charles and Hank Williams records … seeing jazz pianist Sweet Emma Barrett in Preservation Hall in the ‘60s and Hendrix at a New Orleans sports arena … the effect of her stroke in 2020 and having to re-learn the guitar – “I tend to write in G now as it’s the easiest chord to play” … the allure of medieval murder ballads, “far too dark” for most Americans ... songs she always plays live (one by Neil Young) … finding her tribe in Nashville – “when I arrived people asked, ‘What church do you go to?’ not ‘Do you go to church’?” … being “a quarter Welsh” … and the song she wrote about her president in 2018 – 'We have slow-danced with the devil/ We have swallowed the liquid of his lies’ - and the new version she’s just recorded. 2026 tickets here: https://www.lucindawilliams.com/tour Order World’s Gone Wrong here: https://30tgrs.ffm.to/worldsgonewrongHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shock, horror, public outcry and moments of moral turpitude plus with the usual news, rants and old hokum, which this week alights upon … … why Gene Simmons thinks “musicians are treated worse than slaves” ... the high noon of Madonna and her foil-wrapped Sex book … is Rufus Wainwright pop’s most successful nepo-baby? … how CMAT forced Bertie Ahern to pull out of the Irish Presidency … the Stackwaddy Quiz: If I Had Legs I’d Kick You? Getting Killed? Sinister Grift? Pitchfork Album of the Year or an entry in the Berlin Film Festival? … from Mods & Rockers to illegal raves: pop scandals that hit the headlines … can we blame Gap for the moment kids started to dress the same? … was the death of Top Of The Pops the end of the pop consensus? … Fela Kuta, arrested 200 times … Jackson Browne, “never far from tragedy” … is ‘70s funk and soul the best driving music? … 42 year-old hears Hejira and the Stooges’ Metallic KO for the first time … plus Tetsu Yamauchi RIP, David Sylvian in a converted ashram in New Hampshire and birthday guest Sandra Austin. CMAT’s Euro-Country (which skewered Bertie Ahern): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz8_HxITJF0&list=RDnz8_HxITJF0&start_radio=1 Dave Brubeck ‘playing’ Golden Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qs1J612nZsHelp us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What’s the word ‘punk’ come to mean 50 years later? It’s been adopted by the very people it sought to unsettle. Chris Sullivan – DJ, club runner, lecturer, former band-leader – arrived in London just as it kicked off and looks back at a time when everything was a challenge, no-one apologised, outsiders linked up and fought for recognition, and pop culture could change overnight. We talk to him here about ‘Punk: the Last Word’ which traces its roots from Socrates to Soho, touching on… … does ‘punk’ now mean conformity? … is pop music still allowed to be outrageous? … Socrates, Rimbaud, Lee Miller, the Warhol superstars: 2,000 years of people who embody the punk philosophy … how the clothes often precede the music … the 1975 pre-Pistols world – “people dressing as teddy boys, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, records by Patti Smith, the Velvets, MC5” … the days when you were attacked for dressing up, in his case by the Newport Rugby team and a guy with a starting handle at a service station ... new punk equivalents emerging in 2025 … how the spirit of punk gave people a drive and identity – Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Jonathan Ross, John Galliano  … “I threw a policeman through a plate-glass window” Order ‘Punk: the Last Word’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/punk/stephen-colegrave/chris-sullivan/9781915841254Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UK Subs formed in 1976 when Charlie Harper was 32. They’ve had over 80 members, some of whom he can’t remember. They never split up and are touring in 2026 to celebrate his 82nd birthday. “I vowed I’d keep playing as long at the Stones - which I’m now starting to regret!” After 50 years on the punk frontline, he’s the first to see the humour in going deaf and “having to have the occasional sit-down”. This fond and honest conversation looks back at … … seeing the Stones at Ken Colyers’ jazz club and drinking with them in the Porcupine … making £4 a day – “a fortune” – playing tube stations in 1964: “ex-buskers never get stagefright”  … “dreadlocks, Afros, convoy cuts” – confessions of a teenage hairdresser … what he learnt from Joe Strummer and the 101-ers … his punk epiphany: seeing the Damned at the Roxy in 1976 … playing France’s Hellfest to 30,000 people and why the spirit of ‘77 still burns on the West Coast … famous fans: Guns N’Roses, Hanoi Rocks, Dinosaur Jnr … the UK Subs’ run-in with US Immigration … skiffle, Jesse Fuller, Woody Guthrie, Big Bill Broonzy, Donovan and mid-‘70s R&B …the onstage rigours of getting old: “I don’t get adrenaline anymore and have to have the occasional sit-down!” … Where Did I Leave My Glasses? Why Did I Come Upstairs? – our fantasy tracks for the senior citizen! Order UK Subs tickets here: https://ww.uksubstimeandmatter.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16899&Itemid=161Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The boys of the NYPD choir are still singing Galway Bay, so pour yourself a measure of the Rare Old Mountain Dew and warm your toes on the following … … Steve Lillywhite (in Bali!) remembers making Fairytale Of New York and how “a fiery redhead” kicked the Chrissie Hynde duet into touch … the most recent singer-songwriter you could call “a ledge”? … records we loved in our 20s but now feel a bit embarrassing   … “discipline and economy, tension and release”: the immortal twangs and tweaks of Steve Cropper and how the MGs redefined the idea of a great record … Green Onions, I Thank You by Sam & Dave and the white heat of Otis Blue’s 24-hour recording ... Tim Buckley’s Greatest Misses ... performative listening: the exquisite awkwardness of the album playback! … the link between Imogen Heap and the Hissing of Summer Lawns … Jon Bon Jovi’s version of Fairytale – “so bad they had to turn the YouTube comments off!” … plus Gram Parsons, the cult of the Blues Brothers, the Monochrome Set and a quiz from birthday guest Peter Petyt: spot the Hepworth/Ellen reviews of yesteryear! The new live version of Fairytale of New York: http://pogues.lnk.to/FONYLiveGlasgow1987 Josh Smith demonstrating Steve Cropper’s guitar parts: https://youtu.be/LJEIwggKAsg?si=29weA4tBQE6ccj1-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.

In 1963, Capitol Records considered the Beatles “a band who looked and sounded weird with an odd name and no leader” and refused to release their records in America, despite being owned by EMI. As author Andrew Cook points out, “the truth is stranger than fiction”. New correspondence unearthed in his fascinating Capitol Gains maps out the tortuous wranglings of the deal-makers and “pantomime bad guys” behind the greatest and most successful marketing hype in history, all jockeying to take credit and manage their reputations. Some highlights here … … the truth behind Epstein’s mythical phone calls … “the more successful the Beatles were, the more Capitol were proving themselves wrong” … why 1966 was the band’s “Last Supper” … “from the Battle of Hastings to World War 2 to the Beatles ... it’s the winners who rewrite history” … the American 12-track rule and how they repackaged product “to give it more grab” … the Beatles’ commercial fate if they’d never been successful in the States … the pitiful (standard) original EMI deal – “18.75 of a penny per group member for every album” … the “Butcher sleeve”: how 750,000 were printed and the fortune lost in “Operation Retrieve”. And the Capitol exec whose kids made $1.5m from copies stashed in his garage … how Epstein was contracted to make 25 per cent of all Beatles monies ‘til 1975  … Bob Dylan’s tangential role in the signing of the Beatles to Capitol … and the “cowboy film” that nearly happened. Order Capitol Gains here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capitol-Gains-Beatles-Conquered-America/dp/1803997281Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.