Studio engineer John Wood chats about Nick Drake, John Cale and more

Now 85, UK studio engineer John Wood has nothing to plug but he has a few memories to share on Word In Your Ear.

David Hepworth discusses rock stars who can't retire in his new book

Check out David Hepworth's chat about his new book Hope I Get Old Before I Die on his Word In Your Ear podcast. 

Here's the scoop on Hope I Get Old Before I Die...

From the author of Abbey Road and Never a Dull Moment, the basis for AppleTV's 1971 documentary, come the stories of how rock icons like Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, and more have survived, thrived, and remained the most powerful forces in music.

When Paul McCartney closed Live Aid in July of 1985, we thought he was rock’s Grand Old Man. He was forty-three years old. As the forty years since have shown, he—and many others of his generation—were just getting started.

This was the time when live performance took over from records. The big names of the ’60s and ’70s exploited the Age of Spectacle that Live Aid had ushered in to enjoy the longest lap of honor in the history of humanity, continuing to go strong long after everyone else in the business had retired.

This is a story without precedent, a story in which Elton John plays a royal funeral, Mick Jagger gets a knighthood, Bob Dylan picks up a Nobel Prize, The Beatles become, if anything, bigger than The Beatles, and it’s beginning to look as though all of the above will, thanks in a large part to technology, be playing in Las Vegas forever. 

Get a copy of Hope I Get Old Before I Die published by Diversion Books via Simon & Schuster right here. Check out David Hepworth's conversation about his book with Mark Ellen below. 

 

That time Nick Lowe rocked Montreux with Bill Kirchen in 1995

Prior to retreating into full-on crooner mode, Nick Lowe was known to rock out when accompanied great players like Bill Kirchen. 

Peculiar To Mr. Bowie book & fragrance launching in London, UK

John Mendelssohn's new book Peculiar to Mr. Bowie – A Day with David Bowie in 1971 and scent is out soon.

Here's the scoop from Miriam Linna at Kicks Books...

Hey Metrobolists, I'll be in London for a week with John Mendelssohn and Paul Gorman on a wee press junket for the latest Kicks books-and-fragrance. We have a shindig at the Century Club and two book shop dates immediately following. Watch for a newsflash this week as we prepare for lift off. 

It's our privilege to bring this small book with fragrant trimmings to you as a memento / souvenir of John's day with David Bowie in 1971, when DB was on his first visit to the states, wearing a man-dress and tossing his locks during a cross-country press junket for his new footlong The Man Who Sold The World, which was a queen-size flop Stateside. 1971 was pivotal for DB (weren't they all). Following the release and said hype of TMWSTW came the recording and release of Hunk Dory, and by December, he had shorn and dyed the locks to become Ziggy Stardust. 

Our righteous little tome celebrates one small spot in time when man met dress and another man met the man in a dress and snapped a roll of film that has remained largely unseen for 64 years. The London junket (including photo show) runs Jan 23-27, followed on Jan 31, back in the States by a WPKN mega chat with Trident's Howard Thompson and Bowie collector king Kevin Patrick at the hallowed halls of WPKN - with record party and photo exhibition to folllow. Details erupt soon. Working on an NYC location, so we are calling in ye troops for a gangbuster blast. 

Incidentally, the book shindigs are tailgated by an exact replica of the legendary Mr Fish "Man-Dress"! We tried unsuccessfully to license a one sided flexidisc a dynamite '71 demo titled Miss Peculiar, but the title also leans toward the logo of Mr Fish's designs, and the line from Space oddity circa 1969. Oh, and yes, Kicks Books is the only publisher in history to produce a book-and-fragrance line. The fragrance of Peculiar is a unisex dose of old school English lavender. Of course.x miriam

You can pre-order John Mendelssohn's Peculiar to Mr. Bowie via the Norton Records site right here. 

BEDAZZLED... BESPOKE...BOWIE! A third  PECULIAR book event in London is now set in stone, dear ones, with the great map mavens at Herb Lester joining again with Kicks Books...  "Bowie in London and Hollywood" is at Word In Your Ear at 21Soho, 3-5 Sutton Row, London with hosts Mark Ellen and David Hepworth chatting with authors John Mendelssohn and Paul Gorman.... make the date? It's on Monday Jan 27 7-9:30 PM. We're at the launch at the Empire Club on Jan 23rd and at Tender Books on Jan 25th. See you all soon! Books-perfume-photos... watch for full pressola blast.. here's the info on the Jan. 27 blasteroo! https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929

We look forward to seeing you at one or all of the London gang meetings!

January 23 - Empire Club,  61-63 Shaftesbury Ave, London

January 25 - Tender Books, 6 Cecil Court, London

January 28 - Word In Your Ear at 21Soho, 3-5 Sutton Row, London

Jah Wobble chats about his expanded memoir Dark Luminosity

An expanded edition of Jah Wobble's book "Dark Luminosity: Memoirs of a Geezer" is out now. Watch his chat with Emma below.