Glorious news! The Undertones, dependable symbols of eternal youth, are setting out on a 50th anniversary tour in 2026, still playing Teenage Kicks and Here Comes the Summer in their mid-60s. Damian O’Neill joined when he was 14 and can’t believe it either. He looks back here at …

… their first gig in a scout hall - “Feargal was a Scout leader!” - and their second for 1,000 schoolkids at St Joseph’s in Derry

… the world-wide appeal of their Irish identity and why “America never got us”

… David’s memories of interviewing them for Smash Hits in 1979 the day they thought “we’re finished”

... “We were anti-pretension!”

… seeing Horslips, Rory Gallagher, the Blockheads, Eddie & the Hot Rods and the Lurkers

… joining the band at 14 and playing Beatles, Stones, Them, Cream and Dr Feelgood covers

… parkas, Millets jeans and the Derry boot-boy look. “If you dressed up in those days you ran the risk of getting your head kicked in”

… being in the band’s HQ the night Peel played Teenage Kicks twice in a row

… songs about “love and lack of love” – and girls and chocolate

… how it feels to be on Top Of The Pops and then watch your single go down the charts

… their first visit to a studio (Wizard in Belfast) and self-producing Teenage Kicks with just an engineer – and still playing it in your mid-60s

… and a heartfelt apology to the people of Blackburn!

Order tickets for the Undertones 50th Anniversary tour here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/the-undertones-tickets/artist/959984

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Twenty pounds of headlines plus rants, theories and the odd slice of old hokum: served hot. Which this week involves …

… Jimmy Cliff and how his versatility worked against him

… the Conjuror? Eyeball Tickler? The Concert in the Egg? Hieronymus Bosch painting or late-period Oasis B-side?

… Motown, Jacksons, Beatles, Chili Peppers? What’s the greatest bassline on record?

… what you notice watching the new Beatles’ Anthology 4

... why the leading edge of novelty is the internet

… from Eddie Cochran to the Bonzos, Can, Hawkwind, Costello and Stone Roses: the pioneering life of label-boss Andrew Lauder

… when did it become impossible to date records by their sound? And when did they stop sounding like glorious accidents?

… Joan Armatrading? Carole King? Dido? Which singer-songwriters are legends?

… what’s “stuck culture”?

… is Tomorrow Never Knows the only one-chord wonder?

… the link between Good Times, Another One Bites the Dust and Rapper’s Delight

… whalebone corsets, butchers’ knives: Nick Cave and the art of 18th century lyric-writing

… “Graham Coxon was a trumpet player and plays the guitar like a trumpet!”

Plus birthday guest Kevin Walsh: which musicians are freaks and which cheerleaders?

Hear Wilton Felder’s isolated bass on the Jackson 5’s’ I Want You Back’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z91l_lPz1oc

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Boo Hewerdine, beloved singer-songwriter, has been onstage for 40 years in venues of every type, shape and size. He thinks of himself as a “tradesman”, a world that’s immensely satisfying but a tough call. This very funny, poignant podcast paints a vivid picture of the best and worst of times. Which include …

… playing scout huts, libraries, churches, folk clubs and the Palladium

… the world’s best dressing-room (it’s in Stroud) and worst venue (Pittsburgh)

… “the engine inside you that makes you want to be onstage”

… places that only suit “a lute being played with a feather”

… a home birthday show with no audience and the chilling lyrics of Chris Difford’s ‘Round The Houses’

… the joy of writing for commission

… seeing Dr Feelgood in 1975

… what’s satisfying what gives you pause for thought

… the brilliant Ballad Of Wallis Island, streaky bacon as a bookmark and the kind of Travelodge with a bottle-opener attached to the desk.

All things Boo: https://boohewerdine.com / @boohewerdine

‘Things Found In Books’: https://yvonnelyon.bandcamp.com/album/things-found-in-books

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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News, rants, theories and curios which this week includes ….

… how Mani made the Stone Roses swing

… Mick & Keith, Meg & Jack, Hall & Oates, Neil & Chris … ‘Sliding Doors’ encounters that changed the landscape

… the glorious sound of profanity on records!

… what makes you a legend in county music?

… the subtle genius of Nicky Hopkins’ session work

.. would Elvis have happened without Marion Keisker?

… Willie Nelson – “a face like Mount Rushmore, a voice like the whole hinterland of America”

… ever catch yourself listening to something and think ‘how would I explain this to an observer?’

… the music you hear when 14 stays with you all your life

… the singles charts of 1978 – Terry Wogan next to John Otway! Arthur Mullard and the Stranglers! Nick Lowe and Ally’s Tartan Army!

… why Lucinda Williams is an open book

… when XTC went pastoral

… 42 year-old hears Clear Spot and Raw Power for the first time!

... plus the Wrecking Crew, a Libertines Xmas sweater, birthday guest Dean Roderick and the time Emmylou Harris had two puddings.

Pig’s Boogie by the Jerry Garcia Band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0357IsE9k

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Crispian Mills knew he’d be onstage as he’s from a “family of professional show-offs” but they begged him not to be an actor. He talks here about his extraordinary showbusiness childhood and the band that emerged from it full of psychedelia, echoes of the East and warm invitations to join the First Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs. Along with …

… his mother Hayley Mills playing him Tubular Bells to get him to sleep - “profoundly scary”

… Roman Polanski’s ‘special’ Marlboro cigarettes when filming Tess in Brittany

… grandfather John Mills being “discovered” by Noel Coward in Singapore and memories of him playing Gershwin and Cole Porter on the piano

… “you need talent and hard work but nobody makes it without luck”

… what the record store hippie told him when he bought Deep Purple In Rock aged 12

… leather jacket, polka dot shirt, Brian Jones bowl haircut, My Bloody Valentine gig – “I’d found my tribe!”

… supporting Oasis at Knebworth – “I couldn’t see how they were going to cut it”

… Adam and the Ants, Rock Me Amadeus and playing Ramones songs in the school band

… returning from Rishikesh in 1995 and watching the Beatles’ Super-8 clips: “as if we’d been on the same holiday”

… nostalgia for the big TV and radio events of the ‘90s

… Shirley Manson’s speech about the “tragedy” of the 21st C music business

… and Kula Shaker’s Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show – “oil slides, pure analogue!”

Tickets for their 2026 tour here: https://kulashaker.co.uk/pages/live

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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“All bands are sad stories,” Peter Doggett points out, but is there a more woven, moving and, at times, farcical tale than that of the Beach Boys? It gives the sound of them a greater melancholy and resonance with every passing year. As his fascinating new book Surf’s Up reveals, nothing that happened is straightforward and very little as simple as it sounds. We talk here about …

… Dennis Wilson and the Beach Boys’ creation myth

… what started their revival

… why they’d never have survived beyond 1962 without Mike Love

… was Derek Taylor’s ‘Brian is a genius’ campaign partly to explain his procrastination and eccentricity?

… the chaos of SMiLE and the long shadow of the Beatles

… Murry Wilson’s “superstar” ambitions and original plan for the group

… the days when they looked like Old Testament prophets or hippies from Central Casting

… Dennis and Manson, Carl v the draft, Mike Love’s arrest … scandals that would have sunk them in the days of social media

… the “Brian as victim trope” and his extraordinary appearance on “The Tension Behind the Music”

… when Bart Simpson turned them down

… can anyone name a good Beach Boys album cover?

… and the band’s future, a controlled touring franchise with no original members

Order Peter Doggett’s ‘Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surfs-Up-Brian-Wilson-Beach/dp/1917923341

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Five decades of rock and roll with none of the names redacted. In the despatches this week …

… Kevin Rowland? Adam Ant? Toyah? Morrissey? Which Smash Hits cover stars are now ‘legends’?

… a classic encounter with Van Morrison down a Bristol alley

… the boy who mailed dead rodents and Boomtown Rats singles to radio stations became Pope Leo XIV!

… 25 recent big-name Hollywood films all flopped. Are robots the new movie stars?

… was Sticky Fingers the last Stones album with songs?

… best nights out for a tenner

… RIP Gilson Lavis and Donna Godchaux

... the daft rituals of the ’70s ‘slow dance’

… when Percy Sledge was a hospital porter

… “Run for your life, it’s Eater!”

… Tom Waits’ on-brand luggage, Boo Hewerdine and birthday guest Mike Sketch on the joy of gigs on your own (and in a scout hut in Staveley).

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Musicians have flirted with Nazi imagery since the ‘60s, lampooning its theatre, absorbing its style, exploiting its shock value, even promoting its ideology. Daniel Rachel’s new book ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points up extraordinary examples – “from Tommy Steele to Kanye West” - and how our reaction intensified over the years. Which leads us to …

… parallels between stadium rock and the Nuremberg rallies

… hearing the Sex Pistols’ Belsen Was A Gas and seeing their Nazi insignia at the age of 12

… David Bowie’s German memorabilia and belief that “Hitler was the first rock and roll superstar” – and the doctored photo of his “Nazi salute” at Victoria Station

… Bernie Rhodes versus Malcolm McLaren on the “reclaiming of the swastika”

… the lyrics and imagery of the Siouxsie & the Banshees

… Viv Stanshall and Keith Moon’s atrocious visit to Golders Green

... the German invention of the tape machine that started the record business

… “I’m not the Simon Wiesenthal of rock and roll!”

… Joy Division, New Order, K-Pop, Brian Jones and his SS uniform, Ron Asheton of the Stooges, John Lennon, Lemmy, Blue Oyster Cult, “Adolf Hitler on vibes”

… “Rock and Roll has a duty to recognise its downfalls”.

Order ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-aint-rock-n-roll/daniel-rachel/9781399635721

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.