# Prefab Sprout - a tale of mystery, eccentricity and pop’s most famous motorbike

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/prefab-sprout-a-tale-of-mystery-eccentricity-and-pop-s-most-famous-motorbike
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/prefab-sprout-a-tale-of-mystery-eccentricity-and-pop-s-most-famous-motorbike.md
Podcast: [Word In Your Ear](https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240)
Published: 2026-07-02T10:27:39+00:00
Episode link: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a463d1ba736775b260a7afb/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-4162240/episodes/prefab-sprout-a-tale-of-mystery-eccentricity-and-pop-s-most-famous-motorbike
Duration seconds: 2500

## Resource

Nige Tassell fell in love with the literary allusions of Prefab Sprout when at school and his new book ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ tells their unique and inscrutable story – and involves some delightfully off-road “deerstalker” investigation. You’ll find self-sabotage, square pegs in round holes, the eternal pressure to have hits, and a devoted portrait of ringmaster Paddy McAloon that leaves you convinced there’s never been anyone quite like him before or since. This sparks off in a million directions, these among them …   … the lure of bands who'd clearly been to the library and were unlikely to have a huge hit   ... Paddy’s stoic defence of their name   … his distaste for “diary songwriting” of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen   … Jesse James, Elvis, Hey Manhattan: the obsession with the romance of America   … the archive of unrecorded songs (one box labelled ‘For Rod Stewart’)   … how the success of The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll came to haunt them   … the inconceivable moment they appeared on the National Lottery with Bob Monkhouse and Mystic Meg   … pop tribalism on the school bus   … the dreadful circumstance that lead to I Trawl the Megahertz   … Paddy’s visual transformation from tousled pop star to hermetic semi-reclusive Gandalf   … and the fate of the Steve McQueen motorbike.   Order ‘Truly Gifted Kids’ here … https://linktr.ee/newmodern_books?lt_utm_source=lt_share_link#566128608. Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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