{"podcast":{"title":"Word In Your Ear","slug":"word-in-your-ear-4162240","podcast_index_feed_id":4162240,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809","website_url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/1620937674526-4e6eb29c967e869bd9d5a9d205d55599.jpeg","author":"Word In Your Ear","episode_count":986,"summary":"Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like \"Rock On\", \"Whistle Test\" and VH-1. Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T06:20:01.393127+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240"},"episode":{"title":"Dave Balfe remembers the Teardrops, Blur and a very big house in the country","slug":"dave-balfe-remembers-the-teardrops-blur-and-a-very-big-house-in-the-country","published_at":"2026-06-12T14:58:37+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/dave-balfe-remembers-the-teardrops-blur-and-a-very-big-house-in-the-country","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240","url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a2c1e9d6cf76d774534ab59/media.mp3","summary":"Dave Balfe was a key player in late ‘70s Liverpool, joined Big In Japan and the Teardrop Explodes, co-founded Zoo Records and, later, Food who signed and launched Blur. It’s fascinating to hear how he’s adapted to promoting music now with his new band Late Transmissions. We talk to him here about the landmarks moments that mapped out his life, among them …   … growing up in the Wirral and its patchouli-scented record shops   … seeing Wings and Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour in Liverpool   … how it felt to be immortalised in Blur’s Country House   … what he learnt making AI pop videos   … when your teenage band “goes punk”   … breaking and entering Rumbelows in pursuit of a synthesiser   … the curious link between Blur and JD Salinger in the days “they were all Kurt Weill and discordant”   … the Runaways at Erics – “I wasn’t entirely there for the music”     … Big In Japan with Bill Drummond, Budgie, Ian Brodie and Jayne Casey   .. is AI like the arrival of synthesisers: “this is not proper music?”   … “the old gag, innovation is not pastiching bands that have already been pastiched”   … and Mark’s interview with him 47 years ago.   Lightning Never Strikes Twice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhV02AcvQQ0 The Heart Wants What It Wants video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGvEWvS1ekk I’m Done With London video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmUnP4b4GjQ   Order the Late Transmissions album here: https://musicsaves.co.uk/product/theheartwantswhatitwants/ 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.","meta_description":"Dave Balfe was a key player in late ‘70s Liverpool, joined Big In Japan and the Teardrop Explodes, co-founded Zoo Records and, later, Food who signed and…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3106,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-4162240/episodes/dave-balfe-remembers-the-teardrops-blur-and-a-very-big-house-in-the-country/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/dave-balfe-remembers-the-teardrops-blur-and-a-very-big-house-in-the-country.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}