{"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":"No Sex Pistols in Manchester? ‘No Smiths, Nirvana, indie rock.’ Discuss!","slug":"no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss","published_at":"2026-04-10T16:48:04+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-4162240/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss","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/69d929c4d3f0dd7747da8b0b/media.mp3","summary":"Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley read a review of the Sex Pistols in February 1976, borrowed a car, drove to London, asked the NME where they’d find the band and were told ‘try a sex shop in the King’s Road’. The events that followed changed both the culture of Manchester and the course of rock history, a story mapped out in David Nolan’s excellent ‘I Swear I Was There’, a book as much about the audience as the band. His theory: “If the Pistols hadn’t played the Lesser Free Trade Hall … no Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Factory Records, ‘indie’ scene, Smiths, Fall, Nirvana, Blur, Oasis, Radiohead or Prodigy.’ As the 50th anniversary looms, he talks to us here about …   … those who claimed to be there and the ones who actually were   … the contrast between myth and reality   … the letter Morrissey sent the NME: “Maybe the Pistols will be able to afford some clothes which don't look as though they've been slept in”   … punk metaphor: Howard Devoto asking a tailor to narrow his trouser legs and being told, “there’s no going back”   … North/South crowd violence: “a battle with a gig breaking out in the middle”   … the three reels of home-movie and the photos that turned up 36 years later   … Sister Rosetta Tharpe, ‘Judas’ at the Free Trade Hall, Stones In The Park and other landmark Manchester moments   ... the pioneering impact of Granada TV     … “if you look at Manchester now, its media, its skyscrapers, its cultural prosperity, none of that would have been happened without those Pistols gigs”   … “Sheffield would have admired them, Manchester thought: we can do better!”   … and various bit-part players – Tony Wilson, Peter Hook, Paul Morley, Jordan and Jon the Postman.   Order ‘I Swear I Was There’ here: htt…","meta_description":"Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley read a review of the Sex Pistols in February 1976, borrowed a car, drove to London, asked the NME where they’d find the ban…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2295,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-4162240/episodes/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss/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/no-sex-pistols-in-manchester-no-smiths-nirvana-indie-rock-discuss.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}