{"podcast":{"title":"Word In Your Ear","slug":"word-in-your-ear-66565","podcast_index_feed_id":66565,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/5fe229a1f896715ee8319608","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":"2026-07-24T06:19:52.971578+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565"},"episode":{"title":"The Damned at 50 and the memories (and regrets) of Rat Scabies","slug":"the-damned-at-50-and-the-memories-and-regrets-of-rat-scabies","published_at":"2026-05-20T13:19:31+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565/the-damned-at-50-and-the-memories-and-regrets-of-rat-scabies","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565","url":"https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a0db4e3d4f8cd358211bd14/media.mp3","summary":"The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podcast, Rat Scabies (who’s smoking!) points up the repercussions of life in a band. He looks back at their first shows, their devoted audience, “old-fashioned rules”, highlights, regrets, the value of friendship, “putting on the black suit again” and how it felt to rejoin after 30 years on the outside. And all this too …   … playing drums in an Essex panto while pelted with boiled sweets   … Dave Vanian when he was a grave-digger   … punk rock strongholds the world over – “South America was like being in the Beatles”   … Mexico and other places you can still torch a drumkit   … Mr Scabies, aged 70. “Even my mother calls me Rat. The name’s done me well over the years”   … going to the Isle Of Wight aged 14 (with the Danish nanny) and running a hot-dog stand during Hendrix   … supporting the Pistols at the 100 Club: “like letting a greyhound out of a trap”   … Tim Burton, the Goth revival, the Young Ones, steampunk and other factors that keeps the Damned in motion   … “One band’s an oddity, two’s a fashion, three’s a movement”   … rejoining the Damned after 30 years – “like a great stain had been lifted”   … Green Day, algorithms and how they acquired a whole new following.   Order Damned tickets here: aegp.uk/the-damned Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear 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":"The Damned are – yes! - 50 years old with three of the originals still onboard. And just starting a world tour. In this immensely funny and touching podca…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2142,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-66565/episodes/the-damned-at-50-and-the-memories-and-regrets-of-rat-scabies/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-66565/the-damned-at-50-and-the-memories-and-regrets-of-rat-scabies.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}