Rob Caiger is one of those special people who turned their teenage obsession with music into a job

… from being the only one in ELO’s office who knew where the old tapes were

… to learning that what it says on the outside of the box isn’t always what’s on the tape

… through embarking on a ten-year project to put out the last Small Faces album from 1970 in its proper form

… via blindfolded journeys to mysterious destinations with the promise of finding some long-lost jewels

… and hearing a Rolling Stones out-take bleeding through a multi-track by the Move

… through the vault under Smithfield Market out of which tapes would sometimes emerge covered in blood

… to preparing for a future where nobody who was there will be able to explain how and why things were recorded

… this is the world as seen by the remarkably dedicated people who put together the box sets we all hanker for.

The Small Faces: The Autumn Stone record and CD - https://www.thesmallfaces.com/shop/

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Hoary old tales retold – ideally in an Irish accent - and new ones prized from the giddy carousel of rock and roll news which, this week, features …

… was there a better stage name than Rick Derringer?

… Linda Ronstadt, Ronnie Spector, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other new biopics under construction.

… genuinely ‘iconic’ rock images – the Ziggy lightning stipe, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, Elvis dancing in Jailhouse Rock, Dylan and Suze Rotolo in Jones Street …

… our old pal Barry McIlheney, his Belfast band Shock Treatment and the time he asked U2 to draw a duck.

… the thin wall that separates hilarity and grief.

… how TikTok and a 1962 B-side booted the 87-year old Connie Francis.

… Banned words! – ‘iconic, circle back, reach out, Ramones-esque, eponymous sophomore effort’ and other clichés that MUST be banished!

… “Sgt Pepper: it’s like the Beatles on acid!”

… why 80 per cent of the stadium experience is beyond our control.

... how Freddie Mercury still makes headlines beyond the grave.

… the real Rikki in ‘Rikki Don’t Lose that Number’.

… and when you find yourself at a Springsteen gig next to a Trump supporter.

Watch the Barry McIlheney podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjw-6HZWa-E

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Martha Wainwright is a key member of the Wainwright/McGarrigle clan, all of them big favourites of ours. She’s currently on her 20th anniversary tour and looks back here at the first shows she ever saw and played which involves …

… growing up in a folk dynasty in Montreal.

… the sight of Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen, backing singers on Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man tour, “who made me want to be onstage too”.

… the story of ‘Matapedia’, the song Kate McGarrigle wrote when an old boyfriend thought she was her teenage daughter.

… her first shows playing Elvis, Dylan and Woody Guthrie songs on the coffeehouse circuit.

… singing with her brother Rufus and her cousins with Kate & Anna McGarrigle at folk festivals.

… onstage at the Roches’ Christmas shows in New York.

… the time her brother stole the show over Emmylou Harris: “I thought I want that kind of attention!”

… seeing Pink Floyd’s The Wall in a Montreal hockey stadium, aged 9 – “a very marking experience”.

… the songs of her mother’s she always plays: “I’m obsessed with her legacy”.

Martha Wainwright 20th Anniversary tour tickets here: https://marthawainwright.com/shows

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.