I was at the launch of David Hepworth’s new book at Waterstones Piccadilly tonight. It was a live Word in Your Ear podcast; a terrific chat between David and Mark Ellen.
Once I got my book signed afterwards I managed to spend ten minutes with Mark and mentioned our site. He was chuffed to find we were still going and sends his best to everyone who remembers him, (as if.)
We swapped Wishbone Ash stories and he remembered fondly that night when we all met up on the day The Word died. I reminded him that he and I ended up singing the crescendo to the mighty Phoenix by Wishbone in the very late hours. I left him chuckling away and humming the riff to himself.
So, a lovely old friend says hi.
Thanks Niall, I think David occasionally visits, or at least he used to. Mark never seemed engaged with the forum.
The day The Word died – sad day still remembered.
I love David and Mark. Plus all the rest who made The Word what it was – a great magazine and community of slightly bewildered people including me.
Lovely post Niall.
I bought Q and Mojo from the get-go, but I do think The Word was the best of the lot.
I once had a nice conversation with Mark Ellen on a boat on the Thames. We discussed our mutual admiration for Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft. Turned out to be a critical weekend in my life, but that was an unrelated thing.
Mark brought a lovely sense of innocent gormless wonder to the Word, and the same thing suffuses this place from time to time, even in his absence. I think he and the rest of the team should be endlessly pround of their efforts in Wordland, before and after sailing. In the latter period it has been us and our merry pranksters, contributors and boffins who have continued that legacy with a modicum of the same enthusiasm and a gleeful ignorance of any received wisdom regarding online mutterings. Gosh darn it, what a happy litle place they inadvertently bequeathed us.
When I mentioned the site to David he was chuckling as I recounted names like Pencilsqueezer, Archie Valparaiso and yours.
I had a lovely chat with Mark E on one of the meet ups. His dad was a vicar in Fleet which is the next town from me. We talked about the Dylan Blackbushe gig as well. DH was good value as well but Mark is just a lovely engaging soul. A shout out for Mr Lewry as well who probably did more than anyone else to make the Word site the best place on the internet. And the Afterword keeps that flame burning.
I miss good magazines and The Word was probably the best magazine I’ve ever read (even better than Cheeky Weekly – praise indeed).
I’d like to take this opportunity for a Praise Be To The Mods, who not only keep the AW cogs turning in the background (I’ve done enough of this myself to know how time-consuming it can be) but also keep this place a pleasant corner in the cesspool which is the rest of the internet.
Fraser’s approach of ‘calm and light moderation’ was a thing to behold. I don’t really know exactly what the mods here do, but since I feel like the wheels are turning and they only occasionally pop up, the spirit of Fraser lives on.
I wonder if the mods have also eaten an animal with a name beginning with each letter of the alphabet? Fraser did some crazy stuff. I feel like he was where the humour came from.
I wonder if Fraser would have put an end to this Wordle nonsense on the site. Possibly
At least the Wordle threads are tagged well enough that I can skip over them unopened.
You’re missing a treat today then.
As if that’s going to make non-Wordling AWers click and open on line after line of yellow and green squares.
Nice to hear from one of the generators of the source code of this site, by the way.
Goodness, I miss The Word.
Praise be to The Mods from me, too, and all the Afterword contributors. It’s amazing that the site has lasted so long.
May I ask how the coffers are looking, please?
Another big thankyou from me to all the Mods (past and present) for all their work in keeping this place chugging along so agreeably.. I would miss it dreadfully if it closed down.
Nice work @niallb. Very thoughtful of you to say hello to Mark from the denizens of the AW.
To pop in to the AW would be an odd feeling for the Dynamic Duo. Rather like two architects revisiting a building they built and lived in 20 years ago. Some of the same residents are still around but there are a lot of new faces who’ve never heard of them.
And several of the rooms have had a facelift and are used for very different purposes.
A weekly Jazz Club.
Allotments in the back garden.
A Swedish Vegan fika cafe
Zumbah sessions for Pensioners.
Things are definitely not exactly what they used to be ….
Don’t think you can have – or would need – an allotment (part of a shared area) in your back garden (all yours), K.
That said, it given the controversial nature/unpopularity of some of his recent policies, it could be near the top of Sir Kerr Starmer’s to-do-list
It would be great if Mark popped up here, just to mention Principal Edwards Magic Theatre, Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, Egg Friday, and so on. Come on guys, post..!
Doctor Strangely Strange – that was an ME recommendation I acted upon
(at least I think it was Mr Ellen?)
Yep, that was one his names. Blossom Toes maybe also?
His book was very enjoyable. At one point he was citing some detail in the liner notes of some album with the rejoinder.. “ because these things are important “. I found myself nodding as I read.
I’ve never met ME or DH but through Whistle Test on the telly, Word and other publications the pair of them have probably done more than just about anyone else in this country to bring informed discussion and analysis to popular music. I’ve always thought Mark Ellen seems like a really nice bloke, and I’ve never understood the opprobrium that has often been levelled at David Hepworth on here. More power to them – national treasures both.
@Boneshaker, I’m with you. Ellen is an absolute sweetheart, someone I’d love to have dinner with and then retire to a local hostelry for several pints of wooly ale, as he calls it. No one tells a tale like Mark and, yes, he was wearing a blue shirt last night.
David gets stick because he has a schtik, I think. He makes what sound like fundamental statements and then challenges you to argue with him, bearing in mind that the only rule is that he is right to begin with. It means that, in his sixties, he came up with the idea of this series of books which begin with a point about music and musicians, and then go on to provide the evidence to back up his argument. The problem is, if you disagree with his basic point, then you’ll disagree with the entire book.
The trick is to have a lightness of touch, a twinkle in the eye and a smile on the lips as he writes. Once you realise that, then the books become a terrific romp through rock ‘n roll history, packed with stories and horas, enough to keep even the most grizzled old hippie entertained for hours.
I think it is terrific that he found this rich seam in the third act of his life; a life which has enriched my musical taste more than I can ever tell him. Like Bob Harris, Roger Scott and Johnnie Walker, Hepworth, through his many magazines and books, has shaped my musical landscape and expanded it’s horizons. And he’s made me laugh while doing it.
That’ll do as a premature epitaph.
Or, perhaps people are just jealous.
Spot on about DH”s writing style – making written words sound that simple, chatty and down to earth is anything but easy
@niallb, that twinkle in the eye and smile on the lips characterises the best of DH’s writing style for me too. As @jaygee says, making the written word approachable is far from easy. Maybe that’s why I struggled a bit with Abbey Road, as it appeared as if he was trying to write a more straightforwardly serious piece.
For me, the problem with Abbey Road was that there seemed to be a discernible tailing off of DH’s interest and the book started to drag as it moved into the 1990s and beyond.
Then again, maybe that’s just me.
This is spot on. I like his style of slightly provocative but good humoured writing. I don’t want to only read things that I agree with anyway.
As a long time lurker who regularly checks in to read the AW blog got to definitely praise The Word magazine and all who made it what it was, including Mark Ellen and David Hepworth.
The Word was great and it makes me happy seeing this place has carried on in its place (or at least in the place of the former official Word magazine blog site).
It’s also nice to think of both Mark Ellen and David Hepworth having had a good time alongside making decent money in the good times of music journalism. Sadly that’s all mostly gone now.
Welcome to posting. Nice opener.
The Word in its prime was indeed the best music magazine ever and Hepworth & Ellen seem genuinely good eggs. And, of course, they spawned this place (without the hardly interfering Mods the site would no doubt quickly collapse).
Let’s not forget, however, that by the end The Word had lost its way and was no longer essential reading. And so it goes, so it goes.
One word -Dido
That was pretty early on I think.
Was always a source of wonder to me that when I moved to Toronto, the possibly octogenarian Italian barber I found always had a number of Word magazines in his waiting room.
I thought it was towards the end.
It was issue 7 of 114
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Word_(UK_magazine)
Gosh. Well it was a long time ago. And clearly didn’t bring the mag down given there were 107 more issues.
Jings, is it not time to put our collective Lady Bracknell-esque ‘a handbag’ knee jerk to poor old Dido to bed, who, at best(and worst) was inoffensive. To say she brought down the magazine is risible. It may be that the direction Didoward, that the editorial probably wanted to take, may less be, the readership still in greatcoats and plaid.
On the subject of what precipitated the end of the mag…
Am sure many of us must have managed to get a capsule review in the written by readers bit of the mag at some point – in my case a brief write up of Dr Johns Feb 2012 appearance at the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival.
Given publishers’ practice of bringing May mags about a month prior to May, my review must have appeared in one of the last three or four issues.
The decline was obvious when those silly drawing covers hit the stands
Still a big gap for a mag like Word I think
I, for one, like Dido. And it was entirely legitimate to feature her at the time – Life For Rent was the fourth biggest-selling album *worldwide* in 2003, and her first two albums ended up in the UK Top 10 sales list of the whole decade. She was a genuine Big Deal.
But I remember it being discussed (on the podcast?) that that issue sold way less than others at the time. A misjudgement on their part about what mainly interested most of their readership or potential readership. As stated above it was only issue 7 so they recovered from this downturn very quickly. I think they never sold a massive number of copies anyway 30-40,000 rings a bell.
To be fair though, as she was so popular it might have been seen as a way of widening the readership… obviously didn’t work, but a worthy strategy nonetheless.
Yes, am sure that was the idea.
I dimly remember that Dido was brought in at short notice after the planned cover story (Travis, I think) was embargoed by the Scots’ record company when their album release was held up. Ring any bells with anyone else? Of course, there are at least a couple of eminent friends of the Massive who can confirm or deny this….
On this, you are the Lodestone of Rightness. I seem to remember Hepworth saying that the dwindling ad revenue meant that the same few writers had to do more and it showed. The cartoon covers of the last few issues really signified the decline and I think Hepworth deserves some credit for pulling the plug when he did. I doubt it could have been saved and what a good run it had.
Towards the end of its run I almost saw my subscription as a way of keeping the blog board running with the magazine as a bonus, rather than the other way round. I still valued Word for review recommendations of stuff that interested me, and haven’t really found a substitute, but the longer articles wore a bit thin.
I blame the squirrels. Cunning little blighters.
Back in the days that are becoming increasingly yore I decided it was time the old homestead got plugged into the Internet winding b road to nowhere in particular. After figuring out I needed an email address and brushing up on my two finger typing skills for a handful of days the very first site/blog/thingywotsit I signed up for was the old much loved and missed Word magazine blog. It seemed an obvious thing for me to do as a long time reader of the mag. The existence of the site intrigued me. The weirdo inhabitants intrigued me even more. Little did I suspect that it would all these years later despite my most valiant efforts in one form or another still be bloody well distracting me from having a well earned afternoon nap.
* waves at niall *
It’s still a decent place to waste time, @pencilsqueezer, and your more frequent visiting is much missed.
Too kind. It may well be the kindness I have been so blessed to encounter on more than one or two occasions from more than one or two of those aforementioned weirdo inhabitants that has kept me “distracted” for so many years. 🙏
And always a pleasure to meet up, sorry not this year though.
Next year definitely
@pencilsqueezer, my dear friend, as I rattled through a few old handles last night it was yours which made David look up from signing my book and chuckle, “Oh, I’d forgotten that. Pencilsqueezer; brilliant.”
I was chuffed on your behalf.
Aw shucks that’s lovely. To be remembered fondly is about as good as it gets. As I said kindness…
I met Mark when I was a newly graduated design student and the ‘job needs experience/can’t get experience without a job’ Catch-22 situation was beginning to bite. A (print) advert from Q called out for a junior designer with fresh ideas – and it didn’t have the usual ‘2 years minimum experience’ at the end. A short exchange of letters later, and I found myself in a glass-walled office with Mr E, his usual avuncular enthusiastic self and being very nice about my portfolio full of college projects and bits and bobs done for mates. Then, alas:
ME: ‘This is all great [Tryp], but can I see some commercial work?’
T: ‘Umm… yeah. Thing is, I’m newly graduated and haven’t been out in the marketplace long. The advert didn’t mention anything about experience, so I thought you were doing a “hip young gunslingers needed” type thing… ‘ [Me, trying to curry favour with an old NME reference]
A slight flicker went across Mark’s eyes as he made a mental note to fire, or at least dress down, the person who had penned the advert. You can guess the rest – shortly afterwards, he politely ushered me out with Dame Fortune’s boot-print freshly adorned on my backside.
Twenty years later, I was near the back of the queue for a signing of Mark’s book. I brought up the other time we had met and he was, as expected, delightful about it again. ‘Did I? I’m ever so sorry about that, you know how these things are sometimes – I’m sure we’re the ones who missed out!’ he said with a cheery smile, all the while maintaining eye contact as he scribbled something in my book.
It reads:
12/05/14
To [Tryp]
Sorry you didn’t get that job at Q!
All the best, Mark Ellen
The man’s a class act.
@TrypF that’s a lovely story.
It was a great magazine but certainly not flawless. I remember one piece from, I think, David Hepworth who claimed that people were watching scenes from DVDs on shuffle like they did with music. No they weren’t.
There was also an apparent obsession with iPhones, even down to which particular model the writer owned.
I have none of the magazines any more, but I think it would appear very dated now, but that’s ok. In general the writing was great, and it was presented in a pleasing way
My magazines sat in the warehouse for years until a lack of space forced me to dump them. Looking through them before they went, I thought the same as you, very much of their time. I remember one of the tech articles though, titled something like “the iPod phone, will anyone buy it?”
This is such a lovely thread that almost makes me wish the “Thumbs Up” option was available (please note I am neither Hepworth or Ellen)
Those two made me a better writer, because I wanted to impress them. Which I did, now and then. I only recently threw out my Blog of the Year 2010 rosette.
Hepworth also taught me the trick to live interviews, which is to pretend not to know things you really do, so you can ask the dumb question and the interviewee can explain it to you.
You could kind of see the ship sinking from a mile off. The paddle steamer on The Thames with Steamboat Willie headlining over Neil Finn was a metaphor.
I recall the big question that was discussed before the mag folded was “magazine, blog or podcast?”
And it became apparent that the mag was a distant 3rd. Those first podcasts, just ME and DH with occasional words (when asked) from tape op Fraser were great – they obviously just loved popping in to the cupboard in the office just to talk bollocks. As we all do.
It’s great that Word In Your Ear continues and presumably gives them a modest income stream. And of course it’s lovely popping in here from time to time.
Cheers then!
Heppo’s latest bit of homework gets the rule run over it by Alexis Petridis in today’s Grauniad. A very fair appraisal.
Indeed, a very fair appraisal of the Hep schtick which is fascinating and infuriating at the same time .
“Rash claims that don’t bear close scrutiny”
Sounds about right.
1971. Eclipsed two years later.
Eight.
Wow, that is a great idea for a thread! *shoots self* 😉
Yep 8
If anyone bumps into Hep or attends a book signing ask him what the best ice-cream in the world is.
Shirley any ice cream made in 1971 would have melted by now.
@pencilsqueezer
Possibly not if it’s spent the last half-century in close proximity
to the uber-cool DH
@Jaygee and DH sitting in a tree…
That’s me!
Baskin in reflected glory…
I see what you did there. 👏
If @retropath2 would care to ask his GLW the same question then I would think he would then know the answer.
Sounds distinctly Dewsbury…..
Curd Tart flavour.
Curd Tart now yer talking unless you meant it as a Spoonerism.
Distinctly Dewsbury indeed.
I love Curd Tart. My paternal grandmother used to make fabulous ones. I haven’t eaten any in years and now I’m jonesing for one badly.
Knickerbocker Glory, surely? I probably last had one in about 1971 at Barry Island…
Ah Barry Island the larger more grandiose version of Steely Dan’s Barrytown.
I miss the Word magazine, the Word mingles and the general irreverence.
Towards the end of its tenure they wrote a tribute to Jackie Leven and produced a cd of his music which is possibly one of the best tributes I ever saw in a magazine ever.
They were a talented bunch and it was and is sad that they had to disappear.
Agreed. When I frequently insist on telling people just how fantastic JL really was, that’s the disc I reach for and play and/or copy off for them
@Dai
While contains ice cream, it is not an ice cream per se
My bet would be Fusco’s Ulster Fry as scat sung by VTM
at the very end of Moonshine Whisky
Pedant
Says the man whose house was built and furnished by Pikington
He is a superb writer with a lovely turn of phrase, which seems natural, not turned within an inch of its life. Fewer adjectives. I struggle with fewer adjectives.
To write a book, you need to find angle. Perhaps, we Afterworders are too familiar with his angles?
Correct Tig.
I think familiarity is always going to be a problem with books and docs about music/musicians/artists in general.
Problem is if writers/film makers tighten their focus too much, they are going to alienate the wider audience their book/film needs to get funded, made and ultimately seen.
In the case of docs about more niche artists like say Townes Van Zandt or Guy Clark,
lack of available footage would also seem to be a problem.
In film, people not ‘that’ engaged in an artist, and who maybe don’t go to the cinema that often, seem to like a biography told with very broad brush strokes… the Elton John and Queen ones spring to mind.
If obsessed (me and probably most on this website), it’ll be the quirky sharp-focussed films that are preferred. The two I have in mind are ‘The Hours and Times’ (about John and Brian Epstein going to Barcelona for a holiday), and the brilliant half-hour Sky comedy about Bob Dylan trying to find Dave Stewart’s house in Crouch End.
Just on his writing, I can recall re-reading passages for the sheer enjoyment of the deftness of the turn of phrase, the economy and the rhythm. He is very readable. ,
He was really the interesting one on the podcasts. I was keen to hear his thoughts. Other times my reaction would be, well that’s not really true, oh I don’t know about that.
I still miss the Word magazine, have tried to replace it but all fall to the wayside. Being the sad old git I sometimes dig out an issue and happily lose an afternoon reminiscing. Never met either of them though the closest I got was years ago Mark was on the up escalator and me on the down in a tube station in London .
On holiday in the UK recently, I got access to my Dad’s The Oldie. Ellen’s column are like a reference back to The Word.
The phrase I use about him in enthusiastically incisive. You can see a mind at work, but there’s this overlay of an determination to get as much enjoyment out of everything that he possibly can.
@Sitheref2409 That’s the perfect description of him.