So David Hepworth and Mark Ellen are milking/monetising their public podcasting relationship.
I have to say I still find them entertaining (partly because I’m in their age group) and they talk so well together.
And while I enjoy the WIYE podcasts I find myself baulking at paying up at these rates. 3 quid a month for a mention? 5 quid a month to get it a day before anyone else. Not bloody likely! Etc…
OTOH I do like the old buggers, and while Hepworth is irritating as always, he does have a way with words. And I keep listening to their rantings.
Anyone else??
Dot Dot Dot…
I will get there eventually – next long car journey I might jump in.
I’m in and enjoying the sense of nostalgia! Their Word In Your Attic webcasts on Youtube are also worth a look. In these interminable times, one needs to find distraction where one can!
Im enjoying it but its not like the old Word pods. I find Heppo a little too smug these days. Will stick with it though. Enjoying The Album Years (Steven Wilson/Tim Bowness) much much more
The podcasts, both audio and visual, have provided hours of distraction in the last couple of months. I think there is something additional – full versions of old podcasts with commentary something like that? – for Patreons only, but the other stuff is free for anyone who cares to listen, or not as the case may be. I’m glad it’s there.
Yeah, it’s mostly free. I dip in and out and like old slippers it’s comforting but hardly life essential.
Bear in mind, they’re being done over Zoom or something so that normal vibe you’d get from a few lads in a shed isn’t going to be there. I think it’s great for what it is. I certainly think that both presenters have become *more* of themselves then when we last heard of them, but they’re still entertaining and thus more power to ’em.
It’s funny, DH specifically bemoaned, in the last days of Word, that the podcast was loved by all but they’d no way to monetise it in a meaningful sense, and now the technology is there, but they can’t exactly replicate it due to public health issues.
Oh is that right? Have they lost the vibe a bit? That’s disappointing if true. I’ll need to listen for myself and see.
It’s not that they’ve lost the vibe, it’s that previously it was David, Mark and Fraser in a broom cupboard and it felt like that and now it’s just two of them on zoom. The vibe is ‘different’ but they’re still good value.
Agree.
I wish we had the “up” button like back in days of yore…
I haven’t listened to them for a while now – for some reason they dropped off my radar. Looking at the Word In Your Ear web site now, it seems they have gone back to more waffling instead of focusing on interviews and guests? Is that right? If so, that’s good, I always preferred them just chewing the cud instead of doing live shows or having to suck up to a visiting star.
The £7 a month one sounds decent actually. I do value what they do (despite them dropping off my radar recently) and I have many fond memories of the old Word podcast. They deserve the support.
How about a whip round for the £250 membership, and we’ll vote for a worthy Afterworder to appear on the podcast???
The regular Word in Your Ear ones are on hold for obvious reasons (with a paid audience).
Hepworth is nearly 70! I do listen but find them increasingly irritating. Two old guys with not much new to say. Hepworth has to have a theory about everything, Ellen too nice a guy to disagree.
Some have been ruined by Hepworth creasing up about everything however remotely funny (or not). But they are free, the ones I have listened to. They seem to be trying to drag a few dollars out of the archive now as well. Fairly entertaining nevertheless, but these days not my favourite podcast, which it once was.
I’ve actually never found a podcast to replace it. Maybe I’ve just gotten older and it’s just me.
Once upon a time, I was a rabid fan of the Word podcast, Kermode and Mayo, and Adam and Joe. The Word ended, Adam and Joe split and Kermode and Mayo… well I know they are still going but I suppose they just got a bit samey and I got bored of them.
What do you think of Adam’s podcast? His recent audiobook was very good. The pod is a bit hit and miss nowadays (IMHO)
best thing the BBC has done recently is put a breakdown of content by timestamp in the notes for each Kermode & Mayo podcast. It’s a much better listen when you know where to start to avoid the twenty odd minutes of mutual backslapping and “amusing” readers’ letters at the beginning of each episode.
I didn’t know they’d added that – having been a listener for years I usually just grin and bear each week’s letters from New Zealand, but I’ll try that next week (of course I could have just wound my iPod forward a bit and found it manually).
That’s assuming we (or at least I) don’t have to endure another week of Edith “I want to be a film critic too” Bowman – enthusiasm and over-rating everything can be so wearisome. You’re a presenter – you want to be a critic? Put the years of study in and learn about cinema before 1983 and how to articulate appreciation without just recycling the same superlatives over and over again. “I love 80s films” she stated recently, as if that’s a thing – all 80s films being of a uniform standard obviously.
OOAA of course.
Yes I noticed that. Stopped listening because of the tiresome in jokes and padding. I would watch Kermode’s reviews for BBC News instead, about 10 minutes instead of 2 hours.
As a fellow Welshman, I am worried that you are living up to the “glum” stereotype.
I am. In fact that’s only half if it, my mother was from Yorkshire …
Double Glummy!
Yes! Actually I have been diagnosed as having dysthymia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysthymia
This is exacerbated by sleep problems.
I thought it was just because I was Welsh …
Who cares about getting a mention or getting it early? Otherwise it’s free as ever. They don’t have guests because of lockdown, can’t do the Islington thing with audience obv. Word in your attic is a delight for the most part. The only irritation is Mark talking over people or interrupting when someone’s midflow but same as it ever was. Heppo it seems to me comes over well on the Youtube stuff. Lots of thoughtful reflection, interesting comment and he’s a great interviewer, lets the person talk, asks the right questions. WIYA brightens up the day for sure.
There’s a drinking game I play. Allow yourelf a drink when they (normally Hepworth) mention the fact that they were amongst the presentation team at Live Aid. I very rarely go thirsty …
Does that matter though?
Just watched the latest Youtube one with Tracy McCleod of Late Show fame. They asked her about the Stones Roses (amateurs) incident and she said that was the only thing anyone remembered about her 15 years presenting on TV. Right on cue Dave says, you know that’s the same for me with Geldof swearing at me on Live Aid. Bingo! Do tell us Dave, we’d love to hear your story one more time about how he never really said give us your fucking money.
I confess I had watched that before my post above.
I should have guessed that. It would almost have been strange for him not to mention it given the topic of conversation.
He could have resisted, think I would respect him more if he had ….
The positive outweighs the negative by a considerable margin. On the other hand if you find the whole enterprise uninspiring you don’t bother with it anyway.
You are right. And I actually watched a couple more of the video ones, and enjoyed them very much. Just ignore me, bad few days I guess. Glad they are still doing this.
Fair enough.
Crikey what a curmudgeonly lot you are. David and Mark’s podcasts and videos have been a huge source of delight throughout the lockdown and back through the years. Are you all just a bit rattled because they’ve dared to try to make it break even for themselves? It’s only a bit of fun at the end of the day, they themselves call it ‘Bollocks Island’.
Welcome to the comfortably-curmudgeonly group – you’ll be wanting the cheery pop Pollyanna group? That’s down the hall on the left, darling, every other Wednesday. 😉
That’s pretty much what I was about to post.
Have an Up.
Disgraceful that charges can be levied for banter! At this rate this site will be asking for monetary support………
For £250 you could have your own thread where no one is allowed to disagree with you, plus your photo added to the logo at the top of the page (wearing a crown?) for a month.
Edit: nuanced banter.
I feel bad now for being so laissez-faire about der Heppmeister and El-Dog*.
They are effectively this site’s mum and dad. They’re faaamly. Of course I’m going to chip in.
*what the hell is happening to me…
Mum and Dad who left the kids home alone and never came back. Sorry, never quite got over it.
I’m enjoying the WIYAs/Bollocks Islands (the Andy Partridge one being a particular highlight) but really wish Ver Hep would close his mouth when he’s not talking.
As for the issue of Patreon – the rewards aren’t really worth it for me. Access to a quiz and a namecheck? No thanks.
They’re great fun and I’ve chucked a few quid toward the Patreon as have a few ex-Afterword/Word bloggers. Suffice to say they have made lockdown far easier than some of you bunch of moaning, whinging twats