Andy Bown found the 20 year-old recordings of “a deep-space love story” he’d written with the sci-fi author Russell Hoban and he’s just reworked and released them. He talks to us here about “Out There” and life in the Herd, Judas Jump and Status Quo, which involves …

… playing the Three Tuns in Beckenham with Bowie

… “Foot gun, gun foot. I always tell the truth.”

… Peter Frampton when he was The Face of ‘68

… “we were earning £225 a night and got £15 a week. Where did the money go?”

… Quo’s Whatever You Want and how co-writing works

… David’s memories of the Herd supporting Chuck Berry in 1968

… opening for Hendrix at Saville Theatre, eight feet from his flaming guitar: “you could feel the heat”

… Judas Jump, Don Arden, the huge advance and the “appalling” album

… sessions with Jerry Lee Lewis who played the solo with his foot

… early days in Status Quo when he played behind a curtain and how they got to be Live Aid’s opening act

… “You’d think John Fogerty would be pleased about Rockin’ All Over The World. Au contraire!”

Order ‘Out There: A Deep-Space Love Story’ here: https://andybown.com/

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The album has had 25 years of being hammered by other formats – Napster, iTunes, Spotify, TikTok – and not only survived but thrived. For Keith Jopling it’s the irreplaceable way to hear music and to measure the people who make it. His new book Body Of Work celebrates its battle-scarred trajectory from the beating heart of pop culture to 21st Century affordable luxury, and stops off at …

… growing up in the age of cassettes

… his lifelong devotion to a Police album left on his doorstep

… Adele’s battle with Spotify to get records played in sequence

… how albums are how you calibrate a career, from the Beatles to Taylor Swift

… has anyone ever loved a CD the way they love an album?

… how parents used to despair of their kids loafing in bedrooms listening to records but now try and persuade them to do it

… pictures of equipment: rock porn!

… the swingback to Listening Parties and analogue recording

… records as shining examples of the packaged goods business

… “we need to regain control of our attention”

… and the iTunes launch party and why Smashing Pumpkins thought they’d seen the future.

Order Body Of Work in the UK here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/keith-jopling/body-of-work-how-the-album-outplayed-the-algorithm-and-survived-playlist-culture

And in the USA here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/body-of-work-how-the-album-outplayed-the-algorithm-and-survived-playlist-culture/

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Unredacted exchanges about the rock and roll underworld this week highlight the following …

… real or made-up stars’ kids’ names: Speck Wildhorse? Blue Ivy? Everly Bear? Motorhead Michelob?

… man plays drum solo with his head!

… Olivia Dean, Lola Young, FKA Twigs: what do today’s ‘professionals’ learn at the BRIT School and what happened to the age of the amateurs?

… why Joni Mitchell’s life was even more extraordinary before she was famous

… Three Dog Night, Kiss, Grand Funk Railroad, Linda Ronstadt: American acts that never broke Britain

… rude, racy, naughty, delightful: our love of old pulp paperbacks

… “Go to your room, young lady, and play a Nick Drake album in its entirety!”

… and when Dandelion became Angela.

Plus birthday guest Paul Higham and why most stars’ stories need a lively biographer.

Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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