Adele Bertei got a Greyhound to New York in 1977 intent on joining a band. James Chance thought she “looked like a pimp” and hired her as the organist in the Contortions, an instrument she couldn’t play. Her memoir No New York captures the most intoxicating times imaginable, the rise of Blondie, Talking Heads, Television, Madonna and her fellow raft of No Wave cheerleaders in pursuit of dismantling music. Highlights include …

… the local priest recommending the Velvet Underground when she was 11

… “imbibe and dream”: her weekend with Lester Bangs

… the rubble-filled New York wasteland of 1977, landlords setting fire to property just to claim the insurance

… the No Wave circuit: crowd violence and singers who either talked or screamed

.. her rivalry with Madonna: “our labels didn’t want people to know we were white”

… the local Cleveland “Rust Belt” - Pere Ubu, Chrissie Hynde, Devo

… why Warhol, Ginsberg and Burroughs seemed laughably outmoded

… Brian Eno’s shopping list

… the power of Tina Weymouth, Patti Smith and Debbie Harry (“sexy but with a snarl”) and why New York’s venues are internationally mythical.

Order Adele Bertei’s ‘No New York’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571386154-no-new-york/?srsltid=AfmBOor2IKVLRyzzZDisLz_8cTGDYIjDXphZVU9Lw5drAd4CdKR1KVhs

Adele with Thomas Dolby on Whistle Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3bGioFCXU

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Steve Lillywhite first got a foot in the studio door aged 17 making demos for Ultravox and became a producer with credits on over 500 records. He doesn’t have a copy of any of them but kept his Grammys and his CBE. The job involves being a lightning-rod, cheer-leader, editor, finisher and “as diplomatic as Henry Kissinger”. He looks back here from his ‘Lillypad’ in Bali at the milestones along the way, among them …

… “I’d done my 10,000 hours by the age of 22”

... “If it ain’t broke, break it!”

… when he screwed up as a tape-op: “you only do it once”

… why bands never want to leave the studio

… breakthrough hits with Johnny Thunders, Siouxsie and the Psychedelic Furs

… “there’s been no new technology in the last ten years”

… the radio plugger who heard Sunday Bloody Sunday and said “sounds like a hit but you’ll have to lose the word Bloody”

… “when Mick and Keith weren’t talking they communicated through me”

… why Muff Winwood wanted to fire Larry Mullen

… why producers can’t hear a hit

… Adam Clayton and Nick Rhodes “aren’t musicians”

… “make the drums less Huntley & Palmers!”

… the Wrecking Crew versus the “One-Man Show" production of today

… and memories of making Vertigo, Fairytale of New York and Making Plans for Nigel.

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Scanning the baggage carousel of news to see what sets off the alarm, which this week involves …

… Springsteen: why is America’s most American American so quiet about his President on home turf?

… the Seven Ages of Nepo: in defence of Julian Lennon, Joe Sumner and Brooklyn Beckham

… the Robbie Williams story that gets our goat

… why do half the UK music venues make no profit?

… the onstage ‘act’ that did 104 minutes non-stop

… pre-testing EDM singles on the dancefloor

… Four Boys in the Wind! What A Night That Day Was! - foreign editions of A Hard Day’s Night

… in praise of the Latin Playboys

… the mid-‘60s mystery album that outsold the Beatles

… and we name the root of all ills in popular music!

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

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