Boarding this week’s giddy carousel of news, we ride the following ponies …

… the Sliding Doors moment that made a ‘50s star a fortune

… Soft Cell’s Dave Ball and the art of being the Other One in a pop duo

… Bohemian Rhapsody, O Superman, I Feel Fine: records that sounded like nothing before them

… what links the Prodigy, Wet Leg, Daft Punk and Donna Summer?

… how all bands need a bad patch to make you appreciate the good ones

… “the concept album is a good servant but a bad master”

… Expensive = Reassuringly valuable? Cheap = Worthless?

… a new Taylor Swift album in ‘sweat and vanilla-perfumed orange glitter vinyl’, anyone?

… and the tricks singers use to disguise the fact that they can’t hit the top notes anymore.

… plus ‘the Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria’ by Blue Öyster Cult and birthday guest Phil Hopwood on best and worst concept albums.

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Paul Young was the bassist in a pub band playing Led Zeppelin and Patto covers ‘til his solo soul and blues slot launched him as a singer. He’s still touring nearly 50 years later, just back from filling Mexican stadiums with Rod Stewart. And next May launching his acoustic ‘Songs & Stories Tour’ in theatres, intercut with film clips and hoary old tales from the battlefield. He looks back here at …

… Smash Hits cover shoots and Rewind package tours: “what a glorious time the ‘80s was”

… the soul phrases he stole from Free and his impression of “the Paul Rodgers moan”

… discovering James Taylor, the Doors, Gregg Allman, Vinegar Joe and Van Morrison

… supporting Bob Marley when the crowd threw a dead duck at Joe Jackson – “and hit him!”

… Mike & Bernie Winters in panto - “I was rolling in the aisles”

… playing Led Zeppelin, Cream and Patto and the Bill Withers and Albert King covers that launched him as a singer

… memories of Live Aid – “I wish I’d thought about it more”

… “What am I, a performing monkey?”

… when Midge Ure told him the opening line of Band Aid had actually been a secret audition – “Simon, Tony Hadley or me”

… the “deafening” Slade at Luton Tech, the night the DJ played Black JuJu by Alice Cooper

… the over-cranked news story that he’d lost his voice

… and the night the Mafia came to Rhode Island.

Tickets for ‘Paul Young – Songs & Stories’ here: https://www.awaywithmedia.com/tours/paul-young-2026

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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‘Billy Bragg: A People’s History’ is just out, a new and wholly original kind of memoir written by himself, friends, collaborators and fans, and packed with old snapshots, concert bills, reviews and ephemera. It’s very good indeed. He looks back here with us at …

… meeting Taylor Swift – “and we both knew who the other was!”

… a total of 2,700 gigs – “not counting prisons, In-Stores, Port-A-Stacks and picket lines”

… old blokes trying to take selfies

… finding old diaries in his archives and sensing how the memory plays tricks

… songs that get you out of trouble on stage

… bootlegging albums on his reel-to-reel, aged 12, complete with noises off - eg “Bridge Over Troubled Water plus a voice telling me Reach For The Sky was on telly!”

… a word-perfect recitation of Mr Tambourine Man

… listening to the Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll when the rest of the school was Glam Rock

… buying Ronnie Lane’s amp, “like returning home with a religious relic”

… “the power of music”: meeting someone who’d heard him on the radio beyond the Iron Curtain

… anxiety about American border control: “I was advised to get a new phone. As if that’ll make any difference. I’m Billy Bragg, political songwriter!”

… lost off-grid in Salt Lake City in the days before internet

… “Music can’t change the world but it gives you the ability to think it can be changed”

…plus Ian McLagan, Desmond Dekker, Ry Cooder, Jam b-sides and Motown Chartbusters Vol 3.

Order Billy Bragg: A People’s History here: https://burningshed.com/billy-bragg_a-peoples-history_book

https://www.billybragg.co.uk/product/billy-bragg-a-peoples-history-an-oral-history-in-the-words-of-people-who-have-been-moved-by-his-music/

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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