After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves …

… what time he goes to bed.

… “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent’s review was an insult.

… seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975.

… the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”).

… supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland.

… memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers.

… the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground’s What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance.

… the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet.

… “I never thought I’d retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian’.

… the role reversal of being produced by your own son.

… and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour.

Peter Perrett tour dates here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432

Order his new album The Cleansing here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDL

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Things this week that sent the needle into the red included …

… the last dance craze the whole world noticed.

... “Rock stars used to be anti-establishment. Now they ARE the establishment.”

… artworks, flags, bespoke I-Ching Coins … would YOU pay £1,350 for a box set?

… why Quincy Jones made records like a movie director.

... how Dylan’s Biograph and Springsteen’s live box started a gold rush.

… “an unprecedented event in popular recording".

… Hot Night, Starlight, Give Me Some Time, Lights Out and other working titles for Thriller.

… “We’re here to save the record business!”

… the speed of the Beatles: two years between Ed Sullivan and Tomorrow Never Knows; two years from the Cavern to Shea Stadium.

Plus birthday guest Phil Hopwood: moments in rock history you’d like to have witnessed to see what really happened.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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The most streamed Beatles song – 700 million plays more than any other – is not by Lennon/McCartney but George who, as author Seth Rogovoy points out, is still widely considered “an economy-class Beatle” though his contributions were central to the success of their records. Seth’s new book ‘Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison’ sets out to right this monstrous wrong! As does this conversation with the two of us which covers …

… did My Sweet Lord’s court case puncture his sense of ambition?

… how he changed Taxman for American audiences.

… the statement made by starting All Things Must Pass with a Dylan/Harrison composition.

… how he was fleeced by not one but two managers - Allen Klein and Denis O’Brien.

… what we learnt from watching ‘Get Back’.

… Broadway ballads, Vaudeville, jazz and the solo on ‘Til There Was You.

… remortgaging Friar Park for Life Of Brian and pushing for the Anthology “payday”.

… his glorious spiritual/material contradiction – “the Pisces sign is two fish going in opposite directions”.

… a social mobility that John and Paul both envied.

… falling out of love with live performance.

… the beliefs of his early ‘20s he sustained all his life.

… and the staples of George Harrison’s Jukebox.

Order Seth’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Within-You-Without-Listening-Harrison/dp/019762782X

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.