Our patent fact-from-fiction separator goes into overdrive this week though sometimes, as Robert Wyatt observed, Ruth is stranger than Richard. High in the mix …

… FOMO (Fear Of Missing Oasis), Gen Z’s love of queuing and has there ever been a greater outpouring of joy at a band reunion?

…what’s the greatest musical city?

… Kevin Rowland – cheat, burglar, arsonist, menswear salesman – and his capacity for self-sabotage.

… the harder to get tickets, the more people feel compelled to go.

… Kylie Minogue is a year older than Jacob Rees-Mogg!

… the best album to come out of New Orleans.

… memoirs you can read as either comedy or tragedy.

… Ed Sheeran turns Ipswich pink.

… the Salt Path saga and the pursuit of profit over truth.

… Mirrors In The Smoke, Dust On The Wind, Echoes Through the Pines: spot the AI-generated song title!

… the Beatles’ Tree in Chiswick: let’s keep local landmarks a secret!

… John Otway’s 5,300 gigs: the hardest working man in showbiz.

… and birthday guest Patrick Butler and cities with the greatest legacy – Liverpool, Birmingham, Nashville, New York, Chicago, New Orleans?

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John Otway – self-billed as “Rock And Roll’s Greatest Failure” - has played 5,260 gigs in 53 years, a record possibly only beaten by BB King. There are more this autumn of course. He simply can’t stop. “People buying me drinks and telling me what a good bloke I am? Why would you stop?” We talk to him here about the art of shambling stagecraft and a life lived almost permanently on the road, which involves …

... a burning desire to perform from the age of nine.

… “Don’t think before opening your mouth!”

… the rhythm of life when you play two gigs a week for five decades. And the value of ‘Micro-stardom’ - “I’m at the bar when they walk in”.

… seeing the Move, Free and Mott the Hoople in Aylesbury.

… how people always noticed him – not least because “I was idiot-dancing by the bass speakers”.

... his first performance, a massively overwrought version of Peter Sarstedt’s Where Do You Go To My Lovely.

… best-selling Otway merch - “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better! It’s Nearly Rock And Roll But I Like It!” etc.

… “You have to capture an audience in the first 20 seconds.”

... why playing the same size venues every night doesn’t challenge you.

… a recent three-month ‘trial retirement’.

… when he estimates he’ll play his 6,000th gig.

… and his planned and bank-breaking 2026 World Tour.

John Otway tour dates here: https://www.johnotway.com/gigs.html

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Peter Hook, bold pioneer of the high, clambering, tune-filled bassline, is touring this autumn with Peter Hook & the Light. We talk to him in Prestatyn - about to deejay at mate’s birthday - about the first gigs he ever saw and played, heavy-handed club owners, tough crowds on dance floors, the world audience for his two old bands and few key moments of a long life onstage, which involves …

… why you should never read your reviews.

… how Ian Curtis was precisely the opposite of how people imagined him.

... why deejaying is “the loneliest job in the world” and three tunes to play when it all goes wrong - “and I don’t play Blue Monday for obvious reasons”.

… seeing the Nolans at Salford Rugby Club, aged 15.

… his bell bottoms, clogs and Heavy Metal phase.

… seeing Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols the same week – “the Pistols were so bad they were relatable. I thought I could do that!”

… Stiff Kittens’ first gig: “a third-rate punk band aping all the others”.

… how DJs need to be “belligerent” and why people find them hard to love – and the book he’s writing, ‘How Not To Be A DJ’.

… how Ian Curtis’s vision of an international Joy Division following has finally been realised – “and with three generations in the crowd”.

… radiogram-wrecking early adventures in bass guitar.

… and the reasons he wanted to leave New Order and the thrill of maintaining their legacy.

Peter Hook & The Light tickets here: https://peterhookandthelight.live/

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.