The Women Who Wrote Rock (Radio 4) | iPlayer
Backlisted podcast| iTunes
Radio Dead | tunein.com
Writers and writing, this week. On Tuesday rock journalist Kate Mossman brought us The Women Who Wrote Rock, a revealing and beguiling programme about the female music writers of the 60s; young women who hung out with the Beatles and the Stones, with Eric Clapton, Cat Stevens, Scott Walker, and then wrote about who these new stars were and what they had to say.
Sometimes this didn’t amount to much. Mossman pointed out to Dawn James (now Slough) that in one of her interviews, with Cat Stevens, she diligently recorded his one-word answers. This would be edited out today. Well, said James, the story was about the things your interviewee didn’t say, as well, if you wanted to “really do a portrait of that person in words”. James would spend half a day with her interviewees, in contrast to “the 20 minutes in a hotel room” that most journalists get today. “There was no suspicion, it was mutual, we were all contemporaries.” It makes you wistful.
I really liked these funny, clever women and their particular insights into that time. (I also very much enjoyed the names of the magazines they wrote for: Boyfriend, Fabulous, Rave.) Despite – or because of – their unegotistical approach to writing, they got some proper scoops. Maureen Cleave, who wrote for the Evening Standard, was the journalist to whom John Lennon gave his “bigger than Jesus” quote. When this blew up in the States, there were Ku Klux Klan marches and threats on the band’s lives. It led, ultimately, to the Beatles stopping touring. During all the furore, Cleave suggested to Lennon that he say she made it all up, just to get him off the hook. He refused.
Some of these writers’ stories seem to occur in every rock history: the devastation of drugs, the moving in of the big boys when money is to be made, the weird egos and sensitivity of the stars themselves. But there was also a freshness, a sense that this hadn’t happened before, that gave the programme sweetness and light. Lovely.
Backlisted is a new-ish fortnightly podcast about books you might have forgotten. Presented by John Mitchinson, who set up Unbound, the crowd-sourcing book publishers, and Andy Miller, who wrote The Year of Reading Dangerously, each programme brings in a writer to talk about a favourite book. In Monday’s podcast, we heard from John Niven, author of Kill Your Friends and Straight White Male. He wanted to talk Martin Amis – he’s a huge fan – and, particularly, The Information. By coincidence, I’m in the middle of rereading The Information, and much of the conversation rang true, especially how differently the novel reads when you’re older, of the age of Richard and Gwyn, the main characters. Much was made of the book’s funny moments (there are many), and Niven read out one of my favourite scenes, a high-powered lunch when Richard thinks he’s about to be offered an editorship. It was hilarious. In fact, my only criticism of this programme was the amount of laughter; sometimes the guffawing drowned out the point being made. It’s not often you can say that about a book programme. The hour sped by.
Finally – and this is nothing to do with writing – have you heard about Radio Dead? A parent on the school run told me about it, and I thought she was joking, but no. Radio Dead (tagline: “They may be gone, but their music lives on”) plays music by people who are no longer alive. And that’s it. The presenters, who don’t make much impression, play a lot of David Bowie, plus some excellent and not-all-that-obvious soul and funk. With its array of tuneful 70s sounds, Radio Dead is like a ghostly Magic station, perfect for taxi rides and defrosting the fridge. I recommend it.
Comments