Entertainment For Lively Minds
They're Back! Kate & Mark Introduce The New Issue Of THE WORD
Posted by Fraser Lewry on 8 July 2009 - 2:10pm.
Much like Rageh Omaar and Christiane Amanpour, Mark Ellen and Kate Mossman have forgone the relative luxury of the Word Magazine bunker to brave the front line of reporting. Here, ignoring the cacophonous din emitted by our Soviet-era air-conditioning unit, they revel in some of the highlights from the August 2009 edition of THE WORD.
Also in this issue: Heath Ledger, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Kinnear, The Stone Roses, Duncan Jones, Lynn Barber, Simon Armitage, the Best and Worst Robots Ever, Jo Whiley, Ian Hunter, Moby, Garrison Keillor, Isle of Wight Festival 1970, Idris Elba, Marina & The Diamonds, Sandy Toksvig, Paolo Nutini, and lots of pages of lovingly-crafted reviews.
Of course what we all want...
.... to know is who was Mark talking to on the fire escape and what did they want?
More seriously glad to see the fabulous Janeane Garofalo is featured. She prompts a brief consideration of great actors who are always brilliant in at most mediocre movies...... Can't think of others at the moment but I guess the Massive will.
Looks good......
Shame that my copy has every page cut through two thirds of the way down. The package was OK so it was not the postie's fault. Let's hope that the replacement arrives soon.
Hey, it's just like The Beatles on the roof :-)
"Thanks Dave, I hope I passed the audition"
Including a guest
appearance from the rozzers in a failed attempt to put Ellen McCartney - didn't he sail round the world? - off his stride. Just like 1971 never happened.
Lord Ellen's polite yet
dismissive response to the interloper was nicely played - somewhere between Basil Fawlty and Ian Carmichael.
Lady Mossman sailed on serenely seemingly oblivious to the obstreporous oaf's oikish interjections
Mine's been pinched!
All that arrived was a plastic bag and David Hepworth's letter. A thievin' postie with taste or last one out of the printer's?
What are you moaning about?
Some of us only subscribe for Heppo's letter.
True, true...
...and then file them away in plastic folders so that they may be preserved forever.
PS. Mr Fraser Lewry got in touch and a replacement copy is winging its way to me. Top service - thank you!
Will sales increase with the 'Fab' Four on the cover?
Can I be the first to emit a loud groan at the presence of The Beatles on the cover? Really and truly, at this stage what else is there to say about them that their numerous appearances every year on the covers of Mojo, Uncut, Record Collector et al hasn't said already?
The last time they hit the cover there was some debate about a spike in sales every time one of their mugs is on a cover. Can this really be true?
Just Fancy That!
"And there are so many interviews around now - these awful puff-pieces. The media has been far too supine about it. It needs to put its foot down" - Lynn Barber, Page 18 Word magazine, August 2009.
"AN EDUCATION" by Lynn Barber is published by Penguin" - Page 18 Word Magazine, August 2009.
All the best
Philip Bryer
(Author of "None Of Your Business" and "On The Firm").
I am ready to get shot down in flames
but I have been considerably disappointed by the last 2 editions of Word and feel it is losing its cutting edge. No matter how you dress it up I do not welcome another in depth article on the Beatles. Neither for that matter was I particularly pleased to see U2 the month before - the magazine raised the bar as far as I was concerned but your standards have dropped in the last 2 issues. Hopefully you will have a return to form sometime soon. This site is still excellent though and kind of makes up for the lapses.
The Beatles
Twice described as "going places" by editor / sculptor / raconteur / ringmaster Mark Ellen. An awesome group, I for one cannot get enough.
After watching that, the first time I have watched an introduction to the issue, I think I may love the two a little bit more.
"We're just filming, won't be a sec" - without batting an eyelid. Legend.
Despite the inevitable risk
of bringing out the rabid Word-ites out en masse I'm with Steve Turner, only more so. For me the magazine has been getting less and less interesting for a while, with only the odd article to remind me why it was I subscribed ages ago.
The current issue is, I'm afraid, dull and predictable and even the allure of reading David Hepworth's columns (solely on the basis that I disagree with pretty much everything he writes, I should add) has palled so I shall be able to ignore the resubscribe chasers that are starting to arrive much more easily than I might have done a couple of years ago.
Jo Whiley Interview
Enjoying the new issue, though I thought the Jo Whiley interview was, frankly, unacceptably hostile and rude. I've got no strong opinions on the woman one way or the other, as I don't listen to Radio 1, but I thought spending virtually the entire interview trying to get her to justify herself felt very mean-spirited, and rather disappointing. My respect for her has increased substantially for not just getting up and walking away...
Great!
The Jo Whiley radio experience is the equivalent of listening to lilac paint drying on the interior walls of a shop that sells scented candles and whale song CDs.
By casting himself in the role of arsehole reporter, Rob did her a tremendous favour: Finally she was forced to add a third dimension to her cardboard cut-out public persona, and give voice to some of that passion that is often talked about but not very much in evidence.
I will never voluntarily listen to Jo Whiley on the radio, but I respect her a lot more having read this interview.
Couldn't agree more with AndrewF
I've never heard Jo on the radio but I've always found her to be a pleasant and likable person the odd time I've seen her on the box. Its a basic adage of mine that at least 90% of DJs are completer a***h*les and not being one puts Jo in the top 5-10%.
Whileygate
One of the many benefits of the exile way of life is that you have no idea who people like Jo Whiley are. This means you can draw interesting conclusions about them based solely on third-hand information.
The conclusions I've drawn about her are these:(a) she's probably not the right person to have fronted the BBC's Glastonbury coverage, but they keep giving her the gig, so that's hardly her fault; (b) her day job is to talk a bit between the songs on the Radio 1 breakfast playlist; and (c) she says "amazing" too much for most people's liking.
Or am I missing some other essential characteristic that tips the irritability scale in the wrong direction? (I may well be - The Fitz doesn't usually lay into undeserving targets.)
She started out as one of Radio 1's 'indy' evening crew
but has moved into mainstream daytime programming whilst (seemingly) trying to retain her "I'm really indy and down wiv ver kidz" persona.
I suspect she'd be percieved as a lot less irritating if she morphed into the stereotypical daytime DJ mould.
That's my reading anyway - I don't have these problems with Radio 4 presenters :-)