Why can’t brothers in bands ever get along?

Word In Your Ear

Hosts David Hepworth and Alex Gold navigate a wide-ranging conversation covering everything from bizarre European reality TV formats to the linguistic

Key takeaways

• The German reality TV concept 'Sperm Race' was a proposed format that never actually reached production.
• Ed Sheeran faced significant backlash after Macklemore was removed from his US stadium tour following an anti-war speech that offended venue owner Robert Kraft.
• Actress Annie Cawson earned approximately $100,000 in residuals from just five episodes of Seinfeld.
• Kevin Hart reportedly earned $20 million through 'back end' participation in Jumanji: The Next Level.
• The hosts discuss the 'generational ripple effect' where legacy acts like Bon Jovi maintain massive popularity via younger demographics.

Main topics

• European reality TV formats
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Notable quotes

Managing fury is all about managing that fury to your advantage.

Conclusion

A fascinating look at how nostalgia, money, and the volatility of soci

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:00) 🎵 Speaker 4 (0:03) You're watching or listening to Word In Your Ear. Of course you are, as you're never alone with a show that alights upon everything ever invented in the art of conversation. Whether that's regrettable rock and roll footwear, daft things audiences do, epic stage names, tracks to play at wedding parties or the outer limits of Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera. Do leave a like or subscribe by going to patreon.com slash wordinyourear to discover further delights on offer. And now, get stuck into this. Speaker 1 (0:45) You're listening to a podcast from The Word. Well, Speaker 5 (0:47) it's gold. Hello. Hello, Dave. How are you? It's just the two of us because Mark Allen's away in his Scottish estate. He's on the jolly, isn't he? He has to go there and visit the tenants once a year. He goes around delivering firewood to the crofts and so forth. Speaker 2 (1:05) He's got to check the drainage in the lower field. That's right. Speaker 5 (1:08) So it's thee and me. We're going to start with the stout waddy. as is traditional. And I'll go first, Alex. What I'm about to give you are the names of five outlandish reality TV formats from Speaker 4 (1:27) Europe. Speaker 5 (1:31) And of the five, four are real, but one never happened. Okay, one's made up, okay? Okay. And it's up to you to see if you can identify them. So I'm just going to whiz through them first. You might like to take notes, okay? Bring Speaker 2 (1:48) it Speaker 5 (1:48) on. And then we'll come back and see if you can decide, okay? First one is a Dutch program which translates as shoot and swallow. which is all about drugs and sexual intercourse. That was thought to be one of the things that might fascinate the great Dutch TV viewing public. The next one was from Norway's state broadcaster, which is called P.I.I.P. Show. P.I.I.P. Show. Okay. And it followed the lives of many kinds of birds that visited a bird feeder outside of Oslo. Of course. And then the third one was a Spanish format called, translates as, Who Wants to Marry My Son? And this is a popular dating show in Spain in which five male contestants must choose from a group of candidates who are trying to win them over. And the catch is the men's mums get a say in who might become their next daughter-in-law. Oh, crikey. Okay, and then the fourth one now is from Germany, Sperm Race. Sperm Race. Okay, and it was shot in a sperm bank in Cologne. The pilots had 12 contestants competing against each other to see whose sperm was the spermiest. Okay. And then Speaker 4 (3:09) finally, Bridalplasty. Speaker 5 (3:12) Bridalplasty. Bridalplasty. Twelve contestants competed for a chance to win their dream wedding. along with the plastic surgery procedures on their wish list. Now, one of those five, so four out of that five were actually produced, okay? One wasn't. Would you care to guess which was the one that wasn't? Go Speaker 2 (3:35) on. Well, my instincts are telling me that sperm race is so outlandish, it has to be real. And it does sound very German to Speaker 5 (3:44) me. Speaker 2 (3:44) Carry on. Who wants to marry my son? Speaker 2 (3:50) Yes, I can imagine that. Carry on. Okay. Peep show. That's exactly how you say it, isn't it? Yes, I suppose so. I think that's probably real. Okay, carry on. So the ringer, I think, is between shoot and swallow and bridalplasty. Go on. And I would say, oh man, it's probably... It's shoot and swallow. That's the ringer. Speaker 5 (4:20) Okay, well, you're wrong, actually, because they're all real apart from sperm rays, which was proposed but never actually produced. Speaker 5 (4:29) It goes as far as the commissioning process. They workshopped it. They workshopped it. Somebody did a trial for whatever and then thought, no, we can't do that. So all the rest, okay, so, you know, what do you say? Shoot and swallow. Peep show. Who wants to marry my son? And bridalplasty. We're all really done produced on television. And aren't you sorry you missed them, Alex? I am absolutely mortified, yes. Speaker 2 (5:00) That's fantastic. I've got one for you, actually, Dave. Go on, go on. So it's, this is, it's cheese or motorway service station. Speaker 5 (5:11) Oh, okay. I can feel, I can feel this. Yeah, I'm trying to think of motorway service areas that sound like cheeses. Usually with two words, aren't they? Speaker 2 (5:21) Well, we shall see. How are they? All right, go Speaker 5 (5:25) on. Okay, go on. Fire away. Okay, Speaker 2 (5:27) so I'm going to give you Duddleswell. Duddleswell. Duddleswell. Speaker 2 (5:35) Well, carry Speaker 5 (5:37) on. I'll come back. Go on, Donald's Speaker 2 (5:39) wealth. Kidderton Ash. Speaker 5 (5:41) Oh, very good. Kidderton Ash. Very good. Carry on. Speaker 2 (5:47) Next up, Chevington. Cheddington. Chev, with a V. Oh, Chevington. Chevington. One V, mind you. Speaker 5 (5:55) Okay, go Speaker 2 (5:56) on. Millstone. Speaker 5 (5:59) Wow. These are really good, Alex. Go on. Pont Abraham. Pont Abraham. Wow. Speaker 2 (6:08) How many of these have you got? I've got three more. Go on, go on. Gordano. Gordano. Wow. Speaker 5 (6:18) Go on. Speaker 2 (6:19) Derby. Just Derby. Just plain old Derby. Speaker 2 (6:27) Humble, yet powerful. And finally, Gloucester. Speaker 5 (6:32) Oh, wow. Okay. Well, my first note on this, Alex, so Duddleswell, Kidderton, Ash, Chevington, Millstone, Pont Abraham, Gordano, Derby and Gloucester, is I don't think, and I'm a fairly well-travelled person, I don't think I've visited a single one of them. You don't think? Speaker 5 (6:57) Loads of service areas I'm quite familiar with. None of those am I familiar with. That's very good work. That's very good work. It's amazing how Speaker 4 (7:07) strange English place names can be. Speaker 5 (7:10) I'm going to say Duddleswell is a cheese. That's correct. It is, in fact, Dudley's Well Speaker 2 (7:17) is a cheese Speaker 5 (7:17) that comes from a sheep, Speaker 2 (7:19) a Speaker 5 (7:19) sheep's cheese, if you will. Right, okay. And Speaker 2 (7:22) is Pont Abraham also a cheese? Pont Abraham is, in fact, a service station on the M4. Oh, right, Speaker 5 (7:30) okay. And I'm going to say Chevington is a cheese. Speaker 2 (7:36) Chevington is indeed. It's a cow's milk cheese, semi-soft and mould-ribened. Speaker 5 (7:43) What about Kidderton Ash? Is that a real service area or not? Kidderton Speaker 2 (7:48) Ash, silky smooth Speaker 5 (7:49) goat's cheese. Speaker 2 (7:50) Oh, God. Speaker 5 (7:51) Yeah. Well, you win there. You win there. No, it's funny. We're talking about English place names. I always used to have a fantasy of inventing a bunch of detective stories. Okay. Because all writers think they can write detective stories, and they're wrong in this. But, you know, they all think they can do it. And I always thought if I was going to have a fictional detective, it would be a detective named after a place in Yorkshire, rural Yorkshire, which is called Farnley Speaker 3 (8:24) Tyas. Speaker 5 (8:26) Farnley Speaker 3 (8:26) Tyas. Farnley Speaker 5 (8:27) Tyas. Two words. Okay. Farnley. T-Y-A-S. Isn't Speaker 3 (8:32) that a fantastic name? That's great. Speaker 2 (8:34) That's a great name for a gumshoe, isn't it, that? There's a place near, I think it's in Surrey, called Tarrington St. Clements. Oh, very good. Absolutely spectacular. I really like, you know, Devises or Devises in some sense. Devises. Speaker 5 (8:48) Devises. It's when you get West, actually, you get the strangest names. Nick Lowe wrote a really good song. Well, he writes nothing but really good songs about a small place that you pass through on the road into Devon, I think. or in Devon, somewhere down that way, because I've gone through it a few times. And it's called Indian Queens. Indian Queens. Indian Queens. And obviously, you must have driven through there and thought, God, that's a song just begging to be written, isn't Speaker 4 (9:21) it? Speaker 5 (9:21) It's all that girl I met back in Indian Queens. It's absolutely fantastic. Because British place names, they tend not to have the same kind of charisma that American place names. have 24 hours from Tulsa and, you know. Yeah, Speaker 2 (9:37) they've either got like a Latin inflection or there's something vil which sounds really exciting, but British place names tend to be a lot more understated. Apart from, occasionally you get the odd gem like Virginia Water, which I'm really fascinated by. You know, it sounds like a really exciting place, but... I kind of don't want to go just in case it isn't. Do you know what I mean? I think it's Speaker 5 (9:57) why Prosperous Virginia Water. I Speaker 2 (9:59) always Speaker 5 (9:59) like to say it's kind of a stockbroker belt, Virginia Water. You know, near me in Speaker 2 (10:05) Warwickshire, you've got two places. You've got North Piddle and Wyre Piddle. Oh, right. Have you read about Speaker 5 (10:11) Piddington coming into the news this Speaker 4 (10:15) week? Speaker 5 (10:15) Piddington? Speaker 4 (10:15) No. Speaker 5 (10:17) Piddington Speaker 4 (10:17) is a Speaker 5 (10:18) small place, I think in Oxfordshire, which has... Because it objects to having asylum seekers or whatever housed in some former military base that happens to be on the outskirts of Piddington. They are taking a leaf out of the old Ealing comedy, Passport to Pimlico. Passport to Speaker 4 (10:44) Piddington. Passport to Pimlico. Speaker 5 (10:46) No, and declaring, you know, unilaterally independence from the UK. They wanted to just go off on their own, which was an idea pioneered in that Stanley Holloway film from the end of the war called Passport to Pimlico. I don't know if he'll get that far. I was thinking about gigs. Mark and I were talking last week before you went away. I couldn't believe that, A, I couldn't believe that Bon Jovi, right, let me give you a number of things I couldn't believe about Bon Jovi. One, that they were still going. Two, that they were playing Wembley. Three, that they were playing Wembley Arena. Speaker 2 (11:29) And Speaker 5 (11:30) four, that they were playing three Wembley Arenas. And I know this is something we frequently remark upon in this podcast. But, you know, I had to go back and check when Bon Jovi last had a hit in the United Kingdom. I think it took me back to Speaker 2 (11:50) the previous Speaker 5 (11:50) century. I'm pretty confident. Probably something Speaker 2 (11:53) like It's My Life in 99 or something, probably. Which sounds exactly the same as the previous 20, mind you. But I think that's Speaker 5 (12:01) the Speaker 2 (12:01) trick, isn't Speaker 5 (12:01) it? What is Speaker 2 (12:01) the Speaker 5 (12:01) explanation for a band? Speaker 2 (12:05) How Speaker 5 (12:06) many people is Wembley Stadium? 70,000 or something like that? For doing three of those? Speaker 4 (12:12) It doesn't surprise me. You know what? It doesn't surprise me because I Speaker 2 (12:15) think you'll hear Living on a Prayer played at every nightclub in the UK still. And I think there's a certain kind of strata of absolutely massive 80s pop slash rock acts which have retained their fan base. The fan base has been passed down to the fan base's kids who like that. So it Speaker 5 (12:33) gets bigger. Speaker 2 (12:34) And so Speaker 5 (12:35) it kind of... It's the Oasis ripple Speaker 2 (12:37) effect. Speaker 5 (12:38) The generational ripple. You know, so the old idea, which, you know, I grew up with in the old days, was that you were young and hot and then you weren't hot anymore. You know, you slowly cooled off. It doesn't work anymore, does it at all? No. You get hotter, don't you? You get bigger. Because it's the demographics working in your favour, presumably, as much as anything else. More people are getting interested in Bon Jovi all the time. It doesn't seem to make sense. Speaker 2 (13:12) Well, the thing is, you know, I mean, certainly when I was growing up, there was your music and there was your parents' music and never the twain shall meet. You know, God forbid you like something your mum or dad were into. However, you know, I think kids are growing up now and they really love what their parents are into. You know, their parents being into something is kind of an endorsement. I think a lot of kids are discovering music via their parents now and also via internet memes and things like that and, you know, sync situations like Stranger Things. I was even in Speaker 5 (13:45) somebody's lesson, I was talking to my next door neighbour yesterday or whatever, he said, oh, last night I went to see the Jayhawks. I said, I kind of was vaguely aware the Jayhawks were on tour. Now, the Jayhawks were never huge, but, you know, always had a bit of a following. And they made a very good album called Tomorrow the Green Grass, which I would have thought was in the 90s. I haven't researched those particularly. And they had two main songwriters, Gary Louris and, what's his name? I can't remember his name. Mark Olsen. And then they broke up and then they got back together again and then they fell out again, this time really badly. And so now the group is just kind of fronted by Gary Lewis. And they played in London. I said, where did they play? He said, oh, the Forum in Kentish Town. Now, the Forum's a decent-sized venue, isn't it? I saw Ronnie Wood at the Forum a couple of weeks ago. Right, okay. So how many people are in the Forum? A thousand? Yeah, Speaker 2 (14:53) at Speaker 5 (14:53) least. Yeah, okay. And I said, was it full? He said, yes, it was full. And I thought to myself, 30 years ago, when the Jayhawks were in their prime period, in their pomp, so to speak, I don't think they played a venue as big as that in London. I mean, Stan corrected, but I don't think they did. I just think everybody's reputation gets greater and greater with time. It's the Shed 7 factor, isn't it? It's a shed seven factor. That's what we should call it. If you hang about long enough, people, you know, eventually just give in and say, oh, all right, okay, I'll buy a ticket or whatever. It's a shed seven factor. So one person who's been in the news this week, in absolutely every form of news that I've come across. for reasons that sure don't make him any happier, is Ed Sheeran. Now, Speaker 4 (15:51)