Episode Ep 803 August 20, 2025 33 min 31s

Tanita Tikaram - from ‘girl with guitar in bedroom’ to Hammersmith Odeon in six months

From Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

Tanita Tikaram’s second gig had an audience of three – one paying customer and two concert promoters. When one of them wanted to talk to her afterwards she said, “sorry, I’ve got to get the train home.” She was 17. In this podcast she tells us the story of the one of the fastest career ascents on record which stops off at …

… an open-mic night with a girl who cut up newspaper – “what happened to her?”

… Basingstoke alumni –Tanita Tikaram, Jane Austen, Liz Hurley …

… ignoring Wham! in favour of Suzanne Vega and Tom Waits.

… the lure of school theatre groups – “a skive, you could basically be arty and smoke”.

… “Ringo Starr gave me an award!”

… supporting Warren Zevon and Jonathan Richman - and John Martyn (with Tracy Chapman).

… the faint absurdity of promoting Twist In My Sobriety on Kids TV.

… “when you’re young, you’re adaptable”.

… mourning the loss of mainstream music.

… a summer spent miming on European pop TV shows.

… the thrill of hearing Ancient Heart was Top Ten when playing the Cambridge Folk Festival – “they all thought, that’s one of us in the charts!”

… and today’s imbalance between new music and nostalgia.