Word In Your Ear Presents | Sir Tim Rice

Between long and enviable afternoons enjoying the soft thud of leather on willow (he was President of the MCC), his unique adventure took him into the worlds of Bond and Disney movies, pop book publishing, radio panel shows, working with ABBA and Elton and writing lyrics for Elvis, Freddie Mercury, David Essex and Rick Wakeman. This is the man who, for various noble reasons, once managed to rig the Evening Standard’s Girl Of The Year competition and land the winner a record deal.

Tim will be settled upon the scuffed leather sofa to look back at his phenomenal life and forward to NBC’s upcoming live concert production of Jesus Christ Superstar featuring John Legend and Alice Cooper.

And our other guest, Richard Newman, will tell the captivating, true and occasionally tortuous tale mapped out in his book The Making Of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, soon to be in paperback to mark the album’s 45th anniversary. Its recording involved glockenspiels, a nasal choir, Piltdown Man, Viv Stanshall, bracing creative invention and colossal quantities of Guinness. And was the springboard for the entire Virgin empire.

It’ll start around 7.15pm as usual. Rip-roaring fun guaranteed.