Word In Your Ear does the 70s featuring Johnnie Walker and Michael Watts

The next instalment in Word In Your Ear's quest to Do The Decades features two legendary media operators. On Monday May 11th the DJ Johnnie Walker and the rock writer Michael Watts will be at The Islington, treating Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and, if you're in the house, you, to a no-holds-barred journey back through the decade that saw more change and more excess than all the other decades put together.

As one of Melody Maker's senior journalists during that febrile decade Mick Watts was the man to whom David Bowie first showed off in his dress. He was the man to whom Pink Floyd sent an anonymous present out of which sprung a boxing glove after his disobliging review of Meddle. As the paper's man in New York he was witness to the key events of that relentless era.

Johnnie Walker has been a legend of British radio since he was forced ashore by the Marine Offences Act in 1967 and joined Radio One. During the seventies his lunchtime show was often a lone beacon of taste in a sea of Showaddywaddy. He saw the sleaze as well as the splendour up close. In the late 70s he moved to San Francisco to join the pioneering freeform station KSAN and was able to see the gigantification of rock up close.

Both Johnnie and Mick are friends of WIYE. This promises to be a uniquely bracing evening of anecdote and insight.