The birthplace of Michael Fish

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We’ve just come back from a couple of days at the south coast. We had some alright weather at Eastbourne (above, looking towards the Holy Well, Beachy Head is around the corner and the cliffs above are where we met a character with a rucksack here the other year) but when we went to Brighton, it tipped it down and somehow with the constant rain, the town lost a bit of its sparkle.

This rainy weather is enough to send you into a downward spiral but spring will grace us soon with its presence. We’ve started off some seeds, the chillies that aren’t really doing that much from since the last time we looked but it’s only been a week, it’s just that time of year but we stuck some Moneymaker tomatoes and a couple of Quick Fire Chillies in pots with a freezer bag over the top on various windowsills. Fingers crossed!

The rail/musical connection

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While researching a rail mix for a future shortwave transmission we remembered this ambient mix of The KLF’s Last Train to Transcentral which we first heard one evening on the John Peel show. The day after, we were going through Brixton Station and popped into Solar Records, (a record shop now long closed, which was just inside the station. More on the shop here) to see if they had the tune.

We remember the guy behind the counter telling us he had some copies but had sent his entire stock back because all of the copies were warped. I am sure he told us that every copy of the single pressed was warped on purpose as an “art” thing. Not sure if it was true or not but we didn’t bother looking for the tune after that as who wants a warped record.*

News Update: according to discogs: “Limited to 1000 copies (*another 1000 were warped and therefore destroyed)” 

Years later we were going through Charing Cross train station, and we saw the owner of that record shop in a train inspector’s uniform with a nice hat inspecting tickets at the ticket gate. The moral of this tale is music and trains do connect us all!

Buses connect us all

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Here’s KBUS from last weekend, a tribute to the ‘umble autobus from Imaginary Stations. There’s all sorts of bus related tunes from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and the show really is the ticket if you love bus travel!

The show includes at 03.49 a mix from One Deck Pete called Mind The Closing Doors and here’s the tracklistings:
Alan Doyle [f/ Steph Simon] – Confessions Of A Bus Rider
Hoovobot – No fair Bus Fare
The Salsoul Orchestra – Chicago bus stop
Lifetime Pineapple – Double bus fare

Big up the bus!

Things that appear in your front garden (a new series)

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A big cheers to Rich in the Lake District again, for sending this picture of what appeared in his front garden the other day. Wow, that is one mad “male Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), also frequently called a Ring-necked Pheasant.” as AI told us. Cheers Rich, anything else mad that turns up as mad please let us know.

Japan in dub

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Thanks to Stevyn Iron Feather Journal for sending this tune on to us via Facebook messenger late last night. “Some wicked japan dub” he told us and rightly so! Cheers Stevyn.

Off the rails in dub

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While looking for music on Bandcamp, we found these two great locomotive related dub tracks. The first is Chu Chu Train Dub by Ras Teo. Nice stuff!

 

The second is Train Dub from Vin Morgan Meets Lone Ark and as David Rodigan would say “Give me some Signal!”

From pirate ships on the North Sea to the French countryside

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A massive thank you to Spike from Morschen43, who is located near Le Puy-en-Velay in Southern France. He sent over some snaps of his house and garden yesterday, and a nice slice of the world it is.

You might remember Spike from his track “MV Ross Revenge (For Ever!)”, a tune we love and featured in a couple of our shortwave mixes. As well as making music, he loves a bit of horticulture too!

As well as growing flowers he grows vegetables as well, and we’re loving the veg patch below. For those who know us, you know we have a soft spot for a good runner bean cane! The long row of canes and that classic wigwam structure to the left are right up our street. We’re already looking forward to seeing how the vegetable garden progresses as the seasons change (more photographs later this year please Spike!)

Spike spent yesterday giving his roses some attention. As he said, “Roses need concentration and attention for cutting.” He’s right there! When we worked for the council, many years ago, there was no love for the craft. No one cared about achieving that classic “rosebowl” effect or making sure the cut was just above an outward-facing bud. They’d just hack them all down to a uniform two feet! It’s good to hear that there are people who still care.

To go along with the photos, Spike picked out a track from his Bandcamp, a duet titled “J’Aime Les Brunes Sans Filtres”

 

Cheers for the photographs of your great house and garden, Spike! Keep those pictures coming as the garden grows as we’ll be well interested in how you get on in that great vegetable patch.

A Saturday tune

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Here’s a great tune recommended by our good mate Will Jeff who presents the great Lingua Franca show on Love Will Save The Day FM (below). He told us about the artist Land of the Loops and The Bundle Of Joy LP. It’s a great set and we picked this tune from it called Multi-Family Garage Sale (Bargain-Bin Mix) as we love a garage sale and a bargain. The bass puts in mind of a certain Peter Hook(y). Land of the Loops is an artist well worth investigating and do check out Will Jeff’s output on LWSTD-FM!

Forest Hill we have lift off

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On January 10th according to the blog post here, we started off 3 pots each of Real Seeds Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper in a heated seed tray. If you remember, the Prairie Fire takes 2-3 weeks, and the Lemon Drop 3-4 weeks to germinate. Well, the Prairie Fire (right side of the picture) have been up for about a week now and you can see the Lemon Drops (on the left) just starting.

We’ve now turned the heating off on the tray and taken the top off for some air as we don’t want that dreaded damping off disease to get at them like what happened the other year. Here’s to seed germination!