A lovely old tune played to death by the Rt Hon David Rodigan. A bit of the chilled to the gills tunage rather than the usual “mad as” Major Lazer gear but bonkers in it’s own way! Dedicated to the International Space Station that was supposed to be visible in London tonight for the last time until a few weeks time. Did I see it? No.
Cheers to A Robbins for letting us know of this multi-media installation in SE16 plus a free event on Saturday in Southwark Park. It says in the blurb about even having a facsimile of a living room set up for a Blues Dance, at the end of the 1950s. Great stuff!
More about the event here and whereabouts of the location here.
Cheers to Simon, Paul and Ricky at The Dirt at Radio Fab International for having us on their “gardening show like no other” tonight and for playing Madtone’s “Compost your mind” at the start of the programme. Check out The Dirt on play again here (Go to The Dirt 15th June 2014) Madtones Compost Your Mind is at 1.36 mins, the interview is at 26 mins and the brilliant Idiot Gardener going off on one (in a very funny episode) at 43 mins. Listen in and have a laugh!
Big up Joey Jay (brother of Norman) for playing this track on his Kiss FM Roots Reggae Show many moons ago, another production from the great Bunny “Striker” Lee. If “I am the gorgon” is showing at a cinema near you, do go as you won’t be disappointed (and you will laugh many times while watching it!)
Earlier today I watched a brilliant film about the great Bunny “Striker” Lee, “I am the Gorgan” at the BFI by Diggory Kenrick, I won’t say too much as it’ll give the game away but it’s possibly one of the best reggae history films I’ve seen. Some good clips, great animation and spot on with the facts!
Later on in the short Q&A session upstairs at the BFI, DJ Tony Williams who used to present the reggae show on BBC Radio London confirmed that it was a great representation of reggae history of the 1960’s/70’s. It even featured a gardening related piece, a Lime tree in Bunny Lee’s yard which grew like billy-ho once his mum named it “Bunny” after her son. Perhaps we should all start naming our plants and then watch them grow!
A couple of times in the film it featured a clip of Daddy U-Roy live on King Tubby’s Hometown Hi-Fi from early 1975. The quality is something to be desired but it’s quality all the same. Downloadable here.
Before the Bunny Lee feature there were a couple of films from Molly Dineen, one a short, a tribute to Sugar Lincoln Minott and the next, an excellent film from 1981 called Sound Business featuring Lloydie Coxone (who produced “caught you in a lie” and of the Coxsone sound system) and the Young Lion Sound from South London. It was a corker and a historical document of those times. It featured a dance in Brixton Town Hall where if it happened today, jobsworth council health and safety officials (with clipboards) would have closed it down within seconds. A piece of UK reggae history!
Thanks to Simon Diamond of The Dirt, “a gardening show like no other” on Radio Fab International from the city of Manchester for sending us this. It’s a top 5 of tunes his guests have requested on the programme.
1. Can You Dig It? – Rap Battle (Gardener Vs Slug.) Requested by Dan Woods from ‘Can You Dig It?’ They’re South London musical comedians in an allotment themed stylee and have been on Garden’s Question Time too! Soundcloud the tune here.
2. Oddysey – Going Back To My Roots. (The original by Lamont Dozier above.) Requested by Manchester’s gardener-in-residence, Sean Harkin. The National Trust have hired him to inject some new life into the city’s green spaces and to give inspiration to people to ‘grow their own’. How good is that! I bet he isn’t nipping off early on a Friday afternoon or spending most of his working day leaning on a hoe chatting to passers-by like in my old council gardening days.
3. Jimmie Rodgers – Honeycomb. Requested by urban bee-keeper, John Mouncey. He attends to the hives on the roof of Manchester’s Art Gallery with another beekeeper fantastically called John Peel.
4. Fela Kuti – Water No Get Enemy. Requested (repeatedly!) by Paul Exall from MORFF E.M. Technology. Morff promote bokashi, natural farming and cleaning up pollution on Manchester’s waterways.
5. Rt Hon Bob Marley – Get up, Stand up. As requested by Mary Clear from Incredible Edible Todmordon. A community growers group who campaign for local food. Good on you!
Tune into The Dirt on a Sunday 6.00 – 8.00pm on Radio Fab International here.
A couple of good things to look forward to if you’re down the big smoke over the next few weeks. The great Dennis “Blackbeard” Bovell will be playing some tunes upstairs at The Ritzy Cinema, Brixton for nothing (how good is that!) as part of David Katz’ Dub Me Always on Wednesday 9th July. More details here at their Facebook page.
Before then as part of James Lavelle’s Meltdown on Sunday 22nd June there’s a free event down the Southbank called “Sunday Come Down” featuring Don Letts (Not Monty Don), James Lavelle and other top stuff as the day goes on. Let’s hope the weather keeps up. Here’s the line up cribbed from here. I’m sure it’ll change but it gives you clue what to expect.
12 noon – 1.30pm Don Letts
1.30pm – 2.30pm James Lavelle
2.30pm – 3pm Voicelab
3pm – 3.30pm JP Duncan
3.30pm – 4.15pm Jeremy Deller Acid Brass
4.15pm – 5.45pm Horsemeat Disco
5.45pm – 6.45pm James Priestley (Secretsundaze)
6.45pm – 7.15pm James Lavelle
This Saturday coming (June 14th) there’s a special screening of the Bunny Lee Film “I am the Gorgon” at the BFI, Southbank plus after a Q and A session with the director Diggory Kenrick and the narrator of the film and the legend that is Dennis Alcapone. There’s still a couple of tickets left for £6.50 here. I’m going and if I get a chance I’ll ask Dennis if he’s into gardening!
Dillinger – Ragnampiza – Black Swan
“My name is Ragnampiza and I don’t eat fertilizer” toasted the great Dillinger in the 1970’s and he’s right, I’ve just walked down the garden and smelt the new load of comfrey water fermenting and it don’t half whiff. It’s not the sort of stuff you want to ingest!
On Gardener’s Question Time last week Bob Flowerdew (we’ve been sending him emails on and off for the last year asking for his musical top 5 but he refuses to answer) mentions he cuts his comfrey liquid with stinging nettles and borage to get an all-round plant feed. Big up D.I.Y. liquid fertiliser making if you can put up with the stench!
One Deck & Popular – Son of Stitt – Black Country Route
This tune is nicked off that. I do know, as I know the bloke who ripped it off!
Bob Andy – Chains – Studio 1
But the original tune is nicked off this! Thanks to Mistah Brown for educating us on this classic a few years ago. Tune!
Bob Andy – Set Me Free – High Note
A later redo produced by the late and (very) great Sonia Pottinger. Lovely bonkers organ solo in an (very) non Rick “freemason of lodge 3098” Wakeman stylee.
Ras Muffet – The Lord/Lord Dub – off “Dubs from Greenhouse Studio” LP – Roots Injection
Cheers to Simon at The Dirt on Fab Radio International for giving Weeds Up To Me Knees a shout on tonight’s show and playing a tune for all dub gardeners. We salute you! Have a listen to tonight’s show when it gets put up on play again here.
Thanks to our good friend Scarlett for getting in touch about her favourite brand of gardening gloves. It’s funny as one of the light pair I got last week (part of a two part set) fell into the bucket of comfrey liquid yesterday rendering them useless! Great eh, they didn’t even last seven days! Here’s Scarlett’s nomination for favourite gardening glove, the dry touch by gold leaf. I’ve just checked amazon and it says that they are widely recognised as “The World’s Finest Gardening Gloves.” These are a classy pair of gloves unlike mine that are now hanging up to dry to get rid of that putrid comfrey water smell!
Dry Touch by Gold Leaf – my favourites so far in my life.
Made from the same quality leather as fashion gloves and lined, they are super comfy and long lasting, and they look fabulous too. A pair of gardening gloves lasts me about a year. I bought these Gold Leaf gloves in November 2012. They’re starting to go a bit now on one of the fingers so will probably need replacing at the end of the year, by which time they will have lasted me two years! A bit more expensive at around £20 but regular gloves cost £10-£15 for a decent pair, so these are worth the extra. Here I am vogue-ing on Magic Plot 7 when they were clean and new.
I still use Gloves in a Bottle when doing small jobs like seed sowing, light pruning and cutting. A fab product!
Have a look at Scarlett’s great gardening blog here.
A big shout to Simon Diamond of The Dirt, “a gardening programme like no other” on Fab Radio International from Manchester (via the web) who got in touch with us last week. As it says on the website, it’s a programme that “champions have-a-go gardeners and outdoor idlers,” there’s no mention of latin names of plants or any Andy Williams tunes.
It isn’t like anything else. I listened to the last couple of shows on play again last week and it’s an interesting mix of gardening related stuff with a sense of humour. They had an angus beef farmer who also runs a music festival, the week previous, an urban beekeeper in Manchester and a chat with David Bevan, aka The One-handed Gardener. It’s not GQT and the show don’t take itself too seriously, but you know they’re well passionate about the old gardening lark. A while ago they rang their gardening expert for his weekly update only to speak to his neighbour who was around his house feeding his cats as the chap was away on holiday, all live on air, great stuff! The audio of that daftness is here.
Also each week it features the Idiot Gardener. I’ve been listening to his podcasts at work all last week, absolutely mental! He’s knows his stuff and don’t take fools gladly, think of MC Pitman on the allotment. A warning though, he’s not Alys Fowler and uses some choice language (like we all do.) Hear his appreciation of the big tin can in space (The International Space Station, you know we love that here at weeds) here, his views on the Big Allotment Challenge here (we’re with him on that!) and finally the Idiot Gardening ethic here. Big up Idiot Gardening!
The Dirt is not your usual gardening show and it’s a good one, have a listen, you will laugh! Every Sunday on Fab Radio International or on listen again.
Desmond Dekker and the Aces – Music like dirt (Intensified ’68) – Pyramid UK
Weeds up to me knees 