Monthly Archives: March 2020

This is a blog post about this is a music show

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We’ve just recently discovered on twitter through @StrangeBeacons an excellent shortwave broadcast called This is a music show which is now on our weekly listening rota. It’s put together by someone called “Your host” and originates out of Toronto, Canada and their recent shows are up on their soundcloud page here.

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-055

The show contains a real eclectic mix of music from records founds in thrift shops, lesser known international classics, pitched down disco, easy listening, across the board malarkey and some excellent dub! Added to that, there’s shout outs and even images and text broadcast in MFSK64 digital mode too, all in an hour, how do they fit it all in? Tune in, you’ll like it!

We tried on youtube to find one of the tunes played on the latest show Sanchez’s “One in a million dub” but only found the vocal version but these two related tunes turned up. We never knew that about the Eddie Floyd original that inspired the reggae version. Well you learn something new every day!

Every studio needs an oscilloscope*

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Here’s the main inspiration for our next mix “Radio fanatics of the world unite” to be aired on the next broadcast of Free Radio Skybird on March 29th at 1100 UTC on 6070 kHz in the 49 metre band. It’s a clip from a 1970’s Pirate Radio TV special featuring the legendary Radio Jackie.
There’s some brilliant footage here (no sound for the first few seconds though): the correct way to use a catapult to get an antenna up, denim a go-go, a demonstration of how not to get maximum power out of a sledgehammer, some brilliant barnets, sunglasses and clothes, fags on the go and nice walkie-talkies! We love the bit about the security of the station: “Behind every tree, under every bush, young men use walkie talkies to foil their own particular yellow peril”. Big up Radio Jackie!
*Title nicked from the Radio Jackie piece on www.amfm.org.uk

What? The sun is shining again?

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A massive thanks to all at the Thompson and Morgan gardening blog for the box of Beneficial Flower seeds containing all sorts of great stuff for bees and pollinators including cornflower, cosmos, dill, foxglove, catmint and wild poppy. After the last frost (have a look at this site here for estimated dates) we’ll be sowing them in the bed at the bottom of the garden. We’ll even mix some of the other box we got from the pound shop (nowhere as good as the T&M box but it was a quid!) the other week for added effect! Cheers again T&M, we’ll keep you posted!

Prompted by the person who said to us the other month: “Why don’t you write a blog and keep track of what you planted where and when”, yesterday we sowed a row of golden acre cabbages and a row of red salad bowl lettuce (both from the free seeds from Kitchen Garden Magazine). It may be a bit early but they are sown under glass. This bit of window was found in a skip many many moons ago and is still in use at Weeds HQ. Waste not want not!

And to celebrate the sun coming out again here’s a belter of a tune that’ll if all goes well will be getting an airing later this month on the next episode of Free Radio Skybird as part of a mix called “Radio Fanatics of the world unite”. The tune is from Yemanjo & Monarch Duo called Roma (Yemanjo remix) on Jumpsuit Records. Any record label that describes itself as a “curation project of The Polish Ambassador and his cohort of scientists, spirit animals and vibe consultants” is alright by us! May the sun shine on all day.

It’s good to get out there (while you can!)

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We don’t know what the weather has in store for us today but last Sunday it was glorious and a few gardening jobs were done! The garden pond pump was cleaned and the wires put back together again with some dry solder joints and a good bit of electrical tape after some roadent had gnawed through them last year. The pond pump now works!

The back bed was dug over again and raked to a nice tilth as we’ll be sticking some wild flower seeds down there after the frosts and give the bed some rest from the vegetable growing for a change. Even the lawn got its first cut in true council style, one cut on very high, then one a little lower.

And some palettes we were given years ago were put into use as some raised beds. All we need now is a big bag of compost to stick in them to get them to a nice height!

When the sun’s out the old enthusiasm seems to lift. Roll on the good weather!