The other month we got this great multi-coloured Bolivian Rainbow Chilli Pepper plant from Herne Hill Market that is now housed in the polytunnel and seems to love it in there so much as we are now getting more great purple flowers. Great stuff!
Unfortunately, we will be down the south coast later this evening but earlier this week noticed this poster up all around the Farringdon locality. The day features an appearance of the great Swell Maps!
Also, an appearance of a typo (we do loads so we can’t talk). Free random pack of seeds to the winner who spots it within a couple of minutes.
An absolutely bonkers tune heard on this week’s On The Wire here originally from 2007 by Paul Rooney called Lucy from Lanchashire.
Fenny who played said tune, mentioned that Lucy is a spryte that was found in a pair of puma pumps that were hanging on a telegraph wire over a bus stop on the A666 also know as the Manchester Road, Bolton Road, or Blackburn Road.
Well worth listening to all 16 minutes of it. More on the release here and more on Paul Rooney here. We are ashamed that we never knew about this tune the first time around.
“The stories outline the role of dub music in thwarting a Satanic prophecy of world domination originating in the witches cauldrons of Lancashire, and involve the many correspondences between Lancashire and the Satanic: the Pendle witches, the A666 motorway, The Fall’s occult interests, and many more.”
Here’s a very chilled 6.04 minutes by High Skies called The Shipping Forecast off an LP called Fluidities by Jonathan Hughes with guests. An excellent ambient track with a nautical theme.
And talking about nautical themes, here’s a photograph of the sea from Herne Bay taken yesterday evening. Zoom in with a magnifying glass and you’ll see from left to right, a very tiny Red Sands Sea Fort, a container ship passing through the wind farm and next to that an even smaller Shivering Sands Sea Fort.
If you remember, Red Sands Sea Fort was where the classic Dangerman Not So Jolly Roger episode was filmed in 1996. Pictures from the show above and below, and the whole episode is up online here. The picture below features the very large (250 ft) Medium Wave antenna of Radio 390 that was still in operation on the fort.
And here’s a version of a important tune that featured in the show. For more on the actual tunes played on the show, have a look here.
Excellent couple of releases found by accident tonight from Soul Diggin out of São Paulo, Brazil. The first is a wonderful tune called I See Dead People [not like us dub version]. Nice rhythm and soulful dub!
The second is an excellent version of Ela Partiu featuring the vocals of Tim Maia over the No, no, no rhythm. Clever stuff. Both tunes are worth checking out.
May the sun keep shining on our gardens!
Here’s a lovely bit of reggae to keep you cool in this mad heatwave we are experiencing in London now. The first is from The Disciples and it is called Living by The Sea mix 3 (previously unreleased) and a wonderful bit of dub. It’s got those keyboard stabs that remind us of Gregory Isaacs and his Rumours tune.
And talking of Gregory, here’s a great one from years ago featuring an extended “jam” of the “Rock On rhythm.” Keep a listen out for a couple of Skybird Jams radio shows coming soon with extended mixes, tracks over 8 minutes long and “Jam” bands aka “Music to increase your attention span”.
Cheers to Justin Patrick Moore for letting us know that Tele Novella have a new tune out and guess what it’s called? Ring of stones. There’s too many coincidences here! Cheers Justin. And as the band say themselves “Supernatural Medieval vibes!”
And someone mentioned this series from many many years ago (below), we have never watched it but know it is a bit bonkers and involves standing stones and has some out there music featured in it.
We are ending the standing stones blog series now.
Until the next time we mention it.
We’ve had some communications overnight about standing stones and we are well chuffed that people are interested in the stone giants like we are. Thanks to Rich in the Lake District for kicking it all off.
The first is from an old friend of ours, Pete B in Woolwich. Thanks for getting in touch and for sending us a great picture of The Callanish Stones (above) on the Isle of Lewis, the one Justin used on his yard sale flyer in the last post. He also sent us a link to a wonderful panoramic photograph (nearly 140 degrees!) of the Castlerigg Stone Circle.
He emailed “Nice to see the Castlerigg stones, some years ago I caught this panorama of Castlerigg when we were camping in the Lakes.”
For the picture click here.
As Pete added “Best viewed on mobile phone in landscape mode, maximised and with controls hidden – downward pointing arrow to the left-hand side of the control bar.”
Thanks also to Bongo Twisty for getting in touch via the comments and for sending us a great photograph. “The picture is of the Standing Stones of Stenness in Orkney. I was up there cycling about a couple of years ago.” Thanks a million for sending it over Bongo Twisty and for following the blog for a long while! All pictures are copyright the owners.
Ta for the pictures again both, keep cool in this present heatwave and take it easy!
Want to see the Sun rise over the heel stone at 04.52 am tomorrow and enjoy some true solstice vibes from the comfort of your own home/bed?
Feeling a bit too long in the tooth for standing in the cold all night, and listening to the sound of early morning drumming workshops with no sleep is not the aural delight it used to be? Tune into the above youtube for some genuine solstice vibes piped to you via the internet. Put on your best Stonehenge slippers, have some tea and toast ready and watch that magic moment when the sun rises.
A Happy Solstice to you all, whatever time it is where you are and wherever you’ll be celebrating the solstice.
We love the stories of the good old days when Ken Barlow used to turn up at a Stonehenge solstice and you could sit on top of the stones and watch whilst Hawkwind played “Silver Machine” as the sun came up. All for Free! Unfortunately we didn’t go to any of the festivals there but attempted it once and missed it by one day. The convoy was driving off when we got there.
Big up Wally Hope by the way, organiser of the Stonehenge Festival. Without him there would be no Crass and without Crass there would be no Crass-like Anarchic seed sowing method that we use.
This weekend Imaginary Stations bring you the fourth episode in the Downbeat on Shortwave series with Jesse Yuen (from Perth, Australia) and One Deck Pete (from Catford Village, Londres).
Jesse and Pete bring you two 15-minute downtempo mixes each over the hour-long show. Expect some ambient, dub, reggae and downtempo tunes for a chilled-out weekend.
The show is broadcast on Saturday 13th June at 1100 hrs UTC (12 noon in the UK) on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 14th June at 1300 hrs UTC (2pm in the UK) on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC (9pm in the UK) on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz. Thanks to the great Shortwave Gold for beaming those radio waves skywards.
Don’t worry if you haven’t a shortwave radio you can tune in via an online Software Defined Radio here (pre-tuned into 6160 kHz). Just plug in at the right time(s) and experience that shortwave mono sound with all the fading and cross channel interference live.
Here’s the older shows for your listening pleasure!
Programme 1
Programme 2
Programme 3
