Category Archives: Free Radio Skybird

There’s a sheep in me garden what am I gonna do?

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Thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for sending us a pic of a woolly intruder in his back garden the other day. We like the look on the sheep’s face who could be thinking “What is this human doing in MY field?”

One advantage is there’s a good chance that may be some sheep droppings left which could be a pain in the neck but looking online it looks like they’re high in both phosphorus and potassium which is great for the garden. Just like the classic horse manure it has to have time to age (as it’s far too strong and if used straight away would burn the plants) and you can even make a compost tea out of it to apply to the garden in liquid form. We’d suggest a thick pair of gloves if you intend to pick some up this weekend. Cheers for that Rich! More on sheep manure here.

Number stations for the spy in a chip shop on a friday night

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Thanks again to Justin Patrick Moore, this time for letting us know about this great track. Sounding like a send up of the Lincolnshire Poacher number station the wonderfully named Shropshire Number Stations brings you The Minsterley Tumbler and it’s good fun. We do hope that this doesn’t start a trend of happy sounding tunes sampling/parodying number stations as it’s all doom and gloom and the end of the world  on shortwave, ain’t it?

Here’s another track that isn’t getting all serious on us when it comes to sampling off shortwave. Ax Martz brings us the upbeat Mensaje en código (Coded message).

 

If you do some bass heavy tripped out ravey number stations vibes, this is a good one. RAVEDEATH1993 with Number Station Dub.

 

00000. End of message end of transmission. Enjoy your weekend (said in a monotone robotic voice of course).

You say zuchinni, we also say courgette

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It’s going absolutely crazy in the vegetable patch at Justin Patrick Moore‘s back yard in Cincinnati. Our good friend from across the pond and author of the fine book The Radio Phonics Laboratory (out now from the Peckham based Velocity Press here) has sent us some pictures of his vegetable plot. Look at the monster zuchinni plants (above) and the present harvest (below).

And as for the green beans and the corn (and the current harvest in the fridge) look at the below. It’s funny as our zuchinni (AKA courgette or baby marrow over here) and green beans didn’t get past germination stage or if they did, the “no holds barred” Forest Hill slugs had them.

Usually with zuchinni/courgettes we have a glut and there’s only so much you can do with them. There are ways around that glut though, we’ve tried this chocolate courgette cake here and here’s a great idea from Justin’s wife Audrey.

An open sandwich called Yvonne.
Put sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, and spinach, black olives if you like them, seasoned with garlic, pepper, basil and melted swiss cheese on top that you ladle over toasted bread. Add a splash of soy sauce to your taste. Sounds great for those zuchinni gluts and your own gut too.

And (above) look at this for a self-seeding/volunteer zuchinni in his garden too! What went on with our seedlings I wonder and usually our normal plants don’t even get as big as this.

And as for a tune, Justin picked this one from Tim Curry funnily enough called The zucchini song. Cheers again for the pics and recipe idea Justin and here’s more on his great book here:

On your imaginary airwaves this week

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On Sunday 14th July 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz Imaginary Stations will be bringing you more summer of shortwave celebrations with COOL 3. More summer vibes and happy sunshine tunes even if though the weather outside isn’t summer-like where you live. It’s certainly don’t feel like summer here today.

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 17th July 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz they’ll be bringing you a great show in the form of Radio Ace, alas no Flash Frisbone but an array of wonderful tunes and the story of Mingling Mike. It’s a winner of a show and one well worth a listen so tune in!

Popcorn Double Feature later showing

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Wow we didn’t even know it was a cover version! We prefer The Fall‘s interpretation but this ain’t bad though. While we’re there, we’re sticking this one below from The Fall as we love the Lee Perry original but this is great too.

Shortwave’s not hip? Who told you that?

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On Sunday 7th July 2024 at 0900/1300 hrs UTC on 6160 kHz and then at 2000 UTC on 6160 kHz and 3975 kHz the Imaginary Stations crew will be bringing you COOL 2 via the services of Shortwave Gold.

Expect entertainment of the summer vacation kind via the ionosphere. They’ll be a live BBQ in the studio with running commentary (plus amateur firefighter), a specialist towel folder to give you tips on how to place your towel on the sunlounger when reserving premier poolside seats, alongside some summer tunes. There’s a mix from our very own galloping gardener One Deck Pete with “A 7 inch single summer special” at 4 mins in featuring Earl Brown, Stereolab, Freda Payne, Anthony Johnson and Martel Robinson. So roll out the beach blanket, blow up that beach ball and get yourself comfy and tune into COOL 2.

Then via WRMI on Wednesday 10th July 2024 at 0200 UTC on 9395 kHz there’ll be the debut show of COOL which was broadcast to Europe the other week which we posted about here. Tune in and enjoy the “summer of shortwave” vibes.

Cool Runnings

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Here’s the studio audio of Imaginary Station’s COOL from Sunday 30th June 2024 transmitted by Shortwave Gold to Europe via shortwave. The programme features cool tunes for this summer of ours (even though it’s been a bit grey here today) featuring DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

At 3.47 in there’s a mix by One Deck Pete called “Summertime and the living is easy”. Here’s the tracklistings:
Jimi Tenor with Cold Diamond & Mink – Gaia Sunset, Part 1
Glass Beams – Mahal
Augustus Pablo – Satta Dub
Chancha via Circuito – La Victoria ft Lido Pimienta & Manu Ranks

Get some suntan lotion on and enjoy the sunshine!

I suppose you’d like to know how much it’s worth?

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After a text alert to Weeds HQ this week that records were dumped locally, we found a 1970’s shopping bag with rope handles with “Lanzarotte” enblazoned on it containing some LPs outside a garden wall down the road. No A&M God Save the Queens or Bullet Dubs in there but the record above stood out for us on the bizarre sleeve stakes. We’ll be bringing the battered 1970’s Lanzarote shopping bag with miscoloured thick rope handles next time BBC Antiques Roadshow hits the Horiman’s Museum and see what they think about that great piece of antiquity.

By the way our favourite specialist on The Antiques Roadshow is the glass expert Andy McConnell. And here’s something we didn’t know about him until we read about it this morning here: “A trained journalist, Andy spent 1972-76 in California, interviewing & touring the US with many of the greatest rock & folk bands. The theme continued into the early ‘80s when he produced promo videos at Island Records, for acts including Tears for Fears, Kid Creole & The Coconuts and Steve Winwood. Leaving Island in 1983, he production managed a black music series for Channel 4, Rockers Roadshow.” The above is one of the said shows which contains some great footage of Mikey Dread and others we’ve never seen before. Andy has gone up even more in our estimations now!

As for the Lanzarote bag we also found this great LP from Milt Raskin in it which has an excellent sleeve and is a nice bit of exotica well suited for this sunny summer. More on this LP here. DJ Frederick and Gerry Hectic, do you know this one?

Here’s to more sunshine!

Tune of the night

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As we were looking for some tunes for a shortwave mix the other night we came across this track. It’s from a few years ago and one we hadn’t heard of before. It’s by Chancha via Circuito called La Victoria featuring Lido Pimienta & Manu Ranks and it’s a winner! It’s from the LP Bienaventuranza.

And as one of the comments on the Bandcamp says “I don’t think there is a better album cover. Frame worthy, and the music matches its brilliance!” Excellent stuff!

News on this week’s Imaginary Stations broadcasts here.

Words in papers, words in books

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Big thanks to Gerry Hectic our man from the south coast for sending us his “Wise words or not” mix. It’s a great one as ever with lots of tunes that we’ve never heard before (Yvonne Baker being one of them, what a great track) and a mix to investigate. Here’s the tracks:
Moritz von Oswald Trio – Chapter One
Mike Leander And His Orchestra – The Letter
The Harvey Averne Dozen – The Word
Yvonne Baker – Didn’t Say A Word
The G.G. All Stars – (Same Folks) Dub Wise
Felipe Gordon – No Words (Byron the Aquarius Dub Mix)

Gerry’s mix was inspired by WORD on Imaginary Stations on Sunday which is now up online on the Imaginary Stations Mixcloud below. The show featured books, (Radio Phonic) laboratories, dictionary rock, abbreviations and ampersands and lots more from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

The first track on the show from The Real Tuesday Weld called Last Words is how you use shortwave samples in a tune!

At 21.13 mins in there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “A Word to the Wise” and the tracks are:
The Conet Project – Phonetic Alphabet NATO (excerpt)
The Medallions – The Letter
Giorgio (Moroder) – Stop
Capital Letters – Smoking My Ganja
Jourbert Singers – Stand on the word
The Conet Project – Phonetic Alphabet NATO (excerpt)

Cheers again to Gerry for sending us his mix and here’s more WORD related tunes.