Category Archives: Free Radio Skybird

Wild plants connect us all

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Last week we received some pictures of local vegetation from our good friend Wlad (US7IGN) in Kyiv, Ukraine spotted while on his daily walk. We sadly haven’t got much knowledge when it comes to foraging but would love to know more about wild plantlife.

As for the picture Wlad sent above, these here are the same flower aren’t they? Those were seen a long while ago in the Welsh countryside (here). As far as we know from a comment posted at the time from our friend Jan, they are Yellow Toadflax. More on the plant here. Thanks for these pics Wlad as they are interesting viewing.

We’ve also just heard from Rich R in the Lake District saying he left the garden for a week and those Fox and Cubs have taken over and are a foot tall. Crazy stuff! Wild plants eh?

Calling the world, calling the world

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Here’s last night’s broadcast of Skybird Radio International which was beamed to Europe thanks to Shortwave Gold on 6160/3975 kHz at 9pm UK time.

There’s an hour of a mix up of music from around this globe of ours including a mix at 23.36 from One Deck Pete. Here’s the tracks which was played on the said mix:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Unknown – Berceuse (off John Peel’s Archive Things LP)
Minyo Crusaders – Cumbia del Monte Fuji
Cyril Diaz & his orchestra – Taboo
Brno Radio Folk Orchestra – Cymbalom Dance (off John Peel’s Archive Things LP)
Sam Carty – Bird in hand

Enjoy!

COOL down the pace

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Last weekend’s transmission of Imaginary Stations (the show that features music you probably won’t hear elsewhere on shortwave) is now up on Mixcloud. This episode is the station COOL “Cool tunes for Summer moods” featuring some music that evokes sunshine even though London last weekend wasn’t experiencing much of that.

23 minutes into the broadcast in is a mix from One Deck Pete called a “Seven Inch Single Summer Special” featuring
Earl Brown – Get Together
Stereolab – Miss Modular
Freda Payne – Unhooked Generation
Anthony Johnson – Zuggi Zeng Version/Roots Radics Dedication To Flabba Holt 2 Martel Robinson – Follow you

So get out in the garden, perch yourself on a deckchair, stick some headphones on and blast the show for maximum pleasure. “Summertime and the living is easy” as Our ‘enry once sang.

Sundays on shortwave

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If you’re about the shortwaves this Sunday 16th July 2023 (with a radio or an online SDR here) there’s a couple of programmes that may interest you if you like the eclectic. The first is KNTS (Kearsarge North Transmission Service) from the Imaginary stations crew beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany at 2000 utc (9pm UK time) on 6160 khz.

Expect lots of shortwave, radio related sounds and even some tunes with CW (that’s morse to you and I) and at 15 mins in there’s a mix from One Deck Pete. If you haven’t a shortwave radio tune in here.

Then later at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz the great Shortwave Music Library returns via WRMI. DJ Frederick digs through his across the board record collection taking a few requests, pulling out some tunes and giving them an airing over the shortwaves. Sit back and relax with a COOL drink and turn that shortwave radio back on. If the batteries have been taken out of the shortwave radio by the kids you can always tune in here.

Much more (than) music

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Big shout to our good friend The Rhythm Doctor for playing this excellent tune below by URBS called Ever Golden on this week’s Waiting Room radio show on IDA Radio (Tallinn). Tune in every Monday from 9-11am for a cross genre of quality breakfast classics from downtempo, funk, reggae and in-between.

Here’s a couple more radio shows this time of the shortwave variety this Sunday 9th July 2023 from the Imaginary Stations Crew. The first is at 2000 utc (9pm UK time) on 6160 khz where X-Raydio will be broadcast to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany (whose motto is “Shortwave Radio is dead – Long live Shortwave Radio”).

The show will explore some audio from unusual musical formats and will feature a piece on Bone Music by Stephen Coates from The Real Tuesday Weld (also of the excellent radio show The Bureau of Lost Culture on Soho Radio, London) and also a flexi disc mix by Shane Quentin (from The Garden of the Earthly Delights radio show on CRMK, Milton Keynes). If you haven’t a shortwave radio, tune in here on Sunday evening at 9pm UK time.

A couple of hours later at 2200 utc (11pm UK time) is this week’s Imaginary Stations show which is KDUB v Radio Clarion via the services of WRMI. There’ll be some dub, some trumpets and then some dub with trumpets. Tune in for some blazing horns! If you haven’t a shortwave radio, tune in at 11pm UK time here. Remember, radio is where it’s at!

Crimson and clover

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Here’s the audio from last night’s Imaginary Stations show on WRMI, a tribute to all things Hippie/Hippy called WHPY. Tune in and turn on to some mind blowing sounds from the Imaginary Stations crew including at 18.50 a mix from One Deck Pete called “For all the wallies out there”. Here’s the tracklist:
Can – Vitamin C
Bongo Isaac, Itekted, Dread I Benji – Perfect Love and Peace Dub 1
Emma-Jean Thackray – Ley Lines
Richie Havens – Going back to my roots

Calling all Wallies, calling all Wallies

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What with all this great weather we’re having at the moment, we’re reminded of the old free festivals that used to be about. Festivals like Stonehenge and Deeply Vale where The Fall used to love to play and also where The Ruts were formed. If you love all that free festival business have a look at this site here. It’s a brilliant documentation of when festivals didn’t have 30 or so big name DJ’s/Bands playing each day and where you weren’t searched for cans of Carling Black Label on your way in. There were certainly no artisan bread stalls and WI tea tents selling home-made victoria sponges in those days though there was some alternative home-baking going on. RIP to Wally Hope (above on flyer) who was a part of getting the punk band Crass together and the nude dancer William “Jesus” Jellett. There’s a great bit in Paul Gorman’s blog where “Jesus” is pictured dancing at an early Sex Pistols gig here.

Sort of related to all of this Free Festival malarkey, Imaginary Stations bring you WHPY this Sunday 18th June 2023 at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI. They’ll be broadcasting a special programme live from the Skybird mobile studio van parked up in a free festival in a car park in the hippy haven of Woodstock. They’ll be a mix from One Deck Pete called “For all the Wallies out there” featuring tunes by Can, Bongo Isaac, Itekted and Dread I Benji, Emma-Jean Thackray and original Woodstock artiste Richie Havens.

So don your best 1970’s long afghan coat even in this heat, grab something strong to drink if there is anything still left in the communal fridge and play your imaginary recorder or shake a home-made tambourine along to the far out sounds of WHPY.

 

Shut that (garage) door

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Now up online, last night’s Shortwave Garage Sale featuring some out there psych and garage from The Imaginary Stations crew of DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and at 18.24 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “Live from the Psych-cle Shed 2″ featuring:
The Gaslamp Killer & The Heliocentrics – Brain Cell
Benyamin S. – Superman
Timebox – Beggin’
Texao – Swlabr
Gloria Ann Taylor – How Can You Say It
Los Raymi Zodiac – Lagrimas de soledad

Tune in and drop out as they say.

We of the other planets…

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It all started today when we heard a great tune from Ronny called Don’t touch my hand on an excellent show called Tarmes #4 by Mud Creeper on Palanga Street Radio. The show is available here and is a very chilled affair and well worth listening to.

For some reason it put us in mind of a Joe Meek production that our good friend Justin Patrick Moore told us about a while ago. It’s called It’s hard to believe it by Glenda Collins and it’s one hell of a tune.

We tweeted it up in a “presently listening to” type post and a big thanks goes out to Denis H from JoeMeekSociety who replied to us with a link to an earlier demo of the song. This includes the original lyric “flying saucers are here to stay” instead of the familiar “bombs and missiles are here to stay” and what sounds like to our ears (but we may be wrong) some shortwave sounds at the start and finish. It’s a wonderful alternative take.

Bargains, bargains, bargains

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We visited Lewisham Lldl again this morning as per to get some £1.99 peat-free compost and nabbed these seed bargains too. Looks like they were priced according to the numbering on the packet. Anything that was 1 was 20p but we couldn’t spot anything, 3 was 49p and 4 was £1.49. Not bad! Get down to your nearest Lldl and grab yourself a bargain and as they say “when it’s gone, IT’S GONE!”

And talking of bargains, tune into KMRT this Sunday 28th May 2023 at 2200 UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI. Expect some blue light and centre aisle 45 specials. We will also have a special appearance of someone you don’t know off the television from the 1970’s cutting the ribbon to open the doors of the broadcast. So tune in and grab yourself a great “once in a lifetime bargain”! All radios are on sale at 25% off while supplies last! (Subject to availability of course).