We discovered our plant name of the week a couple of days ago while looking for some seeds on e-bay. It’s a Viola (Viola tricolour)called Johnny Jump Up aka tickle-me-fancy, come-and-cuddle-me or love-in-idleness. And we were thinking of some bad boy ragga business!
If you fancy looking for some seed bargains on ebay for next year or for the next seed swap, tap in something like “flower/vegetable seeds job lot” or “assorted flower and vegetable seed bargains” into the ebay search. Do check the “use by dates” on the ads though.
Big thanks to our good mate Pete B in Japan for getting in touch and letting us know what the vocal version of The Crystalites tune in the last post was.
It’s funny but that organ riff was going around in my head all last night and I kept saying to myself “I know that tune, I know that tune!” but for the life of me couldn’t remember what it was.
And as if by magic I receive a message from Pete this morning with the answer to the question I didn’t ask but needed to know. Cheers Pete!
The next is one I found a long time ago in the 50p singles section downstairs in Record and Tape Exchange Soho. It was slung away in the back of a cupboard before finding it a couple of years later and realising what a tune it is! Both of them appear on a Nu Beat UK release from the late 60’s if you’re ever lucky enough to find it!
This is a lovely mix of downtempo gear (including some organ-led gospel, dark funk and the like) and a great guest mix from Blundetto out of Paris from a couple of years ago. If you remember we featured his single Warm my soul featuring Courtney John (here) in 2012 after hearing it on DJ Dick’s blog out of Birmingham (nice one Dick!).
This is one to put on loud on a Friday evening after a (crap) week at work, while enjoying a glass of your favourite tipple waiting for the cabbage to cook. Big up Blundettoand the Confused Radio Crew!
And talking about the Rhythm Doctor as we were in the last post…
We thank him for letting us know about his great mixtape recorded live at the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch last week for Jocks and Nerds Magazine.
A top mixture of all-sorts (from Max Romeo, Fun Boy Three, Grace Jones and Bertie King & Baba Motta amongst many others). One to listen to while looking out of the window having a cup of Verbena tea.
Whack the stereo up loud, open up those back doors and blast out this corker from Pinchers & Bounty Killer called “Don’t Get Weary” while sweeping up the earliest of those autumn leaves. If it’s the evening when you are reading this and you’re indoors, just turn the heating up and pour yourself a Baileys and Brandy and enjoy.
Years and years ago the Rhythm Doctor introduced me to the pleasures of the Studio 1 12″ single which led me to buy “Death In The Arena” by The Soul Vendors (the original of the above rhythm from around 1968) from Dub Vendor on reissue in the early 1980’s.
And by chance while looking around the web this morning, I found the inspiration to the Death In The Arena rhythm by Pretty Purdie called Funky Donkey from 1967. It is funky as the name suggests, but I do prefer the Jamaican jazzier take on it.
And if you want more of the same here’s a version of it I bought (supposedly brand new) as a seven inch single in the Midlands in the late 1970’s by U Brown called Black Star Liner. Mine is authentically pressed very off-centre with lots and lots of surface noise. Tune!
Thanks to Fliss who produced the great Gardeners Delight fanzine for letting us know about the Wimbledon Zine Fair next month. If you remember we featured her great allotment here.
If like myself you like a good fanzine, pop along on Saturday 14 November from 1pm – 4.30 pm at Wimbledon Public Library, 35 Wimbledon Hill Road, Wimbledon SW19 7NB and have a butcher’s and it’s FREE!
Fliss also tells us she’s working on a new gardening fanzine which will hopefully on sale at the fair. For more details have a look here at the informative SW Zines website and read about their previous events (including a zine swap and a zine picnic at a castle!)
And talking of fanzines here’s a few old ones from the Joly archives:
Earlier this week I received a great tweet from the good folks at Shannon‘s telling us that the Eremurus tubers (Foxtail Lilly/Desert Candle) had arrived. I had a shock when I picked out two of (the very strange looking) tubers today as these were huge (nearly a foot wide) compared to the one I had last year. I even had to put both of them in a bin bag just in case they’d scare the neighbours! The tubers are very out of this world looking and wouldn’t be out of place in “War of the Worlds” either.They were £7.99 each which may seem a bit steep but what you get for it, a giant of a plant with a huge coloured flower spike (some varieties grow up to 3 metres), it’s well worth it! Here’s what it was like earlier this year. Roll on next year!
Woke up at the crack of dawn this morning and went downstairs to make myself a cup of tea to bring back up to bed. Looking out of the kitchen window I was greeted with this little sunflower seed thief.
Rather than bang on the window I laughed, and had to admire the nimble robbing git! I’m sure this is the same one that had the bud off another sunflower two years ago (post here). A description has been taken and the details passed on to the nature police.
We’ve had more than our fair share of trouble with squirrels in the past and one instance is covered in this Sounds From the South podcast from last year.
I heard this on the Tom Ravenscroft show the other week. It’s lo-fi in the best way, a bit afro-beat, the keyboards reminds me a little bit of the Blue Orchids, and it has some well-mad lyrics too. “Spring has sprung, itchy lungs” and we love the sample of someone talking about a scrabble set. Say children, what does it all mean? Who cares, as we love it here!
Talking of the Blue Orchids, one Saturday years ago, myself and a good mate hitched it from the Midlands to Manchester for a gig of theirs.
After the gig we spent most of a cold night stuck on a motorway junction just outside Stoke-on-Trent. Come dawn we were picked up by a chap who had a dashboard full of boiled sweets; packs of barley sugars, humbugs and butterscotch amongst many others which littered the leatherette. While he wolfed down boiled sweet after boiled sweet, he told us he was on his way to the Birmingham marathon and was in need of a chat after driving for hours on his own.
In that lovely warm car we both nodded off straight away and came to just as he angrily shouted we were approaching the junction for Birmingham. He was well fed up with us, but you know what, we were more fed up with him, as he never even offered us a sweet, the tight git!
We discovered our plant name of the week a couple of days ago while looking for some seeds on e-bay. It’s a Viola (Viola tricolour) called Johnny Jump Up aka tickle-me-fancy, come-and-cuddle-me or love-in-idleness. And we were thinking of some bad boy ragga business! 
Weeds up to me knees 