Category Archives: Jazz Gardening

A second-class return to Dottingham, please

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Yesterday I was up at the ungodly hour of 4.50 am to get my son ready for his school coach trip to Belgium, which got me thinking…

Peckham busYears ago in the Midlands was a travel company who would charter out their coaches for next to nothing. Word got around to the local punks who took advantage of the offer. Out of town gigs were now easy to get to and dead cheap, so the coach trips were well popular! Also, the coach was always driven by the same bloke who didn’t seem to care what went on and the punks used to turn a blind eye to his antics as long as he got them back home in one piece!

Some of stories will go down in Punk mythology. Like the time when the windscreen was “bricked in” in some sort of inter-town rivalry. The driver muttered something about “I don’t want to get the company involved so I’m not going to ring the AA” and had the bright idea of driving them all back without a windscreen as it was only ten miles down the road. Trouble is it was a winters night and it was snowing, madness!

Once on the way to a gig after everybody was picked up from the pub meeting point, someone on board realising the coach didn’t have a loo had the bright idea of popping into his mums house to using theirs as it was on the way to the motorway. His mum and dad must have been well happy when their son turned up at the door with a coachload of punks dying to go to the loo behind him. I bet there was a few net curtains twitching that night in the cul-de-sac!

Legend has it at one gig the driver got a bit over-excited, had a few drinks and even went down the front and done the “punk kicking dance” (as demonstrated above!) At the end of the night the punks were so worried that he wouldn’t get them home alive, a couple of them forcefed him coffee from his vacuum flask until he sobered up and then took him outside to “get some air” before the drive home. The sight of two Sid Vicious look-a-likes either side of an older bloke in a smart blazer and cap walking around a car park must have been bizarre. How he didn’t get stopped by the police on the way home I don’t know. Absolutely mental!

Extra classic(s)

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Thanks to Dr Strangedub for including the dub to the above (Mad Professor – Fast Forward into Dub) on this week’s Echo Chamber on KFAI which made me post the original here. A lovely tune!

Also found the above on youtube the other day, a great bit of live mixing by the King (Jammy) himself. Two to perk up those dark winter nights!

Burn down the walls

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It’s the nearest Saturday to Guy Fawkes night (aka “get rid of your garden rubbish in one big bonfire and the neighbours can’t complain” night) and the big pile of clippings which have been taking up space at the bottom of the garden were planned to go up in smoke tonight. Even a cheap pack of Fireworks had been purchased from Lidl to add to the effect too. It’s now mid-afternoon and it’s chucking it down, typical! Now the sun’s come out…

Around the world in 80 gardens (pt.23)

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Ta again to Dr Strangedub for linking us up with another music maker/gardener. This time it’s Martin L Kennedy from the excellent All India Radio from Melbourne, Australia. AIR make some great chilled tunage which Dr Strangedub has been playing on the echo chamber for a long while now.

Thanks to Martin for getting in touch with us and for sending us some photo’s of his mother’s back yard, which is a quality garden featuring some lovely planting!

Here’s what Martin wrote: Here’s some pictures of springtime in an Australian back yard. This is actually my mothers garden where I grew up. Amazingly many of the same plants that were planted when I was young (over 40 years ago) are still growing. Some of them were gifts to my parents, bought from the school fete or nicked from the neighbours gardens!

AIR_5

AIR_4

AIR_1  AIR_3

AIR_2Great stuff Martin, looking good! I still can’t get my head around that it’s nearing the end of the gardening year here and in Australia it’s just beginning. Great stuff!

After the storm has gone…

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Kuage – A Part Of You

A nice bit of off-the-wall electronica for a Thursday night heard on Rob Da Bank’s show over the last couple of weeks.

Busy Signal – Same Way

And another piece of tunage, heard this time on the Rt Hon David Rodigan’s show. A piece of minimal electro reggae straight out of the land of wood and water (and organ stabs straight out of toytown!)

Sarkodie Ft. E.L. – U Go Kill Me Instrumental

And by the power of youtube the instrumental the drum roll of which, reminds me of Bango (to the Batmobile) from the man like Todd Terry…”Let’s go!”

Todd Terry – Bango – To the Batmobile Lets Go

The bonkers house revival

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A very bonkers kiddy-rave track that’s had me smiling all week (as it’s so daft!) after hearing it on the Rob Da bank show. Not my usual cup of tea but a tune I can’t help thinking, white gloves, glowsticks and gurners when I hear it. How speeded up is that italo house piano break?

I might turn the dustbin over in the middle of the back garden tomorrow, use it as a podium and give it large in a “where were you in 93?” revival style (much to the delight of the neighbours!)

Chilled to the gills

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Balearicos Mix R3D Market By Balearic Mike And Phil Mison

http://soundcloud.com/redgallery/balearicos-mix-r3d-market-by

A nice chilled as mix by Phil Mison and Balearic Mike found this morning on soundcloud. One to do the pruning to, that’s if you can prune lying down!  Big up “The Grim Reaper from Ibiza.” Nice one Phil!

The trouble with (my) piles

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pilesIt’s taken me over a year to get rid of the big pile of clippings and prunings which have been occupying most of the vegetable bed at the bottom of the garden. I can thank the several bonfires and sneaky black bin bags snided at the bottom of the wheelie-bin on a fortnightly basis for that.

Now the space has been cleared, the weeds are doing very well thank you. If all goes well in the next few days if it don’t rain over the weekend I’ll clear the patch and stick in some onion sets and make use of the space over the winter months.

What is bonkers though, is since I’ve cleared one load of clippings, there’s another one starting to pile up not even 15 feet away and getting taller and taller by the week. Mad or what? It’s an never-ending circle this gardening lark!

Ruddock is the ruler!

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From Natty Dread magazine 2003

From Natty Dread magazine 2003

Respect to BBC 1Xtra for their excellent “1 Xtra stories” which this week features one Osbourne Ruddock aka one of the creators of dub, King Tubby. A brilliant programme, well researched and presented by the great David Rodigan. Available on i-player for a few more days and for any self-respecting reggae fan definitely one to listen to! Big up Tubbs!