Category Archives: “Radio connects us all”

Rainbows over Lewisham

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Yesterday the weather forecast on the telly said it was officially the first day of spring even though we thought spring started around the (spring) solstice but what do we know? We’ve just looked online and here’s the official line: “The spring season associated with the vernal equinox, called astronomical spring, occurs on or around March 20, but meteorologists recognize March 1st as the first day of meteorological spring, which is based on annual temperature cycles and the Gregorian calendar.” Ah so now we know.

It’s been a weird mix of rain and sunshine here today and on the way back from an early morning jaunt to see if they had any gardening based centre-aisle specials in Lewisham Lidl, we caught a rainbow (above).

This afternoon between the showers we tidied up the bed next to the garage, trimmed off any dead wood and gave the soil a good hoe over. A couple of days previous we cut the lawn (giving it three quick cuts as it was so overgrown. We did the old council springtime trick of first cut of the mower on long and then two “shorts”, also a rake in-between every cut) it looks a bit better now and another cut in a week will have it looking great. For a maximum “crisp” look to a lawn, tinker around the edges with some clippers or a strimmer.

Whenever you think the season starts, watch the weather as it’s well cold tonight and for God’s sake don’t be fooled just because we have a couple of sunny afternoons of late that spring has finally sprung.

 

The Bedworth musical connection

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The other week we had a bit of nostalgia for second-hand shops that smelt of damp and mould (Post here). Recently whilst going through records for a shortwave mix we found an ace LP called “Step Forward Youth” featuring Prince Jazzbo, I-Roy and The Aggrovators with a stamp from one of the shops we visited that day.

 

We checked on google to see what the shop is now and of course we weren’t expecting it to be Westminsters New and Used Furniture as we’re talking 1978/79. It was worth tapping it in though as what a nice suprise we had to see it now as Keith Richard’s Hairdressing. Great stuff, we love it!

A nice dub for a once frosty Saturday

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What was funny, yesterday we were considering giving the lawn a cut after work as the weather was sunny and bright in the morning. Come 5pm the heavens opened, there was a flash hailstorm and then overnight there was a frost. The weather eh?

To take your mind off the cold here’s a nice dub from Mikey Dub which is the B side of the also great “Causeless shall not come” by Don Hartley. Cheers to Thomas at Explorations in dub for sending us this.

Radio (and Gardening) connects us all!

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Thanks to Wlad (US7IGN) from Ukraine for getting in touch this week with some pics of his germinating dill seeds and sprouting garlic and potatoes that are all looking healthy. For some reason the old trick of cutting up seed potatoes in two so you can have two potato plants instead of one just came to mind. We are sure it was a reader of the blog who sent us that tip many moons ago.

His good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD) has now started off a date palm and he’s also got that great looking banana plant and the both are growing well. Brilliant stuff and good to hear from you Wlad, keep us up to date how the plants are getting on!

A ten inch mix for a Tuesday night

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Here’s A Ten Inch Mix from One Deck Pete which was recorded especially for the Imaginary Stations show WS10S, a celebration of the Ten inch single that was broadcast last December. Here’s the tracklistings:

Jasmine Ntoutoume & Madtone – What is man? – Blossoms Kitchen 10” Dubplate
Zap Pow – Broken Contract – Inbidimts/Trojan Records 10”
Ellis Island Sound – Republica Evescarra (played at 45rpm) – All City 10”
Les Kidnappeurs (Main Theme) (Revisited By Jackson) – Barclay 10”
Nicola Conte – Jazz Pour Dadine (The Dining Rooms Remix) – Schema 10”

Enjoy!

The interview keeps on coming

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As we posted up the Andrew Weatherall at the Chinwag night at Outlaw Yacht Club, Leeds 2013 mix yesterday, we were reminded of the brilliant interview with Andrew by our good friend/Steroid Abuse DJ Chris Madden from the same evening. It’s a six parter but well worth watching!

The music keeps on coming

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It’s been four years since the passing of the great Andrew Weatherall can you believe. We saw on Facebook a link to this great mix from Outlaw Yacht Club, Leeds 2013 (from a great night presented by our good mate Chris Madden) and we just had to share it. The mix starts off with Big Youth, Ari Up, Dr Who in dub then goes into rockabilly and much more and you know what? It’s downloadable. RIP Andrew Weatherall.

Off the map, off the radio

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Cheers to DJ Frederick for letting us know about this great quaility half an hour recording of last week’s imaginary stations show WDWD – Off The Map Radio broadcast by Shortwave Gold. It was recorded in Belarus by Aleksandr Myadel (cheers Aleksandr for putting it up on youtube).

At 13 minutes in there’s One Deck Pete‘s “I’ll take the high road too” mix and here’s the tracklistings:
Stereognosis – Farewell
Outward Bound – First Cue
Tetsuo – Not taking the bus
Hidden Orchestra – East London Street
Tubby Isiah – Lost dub

If you want to hear more of the show, ten of the latest Imaginary Stations episodes are up online here at our Mixcloud. The show is also looking for some financial help to cover the production and transmission costs so we can continue to transmit on shortwave, more on that here:

Nostalgia for dirty beer crates and rusty washing machines

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Here’s a couple of tunes for a Friday evening. First an Augustus Pablo classic called Melody Dub which is a B side to the tune Unfinished Melody. It’s a stripped down bass and drum instrumental with a crisp high end, whisps of double-tracked melodica floating back and forth into the mix interspersed with short piano and keyboard parts. Definitely a less is more tune.

And another example of said style is the B side Roman Stewart’s I was lonely called One Heavy Duba for obvious reasons. As far as we can remember, the (slightly pressed off-centre and very scratched) copy we own was bought on a second-hand shop crawl of Nuneaton in the late 1970’s. Distance memories of boxes of scratched seven inchers nestled in dirty beer crates between rusting fridges and old washing machines with the smell of mould and damp coming from them, ahh the good old days that we’ll never see again etc…

Music like us

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Yesterday our good radio friend in Cincinnati, Justin Patrick Moore tipped us off that Vicki Bennett from People like us was doing a show on WFMU. It’s now available via listen again here (The show named “February 14th, 2024: This Is Bardcore, This Is Barcode, This is the Pooless Flute”).

As you can imagine there were some crazy records played, bizzare mash ups and some “odd sausages” (as an old workmate used to say). Here’s two tunes that we’ve never heard before that caught our attention. The first is Polo & Pan with Nana (above) and it’s a bit of left-field pop on the catchy, happy tip. And we’ve just found out it’s sampled off this tune below from Os Tincoãs another band we have had to research. And an interesting band they were.

The second is Keezo Kane with Ga Ga Ga (James Brown Steppers Mix) which is great stuff. If you’re a lover of some real musical madness do check the show out. Cheers Justin for letting us know about it.