Respect goes out to Buster (but not Phil Collins)

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It was very sad to hear that the great Prince Buster passed away the other day. Here’s two corking records of his that have been special to us throughout the years from his massive back catalogue.

The above tune was featured on a 1970’s programme about Rastafari that was played very regularly here on video cassette many moons ago. It was reheard a few years later upstairs at a night at The Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon played by one Pete Holdsworth from Pressure Sounds who told us he found his copy in a charity shop in the 1970’s for a few pence. No!!!!!!!

The tune below was obtained in the 1990’s while bringing some some unwanted christmas gifts (including 4 packs of white socks, “no name” after-shave and economy “talc”) to the Scope shop in Camberwell. The chap behind the counter was sorting through a very recent donation of punk and reggae singles and was so chuffed of the contribution of white socks he let me have first dibs. Big up the white sock crew and long live The Prince!

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/prince-buster-and-the-all

 

Faith in humankind restored yet again

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Laptop soundmanYesterday was spent in good company, with a couple of hours of gardening followed by a visit to this year’s Fordham Park festival. It’s on a smaller scale than when Orbital played there many years ago but it’s nice to hear on a Saturday afternoon some mad punk bands thrashing it out, entertainment on the lovely named “Recknaw” stage (what does it spell backwards?) and being with local characters in a packed tiny tent loving a sound system playing top tunes (who ignored from us here at weeds to dedicate one to “anyone who’s left their washing out.”)

Multimeters in the dance © Marc Bultitude

Multimeters in the dance © Marc Bultitude

There was a welcomed absence of artisan flat whites, workshop tea, craft ales and ethically-sourced bagel sellers but they had their revenge in the end so we were told. 

A bloke in his late 50’s (in an ill-fitting biker’s jacket with a faded Crass symbol on the back) explained to us that the estate agents, coffee companies and cupcake vendors who couldn’t get on site all got together the day before and with a bit of alchemy, influenced the bad weather we were currently having. He might have been right as it tipped it down most of the afternoon after a week of glorious sunshine. “Boo hiss” to them!

lewisham motorcycle team

We’ve now gone back in our memory to festivals and fetes of old. Where the army motorcycle display team do that “pyramid” thing and the local police dog handlers let off big alsatians at sheepskin-wearing “villain’s” wearing big padding on one of their arms. Ah, those were the days…

Post-holiday tune of the week

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Some out there Kingston, Jamaica-made madness from Puppy Disco called Last Of The Mohicans as heard on last week’s Tom Ravenscroft radio show. One to play loud when you realise it’s far too late to get the hose out to water the garden. Ends with a minutes worth of tripped out Manuel Göttsching-ness. Rough!

We’ve seen Bono’s (neighbour’s) garden

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Killiney_1We’ve just got back from a few days in Killiney (pronounced kill-eye-knee) just outside Dublin. It’s sometimes compared to the Bay of Naples in Italy as it’s got Italian road names as well as many tropical plants (succulents and towering cordylines abound,) mad eh? succulent 2The weather was a mixed affair but every day did have its fair share of sunshine (and equal parts of rain and wind too!)Bono's gardenWhile we were out and about we passed a couple of music-related gaffs, one a castle owned by Enya (very much like David Essex’s in Stardust) and the grand gated property of U2’s Bono. The above is a pic of his (or possibly his neighbour’s) back garden. I pity the poor gardener who has to put up with this symetrical style of horticulture but saying that, we love how the beehives are positioned at the end, very OCD.Druids seatOne day we visited and sat on the very ancient Druid’s Judgement Seat (complete with antiquated blue circle cement from the time of construction still visible.) Though nearby (which we unfortunately didn’t get to see) was a proper ancient monument from around 2500 BC the Ballybrack Dolmen, and one slap bang in the middle of a coucil estate. Bonkers!Ballybrack, julian copeAlso a couple of pints were downed in the pub where Bono took Barack and Michelle Obama in nearby Dalkey and we sadly missed out on a boat trip to the deserted (apart from some goats and birds) Dalkey Island by the delightfully named “Ken the Ferryman” as he was mid-sea at the time of calling (pic below – he’s the dot in the middle.)Who pays the ferrymanIf you ever end up out there, ignore the weather forecast and bring a pack-a-mac and some suntan lotion with you as you’ll probably need both of them in one day.

Reach for the sky

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Crap sign

This morning I popped into a local greasy spoon for a bacon sarnie and noticed up on the wall a collection of “hilarious” signs (“you don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps” “don’t ask for credit as a smack in the mouth usually offends” etc etc) and saw this one above. Did people really laugh at these in the 1970’s? I somehow doubt it.

sunflower_2Anyway there are no complaints in the Sunflower size department. The Mongolian Giant Sunflowers we bought on ebay earlier this year are certainly living up to their name. As the blurb said on the ad, “These sunflowers are monsters which grow up to 15 feet tall with enormous heads of up to 20 inches in diameter.”sunflower_1Below is what they started out like in March. We love anything here that is advertised as “Giant”, “Special edition” or “Rare”. Big up the Sunflower!tall, tall, tall

Ten On-U’s from The Head Gardener

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The garden of earthly delightsBig thanks to The Head Gardener aka Shane Q from the excellent long-running radio show The Garden Of Earthly Delights (for who Weeds’ own Madtone did a session for a few years ago) for getting in touch and sending some tunes. We’ve just heard that the show will return soon, broadcasting from a new studio in a converted toilet block in Milton Keynes (how good is that?)

If you want to know of the sort of stuff that’s played on the show before then, there’s mixes galore here, here and here and there’s even one aptly named “Melvin, gardening on a Summers evening.” It’s a show well up out street!

Shane has sent us Ten of his favourite On-U Sound tunes and there’s some crackers here. Here we go…

1: Bim Sherman: Nightmare

2: Audio Active: Free The Marijuana

3: African Headcharge: Hold Some More

4: Gary Clail & The On-U Sound System: Privatise The Air

5: Dr Pablo & Dub Syndicate: Dr. Who

6: Andy Fairley: Jack The Biscuit

7: Creation Rebel: Creation Rebel

8: Little Axe: Hammerhead

9: African Headcharge: Somebody Touch I

10: Singers & Players: Water The Garden

Big thanks again to Shane and we will be listening when the show returns!

Charity shop seven inch one-pounder

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We’ve been away for a few days at Camber Sands and visited some charity shops in nearby Rye hoping to find some second-hand shop cut-price specials. There wasn’t much apart from some expensive reggae, beatles non-bargains and quite a bit of overpriced rock n’roll but there was this by The Chi-lites for a mere quid as rediscovered on the Norwood Soul Patrol Rinse FM show a few months ago.

Dahlias on the wire

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On the wire screenshot

A big thanks to Steve Barker, Fenny and Jim from the excellent On The Wire on BBC Radio Lancashire for including the track A Dahlia state of mind by Madtone on their 6th August show. It’s the final track at 1hr 57mins in.

As ever the show is a quality two hours including tunes by Twilight Circus with Big Youth, King Tubby, Dub Dynasty, The Frightnrs, Noura Mint Seym-Ali, Prince Buster and a whole lot more. It’s on every Saturday at Midnight available live here or on play again here. One well worth tuning into!

By the way there’s a great RA exchange interview (here) with Stevie B that’s well interesting and was a bit of pre-holiday listening here at Weeds HQ the other week.

How did that get there?

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BorageEarlier this year I bought a couple of packets of Borage off ebay and just flicked a light amount of seed here and there in a random fashion and forgotten where I sown it until now.

They’ve been appearing all over the garden from cracks in the pavement to the middle of OCD military-style sown veg beds. Thank god for anarchic type sowing!

I’ve just found this on wikipedia as well “Borage is said to protect or nurse legumes, spinach, brassicas, and even strawberries. It is also said to be a good companion plant to tomatoes because it confuses the mother moths of tomato hornworms or manduca looking for a place to lay their eggs. Claims that it improves tomato growth and makes them taste better remain unsubstantiated.”

The bees love it and I always stick a few Borage leaves in to add to the mix when concocting the evil smelling Comfrey plant feed. Big up the Borage!

Dahlia in dub

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Madtone_ A Dahlia state of mine coverGardening has taken a bit of a back seat for the last week or so due to some DIY jobs at Weeds HQ and we’ve also been working on a 16 minute rework of Madtone‘s “Radio is my friend” for the dub poetess Jazz’min Tutum (Thanks to Dr Strangedub of the great Echo Chamber on KFAI for the initial link-up!) Results of the project will appear soon.

https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/madtone-a-dahlia-state-of-mind-exclusive-weeds-up-me-knees-dub

Things that are appearing at the moment though are the great flowers of the Dahlia, a tuber that we at Weeds love. In celebration of the glorious flower, here is an exclusive tune (downloadable for nowt) for Weeds from Madtone called “A Dahlia state of mind” a special dub of “Radio is my friend” (originally recorded for a session on The garden of earthly delights radio show.) One for all tuber fans everywhere!

Dahlia_2