Leo Graham – Not giving up – Locks 1975
An excellent slab of 70’s reggae produced by Joe Gibbs and Errol T (the Mighty Two), released in the UK on Birmingham’s Locks label. This was procured off a punk mate in 1978 for a piece of garb from a second hand shop I think. An excellent record with a nice dub! Always strangely puts me in mind of that old time song “Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat?”. Excellent!
Big shout to Marc B for letting us know about the free offer to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew over the festive season (up to Friday 4th January). Click the link to book those free tickets!
Felipe Lopez – Radio Space (Ape.Choons) Here’s a great track heard on Dr Strangedub and DJ Baby Swiss’ excellent “Echo Chamber” on KFAI a few of weeks ago. The tune is a lovely piece of dub which samples a Brazilian radio amateur communicating with the International Space Station (ISS). The les dubthiers mix (the second clip) just pips the original to the post. Get this tune, you’ll love it! Big shout to Dr Strangedub for this one.
The first part of the excellent late 70’s documentary Deep Roots Music with Mickey Dread featuring Tommy McCook, Daddy U-Roy, The Skatalites, Count Machuki (looking good!), Sir Lord Comic, Bobby Culture, Jack Ruby Hi Power amongst many others. An excellent watch for these cold nights! Big shout to Will for passing this link onto us.
I tidied up the last of the autumn leaves after slipping on a wet pile of them by the front door the other day when popping out a bag into the dustbin and whacking my shin on the doorstep. When collecting leaves I use the old council workers trick of using two bits of hardboard to grab a big load and then put them into a black bin bag. Rather than chucking it in the dustbin, I’ve stuck it at the bottom of the garden and will forget about it until next year when they’ll have turned into some great leaf mould. Excellent stuff to add to your soil and all for free!
I took the netting off the pond today as most of the leaves are off the surrounding trees now and put it over the overwintering cabbages to stop those pigeons and birds from having a go at them. Notice the once big pile of prunings behind which is now a lot smaller, thanks to the incinerator! I’ve stuck a row of broad beans behind the cabbages to overwinter too.
Last weekend I treated myself to a few terracotta pots and saucers (about £1.50 for both from the local garden centre, Shannons) to stick on the kitchen windowsill and sowed some corriander and basil then covered them with a small plastic sarnie bag until they germinate. I also bought a lemon tyme plant off ebay for £1.99 and that’s up on there as well. Herbs, you can’t beat em!
I spotted this outside a cafe in Covent Garden on the damp and moody Monday morning just gone. The reason it has wheels is probably more to do with it getting pinched at night rather than being moved about a few times a day to get maximum sunlight. A good idea all the same though!
A few minutes before seeing this I walked through the barriers at Charing Cross train station and got stopped by an American tourist and his wife who wanted a photo taken with me as I looked “the spitting image of the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren”. Of course I obliged and shook his hand and waved at his wife who was taking the picture even though I look nothing like him. He’s got bushier burners and a better Roger De Courcey barnet than I have. Talk about bizzare happenings on a Monday morning (and at 8am too)!
I noticed two Lime trees in pots outside the Loche Fyne restaurant in Covent Garden the other morning whilst walking to work. The owner told us he had to bring them in every night though but it was nice to see some Limes doing well outside in this country!
The dustbin incinerator I bought the other week has been brilliant as I’ve burnt off a load of woody stuff that has been piling up at the bottom of the garden. The only trouble is, that making fires is now getting a bit addictive. The other Saturday I was just going to burn off a small pile of waste but as the fire got on it’s way I was scouring the garden for sticks, prunings and whatever else that would burn. A couple of bits of 4 x 2 I was going for use for a gardening project got chucked in alongside wet leaves and freshly cut wood, sending thick plumes of yellow/white smoke out of the funnel at the top of the bin into the SE23 night sky. Jah Wobble mentions the same thing in his biography “memoirs of a geezer”, breaking up furniture at a friend’s squat he lived at to fuel a fire to keep him warm. What’s all that about then, a primeval thing perhaps?
Ijahman Levi – Jah heavy load (original version) An oldie but goodie, the classic tune from the great Ijahman Levi. An excellent song with a very subtle dub. Rare as the proverbial to get on vinyl!
Weeds up to me knees 