A life on the ocean (air)wave(s)

Posted on December 8, 2025 by onedeckpete

This weekend, a show called Great Lakes Pirate Radio Ships from the Imaginary Stations crew was broadcast to the far flung reaches of Europe via those old shortwaves. It was a programme that celebrated the spirit and sound of those offshore stations of old. Here it is in its full glory below.

At 33.27 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “Have you ever been to Windermere?”. The tracklistings are:
Imandra Lake – VööImandra
Lake Radio – Culture Veins
Zap Pow – River Stone (Lee Perry Prod.)
Morschen43 – MV Ross Revenge For Ever!
The Cats – Swan Lake

And as the song below goes from Morschen43:
“To you, web radio director, presenter of radio show,
And for all music programmers!
Real people!, real music!
Said their radio slogan”

By the way there’s a great archive of the pirate radio ships here.

Hang on mate, the place is electrified

Posted on December 7, 2025 by onedeckpete

Thanks to Gerry Hectic for sending us this very grim public information film from 1989. There’s two deaths within a minute, this is heavy going stuff. They don’t make them like they used to. After watching this, we are going to stay put if we see any footballs in power stations.

While we’re onto electricity and safety, here’s a track from Madtone Safety Council Vs Tommy McCook called Fix things properly, a 1970’s public information film/reggae mash up.

Who’s been on me harp (without asking)?

Posted on December 5, 2025 by onedeckpete

Big shout to Fenny for playing this on last week’s On the Wire. It’s a wonderful bit of music from Cerys Hafana called Helynt Ryfeddol which features a triple harp. It’s a tune that reveals itself with every listen and one that will fit in just fine on the next instalment of HARP from Imaginary stations.

Wildlife on the rob

Posted on November 28, 2025 by onedeckpete

These two photos were taken quietly from the back door this morning: a parakeet and later a squirrel enjoying the seeds of the giant sunflower at the far end of the garden. It seemed that these two took it in turns to snack on the plant for most of the day and all sorts of acrobatics went on to get the seeds. We had no idea the seeds were such a delicacy!

Then again we remembered this picture from many moons ago, crazy stuff!And while we’re thinking of thieving wildlife, here’s a squirrel with a scone, from the days when we had apple trees as a fence. Luckily it wasn’t our scone.

A message from Kyiv (November 2025)

Posted on November 27, 2025 by onedeckpete

(Main pic above: “I saw a romantic potato in the store”. Great stuff Wlad!)

The other month we heard from Wlad in Kyiv (here), where he shared some pictures from his friend Sergiy, who has been growing an impressive collection of plants on his balcony—everything started from seeds of whatever he eats, the last time it was photographs of his avocado plant. We’ve got more this month!

The avocados (above) that featured the other month are growing really well with strong stems, big leaves, and looks like they have no intention of slowing down. On top of that, he experimented with the seeds from a pitaya he bought and they’ve started to germinate (below). We had to look up what a pitaya was as we never heard of it before, it’s also known as the strawberry pear or dragon fruit. More on growing those here. Good luck with those, Sergiy!

And to add to those bits of tropical delight, he also decided to try growing pineapples (below).

It’s hard enough as it is to grow stuff like that anyway but at the moment in Kyviv electricity and heating have been unreliable again, so he improvised: he built a small stove on the balcony and added a new battery-powered lamp.

And that is some bulb!

And if you love a bit of circuitry as we do, here’s what’s inside it:

Now that’s what it’s all about, being inventive and making use of what you you can get your hands on. Great stuff Sergiy! Thanks again to Wlad for sending us the pictures, it’s appreciated. Keep safe the both of you, and do send us more updates.

And then there were six

Posted on November 24, 2025 by onedeckpete

At the start of November we received some egyptian/walking onion bulblets (here) and we put them in a pot as soon as we got them off the postman. We paid for one and got some spares in the pack just in case they didn’t take and look, we’ve got 6 starting to sprout now. How is that for a good deal? They were only a few quid as well. Cheers to Real Seeds for these.

And tonight we’ve been listening to the recent show from our mate Will J on Love Will Save The Day FM called Lingua Franca. If you like some great chilled worldwide vibes you’ll love this show. There’s some brilliant stuff on here from all points across this circular world of ours. Give it a listen.

It features this wonderful tune, which we’ve never heard before:

And cheers to Will for telling us about this clip of a performance in 1970 which is out of this world! Talk about fast talking style. We have watched this many times in a row tonight and now questioning our own sanity.

Starting from scratch in Adelaide

Posted on November 23, 2025 by onedeckpete

A big thanks go out to our old friend Chris D (who we went to see The Clash in Bury St Edmunds with many moons ago here) who now resides in Adelaide, Australia for getting in touch. He’s got a new house and has been busy transforming the solid clay and weeds that were there beforehand into a smart looking garden (above and below).

It’s still only early days yet and things will progress but it’s looking brilliant. The two pics below were at post weed eradication stage. What started as rock-hard clay in summer and sticky, mud that sticks to your boots in the winter is now turning into something special. We know what you mean about that clay soil Chris!

He did a lot of the work himself but got a bit of help in where he needed things building, pavements laying and gravel being put down. We love the idea of the raised beds (with decent compost in it) which’ll give the plants a fighting chance in the tough conditions out there what with the snakes (!) and rabbits combined with the searing sun.

He’s already watched blackbirds helping themselves to his strawberries he told us. It’s annoying but in a way it’s a sign that things are growing. We reckon it’s out with the old strawberry nets or put those old CDs on string which’ll move in the breeze that’ll hopefully deter them.

Alongside strawberries, he’s managed to get a great range of things growing already: herbs, carrots, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, capsicum, beans, peas, cucumber, chilli, spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, lettuce, tangelos, kaffir limes, Tahitian limes, mandarin, nectarines, pear, apricot, and even honeydew melons. Wow, that’s a load of stuff.

We’d love to see how the garden progresses so do keep us updated Chris and send us some pictures of how things get on. That hard work has really paid off we reckon and there’s some nice ideas in the garden as well. We love that container below by the way. Cheers again Chris and good luck with everything.

He sent us a couple of tune recommendations. First The Wiggles covering Tame Impala.

And a bit of a classic from the production talents of Mikey Dread with Parrot Jungle.

And Fat Freddy’s Drop with Blackbird.

A couple for a sunday

Posted on November 16, 2025 by onedeckpete

Here’s something a little out there: a dubbed-out, globe-spanning tune from Free Soul School with Red Dragon. Ideal for those grey Sunday mornings when you’re not quite sure if the garden is calling or if the weather has other plans (clearing out the shed, perhaps?)

And a nice piece from Scientist & Dubiterian called Jah Light Dub from an LP called A Tribute to Augustus Pablo. Lovely stuff!

A cosmos a month before christmas

Posted on November 15, 2025 by onedeckpete

A big thanks to our good friend Rich R up in the Lake District for sending over the photograph of his cosmos (and a shout to Debby H too, as the seeds came from her plants). Rich writes, “Really cold here today, wind chill feels like 2°C. With hard frosts and snow on the way, I thought I’d better send you this pic of the cosmos before it’s too late.”

Brilliant stuff, Rich – thanks again (and to Debby H) for sharing!

Bonkers fairground organs in dub

Posted on November 13, 2025 by onedeckpete

It’s a Thursday night so here’s some tunes. The first one is a lovely bit of deep dub from Submersible (from Singapore via Lithuania) called Teak Forest.

And then a bit of Cumbia rebajada that for some reason reminds us of those fairground steam driven organs. Mad stuff indeed!

And here’s the tune at it’s proper speed. What do you reckon is the best? The slow or the fast version. Pretty bonkers stuff either way.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life