20 years of radio fun

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More shortwave radio fun coming this weekend on the 75 Metre band courtesy of Channel 292. A transmission to mark the 20th anniversary of All Indie Radio (WAIR) will be broadcast this Sunday 7th February 2021 (and repeated on Sunday 14th February 2021) at 1700 UTC/UK on 3955 kHz. Tune in for some great music.

The programme features our good friends from across the pond DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore and a mix from One Deck Pete called “Thank You John Peel” (more on the late great John Peel here) with tracks by Mogwai, McCarthy, Young Marble Giants, Stereolab and Orange Juice.

No shortwave radio? No bother, tune in here at the allotted time.

An alternative to lockdown lumbago

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Last week wasn’t the best this end what with sciatica raising its ugly head followed by a bit of lockdown depression combined with the cold weather. And the dahlia tubers are still in the ground (hopefully not rotting away), their frost-blackened foilage a constant reminder that they have to be dug up. But in this weather? We think not. It’s better to stay in listen to some music and think of what seeds we’re going to be buying very soon as spring is not that far away!

Because of the bad back we’re still catching up on a couple of episodes of the great This is a music show that goes out on the shortwaves. If you click here you’ll be treated to the 100th edition of the show featuring 2 hours of the best in thrift shop classics, across the board genre-wise and some great reggae. A big shout to Your Host for getting the show to the landmark number! Tune in and turn on. And check their new website here and if you fancy donating a few quid/dollars to pay for airtime there please do as it’s a wonderful show!

And still on the theme of shortwave, if you’ve visited a supermarket masked up a few times this lockdown here’s a broadcast (below) that might interest you called KMRT. Listen out at 27.45 for a mix by One Deck Pete called “Buy one get one free” featuring tunes by Tyler Newman, Allen Ginsberg, Anima Universalis, Japanese Sound Portrait, Beatz for Food, Lullatone, Cantoma (Phil Mison) and Z Lovecraft. So break open a big tube of Voltarol and work yourself up into a shopping frenzy. #Supermarketsarethenightnightclubs #shoppingconnectsusall

https://soundcloud.com/user-25048993/kmrt-one-stop-shortwave-shopping-experience-9395-khz-3112021

Dub gardeners of the world unite yet again

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Yesterday morning on Radio 4 was a lovely dubwise treat thanks to Don Letts with Dub Revolution: The Story of King Tubby (available on listen again here) a celebration of the dub organiser himself. Worth a listen if you love the world of dub like we do here.

And talking of the rebel dread you may remember that in 2013 that Don said about Weeds: “A Dub/Punk/Gardening blog….now’s there’s a combination I can relate to! Actually tailor made for The Don…..check my yard bredrin’….” and sent some pictures (one below) of his garden which we loved! More pictures of his garden here.

And by chance yesterday we found a link of Don and his wife Grace’s garden on Gardeners’ World which originally went out last year. Have a good butchers at the garden from 6.40 minutes in here. As Don himself says, it’s a real mix of styles! #dubgardenersoftheworldunite

There’ll be no venturing out tomorrow

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Above is the weather forecast predicting heavy snow for the SE23 area in the morning. And we were thinking of forking up those frost-bitten dahlias and bringing them indoors to be stored until the spring. Doubt if they’ll be much chance of us being out the back tomorrow.

There’s a couple of pots of coriander and basil seeds in some houseplant compost sitting on the kitchen windowsill with a freezer bag put over each to give them a mini-greenhouse effect in an economic style. Will they germinate is the question but it’s worth trying.

And here’s a just discovered nice tune in a downtempo style to make you forget of the crap weather to come by John Hobbs called Last Night in Barcelona on M-Sol a hypnotic tune you want to keep rewinding. Stay safe and stay warm!

Hear your garden through the speakers

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A big thanks to Justin Patrick Moore for selecting this gardening themed ambient LP from Virginia Astley called From Gardens Where We Feel Secure from 1983. Justin also mentioned a nice piece from Simon Reynolds about the album here that’s worth casting an eye over.

Our favourite is the piece with the church bells, birds singing and some backwards business called “When the Fields Were on Fire”. Great stuff.

Know any more gardening themes tunes or LPs? if so get in contact with us at Weeds by leaving a comment and we’ll get back to you. Cheers Justin for this one.

An odd sausage and the king of dub’s brother

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Last night we were searching through a pile of singles that we haven’t looked through for years for a forthcoming shortwave radio mix when we came across a very odd sausage indeed (above and below).

It’s a seven inch single from Macclesfield Chorus Of Mutes on the Lyntone record label (who used to mainly press flexidiscs and also ran a mastering service) and the number is LYN 0000/0. On the A is a track named Tacets (wrote by Marcelle Marceau and Ed. J. Routh they reckon on the label) which is one long test tone at the same frequency throughout and plays at thirty three and a quarter rpm. On the B side Rests is totally silent and supposedly cut at forty five and three quarters rpm. Bonkers!

This was found in a charity shop in Covent Garden a few years ago for 50 pence. We can’t find anything on it apart from it may be from the early 1970’s and possibly given away free with a Christmas issue of Private Eye from the info here and there’s a copy on ebay for £40 and that’s all. Any ideas?

Also last night we thought we found a cracker of a tune from 1974 (below) after recognising the name felt-tipped out on the label Genuine Way by Lloyd “Scunna” Ruddock (brother of King Tubby who provides the nice dub on the B side).

We only first heard this tune a couple of years ago on Steve Barker’s On the Wire and when we pulled it out of the pile we just couldn’t believe it! Turns out the title was felt-tipped out for a reason, it wasn’t the said tune. It was another Roy Cousins produced track which we didn’t recognise. To say we were disappointed is a understatement. You win some, you lose some.

 

Dub gardeners of the world unite

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A big shout to Jesse Yuen who presents the excellent RTM.FM show North of the River Swan that specialises in downtempo dub and low end business on the second Sunday of the month from 4-6pm. Thanks to Jesse for sending us some pics (Thanks to Dee for taking them) of his great looking indoor planting scheme. The space is so bright and alive!

There’s a good variety of plants here even though us at Weeds are not the best when it comes to looking after plants of the indoor variety (we tend to overwater them then forget about them we’re ashamed to say.) There’s all sorts here including Kentia Palm, Chinese money plant (sometimes known as the UFO plant!), Prayer Plant, Tropic Snow, Mother-in-law’s Tongue, Devils Ivy, Parlour Palm, Umbrella Tree, Yucca, Mistletoe cactus (that looks well interesting) and the well hardy Spider Plant. (By the way whilst we’re on the subject of houseplants we have to mention a podcast to start following if you love gardening of the great indoors. It’s Jane Perrone‘s On the Ledge available here.)

And Jesse sent some of his favourite tunes from the North of the River Swan record boxes below to get stuck into. We didn’t know a lot of this stuff and that is what’s good about this music lark, once you open up that can of worms it’s never ending. There’s a ton of excellent tunes played on the show too so peruse the show’s mixcloud site here.

And do listen to the last episode of the show from 2020 featuring Jesse and Dubplate Pearl as it’s excellent stuff and full of some cracking tunes! Includes Prince Fari, Yabby You, Tradition, the great Depthcharge from Keith Hudson (What a tune!), a dub of Play fool get wise by Johnny Clarke and lots more great music.

Thanks again Jesse for sending the pics and the tunes!

The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know

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A big shout to Your Host of the excellent shortwave radio programme This is a Music Show for earlier this year turning us on to a cracker of tune Night Owl by Lee & The Clarendonians with a wonderful version on the B side.

Today whilst going through a couple of shows we missed over the festive period another version of the rhythm by Roy Richards called Dead and Wake was played. Another firecracker of a track!

And as if by magic we found another version on youtube by the great Dennis Alcapone called Fine Style.

And here’s the original doo-wop version by Tony Allen & The Champs.

And talking of This is a Music Show here’s the last two episodes featuring the best of Your Host’s thrift show finds from 2020. These shows will definitely cheer you up especially after tonight’s rubbish news of another bloomin’ lockdown a loomin’ (until mid February) here in the UK. #anotherlockdownaloomin #thisisamusicshow #shortwavesnotdead

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-095

https://soundcloud.com/thisisamusicshow/this-is-a-music-show-096

 

That was the year that was

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Happy New Year to all our readers and gardening and music friends worldwide! We hope the forthcoming year is a tad better than the one just gone. May your seeds sprout splendidly, that you will have harvest’s a plenty and you can look forward to nice relaxing days in the garden post spring.

To help you relax on the Saturday night after New Year’s to accompany those New Year’s resolutions and the “new starts” here’s a lovely number from Lullatone called Sunday Morning Shopping with a Stroller. It’s from those heady days of 2006 when you could sit in friend’s back gardens with people you didn’t really know, cough and splutter without worry and shake people’s hands. Ah for the good old days eh?

Fingers numb and faces aglow

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There was a little bit of sunshine today in Forest Hill but it was bitterly cold as we brought the potato and brussels sprouts peelings down to the compost heap. There’s some sort of storm a brewing tomorrow evening we’ve been told too. That’s all we need.

Have a good festive season! May the Bailey’s be a flowing and there’s no end of turkey sarnies on white bread for the time being (until you get bored of them). May the spring come around soon and things get back to some sort of new normal in the very near future.