It’s in mint condition mate, honest

We’ve just looked at that John Peel auction that Gerry Hectic alerted us to last month (original post here), that had a couple of lots which contained our fanzine Ded Yampy. Looks like they’ve been sold! £190 and £140 (above) but that’s nothing compared to a John Lennon signed LP for £10,000 (below). Who’s got the money for that?

We’re now thinking of getting into the auction game ourselves and our first “lot” will be the 30 or so reggae 12″ers we found at a south London market last year. We were so excited with finding them we put on a poker face while flicking through the boxes as not to alert the seller/other record hunters that we had found some gems (or so we thought).

We omitted to check the condition of the records at the time as we were so excited. On the bus home we took a look and were shocked to see how bad they were. We learned a lesson that day, check the condition! Even a good clean didn’t help (above).

That is nothing compared to the time we popped out for a pint of milk and came back 2 hours later relieved of £20 but the owner of some great rare old reggae sevens procured from the back of a Peckham nail bar that once been a record shop. Our excuse this time was that the lighting was dim in there so didn’t look too hard at the actual vinyl. More likely our eyes and brain were on dimmed if you have a look at this one from The Wailers (above). There’s even a phone number scratched into the other side. Check before you buy, excitement or no excitement!

Life is something special

The other weekend we purchased a pink “dandelion” from an open garden in Blackheath. We didn’t think they even existed! The strawberry is there for comparison, that is a moderately sized strawberry by the way. More on different colour ones here. What’s good is they close up at night too.

And below is a tune released on John Peel and Clive Selwood’s Dandelion label. Guess what? One of the band members is Daft Punk’s dad!

When it’s spring again, I’ll bring again, Tulips from Warwick-shire

Thanks to Mike & Julia for these great pictures (it’s Mike taking the photographs this time) from a Tulip Festival in Warwick the weekend just gone. We know there’s many festivals dedicated to the Tulipa genus in places like Holland (even though their origins are native to central Asia, as they thrive in extreme hot summers and harsh, cold winters) but we’ve never thought they’d be one in Warwick. By the looks of these varieties, looks like it was a good day. Cheers for the photos Mike!

And we knew there was a variety called John Peel, we’d never thought they’d be one called Rasta Parrot, but there is!

And lay the binbag on the ground

Over the last couple of days we’ve been out with more bin bags and the remainder of the seed potatoes so much so there’s no more left to plant. We are still very early with planting (the great Joe Maiden RIP used to say Good Friday was the traditional seed potato planting day) so let’s hope the weather is on our side and if it’s not, we’re hoping the bin bags do their job!

And for no reason at all here’s a gem from Creation Rebel, the title of the classic LP Dub from Creation. First heard here on a tinny transistor radio played by the great John Peel.

Calling the world, calling the world

Here’s last night’s broadcast of Skybird Radio International which was beamed to Europe thanks to Shortwave Gold on 6160/3975 kHz at 9pm UK time.

There’s an hour of a mix up of music from around this globe of ours including a mix at 23.36 from One Deck Pete. Here’s the tracks which was played on the said mix:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt)
Unknown – Berceuse (off John Peel’s Archive Things LP)
Minyo Crusaders – Cumbia del Monte Fuji
Cyril Diaz & his orchestra – Taboo
Brno Radio Folk Orchestra – Cymbalom Dance (off John Peel’s Archive Things LP)
Sam Carty – Bird in hand

Enjoy!

Gardening connects us all

Here’s the recent Imaginary Stations episode from RTM FM which was broadcast last Thursday. It’s called the Scented Garden, a nod to John Peel’s Perfumed Garden show and also gardening related, both well up our street here at Weeds. There’s some great stuff from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore as per and also a mix called “A tribute to council gardeners everywhere” from One Deck Pete at 2 mins in. Here’s the tracklistings:
Dudley Perkins – Flowers (Instrumental)
Hugh Masekela – Grazing in the Grass
Beyond The Wizzard’s Sleeve – Winter In June
Dennis Brown – How can I leave

Talking of the great John Peel here’s a piece from 11 years ago about said Disc Jockey for DJ Frederick’s (he of the Imaginary Stations show) excellent fanzine Paper Radio which is all about that great connecting force, those radio waves. Have a butcher’s here. And whilst we’re there:

The numbers station disco connection

A record came out of the blue here for no reason at all this evening, the excellent New York Shine On Me! off the Ambient House (The Compilation By DFC) LP which we first heard on the John Peel show.

It’s a lovely acid tinged number with a driving kick drum made by someone called Aqua Regia (a chap called Akin Fernandez) originally released on Akin’s record label Irdial Discs. Little did we know at the time there would be a shortwave radio connection and also one with The Ritchie Family of “The Best Disco in town” fame as it was only tonight in the comments of the youtube we discovered the sample. You learn something new every day.

Another release on Irdial:

John Peel is not enough

Here’s my piece on John Peel that is published in the latest edition of the excellent US shortwave listening and D.I.Y media fanzine Paper Radio. Produced by DJ Frederick, the fanzine covers the US pirate scene, music and lots of other radio related material. For more information on the fanzine go to http://paperradiozine.blogspot.com/ and also check DJ Frederick’s associated blog http://zinereviews.blogspot.com/

Just click on the spreads below to read the article. Big thanks to DJ Frederick.