Tag Archives: Steve Barker

Heavy (Dubwise) Showers

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Blimmin eck, it didn’t half come down in the early hours today in London, so much so that the water in the pond is quite close to the top. If it rains any more those goldfish will be touching the pea netting which is there to keep the Lewisham Heron out.

Talking of showers or “music like shower” to be exact, a big shout goes out to Steve Barker of the excellent long running On The Wire radio show for getting back to us on the name of the mystery tune on the compilation from the Little Axe label. It’s called So long baby/An Irie Version by Derrick Morgan & Paulett/Prince Trinity and it’s a heavy tune!

If you want to hear a top show full of reggae and all sorts of great records tap into the latest shows of On The Wire on Totally Radio here or have a look through the archive on the blogspot here. You will enjoy it! Cheers again Steve!

The early morning DJ has lots of records to play

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Many thanks to Steve Barker again for recommending more great squeezebox tunes, this latest one is a belter! It’s from Los Corraleros de Majagual from Colombia and called Los Sabanales. This video is something else. Cheers Steve, great tunes are always appreciated here at Weeds!

And cheers to DJ Frederick Moe for the following top music tips. Firstly this radio DJ themed one by Houston (Bob) Mills called The Early Morning DJ with the great line: “most people are still sleeping, his wife and kids he leaves at home, it won’t be long before he’s signing on”

And then this wonderful LP of chilled out dub LP by Sumac Dub with the very apt title for us called Le Jardin de Lucy. Cheers for the recommendation Fred, this is a brilliant LP! More on the band here. The title track is a tune!

Welcome back my friends to the WELK that never ends

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Thanks to everyone who’ve been sending us their accordion classics since last week’s transmission of WELK.

Thanks to John F. who alerted us to Kimmo Pohjonen. We had no idea that this sort of madness existed, talk about taking the accordion to the next level! We love Kimmo’s get up but don’t think the local allotment committee would allow this sort of gear to be worn on-site especially in this forthcoming heatwave. A great tune by the way.

And he reminded us about this great tune by Les Negresses Vertes a band we here have seen a few years ago but had well forgotten about.

And also Slim of the Urban Voodoo Machine, Slim Cyder Co etc. Here’s the great man in action with Joe Ely from a few years ago.

He also mentioned the Grace Jones tune “I’ve seen that face before” a reworking of Astor Piazzolla‘s “Libertango”.

Steve Barker had also said about the maestro Astor Piazzola amongst lots of others (Clifton Chenier, Rocking Sidney, Boozoo Chavis and Amédé Ardoin and many more) which we’ll look into soon. He also mentioned Flaco JImenez and this tune with Ry Cooder.

And last and not least Mark Paytress who sent us this classic and called it “perhaps my fave squeezebox tune of all time” and he may be right! The Three Suns “Delicado”.

Keep on squeezing as they say and thanks to everyone who have got in touch with their recommendations.

All’s well that ends WELK

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Cheers to everyone who have been sending us recommendations of accordion tunes over the last week or so on Twitter coinciding with our two WELK transmissions.

Thanks to CatfaceMcMeowMeow for sending us two tunes, the first from Patrick Wolf called Pigeon Song. This isn’t a million miles away from us here at SE23 as it seems he may be from the parish of Brixton. Good tune!

And we love this one from Red Elvises called Memoirs of a Phuket Geisha. Brilliant! Thanks CatfaceMcMeowMeow!

Steve Barker from the great On The Wire radio show played a track off this LP by Pauline Oliveros the other week. Great cover by the way and what a smart accordion!

And also thanks to Mark Paytress for suggesting these two which contain some serious squeezebox. The first is from Melanie called In The Hour which features some nice bass playing too.

And also this one Back Street Girl from The Rolling Stones. Cheers Mark!

And this tickled us the other day, an example of that well-know thing Air Accordion, brilliant stuff and we love his smile!

And there’s even a bit of squeezebox in this one from Rod Taylor called Lucifer.

Last night’s transmission of WELK 2 is now online below featuring all sorts of squeezebox tunes and includes One Deck Pete‘s “More squeezeboxes on shortwave” mix at 20.58 featuring tunes from Ellis Island Sound, Nijim, Danijel Zambo, Yanga and Dubskrollz.

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.

 

We love the Gang of Four (herbs)

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Gardening is a funny old game, you could be doing it for a fair few years but that don’t stop you from messing up and/or not getting things right. We have our moments with peas and never get much joy growing coriander as it always bolts, never mind what variety.

We’re giving it another chance after having to succumb to buying (with heads hung down in shame) some coriander leaves from the local shop the other day. Straight after, we looked on ebay and got one of those mixed herb packs for a couple of quid, which had small amounts of parsley, basil, chives and coriander seeds. We received them through the post yesterday so in the afternoon some potting compost was procured, a few old pots which once had some stuff that failed were washed out, and seeds sown. The pots are now on the kitchen windowsill, finger’s crossed!

And do know what? We’ve actually found a cabbage in the garden that may be fit for eating (in a month or two). Now there’s a result!

This post was written whilst listening to:

#saveonthewire #athomehesagardener #lockdowngardening

There is no future

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Lockdown is affecting us in more ways then one.Take a look at the radio for instance, the BBC has taken off the great Radio Leeds Sunday Gardening Show with Tim Crowther and we’ve just heard today they’ve done the same with Steve Barker, Fenny and Jim’s On The Wire on BBC Radio Lancashire (so that’s no Funkology with Pete and Andy either) that ain’t right!

As Jethro Binks wrote on Facebook/Twitter: “If you feel moved to voice your opinion then I know the BBC is always open to feedback, best write to the station manager at BBC Radio Lancashire john.clayton@bbc.co.uk and copy to the Head of BBC Local Radio chris.burns@bbc.co.uk”

Protest and (let decent radio shows) survive or the future may be Dire Straits remixes. Send an email to the BBC or you know what your future may hold! #saveonthwire #saveonthewireagain #stevebarker #funkology