Tag Archives: stonehenge

See you by the heel stone

Posted on by
Reply

Spotted in a charity shop in Lewisham this morning, this excellent solstice-related jigsaw puzzle. Let’s hope every piece is there or it may be a right pain in the neck when it comes to completing said ancient monument.

 

We thought of a daft thing, wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time and bring the game to a cave and see if stone-age man/women/kids would enjoy the game. We reckon they would be delighted with it especially knowing that it was on sale for the bargain price of 4 quid.

And on the subject of those sacred stones we just found this excellent film on youtube! We even spotted an example of the famous “Punk Kicking Dance” (that we’d never be able to do now) at 3.51 mins in. Happy belated Solstice.

More on the Stonehenge Festival Campaign here.

See you at the heel stone

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Solstice to all! Rather than bunking the train down to Wiltshire, English Heritage has got tonight’s sunset and tomorrow morning’s sunrise on a live stream. Sadly there won’t be Hawkwind playing Silver Machine live, Ken Barlow in full druid gear and you can’t sit on top of the stones but we are sure it will be an event. Tune in as from now to hear some ambient classics and enjoy!

It looks great, we’ve just seen a bloke walking around carrying a union jack with an acid house smiley face in the middle of it, some people eating cheese sandwiches, some sort of giant made out of bedsheets and wood and we’re loving the comments “Dave in Atlanta – Stonehenge doesn’t exist, it’s all done by projections, can you see people actually touching the stones?”

We’ll be up with the postman at 4 am for the sunrise.

Calling all Wallies, calling all Wallies

Posted on by
5

What with all this great weather we’re having at the moment, we’re reminded of the old free festivals that used to be about. Festivals like Stonehenge and Deeply Vale where The Fall used to love to play and also where The Ruts were formed. If you love all that free festival business have a look at this site here. It’s a brilliant documentation of when festivals didn’t have 30 or so big name DJ’s/Bands playing each day and where you weren’t searched for cans of Carling Black Label on your way in. There were certainly no artisan bread stalls and WI tea tents selling home-made victoria sponges in those days though there was some alternative home-baking going on. RIP to Wally Hope (above on flyer) who was a part of getting the punk band Crass together and the nude dancer William “Jesus” Jellett. There’s a great bit in Paul Gorman’s blog where “Jesus” is pictured dancing at an early Sex Pistols gig here.

Sort of related to all of this Free Festival malarkey, Imaginary Stations bring you WHPY this Sunday 18th June 2023 at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI. They’ll be broadcasting a special programme live from the Skybird mobile studio van parked up in a free festival in a car park in the hippy haven of Woodstock. They’ll be a mix from One Deck Pete called “For all the Wallies out there” featuring tunes by Can, Bongo Isaac, Itekted and Dread I Benji, Emma-Jean Thackray and original Woodstock artiste Richie Havens.

So don your best 1970’s long afghan coat even in this heat, grab something strong to drink if there is anything still left in the communal fridge and play your imaginary recorder or shake a home-made tambourine along to the far out sounds of WHPY.

 

The solstice in the comfort of your own slippers

Posted on by
Reply

“This year Winter Solstice will be marked at Stonehenge on the morning of the 22nd December, not the 21st December.” English Heritage.

We nearly started up the (DJ) horsebox earlier this morning to make the trek down to the ‘henge and join Ken Barlow and the hundreds of others for the solstice festivities. Thank God we found out that English Heritage has changed the date before setting off. Let’s hope the many who go down by train know about the date change or they’ll find they will need to buy an open saver return instead of a day return or they will be travelling illegaly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHAW279FnSo

If you want to miss out on the train, the layers of mud and hours of waiting, technology has come to the rescue as English Heritage have a live stream going tomorrow morning with some ambient accompaniment (above). So put on your best slippers, have some tea and toast ready and watch the sunrise from the comfort of your armchair without breaking any laws. A Happy Solstice to you all, whenever or wherever you’ll be celebrating the solstice.

Oi pal, you’re standing on me ceremonial cloak

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Midsummer/Solstice/Longest day to you all and contrary to popular belief it’s not all downhill from here, the hours of sunlight just get that little bit shorter that’s all. There’s still a good few months to enjoy in the garden and good weather is forecast for this week coming in London so John Craven said on Countryfile last week.

To celebrate the longest day here’s some poppies we’ve spotted of late, one on the road (pic below) but mostly in the Weeds garden.

And if you weren’t at Stonehenge at the crack of dawn this morning just stick this on below and watch the action replay. Good vibes to all and do raise a glass to the longest day!

And if you want to listen to a good midsummer type mix, put this great Laut & Luise one on for some nice downbeat business.