Survived Ethiopia intact, now in Durban, South Africa. Saw Lake Tana and the monasteries, Blue Nile Falls and mouth of the Blue Nile, Haile Selassie's bathroom and the museums in Addis.

But glad to be in the world of on-tap hot water, no-one saying 'Hello' 'Pen?' 'Highland' (a water bottle make, the kids beg for them) or 'You' everytime I walk down the street. Oh and working visa cards, net connections (Ethiopia has ONE server) and working mobiles (the local government body stops foreign mobiles from working properly).

On the downside ate carefully and sampled local food and the Eth idea of western food with no ill effects, flew into SA, had a Nandos and then promptly got diahorrea. Argh!

Still, seeing John and his mother and sister (and introduced to his sister's husband's son Colin and Max, the boxer dog who is completely mad yet adorable) is great. Bloody hot though - hotter than Eth.

*message ends*

For those poor souls without Twitter, Facebook or don't follow Radio Clash, I'm flying to Africa at 9pm , namely Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia.

Then after a few days I'm off to see John and his relatives in South Africa for a few days also - he's flying from Terminal 1 around the same time as I am from T3.

Currently sitting in the Chez Gerard in Heathrow, excited but also scared - I know not what to expect in Addis. Going to be an adventure, good/bad I yet don't know, but a real one :-D

This is Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer - and he's ace. And yes - I am straight out of Surrey too :-D Those that don't understand Cricket will be totally confused, and I love that :-D

Here's how I first heard of Mr B - the excellent Chap Hop medley:



And more of his tracks mixed live:



Love the banjolele + british rapping 'chap' references. Love it :-D

In 2004, before Radio Clash and my Bootie appearance and all that, I did the cover artworks and contributed two tracks to the GYBO/McSleazy created 'Parkspliced' Blur mashup LP, Parklife remixed for the 10th anniversary.

One of my best mashups ever (Golden Beard) and one of my worst..actually not my worst, somewhere in the middle. But the rest of the tracks are mostly great - ranging from classics to oddities and unknown gems that about 3 people remember.

Get it here



* well you have to bring Halloween into it somehow although it's about as Halloween as I am atm.

Just emailed my MP over this insane 3 strikes law - if you're in the UK, you should too: http://www.openrightsgroup.org/campaigns/ask-your-mp-to-help-protect-our-freedoms-on-the-net

Dear Glenda Jackson,

Firstly I have to thank you for your letter and support re: the bill to hide expenses earlier this year. I was really glad you supported transparency, and events since then have shown the wisdom of MPs like yourself vs those who supported the hiding of expenses...we now know the surprising extent of the issue and I am very glad for your actions.

I'm writing about the proposed 3 strikes rule on internet sharing. I think this is an unworkable and badly thought out law, it will be circumvented and be as workable as the previous legal threats re: taping and VCRs (and about as damaging to the film and music industries - e.g.. not very as the new technology created new revenue streams). This is already happening legally (Spotify, iTunes etc) and promoting cheap yet legal access to music and films is the way to go - like the cassette tapes of old, the majority of people would prefer higher quality and legal content over the illegal - but not at the high price that BPI et al expects.

It think it will be a retrograde step for Wireless Britain - the ISPs and also especially to media - who is going to share wireless access or access to files that could get them cut off?

Also in the past the BPI and record companies have been less than stringent over making sure their investigations are correct - without due process of law cutting people off can be abused and misused or just be incorrect - they've threatened people legally who are dead or have no access to said files or internet before. I see no reason why injustices like that won't happen again - especially as Wi-Fi and other networks can be hacked - but there is nothing in Lord Mandelson's proposals that covers this possibility? No network is 100% unhackable, so this law will and could cut people off wrongly.

I also doubt any of this will help the smaller artists and filmmakers - the next generation. In fact the ones I know seem to think rather it will be a bad idea, and stop the fledgling distribution network they have. For as much as illegal content is shared, also free and Creative Commons content is shared, which helps smaller/unsigned artists get heard. Clamping down on these networks and people sharing will stop the free sharing of culture, ideas - I do think the government should look at reforms with copyright to help people create, as we are one of the world's leaders in the creative arts - rather than listen to the music/film industry lobby and big 4 massive corporate interests. Certainly we're in a crazy time when the likes of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land is Your Land' is not only copyright, but unlike the folk singers of before cannot be built upon.

So I would urge you to support EDM 1997, and vote against bills like this that shut people off from the internet without due process or proper investigation. Criminalising people over copyright doesn't work - it would be better for government and industry to reform licensing and copyright to help enable new works (even ones that appropriate and build upon other pieces) and ways of distributing and releasing works - which in the end helps everyone.

Yours sincerely,

Tim Baker

Those of you that remember Bride of Monster Mash and the County Sound track DJNoNo did, well The Count Rides Again, and this time he's moved to Jamaica and is Count MC wid some dancehall riddim in 'Batty Dub' (with Ftatateeta and the Bats).

Mashed and Slashed EP includes spooktastic tracks from Scott Cairo, LeeDM101, CjR, Marc johnce, Clivester, Voicedude and Zee Bearoness so it's definitely worth a listen.

Best tracks for me are CjR's Fog/EBTG intro, Voicedude's eclectic Spanish reggaeton & Blue Oyster Cult bootleg, Zee Bearoness (who dey?) using Vincent Price's spoken word vs toy piano molester Twink to incredibly spooky effect and I know some of you love Rocky Horror so you'll love Clivester's Sweet Transvestite vs Alanis Morrisette vs Korn bootleg (far better than it sounds, believe me, emo + Tim Curry's camp works perfectly for halloween :-D

Have a happy halloween! WoooOOOOooOOooh!!!!

While I'm sad that it's gone - I started my web career and refined my early HTML experiments on there in 96/97 - I haven't forgotten the mess made when Yahoo took it over, forcing me to leave and get my own server space.

Yahoo - the company that destroys everything it touches, it must feel happy that Google is such a fashionable bugbear cos it takes the heat out of the uselessness that is Yahoo.

Anyway here's to you Geocities, with your under construction signs, BLINK tags, animated backgrounds and eye-blistering colours...getting all misty eyed now :-D

Those of you that remember Bride of Monster Mash and the County Sound track DJNoNo did, well The Count Rides Again, and this time he's moved to Jamaica and is Count MC wid some dancehall riddim in 'Batty Dub' (with Ftatateeta and the Bats).

Not heard the rest of the Mashed and Slashed EP yet, but it includes spooktastic tracks from Scott Cairo, LeeDM101, CjR, Marc johnce, Clivester, Voicedude and Zee Bearoness so it's definitely worth a listen. WoooOOOOooOOooh!!!!

NSFW! But it's Super F**cking Awesome!

Really I think Chris Morris should remake Nathan Barley for the Social media age, these 'Consultants' are the new Nathans selling purest BS-smelling snake-oil - the only people who can do social media and talk to potential clients for a company is the people inside that company...the politics are another thing.

2004 was a good year for mashup compilations, including London Booted based on The Clash's London Calling which had just hit it's 25th anniversary - it was so good it eventually was released on double 12" and Japanese CD - the only time so far I've been on vinyl, fact fans.  Includes mashups from the likes of Loo & Placido, Dunproofin, Eve Massacre, McSleazy, Lee Spoons, Jimmi Jammes, Miss Frenchie, Poj, JoolsMF, Cry on my Console (Josh Pirate Soundsystem) and Blo_up (Don Pirate Soundsystem), DJ Riko and many many more!

You might recognise several of the tracks, which have been regulars on Radio Clash, and Jimmi's track was the first ever track played on RC - in fact London Booted inspired the very name of Radio Clash, and ignited my interest in The Clash, as well as the artwork being originally meant for London Booted.

This has the rare B-sides, an unreleased track meant for London Booted, and a special radio rip of one of the tracks played on XFM, and the different artworks for the different releases.

* probably, well until the next one.

On a happier, more positive note, over at Radio Clash I'm posting a load of early mashup compilations that haven't seen the light of day for literally years.

First one was GYBO’s I Created A Monster  frm 2003 which contains some legendary mashups such as 'Safari Love' by Loo & Placido and Smacked Up Dragula by Steve H Christ (tga you should check this out!) and some classic Frenchbloke, Bitter Sound Foundation and GHP bootlegs.

"What is clear is that despite your journal name change, you're still the same. There's a sound reason you're blocked from commenting freely here—and before you start to whinge, it's nothing to do with censorshipp. Kindly save us both the hassle and stay off my blog. Thanks!"

I love it when people edit their bitchy comments out of their responses, just so they can send their loving snark to you personally.

This is what someone actually wrote, then took it out. All we were having was a conversation about grammar - one instigated by his admittedly rather pedantic and anal blog post,  but of course he had to assume I was being narky when I actually wasn't. I think what rankled more is not that he's telling me to go fuck myself - his blog, his choice, more the fact he edited the comment out so he doesn't want to publicly seem like the arsehole he really is.

This person is always uppity if you disagree with him - not just me, I've noticed it with other people - like "How Dare You Disagree With Me.  You're Banned!". Not a nice personality flaw. Especially when you also post contentious threads that people WILL respond to, not necessarily with comments confirming your own tiny world view. Passive aggressive, much?

Don't worry, you're now banned from my blog (you weren't even when you blocked me briefly before, because I like to give people a chance). Have a nice life.

His partner is always welcome, as always because he is not the issue, and has apart from one time been nothing but nice to me. I'd understand if he leaves my friend list, but that would be sad. I have no problem with him, nor assign his partner's lack of grace to him.

But his boyfriend is not until he grows up. Which will likely be never...

Just a note that I spruced up 'Go Your Own Steinway' (Eric Prydz vs FM) which is basically a new version (new intro and speech samples, better production etc.) and uploaded it on the 22nd October, and remastered 'White Witch Dub' - so you might want to redownload these :-D

http://www.mutantpop.net/radioclash/archives/2009/10/19/fleetwood-mix-fleetwood-mac-mashup-lp/

WIN :-D He is a nasty little shite, I have to say (and I watched it 'live' even though I was and am still dead against him being on Question Time).

Good show old chap!

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Next ones are NSFW but very funny: