No Line On The Horizon, the new studio album from U2, will be released on 2 March 2009.  While I’m excited about the album I’m more excited about the TOUR!  U2 are still the best live band on the planet so any chance to see them should be taken.  Start saving now!!!

In the meantime… here’s a little festive offering…

Over the past four nights Radio 1’s Zane Lowe has been showcasing four of the best and most influential albums ever, true masterpieces.

Click the covers for links to the albums on Last.FM

Monday was The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses.

Tuesday was Rage Against The Machine with Rage Against the Machine

Wednesday was the awesome Dark Side Of the Moon by Pink Floyd

and tonight was the Prodigy’s Music For The Jilted Generation.

The shows are fantastic with interviews and documentary pieces on each album then the WHOLE of the album, played in full with no interruptions or jingles.  This is what radio is about.  Brilliant.

I’d never listened to The Dark Side of The Moon all the way through before.  I’m so glad I did.  The Stone Roses took me back to my teens and the Prodigy had me dancing about like an idiot, just like it did in 1994, the year I graduated from Uni.  I missed the Rage Against The Machine show but all four are on the iPlayer.  Have a listen.  Go on.  Give your ears a treat.

No, not for Christmas!  The musical kind.

I know that I’m a little late to this particular party, but the compilations ‘Intelligent Toys’ vol 1-5 available for FREE download on Sutemos are quite simply stunning. If you like downbeat, laid back electronica then this is most definitely for you!

I also love that each album comes with a selection of artwork like these to choose from!

There are a pile of other albums and tracks on Sutemos, all free to download.  Go check it out.

I don’t listen to the radio as much as I used to.  I almost always listen to my iTunes on shuffle at my desk but when I’m in the car I listen to the radio and every time I do I think I should listen more often!

There are two shows I get little snippets of every now and again that I love.

The first is Radcliffe & Maconie on Radio 2, weekdays from 8pm - 10pm (GMT).  Mark and Stuart talk nonsense and sense in a way which makes it difficult to tell which is which but their passion and knowledge of music is captivating.  They play music you never hear anywhere else and wonder why not!  Well worth 2 hours of your life.

The second is Tom Morton on Radio Scotland. weekdays 2-4pm.  Tom broadcasts brilliant music and proper random chat from his home, a croft on Shetland.  I discovered Tom’s show by accident.  I sometimes listen to the news or football on Radio Scotland and had left the car radio tuned in.  I’m glad I did.  Again, Tom plays a blend of proper music that rarely makes it onto daytime radio.  He is knowledgeable and passionate about music, and Scottish music in particular.

Both great listens and both available online.  Give your ears a treat!

It’s not often that Social Workers get immortalised in song but Glasvegas have in their new single ‘Geraldine’.

When your sparkle evades your soul
I’ll be at your side to console
When your standing on the window ledge
I’ll talk you back from the edge
I will turn your tide
Be your shepard and your guide
When your lost in the deep and darkest place around
May my words walk you home safe and sound

When you say that I’m no good and you feel like walking
I need to make sure you know thats just the Prescription talking
When your feet decide to walk you on the wayward side
Up upon the stairs and down the downward slide
I will, I will turn your tide
Do all that I can to heal you inside
I’ll be the angel on your shoulder
My name is Geraldine, I’m your social worker

I see you need me
I know you do

It’s a great song and you can see it here:

Today was the end of What Do You Think? (WDYT?) and the beginning of General Assembly.  At WDYT? this morning we had a look through the report of the Youth And Children’s Work Committee and had a mock debate to see how the General Assembly works.  A coat stand was employed as the microphone and it was amazing to see how quickly people started treating it like a real mic, standing close and holding on to it as a comfort blanket!

After lunch we had a ‘break’ until General Assembly started at 3.30pm.  The break included creating a display of youth and children’s work and making sure everyone got checked back in and registered and stuff.

I decided it was my duty to make sure JB and LR got some well deserved time off so they were dragged kicking and screaming to the nearest golf course for 18 holes.  We played at Silveknowes on the banks of the River Forth and somehow managed to escape the rain which was falling all around us.  A good time was had by all I think.

Tomorrow sees the Assembly start in earnest with Youth & Children’s Work tomorrow morning.  I’m not allowed in the hall so I’ll be hanging out in the foyer watching the live feed on TV.  The most important thing for consideration tomorrow is my job title so check back to see it we get something shorter than Youth And Children’s Work Development Officer.  I do hope so.  That one doesn’t fit on forms!

T in the Park (Scotland’s amazing music festival) is also on this weekend so I’ll be watching/listening/wishing I was there too.  It’s online and on TV & Radio.  Feeder are on now rocking up a storm.

A while ago I posted about Walk the Line, the superb bio-pic of Johnny Cash. Well worth a watch, even if you think you don’t like Cash’s music. I’ve also posted about ‘The Wanderer’, his stunning song on the U2 album Zooropa.

BBC 4 ran a series of programmes the other night on Cash including an episode from the Johnny Cash Show, Walk the Line and a brilliant biography which ended with this is the video of Cash performing one of his last songs, his version of ‘Hurt’. It seems to sum up his life in a song. A moment of great insight, openness and hurt.

I’ve known Neil for about 10 years or so since I booked him to play with his then band Nervous Passenger for the 1st Crossover.  Since that first time hearing Neil I’ve been hooked.  Here he is playing Hallelujah:

I’ve has a busy weekend and in between preaching at Dunfermline (thanks for the tie!) and visiting parents (thanks for a lovely meal!) I rediscovered some things forgotten.

I watched the Masters Golf. I’m not sure I’ve watched it so much as I did this year for ages. For me the Masters seems to hold more appeal than other golf tournaments (except the Ryder Cup where we get to beat the Yanks - in a sporting and fun fashion of course). Perhaps because it is played at the same course each year. Perhaps because the course is Augusta National, perhaps the most beautiful course in the world. Perhaps it is because it never fails to surprise. Well done to Trevor Immelman on winning and to fellow South African Gary Player on his two rounds under 80! Not bad for a 72 year old!

The second thing rediscovered was a musical treat. I found an old CD.

Hats by The Blue Nile. I bought this album when I was at school I think. It is a beautiful collection of angst, hurt and hope. I love it. Perhaps the perfect album for listening to in the dark. The Blue Nile are playing in their hometown of Glasgow soon. I wonder if we could stretch to the tickets. They almost NEVER play and have only produced a handful of albums in 20 years.

I met with an old friend (as in someone I’ve been friends with for ages not that he is old) I haven’t seen in years today.  Clive was a student of mine, then a colleague for a while, then someone who’s band I booked and told people about and then we lost touch.  Facebook to the rescue!

We met, interestingly, at Edinburgh’s National Gallery of Modern Art.  I say interestingly because Clive now works for UCCF working with students around issues of art and theology and culture.  We got talking about the Christian artistic ghetto and the oddity that is contemporary christian music (CCM).

I have to say I’ve never understood CCM.  It is a niche marketing ploy as far as I’m concerned, usually by people who aren’t good enough to cut it in the real music business.  Harsh?  I don’t think so.

Why do ‘Christian’ artists, not just musicians but lots of artists too, feel the need to explain their work?  Surely as soon as you start to explain art it looses some of it’s transcendent quality.  Surely if art is too obvious it becomes bland and less than engaging.

There are some great artists out there who have faith and live in the world and write, sing and paint their world without sticking a fish or a cross on everything so people know it is ok to buy it.  I like to think.  I like to be drawn in, challenged, moved and engaged by art.  That is what art is for.  If it does any of those things then surely that is good art and it will speak to me of God because God is in the world that art depicts.

And Edinburgh… when will you stop charging for entry to galleries?  Art is for everyone and we have paid for it already through our taxes!  Follow Glasgow and London and make entry FREE!