Things re-discovered

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.

the best album in the world…ever!

Santa brought me a nice new copy of The Joshua Tree!  I bought the album first time around the day it came out on vinyl.  I lent it to some one and got it back with a big scratch on it.  So, 20 years later I have a nice new remastered 20th anniversary cd.

And, yes, it is the best album in the world, ever!

Christian Art?

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!

‘wow!’ - just ‘wow!’

Trace Bundy plays Pachelbele’s Canon… on an acoustic guitar!

mixtape club

The Church of the Exiles have a brilliant mixtape club!

People who go along to their meetings are encouraged to make a CD of their favourite tracks and they swap so people can both discover something about the person who makes the mix and maybe also some new music.  Brilliant idea!

Lent

I know lent is a whole month away but in a stunning act of forward thinking I was looking through my files and came across these images by Si Smith illustrating Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness. 

They are fantastic and also make a pretty cool movie if you stick them in movie maker or something and add music.  I’ve used Springsteen’s Devils And Dust.

Running To Stand Still

‘Scream Without Raising Your Voice’ comes from one of my favourite U2 songs, Running To Stand Still from the Joshua Tree album.  I’ve always seen it as part of a set… It comes after Bullet The Blue Sky on the CD and mostly the two appear in the same order in U2’s live shows.  Bullet is a rage against American intervention in Central America in the 80s.  It is loud, shrieking and brash.  Running to Stand Still is quiet, desperate and fragile in comparison but it is filled with so much emotion, especially when Bono adds the hallelujahs at the end.  It’s a song about the despair and isolation of drug addiction.  It makes me cry.  It’s such a beautiful song.  There is only one way out.  Hope.

And so she woke up
Woke up from where she was
Lying still
Said I gotta do something
About where we’re going

Step on a steam train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night
Singing Ha, Ah La La La De Day
Ah La La La De Day
Ah La La De Day

Sweet the sin
Bitter taste in my mouth
I see seven towers
But I only see one way out

You got to cry without weeping
Talk without speaking
Scream without raising your voice

You know I took the poison
From the poison stream
Then I floated out of here
Singing…Ha La La La De Day
Ha La La La De Day
Ha La La De Day

She runs through the streets
With her eyes painted red
Under black belly of cloud in the rain
In through a doorway she brings me
White gold and pearls stolen from the sea
She is raging
She is raging
And the storm blows up in her eyes
She will…

Suffer the needle chill
She is running to stand

Still.

Wanderer

We watched the Jonny Cash bio Walk The Line the other night.  What a brilliant film.  I don’t know much about Cash but the movie was very engaging.

Bono wrote a song for Cash called The Wanderer and it’s on the Zooropa album, performed by Cash himself.  You should search it out.  It is a stunning song, one of my favourites.  Here are the lyrics:

I went out walking through the streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones
Saw the skin and bones
Of a city without a soul
I went out walking under an atomic sky
Where the ground wont turn
And the rain it burns
Like the tears when I said goodbye

Yeah I went with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering

I went drifting through the capitals of tin
Where men cant walk
Or freely talk
And sons turn their fathers in
I stopped outside a church house
Where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they dont want God in it

I went out riding
Down that ol eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name

I went with nothing
But the thought youd be there too
Looking for you

I went out there
In search of experience
To taste and to touch
And to feel as much
As a man can
Before he repents

I went out searching, lookin for one good man
A spirit who would not bend or break
Who would sit at his fathers right hand
I went out walking with a Bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure I was the one
Now jesus, dont you wait up
Jesus, Ill be home soon
Yeah I went out for the papers
Told her Id be back by noon

Yeah I left with nothing
But the thought youd be there too
Looking for you…
Yeah I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you…
I went wandering

It seems from the film that this song sums up Cash and his life.  deep, dark but ultimately hopeful.

Best Jukebox in the World

So, what would be on the Best Jukebox in the World?  What are your favourite tunes of all time?  I’d have to have:

U2: Where The Streets Have No Name

Deacon Blue: Loaded

The Stone Roses: I Am The Resurrection

Bruce Springsteen: Secret Garden

What would you add?

U2 Review

U2 at The Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 2005

We were supposed to both be at Hampden on the 12th June but Mrs SWRYV was suffering from labyrinthitis (vertigo… ah the irony) so we ended up having a good but strange night with me at the back of the Hampden pitch not seeing much and Mrs SWRYV listening to the rubbish sound on the phone!

Mrs SWRYV was feeling lots better by the end of the week so we got tickets for Cardiff and set off on our wee Welsh adventure… for my 5th U2 show and Mrs SWRYV’s 1st… I hope she likes it!!!! She’s of the ‘I’m not easily impressed you know’ school of music critics!!!

We drove down to Bristol on Tuesday night and stayed over and watched the amazing thunderstorm and U2 on the TV!!! We got up and headed for Cardiff, chuckling at the U2 P+RIDE signs on the way. We made it to the yellow car park at about 11.30am and joined the other fans heading into the city centre.

We decided that food was in order and where else could you eat before a U2 gig but O’Neills… with Staring at the Sun playing as we entered.

Cardiff is such a great city. We wandered around all afternoon, spotting U2 shirts all over the place, ending up in the National Museum looking at some stunning pieces of sculpture (how cultured are we!!!) before heading over to the Millennium Stadium in the sunshine…

We arrived just before gates opened at 4 and I was astonished at how quickly the queues disappeared and we were climbing the stairs to the upper stands. T-shirts were purchased and we headed for our seats.

What a stadium! Our seats were in U27 in row 19 so we were about half way up back towards the far end on Edge’s side. We had a great view (if a little high up! Parachutes under the seat would be a little more reassuring…) of everything and as the stadium began to fill we could feel the excitement building.

Starsailor did a great job in opening the show. They put their all into their performance and set up the rest of the day perfectly. It’s not often that the people in the cheap seats are singing along to the first band on, but then this was Wales!!!

The Killers were superb. Hit after hit. Great songs, great band… It was starting to get hot in the stadium and The Killers just kept cranking up the heat.

And then it was almost time for the main event, after a hot dog of course… and some chocolate… and popcorn… Mmmm!!!

This is probably a good time to talk about the roof of the stadium being shut. The outdoor shows can’t compete with a stadium gig INSIDE. It was DARK and what a difference that makes to the whole experience.

There is something special about the moment the lights go out and Arcade Fire’s ‘Wake Up’ comes on quietly. You can feel the anticipation building with the volume. And then… Unos/dos/tres/catorce… and its straight into two and a quarter hours of unrivalled spectacle.

The band seemed totally up for the show and Bono and Edge were straight out onto the catwalk teasing and playing with the crowd who loved every moment! We got I Will Follow and The Electric Co for our two oldies and the crowd was bouncing!!! But that was just a vocal warm up for the 60,000 strong choir! Elevation was where the fun really began with Edge playing the riff and Bono encouraging a sing along for ages.

Time for the Bassman to take his bow on the end of the b-stage… Adam Clayton’s suave is almost undone by the huge grin on his face as he rightly gets the praise for New Year’s Day. They don’t’ make basslines like that anymore!!!

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for was one of those special moments where the world seems to stop and all is well. And just when you think it can’t get any better ‘All want Is You’ gets a rare outing. What a beautiful song to share with a beautiful woman.

Words don’t really describe what a U2 gig is like. It rears up before you and crashes over you like a massive assault on your senses reaching inside you and grabbing your soul.

The screen blinks to life with patches of brilliant white and the opening notes of City of Blinding Light and a gig that was already soaring goes into orbit! Miracle Drug follows on with Bono rightly praising the amazing Millennium Stadium as he looks to the future, a future where science and medicine play a great part.

Sometime You Can’t Make It on Your Own tears at your heart with the simplicity of the ‘Walking Man’ behind Bono’s soaring vocals. That boy really does have the opera in him!

Then comes the message… It’s a U2 show… we expect and respect the politics because it’s not overdone, it’s heartfelt and it’s real! Love and Peace is amazing. Larry makes his way with less ‘Do I really have to go out there?’ than usual to the drums on the end of the B-stage and It all kicks off… Out comes Bono with his ‘CoeXisT’ headband on and the fantastic graphics on the big screen. Bono bashing the drum at the end was fantastic. He was so into it! Then Sunday, Bloody Sunday… The roof is in real danger of being reopened as the crowd let loose, maybe not so much bouncing as Hampden towards the back but some seriously great singing.

And it’s into the third of the ‘war songs’, Bullet. Great song but seems kind of out of place in the set after Sunday, Bloody Sunday. Maybe it’s just because Sunday is such a great sing along song but Bullet is kind of sterile on this tour and seems strange without the monologue. Because things go a bit flat the transition into Running To Stand Still gets a bit lost and it takes a minute to get people’s attention back to what is a fantastic song but it gets lost at the end when Bono goes off into Happy Birthday and Walk On rather than the transcendent ‘Hallelujahs’. The Declaration of Human Rights is met with roaring acclaim and the choir is back for a stunning rendition of Pride!

Next up is one of the highlights of the show. Where the Streets Have No Name has been reinvented as a rallying call for action to Justice for Africa and as the screens burst into colour filled with the flags of African nations Bono and Edge harmonise on a tribal intro. The crowd go into over drive and the more sedate One is greeted as much with relief as enthusiasm! Two MPH campaigners have a banner and Bono is only too happy to get them out onto the B stage as he sings. The mobile phone starscape is stunning from up high and we get a chuckle when Vicky Pollard’s name comes up on the screen!

There are moments that only happen once in a while and tonight was one of those special nights… Bono manages two lines of Unchained Melody and the Welsh choir takes over… until the high note where it all goes wrong and the crowd and the band collapse in fits of laughter.

The screens flicker to life and we’re transported back to ZooTV with Bono, the aging dictator, hamming it up on the screen then on stage!

Just when your brain has adapted to the sensory barrage… The Edge rips into the Fly and the screens unleash their full potential. It’s new and super slick with just hints of the words from the past of ZOO TV. It’s almost as if they have been waiting for the technology to catch up… and now it has!!!

With Or Without You brings some relief for the brain but is all the more striking in its heartbreaking glory following so close after the ZOO TV imagefest. Simple white light brings the focus back from the screens to the four consummate musicians at the peak of their powers.

Another short break and they’re back with All Because Of You, God back in the middle of the show, then moving onto our closing hymn this evening… Yahweh. Lumps in already sore throats and tears welling in our eyes… ‘Take this heart and make it break’.

But it’s not over ‘til the Irish guy tries some Welsh… and its back into Vertigo for one last blast.

The stadium emptied and the happy, worn out, ecstatic crowd poured out into a warm Cardiff night and into queues for buses, trains and pubs… then into more queues to get out the car parks… then into a massive queue on the M4!!! We waited so long that the trucks carrying U2’s stage started to appear on the road beside us!!! Now that’s impressive.

Words don’t really do justice to what we have experienced… but this is the closest I’ve heard to capturing U2 on paper… ‘f***ing mind-blowing!!!’

Amen brother!!!

Oh… and as for Mrs SWRYV… I noticed this morning that Achtung Baby seems to have taken up residence in her car… and she’s on Ebay looking for tickets to every show for the rest of the tour… I think she kind of liked it… a bit!