Hallelujah!!! A Chance to Post

While the brainiacs at Google and Blogger have been frigging around with the site, tools and format of our blogs I have missed the opportunity to join colleagues in the blogasphere in:

Naming my Top Five Crap Movies I Still Love to Watch
Passing on a Tag about Five Things the World Doesn't Know About Me
Inviting my readers to contribute to naming the 100 artists featured in the new clip for U2's single "Window in the Skies"

If I ever get back on I'll include details of the above....
If you don't see anthing new until about January 20th you'll know I'm in Perth for the Uniting Church's national youth event NCYC "Agents of Change" www.agentsofchange.org.au
and then The Youth Unit's Summer camp here in NSW/ACT... www.nsw.uca.org.au/boe/youthunit and follow the links to register etc

See ya soon.... maybe later maybe sooner!!

Rob Hirst' ARIA Hall of Fame Speech

By popular demand, here it is...

"Not so long ago we were the latest models on the showroom floor. Shiny and new, no rust, ready for the road, good for 500 gigs before needing a service. Of course, we needed a bit of polish.

By the mid-80's the car was left in the garage, while we toured Europe and North America in buses and flying machines. We played in some unlikely places: a bullring in France, an old U-Boat factory in Germany, a major traffic intersection in NYC. And we recorded albums on a farm in England and an office block in Tokyo.

But all the travel simply made us cherish our own country more.

We made friends in the desert, and wrote songs about the beauty and tragedy of the Aboriginal Nation. We joined forces with the millions who see the potential, and the perils, of the Australian destiny.

2000 came around, a rare moment of peace and goodwill. Yet even before the thrill and the smoke of the Sydney Olympics began to fade, great changes were being made.

Last week GW Bush finally admitted that Iraq may prove to be his Vietnam, but Vietnam inspired some of the greatest protest songs ever written. Not so now, surprisingly, even when hundreds of thousands of Australians crowded our streets to demonstrate their opposition to another senseless war. Maybe complaint rock is still being written, but is ignored by an industry hypnotised by get-famous-fast TV shows. Bless you, John Butler, but you shouldn't have to do it all by yourself.

Of course, everything eventually turns around, as Bush's predecessor of two centuries past, Thomas Jefferson, observed: 'A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles'.

There are so many to thank on this amazing journey, this strange fantastic dream. Thank you Denis Handlin and everyone now and then at CBS, Sony, and Sony/BMG. Our history is tied to yours - in fact, Denis was still packing shelves at Artarmon when we were packing shit at the Antler.

Thanks to our own cheer squad, past and present: our manager, Gary Morris, our office bearers, particularly Arlene and Craig; our crew, especially Michael and Nick; our tour managers, from Constance to Willie; our producers, chiefly Nick and Warne; and our first two bassplayers, Bear and Giffo. And thanks most of all to our families, who put up with long-absent husbands and fathers, and who graciously accepted our middle-distance stares and our long-distance phonecalls. They've seen us at our worst, trying to dial room service at home, or complaining that there's no TV in the bathroom. But they might also have to admit - like us - that when it's all been said and done, it's been lots of fun."
Rob, Oct 06

Silverchair Salute the Oils

U2 "Window in the Skies"

"Window in the Skies"
The shackles are undone
The bullets quit the gun
The heat thats in the sun
Will keep us when there's none
The rule has been disproved
The stone has been moved
The grain is now a groove
All debts are removed, ooh
Oh can't you see what our love has done
Oh can't you see what our love has done
Oh can't you see what our love has done
What it's doing to me
Love makes strange enemies
Makes love when love may please
Soul in a strip tease
Hate brought to its knees
Sky over our head
Can reach it from our bed
If you let me in your heart
And out of my head
Oh can't you see what our love has done
Oh can't you see what our love has done
Oh can't you see what our love has done
What it's doing to me
Oh oh oh hhhhhhhhhhh
Oh oh oh hhhhhhhhhhh
Please don't ever let me out of here
I've got no shame oh no oh no
Oh can't you see what love has done
Oh can't you see
Oh can't you see what love has done
What it's doing to me
Oh I know I hurt you and I made you cry
Did everything but murder but you and I
But love left a window in the skies
And to love I rhapsodize
Oh can't you see what love has done to every broken heart
Oh can't you see what love has done for every heart that cries
Love left a window in the skies
And to love I rhapsodize
Oh can't you see

Greetings all from sunny and warm Perth, Western Australia
Over here to help with Small Group Leadership Training for NCYC 2007 Perth.
The place is overrun with distraught POMS from the Barmy Army!!

Note above, the provisional lyrics for the fascinating new U2 single to be released in various formats on January 1... see u2.com for details...

The YouTube video previous post is atop a Japanese sky scraper and Bono's voice sounds just about shot.... ggod luck all those in Hawaii at the combined gig with Pearl Jam...
LUCKY STIFFS!!

I feel an Easter song coming on!!

Festive Stocking Stuffers

I'm on the path of an Aussie distributor for some of these great products for an inspired Christmas gift here and there!! Same US distributor also sells Jesus Nodder and Jesus Pencil Tops..... table friends had these with orange and blue cards as "Consensus Jesus" at Assembly last July!!

U2 New Track on Youtube

Homebake 2006

Music fans rock at Homebake festival
Saturday Dec 2 19:22 AEDT
Thousands of eager Australian music fans have converged on Sydney's Domain for the annual Homebake Festival.

Around 20,000 fans have rocked through patchy rain [patchy rain... it bucketed down!!]
to a line-up of Australia's best home-grown talent. Perth Indy rock band Little Birdy, which is playing at the event's main stage for the first time, said it is "pretty cool" to be involved in an Australian music festival.

"There's so many others that the majority of drawcards are international bands," said Little Birdy drummer Matt Chequer. "And to be able to have a festival of 20,000 people that is just all Australian bands is great."

This year's festival will be headed by Newcastle band Silverchair, which played at the very first Homebake in 1996.

Other acts include Eskimo Joe, You Am I, The Vines, Toni Collette and The Finish, Something for Kate and the Hilltop Hoods.

A St Johns Ambulance spokesperson said there had been no major injuries so far at this year's event and expects the day to remain incident free. "We've got it down pat," he said. "We don't expect anything out of the ordinary." Police said while there were no serious incidents, praising the general behaviour of revellers, they had seized drugs with a street value of about $5,500.
Police dogs sniffed out drugs 72 times, leading to 48 people being arrested and charged, police said. Among those arrests were 17 people charged with supplying a drug and two with having goods in custody.

Police seized 79 ecstasy pills, more than 80g of cannabis and a quantity of cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine. Mmmmm that's HOMEBAKE alright!!