Sky Space: The Royal Tantra on The Great Perfection of The Bodhicitta

See for Miles' 1990 compilation The Best of Idle Race contains a generous 25 tracks – just over half of what the Idle Race recorded. This means that it does have the great majority of the best material the band recorded, and it would satisfy everyone outside of the rabid collectors who need anything. The catch is, if you're into the Idle Race, you need everything, so this collection is essentially a stopgap until you can track down (or afford) EMI's 1996 complete collection, Back to the Story. Even then, this may be a little more listenable, since it boils the group's interesting but erratic career to its very best – which is obscure British psych at its best (in other words, it's for the collectors who will seek it out, not anyone else).

The magnificent Norman cathedral on the rock, part of the World Heritage site shared by Durham University and Durham Cathedral, was the setting for the world premiere of Jon Lord’s “Durham Concerto” commissioned by the University to commemorate its 175th anniversary. The 1,000 strong audience rose spontaneously to its feet as the final climax reflected Sir Walter Scott’s vision, which is engraved on “Prebends Bridge: “Grey Towers of Durham/Yet well I love thy mixed and massive piles/ Half church of God, half castle ‘gainst the Scot”. The work emotionally evokes the sense of history, scholarship, place and community evident in Durham – an unbroken line from St Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede, Europe’s leading scholar of the 7th and 8th centuries, to the modern day university.