The White Stripes to release first official live album!

I come to you this morning in a rather over-excited state. Despite my Wilco-related name (and previous post...) my first true love in the music industry was in fact the White Stripes. I can remember hearing the first bars of 'Seven Nation Army' at a tender 12 years of age in the early months of 2003 and being blown away. I emptied whatever little bits of cash I had saved up and straight out the door I went and bought "Elephant" and its predecessor "White Blood Cells" and was stunned at the treasures I unearthed.

Over the coming years I went back further into White Stripes history and stumbled across the stunning bluesy debut and sophomore album "The White Stripes" and "De Stijl", respectively. Now I would be lying if I said that the depth of these records was not lost on me at such a young age. At just 13 years of age I enjoyed the early work, but found that 'Seven Nation Army' and 'Hardest Button to Button' were just more accessible.

However all of this changed upon witnessing the spectacle of Detroit's finest rocking out Glastonbury 2005. I sat up half the night watching this performance, recording it and replaying it over and over in the coming days. This was my Road to Damascus... The chemistry between Jack and Meg was stunning. Rapidly interchanging in between numerous songs before returning to the one they had been playing ten minutes previously... I was lost in the wailing guitars but Jack and Meg never missed a beat. I had never seen anything like it, and to this day it is my ambition in life to see The White Stripes in their element - the live arena.

This morning I logged onto nme.com and much to my overwhelming delight I was confronted with the confirmation that the White Stripes will be releasing a live record to coincide with the release of their "Under Great White Northern Lights" DVD. This is the first release from the duo since the rather disappointing "Icky Thump" in 2007. While it may not be the new record that fans have been praying for, it is a signal that there's life in the Stripes yet. I pray that before the year is out (or perhaps 2011 if the rumours of a second Dead Weather album and a solo Jack White album are to believed) we may get album number seven. Until then we will just have to be content with the plethora of b-sides and bootlegs that litter the web, and this new live record.

"Under Great White Northern Lights" will hit stores on March 16th, in both CD and DVD format; as well as the obligatory vinyl that we've come to expect from Jack. The tracklisting is as follows:

'Let's Shake Hands'
'Black Math'
'Little Ghost'
'Blue Orchid'
'The Union Forever'
'Ball and Biscuit'
'Icky Thump'
'I'm Slowly Turning Into You'
'Jolene'
'300MPH Torrential Outpour Blues'
'We Are Going To Be Friends'
'I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself'
'Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn'
'Fell In Love With A Girl'
'When I Hear My Name'
'Seven Nation Army'.