Once, really twice, again, we're given opportunity to vote for
something in which we can believe ( :

http://www.festivalawards.com/index.cfm?
section=awards.nominees&method=view&year=2007&eventid=1051 is where
you can cast a vote for the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival -
in the UK's Festival "Oscars". The Fest is in the running for "Best
New Festival" and "Fan Favourite" Awards. If such things were
awarded for heart and soul, it'd be a runaway!!

I imagine we're all in the loop via emails, about Allison's magical
time in Scotland. Should you not have read this news already, check
it out - and please, cast a vote for the festival, its creators,
Mike Merritt and his team, and the spirit of a festival, that, in
2007, is about music and not corporate yada yada!! ( :

To pick up our long story cut-short in the middle of a life
sentence... Allison has just returned to Canada from Scotland where
she performed at the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival in the
Scottish Highlands. Here's a vid for her new song, Northern Lights ~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmSs7Apu9Cs

The Scotsman, "Scotland's national newspaper", gives the festival
four-out-of-four stars and this review ( :

LIGHTING UP DURNESS IN LENNON'S MEMORY

THE JOHN LENNON NORTHERN LIGHTS FESTIVAL ****
VARIOUS VENUES, DURNESS

SITUATED closer to Oslo than Liverpool, it's easy to see why John
Lennon spent so much of his youth in Durness. With its white, sandy
beaches and picture-perfect mountainous terrain, a story hides
behind almost every rock in this remote village in the north-west
highlands. The Northern Lights - the only thing to get a Scotsman to
stand outside without a coat in late September - made an appearance,
but the real magic was going on under the sky, as people from all
around the world gathered to pay homage to Lennon's spirit.

At the Sango Sands Oasis, Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen,
delighted onlookers with a skiffle set and stories about John while
giving people in the audience a chance to play with them on
washboard.

Meanwhile, a mile down the road at Smoo Cave - a spectacular
smugglers' cove believed to be the abode of spirits who guard the
entrance to the netherworld - there was the surreal sight of Mr
Boom. An entranced group of kids sat between the limestone cliffs as
the one-man-band entertainer took them to another planet.

A stone's throw away at the village hall, Canadian angel Allison
Crowe gave one of the weekend's most magical moments, earning one of
few encores for her solo rendition of Lennon's In My Life (a song
inspired by Durness).

Students from the Royal Academy of Music injected new life into the
Beatle's work later on with new, inspired arrangements of Norwegian
Wood and Imagine. Their mentor, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, however -
making his first public appearance in 15 years - played an ingenious
number called Clouds on a badly-tuned piano borrowed from the local
bookshop.

He wrote it, Davies said, when he was 11 years old. You could almost
imagine an 11-year-old John Lennon listening to it in wonder too.

****

The Scotsman Tue 2 Oct 2007

Hail to the Haggis!

Please visit and vote ~ http://www.festivalawards.com/index.cfm?
section=awards.nominees&method=view&year=2007&eventid=1051

I am working on this year's Tidings concert dates, and next year's
everything...

cheers, Ad