John Lennon Northern Lights Festival Durness Sep 2007
NEMIS (New Music In Scotland) blog
Thursday, July 5, 2007
The band that John Lennon made his
first public appearance with 50 years ago today
(July 6) are to play at a festival being held in his
honour in the remotest corner of mainland Scotland.
The Quarrymen will spend three days at the John
Lennon Northern Lights Festival in Durness - even
playing in Britain's own natural Cavern... Smoo
Cave, the country's longest sea cave!
It now means that the festival being held in
Lennon's beloved Durness - where he spent many
childhood holidays - now carries the endorsement of
his family, including the ex-Beatle's widow Yoko Ono
Lennon, will be attended by several of them,
including his sister Julia Baird, as well as artists
who knew him and his original band.
Ironically both Ms Baird and Stan Parkes, Lennon's
oldest surviving relative - who will be attending
the festival in Durness - were both at John's first
Quarrymen gig 50 years ago today (July 6)! At the
same event Lennon met Paul McCartney for the first
time.
Now as well as The Quarrymen, the cream of British
arts will be descending on Durness, a village of
just 356 people, for three days between September
28-30 for the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival.
But today (July 6) n the 50th anniversary of John
Lennon's first public appearance, festival promoter
North Highland Tourism announced that Lennon's
original Quarrymen, the band that gave birth to The
Beatles, will be joining an all ready impressive
bill at the Sutherland village.
The Quarrymen - who normally only play a couple of
gigs a year - got back together in 1997 to celebrate
the most momentous meeting in pop music history.
They enjoyed themselves so much and interest from
fans was so great that they decided to re-form the
group forty years on!
The current Quarrymen lineup comprises three of
those five original musicians - Colin Hanton on
drums, Len Garry, former bass player, now playing
guitar and replacing Lennon as lead singer and Rod
Davis, from Quarry Bank School, at first
the banjo player but now on guitar.
Davis played when Lennon was in the group, Garry
played with Lennon and McCartney, and Hanton played
with all The Beatles - except Ringo Starr - on the
famous Percy Phillips recording session which
produced "In spite of all the danger" and
"That'll be the day" which feature on the
famous Beatles "Anthology" album. The
Quarrymen, of course, eventually evolved into The
Beatles.
The other members of the original group were
Lennon's lifelong friend, washboard player Pete
Shotton, who retired in Dec 2000 for health reasons
and guitarist Eric Griffiths who sadly died in
January 2005.
"We really wanted to play this festival because
Durness meant so much to John," said Rod Davis.
"We have played all the other important places
like The Cavern so this was the missing piece in the
jigsaw for us.
"We can't wait to come and play and talk to
people about John and those times. And playing in
Smoo Cave really excites us. It will be just like
The Cavern!"
The Quarrymen play the music which influenced the
birth of The Beatles, the skiffle and Rock 'n' Roll
of the mid fifties.
The Quarrymen usually only play a handful of gigs
each year. So far in 2007they have played
in Liverpool, New Jersey and Russia.
Beatle biographer Hunter Davies wrote the story of
The Quarrymen, which was published in 2001.
In it he chartered how on July 6, 1957 John Lennon
and The Quarrymen were playing at St Peter's Rose
Queen Celebrations and Garden Fete in their home
village of Woolton.
They were on stage singing their version of the Del
Vikings 'Come go with me' when one of
their old friends Ivan Vaughan arrived with a
schoolmate from Liverpool Institute High School.
That schoolmate was Paul McCartney and that was the
moment The Beatles began.
Later that day McCartney met Lennon face to face and
demonstrated his prowess on the guitar. Lennon
realised that he had to persuade the talented "Macca"
to join The Quarrymen and a few weeks later he
became part of the group.
Shortly before his death Lennon tried to buy Durness,
where he spent many a happy holiday in his
childhood. He previously returned in 1969 with Yoko
Ono and their respective children Julian and Kyoko,
but suffered a car crash which hospitalised them for
several days in Golspie.
Film writer Derek Yeaman, who has meticulously
researched that incident, will also be presenting a
talk on those events during the festival.
The cream of British arts including top musicians,
poets, writers, artists and photographers are taking
part in the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival.
Among those taking part are chart toppers Nizlopi,
the Queen's Master of Music Sir Peter Maxwell
Davies, artist Peter Howson, poets Carol Ann Duffy
and John Cooper Clarke and singers Julie Fowlis and
Donnie Munro.
Bands like Mr Hudson and The Library, King Creosote,
Blazin Fiddles and Eclipse and writer Kevin MacNeil
are also taking part.
A whole range of up and coming bands and performers
are also on the bill - plus there is even a rave in
Smoo Cave. Details can be found at www.northhighlandsscotland.com/festival
or 01971511777.
Organisers also announced that singer Allison Crowe
will be coming all the way from Canada, just to
perform. Allison has simultaneously been in the top
three on Amazon's downloads in the Rock
Singer-Songwriters, Hymns, Blues, Jazz, Broadway and
British and Celtic Folk charts.
In addition top Glasgow band Popup - hailed as
"one of the hottest bands of 2007"
by NME - have also been added to the festival bill. www.myspace.com/popuptheband
"We are daily receiving requests from bands and
performers from around the world to take part. This
event has really caught the imagination of a great
number of artists," said a spokesman.
Astronomer Jim Johnston, the head of Farr High
School in Bettyhill will even be presenting a unique
Skywatch talk by projecting images on to the wall of
historic Balnakiel House, once home of the Lords of
Reay, while pointing to the stars above (weather
permitting)!
Details and tickets for the festival are at www.northhighlandsscotland.com/festival
