"How Long" is something of a curious member of Allison Crowe's song repertoire. It's overwhelmingly popular with international audiences, and particularly in those countries where English is not a first language. As it's rarely heard in concert, we have no video or still images of Allison performing the song. The pic accompanying the audio in this vid looks down a road to the sea off the coast of the Orkney Islands, Northern Scotland. It's taken by Billie Woods, photographer, musician and friend of Allison, when the pair were graciously invited by composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, the Queen's Master of Music, and "Max"'s partner Colin Parkinson to visit their Orcadian home:
Vocalist/pianist Allison Crowe and her Canadian band-mates, guitarist Billie Woods and percussionist Laurent Boucher, have been welcomed into Germany - their reception by Frankfurt's Federal Border Police being night-and-day to what was experienced at London's Gatwick airport just days earlier. (A fourth member of the quartet, bassist Dave Baird, is visiting family in Scotland.)
Crowe has performed in the UK each year since 2005, including heralded concerts and benefits from Brighton, England to Durness, Scotland and numerous communities between them. She performed famously at the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival in 2007 - on stage between the UK's Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and the Queen's Master of Music, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Her most recent UK concert performance happened on October 18, 2008. Just weeks after this last visit, unbeknownst to Crowe and her UK concert presenters, the government brought in new anti-terrorist and anti-illegal immigrant legislation. These new rules target artists and academics.
In what can seem a world gone mad with paranoia and xenophobia, when fear and anger are too present in our lives, let it be noted that people can and do still treat one other with respect and not just suspicion. Hallelujah.
The UK Home Office has introduced new bureaucratic procedures for organisations that wish to invite non-EU artists and academics to the UK. As professionals committed to the principles of internationalism and cultural exchange, we are dismayed by these new regulations - which will curb our invitations to non-EU artists and academics to visit the UK for talks, artist residencies, conferences and temporary exhibitions.
The system is costly to both the host organisation and to the visitor, and has already meant a number of cancelled exhibitions and concerts. All non-EU visitors now must apply for a visa in person, and supply biometric data, electronic fingerprint scans and a digital photograph. The Home Office’s 158-page guideline document also outlines new controls over visitors’ day-to-day activity: visitors must show that they have at least £800 pounds of personal savings, which have been held for at least three months prior to the date of their application; the host organisation must keep copies of the visitor’s passport and their UK Biometric Card, and a history of their contact details; and if the visitor does not turn up to their studio or place of work, or their whereabouts is unknown, the organisation is legally obliged to inform the UK Border Agency.
We, the undersigned, believe that these Home Office restrictions discriminate against our overseas colleagues on the grounds of their nationality and financial resources, and will be particularly detrimental to artists from developing countries, and those with low income. Such restrictions will damage the vital contribution made by global artists and scholars to cultural, intellectual and civic life in the UK.
The above petition is one of the cornerstones of a movement growing from within and without the UK. (Click on the links to view the petition and read the many comments which explain the real issues.)
In sharp contrast to the UK government's extremism is the approach seen in other parts of Europe.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, for example, spells out its policy this way:
"A work permit is not required of a foreign national whose execution of office does not exceed seven consecutive calendar days or a total of 30 days in a calendar year, and if he/she is: a performing artist, an educator, member of a university academic staff, a scientist or member of a research and development staff taking part in a scientific conference or meeting, a pupil or student under 26 years of age, a sportsman/sportswoman, a person procuring the supplies of goods or services in the Czech Republic or a person supplying such services or goods, or a person carrying out assembly works under a commercial agreement, or carrying out warranty and repair works."
In the UK, many are protesting. Many more people, however, have yet to even hear of the new rules that discriminate against artists and academics among others.
Not a single person working in association with either of the music venues where Allison Crowe's band was scheduled to perform this week - in Scotland and England (places Crowe loves and where she has performed numerous times since 2005) - had knowledge of the UK's Home Office's new process. Nor could they imagine that for non-EU acts (outside of those classified as "non-Visa naitonals" - Canadians and Australians), a Sponsor must be party to a process that involves collecting fingerprints and "biometric (retinal+) scans" (a controversial practice itself) etc. of musicians, scholars, tango-dancers, magicians and other similarly threatening visitors.
Instead, the awareness campaign happens when a Russian pianist cancels a visit after 18 years of performing in the UK - as was the case for Grigory Sokolov, described as the greatest classical pianist alive today - Top artists battle visa clampdown. It happens when a Canadian journalist is detained, interrogated and deported as happened recently to Leah McLaren - and was reported in national Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail: CRUEL BRITANNIA: God may save the Queen, but what about the rest of us? It happens when a nation's artists and educators team up to declare we need to End pernicious controls on artistic freedom.
And whatever rules a government - in Canada, America, the UK or elsewhere - chooses to put in place, whether they're right or wrong, it's due time to return reason and humanity to the process.
We look to our artists to reflect on life's truths and show them to us in unique light. Allison Crowe is a musician - here is how she says it:
"I always felt free in Scotland," said John Lennon.
That freedom was shared by artist and audience alike earlier this year at a Festival in Durness named in tribute to the much-loved musician, writer and peace activist. In spirit and body, family, friends and fans of John Lennon came together in the Scottish Highlands for three days of music, poetry, drama and more - under the Northern Lights.
Last night, at a ceremony in London, England, the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival was named "Best New Festival" at the UK Festival Awards - joining long-standing celebrants, such as the Isle of Wight and Glastonbury festivals, on the winner's podium. Hearty congratulations are due Festival Coordinator Mike Merritt and his team, and to all the people. Imagine ( :
Singer-songwriter Allison Crowe's honoured and delighted to be Canada's musical ambassador to the event, sharing the stage and experience with an eclectic line-up, including: the original Quarrymen (John's skiffle group which evolved into The Beatles); contemporary UK chart-toppers Nizlopi; premiere Scottish jazzer Todd Gordon and his combo; Britain's most popular living poet and playwright Carol Ann Duffy (second only to William Shakespeare among university-age readers); punk poet John Cooper Clarke; members of the Royal Academy of Music; all together with the Queen's Master of Music, composer/conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (in a joyful musical triumph, his first public performance in 15 years).
During the Festival in Durness in late September, John's family gathered for the dedication of a simple plaque - now on the family croft above the waters and sands of Sango Bay. It says: "John Lennon 1940-1980, Musician & Songwriter, lived here".
The Scotsman, "Scotland's national newspaper", gives the John Lennon Northern Lights Festival four-out-of-four stars and this delightful review:
The Scotsman Tue 2 Oct 2007
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 Alison 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.
