Super Limited Edition Happy Xmas (War Is Over) 12"

Aim

100% of the proceeds from this auction will go towards 'The Carol Clerk Bursary' supported by Oh Yeah Music Centre.

The Prize

We are raffling an extremely rare; one of 50 vinyl acetates of John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s iconic single ‘Happy Xmas (War is Over)'. We are doing this to raise vital funds to continue in our charity work at Oh Yeah Music Centre.

This one-sided 12” acetate was hand-cut on the lathe at the legendary Abbey Road Studios by mastering engineer Alex Wharton and was kindly made available to Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon. 

The record was released on December 5th 2021 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original recording in 1971. Some info about the release here: http://www.johnlennon.com/news/happy-xmas-war-is-over-50-acetates-for-the-50th-anniversary/

The two page printed insert and header sheet from Sean Lennon is in mint condition. This is number 44 of 50.

The Cause

100% of the proceeds from this auction will go towards 'The Carol Clerk Bursary' supported by Oh Yeah Music Centre. By bidding on this extremely rare and collectible item you are also contributing to the future of representative music journalism in Northern Ireland for female and non-binary writers.

The 'Carol Clerk Bursary' is named in honour of a trailblazing music writer from Belfast. Carol wrote her first story for Melody Maker in 1974 when she was still at school (‘Bombs, Boredom and No Bands’). Eventually she became News Editor of Melody Maker and also wrote respected books on The Pogues, The Damned and Ozzy Osbourne.

Sadly, Carol died of cancer in 2010, aged 55. Here is an obituary of Carol in The Guardian.

The Carol Clerk Bursary was launched with the blessing of her daughter Eve. The bursary supports mentoring, skills development and resources for upcoming writing talent. Earlier this year, Belfast-based student Eleanor Gilmore was awarded the first Carol Clerk Bursary for music journalism.

''As an unpublished, slightly apprehensive writer, someone who's somewhat secretly been documenting my thoughts on music for many years alone in my room, I didn't think such resources and mentorship as those offered within the bursary would be accessible to me.''

“Being the recipient of this bursary will give me direction with my writing, resources to develop and improve my ideas, and the guidance to put forth my own contributions in chronicling and championing the alternative music scene as Carol Clerk did during her career.'' - Eleanor Gilmore

With a great stroke of serendipity, Carol was an acquaintance of Yoko Ono. You can read a conversation between Carol and Yoko here

This project successfully funded on 25th January 2023