FESTIVAL season is upon us again, and while there is plenty to look forward to, the proposed two-day Rock4Life event has now been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

GUITARIST Graeme Stephen was pointing out to me the other day that whenever he is involved in a Tune Up tour, it seems to snow. He won’t be disappointed this time, then, when he takes his excellent contemporary jazz sextet and special guest Ben Davis on the road in late February and early March, including dates in Perth, Inverness and Banchory.

THE INVERNESS WINTER FESTIVAL 2009 got off to a rocky start when a single complaint about a Jolly Roger flying from the flagpole on the Town House led to the removal of the “offending” item, apparently on the grounds that it gave succour and support to Somalian and other latter-day pirates.

CONCRETE evidence of how the current recession is impinging on the arts has been all too evident in the past few months, but if any conclusive proof were needed, the cancellation of The Outsider festival surely provided it.

BACK in October 2007, I interviewed Judi Menabney, the Principal Cultural Officer at Highland Council, about what was perceived to be potentially damaging cutbacks in Highland Council’s programme of Arts Officers (then about to be re-designated as Cultural Officers).