Oh Yeah Music Centre was gifted a one of 50 limited edition acetates, hand-cut at Abbey Road Studios, of the 2020 Ultimate Mix of Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono and will raffle off the gift for charity. The track was first released fifty years ago, in December 1971.

The gift came with an instruction from Sean Ono Lennon, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, “to sell, auction, raise money to help your charity or to fund your Christmas party”.

The music centre, which opened in 2007 and is located in Belfast’s Cathedral Centre, has decided that the best way to honour the incredible gift is to reinvest it in a programme that is dedicated to supporting emerging talents.

Charlene Hegarty, Oh Yeah's Talent Development Manager has stated, “We are incredibly grateful and excited to make available to the public a piece of iconic music history. The best part about it is that every single person who enters the raffle to win the collectible vinyl will be doing their part to support future creative generations - which cuts to the core of what Oh Yeah is all about.”

In this spirit, 100% of the raffle’s proceeds will go towards The Carol Clerk Bursary, which is dedicated to supporting new female and non-binary music writers, and supported by Oh Yeah Music Centre, in partnership with Dig With It Magazine.

Only 9 days left to enter our #HappyXmasVinyl raffle!

This extremely rare 12'' acetate of @johnlennon & @yokoono's iconic Christmas song also comes with a signed letter of authenticity & Christmas card from Yoko Ono & @seanonolennon.

Enter for just £5: https://t.co/tpMWFzM03s

— Oh Yeah Music Centre (@OhYeahCentre) December 12, 2022

The bursary was named after Carol Clerk, an extraordinary music journalist from Belfast who died sadly at the age of 55 from cancer in 2010. Carol wrote her first story for Melody Maker in 1974, eventually going on to become editor. During her career, Clerk also wrote respected books on The Pogues, The Damned and Ozzy Osbourne.

In full circle sentiment, Carol and Yoko were acquaintances, and a conversation which took place between the two in 2009 can be found here.

The limited edition vinyl comes with a machine-printed signature of Yoko Ono’s.

Further information on the raffle can be found here.