WHEEL UP FOR CYCLE TOUR

IF you are a cyclist, but prefer not to plan ahead, well then an extension of the forthcoming Sefton cycle tour date is likely to bring a smile to your face.

Spontaneity lovers may sometimes feel that deadlines and closing dates put a spoke in their need to make instant decisions.

Recognising this fact, the organisers of the Sefton Cycle Tour have now decided to allow riders to turn up on the day of the event (Sunday June 20), without entering in advance.

Already nearly 300 people have signed up to take part in the 40km (25 mile) ride through the countryside around Formby.

Ranks of cyclists will inevitably swell before the day. But if you are one of those people who prefer to live for the day without planning ahead, provision has now been made to book you in at the starting line, at Maghull Town Hall, provided you are there in good time for the start at 10am.

The route is always a popular one with entrants due to its closeness to the Sefton coastline with its bracing sea air.

And this year there is a new element, with a refreshment stop at the Eco centre, near Southport's Victoria Park.

NNTG BAND TOUR heads for Glastonbury 2004 via Liverpool

OUR friends NNTG are making a huge advance in their search to become the next pop sensation is going well. 

If you have heard them on our radio (Liverpool Reporter) then you know that the band are fantastic and deserve all the support they can get. So please go along to the Carling Academy on the 17 June and show your support. 

Tickets are available from the bands website and we strongly suggest you purchase in advance as each ticket enters you into a prize draw to win their new single "string" well before it hits the high street all over the UK.

News for Glastonbury, the band will be playing in the 'New Tent' at 10:40 Saturday, that is if you managed to get a ticket. The band says:- "We hope to see you there."

www.nowherenearthegarden.com also tune in to hear the band on our radio site www.liverpoolreporter.com 

Queen of Sufi Music to Perform at Philharmonic Hall

ABIDA Parveen, the undisputed queen of Sufi music, who hails from Pakistan, returns to the UK after a four year break, to enthral UK audiences with a regional tour that kicked off at the end of May to promote world music.

Acclaimed as the 'owner of one of the most remarkable voices on the planet' and since the untimely demise of the great Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Parveen has taken his place as the leading voice of Sufi Music across the globe is to appear at the Liverpool Philharmonic on June 12 performing her own brand of Persian music. 

For over a decade her golden voice has swept audiences into a trance with scintillating renderings of devotional and ecstatic Sufi mystic poetry. Andthe only female Muslim exponent of the devotional music and the only woman allowed to sing at the shrines of the Sufi saints. 

Jay VisvaDeva, artistic director of SAMA Arts Network says:- "We have a tradition and commitment to bringing the South Asian culture and traditions to western audiences, allowing them to truly appreciate the wealth and diversity of our heritage."

The mystical Sufi music of the fourteenth century is a unique style of singing that transports listeners into a spiritual ecstasy, and after hundreds of years of being relegated to the background, has over the past ten years started to make a resounding comeback. 
The tour is organised by SAMA Arts, one of the UK's leading organisations in classical events.

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