THE NEW TROUBADOURS

The community’s first-ever musical band was The New Troubadours, which emerged in 1971 from Friday fun nights at which people would act, sing and tell stories. David Spangler and guitarist Milenko Matanovic wrote songs and gathered around them an ensemble of singers — Kathi Lightstone, Lark Batteau, Jewels Manchester, and double bassist Jim Bronson — soon developing a repertoire of well-written, catchy spiritual songs that joyfully expressed the philosophy of Findhorn. The best of these, like In My Name and Change Can Come, have become community classics. The New Troubadours also played beyond Findhorn, representing the community in the local area and also, notably, at a New Age conference in London. They also performed live on BBC TV’s Mainly Magnus special on Findhorn in January 1973.

Mike Scott during production of Universal Hall album 2003

That same year the band recorded two albums, Love Is and Homeland, using the Lecture Room of the Park Building (the house opposite the Universal Hall) as a recording studio. These, the first Findhorn Community record releases, were issued on cassette and have sold several thousand copies over the years. When the band’s members left Findhorn in 1973 to found the Lorian Association, the musical baton was passed to other hands, but the legacy of the New Troubadours remains. Their songs are still loved and played in the Community and a Best Of … album, compiled by myself and containing 16 of their finest songs, was released in 2009.

Mike Scott