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'Greatest words' arrives at airport

The title lyrics from a ‘Beatles’ hit record from the sixties will greet passengers at London Luton Airport from May 8th when a mural featuring the words ‘All You Need is Love’ is displayed on the wall of the arrivals walkway.

An internet poll to discover the ‘Greatest Words’ of all time, organised by the Bedfordshire town of Luton through a www.greatestwords.co.uk web site, placed the words at the top of a long list. Now University of Luton mature art student Terry Massiah will see his painting of the ‘words’ unveiled in a place of honour at the airport.

But other overseas students at the university also contributed to the mural, adding the words ‘All You Need is Love’ in different languages to Terry’s impression of a world map featuring air routes to world destinations.

More than 1,500 people originally logged on to the website, creating a top twenty list of ‘Greatest Words’, after which a further 2,000 people voted on the list, pushing ‘All You Need is Love’ into the number one slot with a 16% approval rating.

Second position went to ‘Unto Thine Own Self Be True’ with ‘All Journeys Begin With A First Step’ in third position. Churchill’s famous wartime words ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few’ were in the fourth spot, while ‘Do Unto Others as you would have them do unto you’ was fifth. The first five ‘words’ captured 57% of the vote.

Kath James, managing director of London Luton Airport commented; “We are delighted with the end result of the project. The mural adds an interesting dimension to the arrivals experience and is an excellent interpretation of this great choice of words for its location at an international airport.”

Terry, who works as a doorman in his spare time, was one of just fifteen students from around the UK invited to exhibit his artwork at the Bright Young Things exhibition in Berlin where all his work was sold.

"This has been an amazing time for me," says Terry. "So much has happened in the past year and going to Berlin was the icing on the cake. But I am particularly proud of my work for the arrivals walkway which will, obviously, be seen by many thousands of people. It is an ideal ‘shop window’ for an artist such as myself."

Patricia Murchie from Luton First, the town’s promotional consortium, said; "It was interesting to see that the title of a forty year old song should be in the forefront of public imagination and it’s encouraging that love should be the primary message chosen."

The Top Twenty list.

1. All you need is love. [16%]
2. Unto thine own self be true. [14%]
3. All journeys begin with a first step. [11%]
4. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. [9%]
5. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. [7%]
6. When you go home, tell them of us and say that for all your tomorrows we gave our today.
7. I love you.
8. Man does not live by bread alone.
9. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life.
10. I have a dream.
11. Innocent until proven guilty.
12. Make love not war.
13. Bad governments are elected by people who do not vote.
14. Sorry.
15. I am the light.
16. Well done.
17. Knowledge is power.
18. Love your neighbour as yourself.
19. Evil results from good men doing nothing
20. Honesty is the best policy.