The release drops on the anniversary of the duo’s historic One to One Concert
Fifty-three years ago today, on Saturday, August 30, 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band headlined the historic One to One Benefit Concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, backed by the NYC rock band Elephant’s Memory, and special guests. Held to a combined audience of 40,000 people, the concert featured both afternoon and evening performances and raised more than $1.5 million (today’s equivalent of $11.5 million) to support children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including the children from the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY.
The electrifying performances featured songs from John and Yoko’s solo albums, their just-released, politically-charged album, Sometime In New York City, the Beatles’ “Come Together,” and the peace anthems “Imagine” and “Give Peace A Chance,” featuring a special guest appearance from Stevie Wonder. These two performances would end up being John’s only full-length concerts after leaving The Beatles.
In celebration of this extraordinary concert, a never-before-seen video of John’s solo hit, “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On),” from the afternoon performance was released today (Sat, Aug 30th) at 2 pm EDT/7 pm BST – the exact time of the original afternoon concert. The footage has been newly restored and edited while the audio, like all songs from the concert, has been completely remixed and re-engineered from the original analog tapes by the five-time Grammy Award-winning team led by producer Sean Ono Lennon with Paul Hicks, Sam Gannon and Simon Hilton, using new HD multitrack transfers by Rob Stevens and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios.
“Instant Karma! (We All Shine)” is the latest preview of the forthcoming box set, Power to the People (The Ultimate Collection), a massive new 12-disc/digital collection exploring and celebrating John and Yoko’s non-violent political activism, influential peace and protest anthems, and the couple’s early years in New York City. It will be released via Capitol/UMe on October 10th, one day after John would have been 85.
The John Lennon Estate previously released videos for “Come Together” and “Well Well Well,” both from the evening concert.
All three videos are from the upcoming concert film, Power To The People, which will be next year. The film is directed by Simon Hilton, edited by Ben Wainwright-Pierce and produced by Peter Worsley, with the music produced by Sean Ono Lennon and mixed by Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon.
John and Yoko’s non-violent political activism, influential peace and protest anthems, and the couple’s early years in New York City, will be explored and celebrated in a massive new 12-disc box set and digital collection entitled Power To the People (Super Deluxe Edition), releasing via Capitol/UMe on October 10, one day after John would have been 85.
Power To The People (Super Deluxe Edition) comprises 9 CDs and 3 Blu-ray Audio discs packaged in a bespoke 10-inch slipcase with silver foil titling and a lenticular cover of John and Yoko’s faces that, when layered on top of each other, presents a dynamic 3D effect.
The One To One Concert will be available outside of the boxed set in a variety of configurations including the Afternoon and Evening shows as an Audiophile 4 LP Deluxe Collector’s Edition containing four 180-gram black vinyl records with rice paper inner sleeves and an eight-page booklet housed in a 12-inch rigid lift-off-lid box, with the same silver foil titling and lenticular cover as the boxed set as well as the same replica VIP envelope with concert tickets and passes and poster.
A 2 CD Deluxe Edition with a triple gatefold digisleeve featuring a lenticular cover of John and Yoko’s faces includes a 20-page booklet. The hybrid concert will also be available on its own, including on 2 LP 180-gram audiophile black vinyl, limited edition transparent green vinyl and on CD. The vinyl versions contain an eight-page, 12-inch booklet with a six-panel newsprint poster that provides visual and historical context, alongside two full-color postcards.
