John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Power to the People’ concert film set for cinemas
The Power to the People concerts by John Lennon and Yoko Ono are heading to cinemas across the world this spring.
The two concerts, officially titled Power to the People: John and Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory and Special Guests – Live at the One To One Concert, New York City, 1972, took place at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1972.
They were the only full-length concerts that Lennon delivered after departing The Beatles, although he did make a handful of other live appearances. It was a charity concert, with the proceeds going to help vulnerable children.
According to press materials, the restoration to bring the concerts to the screen has been “20 years in the making, with every frame physically and digitally cleaned by hand”.
In a statement, Sean Ono Lennon, who has played a pivotal part of bringing the project to screen, said, “It was a concert that had a legendary status in my mind, because it was my dad’s last concert. I remember wanting a Les Paul because he played Les Paul during that show. I feel very grateful I got to work on it because he did plan on touring and he didn’t get to, so all we’ve got is this concert.”
The son of John and Yoko continued, “And I think it is very beautiful because it is so unlike what people were doing at the time. Everybody was getting into slicker and slicker stuff in the early ‘70s, and I think my dad was already kind of pre-empting the arrival of punk.”
Reflecting on the musical tastes of the time, Ono Lennon added, “He just wanted to go back to basics and be raw and spontaneous and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a very cool thing he was doing that was very against the grain.”
On a personal level, he added, “Maybe not everyone realises how special it is for me to hear my dad talking or to see him. I grew up with a set number of images and audio clips that everyone’s familiar with. So to come across things that I’ve never seen or heard is really deep for me, because it’s almost like getting more time with my dad.”
Tickets for the cinematic event are set to go on sale on March 20th to coincide with John and Yoko’s 57th wedding anniversary. Power to the People will arrive in cinemas globally on April 29th for a limited-time only.
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