🎟️ WERE YOU AT THE ONE TO ONE CONCERT on 30 August 1972? If so please share your stories and pictures in this thread

[Good Dog Nigel]

Photo by Michael Negrin © Yoko Ono Lennon​

WERE YOU AT THE ONE TO ONE CONCERT on 30 August 1972?​

If so, please share your stories and pictures in this thread!

 

[Good Dog Nigel]

Toby Mamis, Soul Sounds Magazine​

One million, five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of green, baby, and that’s what was generated for Willowbrook’s inmates on that next-to-last day of August when John Lennon and Yoko Ono headed a rock and soul show at the Garden.

The concerts themselves (a matinée and an evening performance) raised close to $400,000, and the Federal Government is obligated to match each dollar raised there with three dollars out of their own pockets (well, actually out of our tax money but it’s better than going into supporting corrupt dictatorships in foreign lands).

A million and a half bucks can go a long way to alleviating the pain and misery of the Willowbrook inmates, victims of a backwards treatment program that treats these persons worse than animals in a zoo, and houses them in similar facilities.

Good concerts are few and far between these days, but One-To-One was a great show. Although John Lennon made several appearances doing rock oldies or jamming, he rehearsed, planned, and sweated with the anticipation of a live concert since the days of the Beatles.

As for Yoko, it was her rock ‘n’ roll debut, she too had appeared before, either in a bag, or doing the minstrel type shtick. Add to that their excitement at finally being able to perform onstage in front of real people with their new musical partners, Elephant’s Memory, with whom they recorded the Apple LP Sometime in New York City and made several TV appearances last spring.

And Elephant’s Memory was just as turned on about the whole thing as their famous friends. Because this was a night to liberate people from their slave-like situation, they decided to open the act with a song of their own from their new Apple album (produced by John & Yoko), a song called ‘Liberation Special’.

What can one say about John & Yoko that hasn’t been said? John is simply one of the best rock ‘n’ rollers in the world and the group he is a part of now, John & Yoko’s Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory Band, swings loud and clear non-stop with an urgency that emphasizes the messages of his songs.

A lot of people don’t get off on Yoko Ono’s music. I do! I think she’s taking rock in new directions and we should go with her and see what she discovers. A lot of ostriches like to keep their heads in the sand and pretend things will always be this way and that ain’t true. Someone’s got to find out where we turn next and Yoko, among others, is looking. At the Garden she was received pretty well by the people but the press didn’t get off on her.

Don’t forget Elephant’s Memory, either, because they are one hell of a good hard rock group, and other Plastic Onos (there were drummer Jim Keltner, bass player John Ward and producer Phil Spector who controlled the sound, and did a wonderful job).

You had to be there, though, to get the excitement.

Maybe you’ll feel it when the record of John & Yoko’s set is released and maybe you’ll catch the TV special filmed that night. The whole evening ended joyfully as David Peel, Teenage Lust, Geraldo, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, Melanie, Jim Bouton, Stevie Wonder, Sha Na Na, Phil Spector and dozens of others sang ‘Give Peace A Chance’ along with 20,000 people in the audience.

Toby Mamis
Soul Sounds Magazine
December 1972.

​

 

[Good Dog Nigel]

Roy Carr, New Musical Express​

Having been at the Lennon concert I more than go along with him in regarding it as an event never to be forgotten. As the minutes ticked into the first hour of a new day I had seen Lennon push a thick wad of gum hard into his cheek and grind out a boogie rhythm on his Les Paul Gibson as he screamed: ‘New York City! New York City! Que Pasa, New York? Que Pasa, New York?’ before a demonstrative crowd of well over twenty-thousand Manhattans plus a few mad dogs and visiting Englishmen. It was magnetic.

The response that night from the animated multitude stompin’ madly on their fifteen-dollar seats had been deafening and the stream of gut-level licks coming from the direction of the stage substantiated all that we felt.

Here, for the first time since the fragmentation of The Beatles, John Lennon finally got back to where he once belonged... rockin’ and rollin’... pushing his powerful lungs to their limits and then beyond accompanied by one of the raunchiest punk street bands I had ever heard.

When he sat at the piano to sing ‘Imagine’ it was to perfection, and the silence had a magic of its own as the slow chugging intro of ‘Come Together’ slid out of the giant bank of speakers.

The motivation behind this Lennon emotion-packed official reunion wth the public followed a TV exposé by New York’s celebrity newscaster Geraldo Rivera, on the squalid conditions suffered by the mentally-retarded children of the up-state Willowbrook Institution.

In the wake of a violent public outcry John & Yoko, in collaboration with New York’s Mayor John V. Lindsay had proclaimed August 30 a fund-raising day and they were personally responsible for raising $350,000 dollars to help alleviate the children’s plight.

Roy Carr
New Musical Express

 

[LordGoodgod]

Toby Mamis, Soul Sounds Magazine​

One million, five hundred thousand dollars is a lot of green, baby, and that’s what was generated for Willowbrook’s inmates on that next-to-last day of August when John Lennon and Yoko Ono headed a rock and soul show at the Garden.

The concerts themselves (a matinée and an evening performance) raised close to $400,000, and the Federal Government is obligated to match each dollar raised there with three dollars out of their own pockets (well, actually out of our tax money but it’s better than going into supporting corrupt dictatorships in foreign lands).

A million and a half bucks can go a long way to alleviating the pain and misery of the Willowbrook inmates, victims of a backwards treatment program that treats these persons worse than animals in a zoo, and houses them in similar facilities.

Good concerts are few and far between these days, but One-To-One was a great show. Although John Lennon made several appearances doing rock oldies or jamming, he rehearsed, planned, and sweated with the anticipation of a live concert since the days of the Beatles.

As for Yoko, it was her rock ‘n’ roll debut, she too had appeared before, either in a bag, or doing the minstrel type shtick. Add to that their excitement at finally being able to perform onstage in front of real people with their new musical partners, Elephant’s Memory, with whom they recorded the Apple LP Sometime in New York City and made several TV appearances last spring.

And Elephant’s Memory was just as turned on about the whole thing as their famous friends. Because this was a night to liberate people from their slave-like situation, they decided to open the act with a song of their own from their new Apple album (produced by John & Yoko), a song called ‘Liberation Special’.

What can one say about John & Yoko that hasn’t been said? John is simply one of the best rock ‘n’ rollers in the world and the group he is a part of now, John & Yoko’s Plastic Ono Elephant’s Memory Band, swings loud and clear non-stop with an urgency that emphasizes the messages of his songs.

A lot of people don’t get off on Yoko Ono’s music. I do! I think she’s taking rock in new directions and we should go with her and see what she discovers. A lot of ostriches like to keep their heads in the sand and pretend things will always be this way and that ain’t true. Someone’s got to find out where we turn next and Yoko, among others, is looking. At the Garden she was received pretty well by the people but the press didn’t get off on her.

Don’t forget Elephant’s Memory, either, because they are one hell of a good hard rock group, and other Plastic Onos (there were drummer Jim Keltner, bass player John Ward and producer Phil Spector who controlled the sound, and did a wonderful job).

You had to be there, though, to get the excitement.

Maybe you’ll feel it when the record of John & Yoko’s set is released and maybe you’ll catch the TV special filmed that night. The whole evening ended joyfully as David Peel, Teenage Lust, Geraldo, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, Melanie, Jim Bouton, Stevie Wonder, Sha Na Na, Phil Spector and dozens of others sang ‘Give Peace A Chance’ along with 20,000 people in the audience.

Toby Mamis
Soul Sounds Magazine
December 1972.

​

"The famous Toby Mamis" !! Of course, a member of the Plastic Ono Band himself! It would be wonderful if he would be able to join the forum and do a Q&A or offer some new memories about those iconic performances and witnessing the world of John & Yoko at the time!

 

[davidpier]

I attended the matinee show and still have my ticket stub. One memory I have that I have never seen written about was the false start to "Come Together". John stopped the band after a few seconds and restarted the song. I love the Sometime in New York City LP.