Joni at the Pacific Coliseum - photo courtesy of Alan Katowitz
"They paved paradise, put up a parking lot" sang music icon Joni Mitchell presciently in one of her earliest hits, 1970's Big Yellow Taxi. And right from the start she showed a willingness to put her money where her mouth was in support of her environmental concerns.
So much so that later that year, when Canadian peace activist Irving Stowe announced plans for a benefit concert to raise funds to send a ship to oppose US nuclear testing in Alsaka, she was one of the first to sign up. On October 16, together with fellow rising star James Taylor and the legendary protest singer Phil Ochs, she put in an astonishing performance for an audience of 10,000 at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum, raising over $16,000 - enough to send a boat and crew to the Amchitka nuclear testing site.
The vessel, an old fishing boat called the Phylis Cormack, was renamed the Greenpeace for the duration of the trip, an inspiring name which would quickly be adopted by the fledgling organisation whose hopes it carried into the nuclear testing grounds. And so, in a very real sense, this was the night when Greenpeace began, when opposition to unthinking environmental destruction found both its voice and a way to turn that opposition into practical, positive action.
Now the magic of this unique occasion has been captured on a two-disc CD available from our office in Canada, complete with a 48-page booklet of never before seen, candid black and white photos of both the concert and the voyage to Amchitka which it funded.
So we'd like to take this opportunity to share a beautiful recording and a significant moment in our history with Greenpeace supporters and music lovers everywhere.
Order your CDs or make an electronic download today from www.amchitka-concert.com.
