Amchitka - The Concert That Launched Greenpeace

If anyone asks what power does music have to change things, to make a difference it's easy to point to 'Live Aid', 'The Nelson Mandela Concerts', 'The Wall' the numerous charity singles over the years, the songs that raised awareness as well as funds.

It's often been said that The Concert For Bangladesh was the first great benefit concert. There's plenty of arguments in it's favour, a cause, a stellar line-up, the funds going to people affected by a global scale disaster, something that would all meet up again in Live Aid fifteen years later. I don't think it's hard to argue that the Concert For Bangladesh gave music it's compassionate heart, but for me, the concert that gave music it's political soul had occurred the year before.

Whilst these days, Amchitka, is relatively forgotten, it's legacy lives on. It to had a stellar line-up, raised awareness, but unlike Concert For Bangladesh, Amchitka was raising funds for a political cause, Amchitka was the concert that launched Greenpeace.

Amchitka is an island in the Aleutians that was to be home to nuclear test in 1971 and former lawyer and political activist, Irving Stowe was trying to raise funds to buy a boat, officially named The Greenpeace to sail down to Amchitka and prevent the tests from happening.

He persuaded Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and the late great Phil Ochs to play a fund raising concert in Vancouver on 16th of October 1970. Without that concert, the voyage would never have happened and Greenpeace would have been stillborn.

Whilst ultimately the voyage never stopped the test, it and the concert fired the imagination and lead to the birth of a truly global environmental organisation with a policy of direct action.

Phil Ochs(left, the opening act had form, a journalism major who studied at Ohio State in Columbus, he'd created and edited an underground newspaper whilst at college. He was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam, but a passionate patriot in a similar style to the likes of the beat poets.

By the time of the concert he already had six albums to his credit and was acknowledged as a prolific songwriter. Ochs occasionally described himself as a singing journalist, writing songs instead of pamphlets.

Taylor at twenty two was a relative newcomer, though he had recently released the album that would kickstart his career, "Sweet Baby James". The album would go on to sell three million copies in the US alone. He was very much a star in the ascendant at the time.

Joni Mitchell was on home turf. She had been named Top Female Performer of 1970 by Melody Maker. She was three albums into her career and still regarded primarily as a songwriter and folk singer, not yet transitioning across into the more pop crossover era of her career. She'd just landed the Grammy for Best Folk Performance.

For it's day it was an incredible line-up, the big stars of the day more than happy to wade into the political arena before they'd established themselves as names.

The concert has recently been made exclusively through Greenpeace and will continue to raise funds to help keep the organisation fighting. If you go to

www.amchitka-concert.com you'll be able to find the details on how to acquire you copy of this piece of history.

Music still plays an important part in Greenpeace's armoury both to raise funds and raise awareness. If you check out the new Emily Maguire album "Believer" you'll find a song called "Woke Up" about the impact we are having on our planet. It's a song the Greenpeace will be using to raise awareness of their current campaigning.

Amchitka

Following a short intro from Irving Stowe, Phil Ochs takes to the mic. As you would expect, it's just the man and his guitar, but often that's all you need. Even all these years later you can feel the power and passion that rolls of the man throughout his performance.

With the advantage of hindsight, it's easy to see how this much intensity in his personality was taking a toll. It's already being hinted at in his stunning song, "Chords Of Fame" a song about a troubadour type musician being torn apart by the music industry. I wonder if Ochs realised just how prophetic that would become to his life?

His songs cover a range of political issues, but focus on the positive, ending of war, social consciousness, personal responsibility.

You can tell the respect that Ochs was held in at the time by the audience reaction, there's no shouts from the audience during the playing, but absolute bucket loads during the gaps between songs.

Looking back you could argue that there's a slightly twee innocence in his performance, but you know that it's one hundred percent genuine and you can really understand why he had the impact he had.

It's hard to hear songs like "Joe Hill" without being moved all these years after the events.

The thing that struck me most about listing to Ochs opening is how many of the songs could have equally been written in the last couple of years. Some of the names have changed, Vietnam, Afghanistan, but all too many of the issues, deforestation, war and suffering remain.

Beyond a doubt is was one heck of a way to open the concert. It's a real scene setter of a performance.

James Taylor, despite having the same instrumentation delivers a far different kind of performance. For a start the songs move from the political to the emotional, from songs about how the world affects the many, to how the world has impacted upon one. Again the advantage of hindsight helps understand why Carly Simon wrote "You're So Vain".

He's also a far more commercially astute performer, he gets a plug in for the new single "Fire And Rain". The performance is warmer and there's applause during parts of the songs, something you didn't hear with Ochs. The audience know that there's a different type of performer in front of them and the mood changes appropriately.

Taylor can be that bit more mellow, he's not trying to sell a message he's taken on the idea that he's there to entertain and entertain he does.

Joni Mitchell strikes a balance between her two predecessors. There are a number of political songs amongst her keenly observed words on the human condition. She's also the one that comes across as the most vulnerable, most nervous, maybe because she was on home ground.

There was a comment on the honesty of the media, but by and large, she just concentrated on her music, bringing a piano into the fray as well as guitar. For me her performance is inconsistent, there's flashes of brilliance, but interspersed with areas where she fails to find the note. It does definitely highlight the potential that she had and subsequently lived up to.

All in all, an excellent package and one with plenty to recommend it. It's not just a concert, it's piece of social history, the impact of which is still being felt today. That is continues to raise funds for Greenpeace, an absolute bonus.