Vancouver Sun: Vancouver's nightlife was hopping on Oct. 16, 1970... Tucked away at the bottom of the nightclub ads was a small blurb for a Greenpeace benefit concert. Tickets were $3 at the door, for a lineup that included Joni Mitchell, Chilliwack and Phil Ochs [with surprise addition James Taylor].
Ten thousand people turned out, raising $18,000 after expenses. It was enough to send a protest ship to Amchitka Island, off Alaska, where the United States was conducting hydrogen bomb test. And enough to launch the world's foremost environmental organization.
The concert has been more or less forgotten over four decades. But not to the Stowe family, which had a tape of the concert. Every now and then, they'd haul it out to play for friends. A couple of years ago, Robert Stowe transferred the original reel-to-reel tape to CD as a Christmas present for his mother Dorothy and sister Barbara. The performances were so great, he thought they should be released.
Greenpeace thought so, too. And so the world has Amchitka, the 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace, a double CD that is being released today. The show is available through Greenpeace here.
