Euronews Culture : Culture Re-View: The only European gig the Plastic Ono Band played (by Jonny Walfisz)
15 December 1969: The Plastic Ono Band play their only European concert.
After the Beatles broke up, the fab four all went their separate ways with their careers. Paul McCartney went solo and formed the band Wings, George Harrison produced multiple outstanding solo albums, and Ringo Starr did… whatever Ringo Starr did.
John Lennon also went off to make his own music. He didn’t do it alone though. Alongside his wife Yoko Ono, Lennon formed the Plastic Ono Band. Ono has erroneously been blamed as the reason the Beatles originally broke up, but by the time they did disband, it was clear that Lennon’s priorities were in artistic projects with his new wife.
The band was first conceived of as a “Fluxus” band that emphasised the means of producing art over the finished product. Breaking out of many of the trademarks that the Beatles first curated on the music scene, the Plastic Ono Band was formed in 1968 as a multi-media art project more than a typical rock band.
Ono and Lennon had worked together extensively on music, collaborating on songs that Lennon would record with the Beatles, and performing live with the Scouse singer-songwriter throughout the end of the 60s.
Some of the first major acts of the Plastic Ono Band – really just the pair – were their “Bed-in for Peace” events. They used these awareness raising events to record music, including ‘Give Peace a Chance’ and ‘Remember Love’, the first singles the band released and that Lennon had released outside of the Beatles.
John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono perform in their first public appearance as the Plastic Ono Band, at Toronto's Varsity Stadium, Sept. 14, 1969.
One of the main features of the Plastic Ono Band was its roving line-up. This was first evident when the band played their first festival. As the Beatles finished up their recordings for ‘Abbey Road’, Lennon was invited to the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival.
After a call on the 12th of September, Lennon amassed a band together in enough time to play the very next day. In what would become typical of the Plastic Ono Band, the roving line-up was an eclectic mix, including Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White.
Lennon initially approached Beatles bandmate Harrison to join in, but he said no, instead recommending Clapton. It was in the process of forming this first official Plastic Ono line-up that Lennon decided to definitively leave the Beatles.
With the festival performance a success, Lennon and Ono got to recording some more singles. It was in December that they would then play their next major gig.
Once again with short notice – this time two days – Lennon and Ono assembled with their Toronto line-up plus Harrison, Billy Preston and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends’ touring group.
Yoko Ono, right, salutes the crowd alongside her son Sean Lennon at the close of the "Yoko Ono: We Are Plastic Ono Band" concert at the Orpheum Theater in 2010
The Plastic Ono Band performed in Europe at the UNICEF benefit concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London on this day in 1969. The gig was titled “Peace for Christmas” and remained the only time the band – with Lennon and Ono together – would perform in Europe.
In its various forms, the Plastic Ono Band would continue to record music up and perform occasionally until the couple split in the mid-70s. Since 2009, Ono has revived the band with her and Lennon’s son Sean and performed worldwide.
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