October 16th, 1970, Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada. On that night rising music stars Joni Michell, James Taylor and Phil Ochs waived their fees in support of Greenpeace, delivered brilliant performances and made history.
It's all captured on a two-disc CD now available from Greenpeace Canada, complete with a 48-page booklet of never before seen, candid black and white photos of both the concert and the voyage to the Amchitka nuclear testing site which it funded.
Notes from the concert
Night has fallen and it's dark outside the Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver's largest concert arena, but inside all is bright and tinged with the adrenaline buzz of ten thousand ticket-holders.
Every seat has been taken, and those unwilling 
to sit in the stands are plunking themselves down in the aisles and on the floor, with scant resistance from volunteer ushers.
They are all here to listen to the music of rising stars Joni Mitchell, James Taylor (above) and Phil Ochs (left), and to raise funds for a new organisation which is audaciously planning to send a boat to disrupt the atomic bomb test scheduled to take place on Amchitka Island, Alaska, in the autumn of 1971.
Both the boat and the organisation would soon come to be known as Greenpeace, and the money raised from this single concert, the brainchild of activist Irving Stowe, would fund its first fledgling direct actions.
What's in the box?
Now Greenpeace Canada has produced a two-disc, restored recording of the original 1970 concert tapes, superbly re-mastered by Peter J Moore, a Canadian recording engineer who recently worked with Neil Young. Highlights include:
- Joni Mitchell singing a soaring Woodstock just over a year after the actual event
- James Taylor singing many of his early hits on the heels of the release of Sweet Baby James
- The passion and politics of Phil Ochs
- A stunning, never before released Mitchell/Taylor duet of Bob Dylan's Mr Tambourine Man, as live and spontaneous as one can imagine.
And the rest is history...
Greenpeace was launched by ordinary people: environmentalists and peace activists who converged in Irving Stowe's Vancouver living room in the early 1970s and argued for change and what it would look like. With one voice they resolved to stand for our right as human beings to live on this beautiful, finite planet without dangerous interference from self-serving interests. Greenpeace has been doing that ever since.
The first MV Greenpeace and its crew
Today, Greenpeace is supported by millions of like-minded people from all walks of life around the world. Many support us as volunteers and activists. More than a million are cyber activists campaigning on-line. The majority choose to support our aims by giving us the gift of independence with donations, thereby becoming Greenpeace members.
This is our 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.
