The Amchitka Concert has been called the concert that launched Greenpeace. Can you tell us about the actual history of the concert and its effects on the early days of the Greenpeace organisation?
The history is in the liner notes of the CD and the "THEN" narrative, written by Barbara Stowe, is a joy to read. The concert was organized by her dad, the late Irving Stowe, to whom this CD is dedicated. He was a social activist who moved his family to Vancouver, Canada, after deciding -- for moral/political reasons - that he wanted little to do with the country of his birth, the US. He and his colleagues, the co-founders of Greenpeace, wanted to stop the nuclear bomb testing on Amchitka, an island in the Aleutian Islands and decided that proceeds from a rock concert would go a lot further towards outfitting a boat to send on the mission than would selling Greenpeace buttons on Vancouver street corners. The money was raised, a boat called "The Green Peace" made the trip, Greenpeace was born and the rest is history.


The concert took place in 1970. Why do you think it took forty years to release the concert recordings?
The Stowe family was given permission by the artists to use the recording for their own enjoyment. My guess is that during its first decade or two Greenpeace had a lot on its plate just to deal with growing up and becoming the great campaigning organization it is today. They may have lost sight of the recording as well. However, Greenpeace Canada had been looking for someone connected to the music industry when I joined three years ago. It didn't take long before they mentioned to me that they wanted to turn this recording into a Greenpeace fundraiser, and I jumped on it. The Stowe family had also approached Greenpeace a few years earlier and were very willing to hand over the tape, but they are a great family, very good people, and they were going to remain faithful to the original agreement until we could get permission from the artists to make a CD and sell it. It continues to be a wonderful project.


The line-up for the concert featured Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Phil Ochs, all at the very first height of their careers at the time. What made them want to get involved with this project? As I understand it, they all pretty much did it without charge?
Indeed, they did it without charge. I think Joni even paid for the piano rental. Very much in the spirit of the times. Phil Ochs as we know, and as we can hear in his lyrics and voice had a high level of social awareness, probably very much on par with that of Irving Stowe and the other Greenpeace founders, and so his willingness to support both the cause and a fledgling organization that was broke was a given. Irving, a very impassioned man, who new how to sell an idea he believed in, also got to Joni. My guess would be there was a very strong connection there as well, and, fortunately for us, Joni invited James because everyone knows that there was a definite connection of a different kind between those two (in the spirit of the times). I'm kidding, James Taylor has been supportive of social/environmental causes for a long time.


Amchitka took place only one year after Woodstock. If the Woodstock tells a story of a worry-free decade of sex, drugs and rock n’roll, then what story does Amchitka tell? The 60's were gone, and the world was facing a decade of Nixon, Vietnam and nuclear bombs. Do you think Amchitka marked the end of innocence more so than Altamont?
I think that on the music map Altamont to Amchitka marks a transition to a more introspective, self awareness from Altamont's "loss of innocence" tag. That transition was embodied by the three musicians on the stage that night. Phil Ochs, in the tradition of the great protest singers in folk and blues, angry and tired, his career slowly setting, and James and Joni, their stars rising, saying chill, breath for a moment, the examined life is preferable. Out of this period of social unrest came the environmental movement having learned a lot from its historical/organizational roots and ready to move forward.


Please tell me about the production of the album. How did you approach it? Where are the pitfalls when it comes to producing a forty year old recording of a concert? The sound is excellent!
Thank you. The first thing you do is find a genius engineer by the name Peter J. Moore. Then you give him your 40-year old, 1/4 inch tape, which is not the master, long since vanished, and then you leave him alone during which time he combs over the tape removing, every ping, pop, wave and hiss that only he and a few rare animal species can hear. Then you sit with him for over 14 hours and rough out how the CD will play drawing a subtle balance between preserving the ambience of the live concert and editing some of the stage chatter so that it doesn't compete with multiple plays of the record. But neither do you want to thin the chatter out too much because the spirit of the times is captured not only in what is said but in how things are said and how the audience reacts. Then you spend another couple of days with him in awe, listening to every bit of the CD, while he EQs all the highs and low, one note, one phrase, one riff at a time, and turns a monaural recording sows ear into a golden something where you can hear depth and range and separation and all sorts of colourful details... or you can go to a gallery and marvel a painting by a great master while you eat a sandwich.


What's your own relationship with Greenpeace? How, when and why did you get involved?
I am drawn in a conscientious way to Greenpeace. I had experience as a fundraising consultant in the not-for-profit sector and wanted very much to apply that experience to a cause I believed in when Greenpeace advertised for a Foundation Officer to solicit large gifts from family foundations.

To what extent do you think the Amchitka heritage influenced you and the rest of the Cowboy Junkies music wise?
Certainly the Junkies come out of that introspective singer songwriter tradition as personified in my brother Mike. That soft, quiet, spacious sound that the Junkies do so well that gives rise to that tremendous emotive power of music is in a tradition that definitely runs through James and Joni. And I think there is something to be said about Joni's darker brooding introspection that has the mark of a Canadian songwriter. I think Leonard Cohen and Neil Young would agree..


I live in Copenhagen, and as you know, we recently hosted the Cop15 Climate Summit (without much luck though). Throughout the summit, there were all sorts of things going on in Copenhagen, different concerts focusing on climate change and climate responsibility. Do you see more people - and especially, younger people - getting involved in the fight for saving our climate?
Yes, I'm glad to say we do and I think we will see more people, young and old. If COP 15 gave us anything it was a clear view of who takes what position and for which reasons. The lines are being drawn forcing each one of us to examine where stand on the issues. I think the Amchitka CD is the legacy of musicians and environmentalist who believed, once upon a time, that together we can make a huge difference and change the world. They didn't fail and they weren't wrong. Many are with us now and they continue to remind us that if we believe we can make a difference on the scale with global warming, then we will. And I think that's what a lot of kids are doing: chilling, breathing, examining their beliefs. They will come around. It's a short matter of time. And maybe will have another concert!


It's been forty years since the concert and we're still talking about it and (hopefully) listening to it. Why do you think that particular evening in Vancouver left such a huge mark?
I do think it was a culturally significant concert on the scale of the Woodstock festival although not as well hyped. I would point again to my take in an earlier question on what those three artists represented then. There might have been a point in the evening, maybe at the end of the show, although I know Phil had to leave early, when Joni, James, Phil and Irving Stowe, the embodiment of Greenpeace and the environmental movement stood together in front of the audience. Even if that moment didn't happen, think about the iconic quality of that photo and you'll get how significant and memorable that concert was.


Amchitka 1970 – The Concert That Launched Greenpeace is available now on a 2-cd set via Greenpeace. To buy your own copy – which we strongly encourage you to – go to amchitka-concert.com