Klaus Voormann Reflects on his “Ridiculous” concert with John Lennon & Yoko Ono in 1969

In rock history, the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival is legendary. But for Klaus Voormann, who played bass in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band, it was something of a “joke.”

The story of the band's ad hoc first concert on September 13, 1969, at the University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium has been told oft and is the subject of a new documentary by Ron Chapman Revival69: The concert that shocked the worldout now via a variety of platforms.

Using footage shot that day by legendary documentarian DA Pennebaker, he recounts how festival organizers, worried about low ticket sales and indebted to a motorcycle gang financier, made a last-minute phone call to England and persuaded Lennon to agree to fly from London to Toronto in short order and playing on the same bill as rock n' roll heroes – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent and more – as well as the Doors and Chicago.

Lennon, however, didn't have a band, so he assembled a crew that included Eric Clapton (after dissing fellow Beatles George Harrison), Warman – a friend from the Beatles' early Hamburg days who designed the cover of the album for Revolver and played for Manfred Mann — and fledgling drummer Alan White, whom he saw play in a London club (and who famously hung up on Lennon's first phone call). With little rehearsal—little on the plane ride and backstage—the band played a rough set of covers, the Beatles' “Yer Blues,” Lennon's yet-to-be-recorded “Cold Turkey” and “Give Peace a Chance.” . as well as two Ono songs, including the lengthy, free-form “John John (Let's Hope For Peace).”

As Lennon's first full-scale concert since the Beatles' last appearance on August 29, 1966, in San Francisco, it was a bit of a casual affair and is kept in Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album released three months later. With Revival69the release of Advertising sign spoke with Voormann — who also appears in the film and played in John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album that followed in 1970 — to recount his memories of the auspicious event.

An unexpected call

“John called me and he's never called me before, not really. He had seen me play bass and knew I played for Manfred Mann, but I had never played for him or anything. So out of the blue he called me and said, “I'm starting a band. It's called Plastic Ono Band. Do you want to play bass in the band?' And I said, “What is this Plastic Ono Band?” I had no idea what was going to happen and I had never met Yoko, so it was really quite strange.

“So he said, 'Well, Eric Clapton is going to do it, and we have a little drummer in mind called Alan White.' I didn't know who he was, just a kid. 'That's it, just the four of us and Yoko and we're the Plastic Ono Band.' I said, “Okay, let's do it,” and (Lennon) said, “Great. See you tomorrow at the airport!” (laughs)

“He just jumped into the cold water, not knowing what was going to happen, without rehearsal. We didn't know what we were going to play… but here is the Plastic Ono Band and we're going to Toronto tomorrow for this festival. We didn't have a stage show. We didn't know what songs Giannis would do. He said, “Well, there's Chuck Berry and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and all these great (artists) and we just play rock n' roll.” And I thought that was a bit far-fetched. This is John Lennon, who played in the Beatles, and this is the first time he's going to be out there and introduce something new, and… we just get on stage and play? How does someone like John Lennon get out there with a band he's never played with?

“So we went to the airport and before we got on the plane we stood there and waited for Eric Clapton and nobody could find Eric. It was very close to (boarding). John said, “Well, if he's not here in 10 minutes, we're going home,” and then Yoko says, “No, no, no, let's do it. It is for peace. We have to do it.” So Terry Doran, who was kind of the road manager, got Eric. He was sleeping. I don't think he realized that this thing is actually going to happen. So he came and we all got on the plane, and the plane was very full. Was full.”

The Friendly Skies

“Were we lucky? They arranged for us to sit in the last row of the plane, which was right next to the engines, and it was really loud back there. John and Yoko were in first class, but he came back and we tried to (rehearse) a bit. It was just Hilarious, just a joke, trying to rehearse the songs. I played an electric bass, without an amp. Eric had a semi-acoustic guitar. It was maybe a little bit of John singing “Money (That's What I Want).” or something like that. But we all knew the songs, of course. We could play any rock n' roll. Eric had no idea if he could. (laughs) a joke, really. just a joke.

“We all didn't know Yoko at all — Eric didn't, I didn't know Alan White. John did, of course, but I don't know if he knew exactly what Yoko was going to do. So when we were on the plane rehearsing for maybe an hour, Yoko came down the aisle, “Can we rehearse my song now?” And John stood up: “Come, Yoko, let's have a cup of tea.” She didn't even let us hear what was on her mind. He didn't tell us what song we were going to sing, what noises we were going to make. We had no idea.

“We got off the plane, got into the cars, the limousines and the motorbikes accompanied us to the stadium. We went to the field and came back to the dressing room and had an amp for the three of us and the drummer. There was no bass drum, just a snare and a hat and a cymbal. That was all there was. So it was another attempt by Mickey Mouse to have a rehearsal. So I did a bit of rehearsal and one person who came in I recognized – that was Gene Vincent. But other than that, I just got on stage, got on stage, did the whole gig, went back to the dressing room, got my clothes, packed the bass in a case and got back in the limo and off we went. I didn't see anyone. I can't tell you about discussions with other musicians or anything. I didn't see any of them. John, of course, was all on his case, but I was completely out of it. People didn't care about Klaus Voormann. It was also not important to me, so I was happy to leave this place.

“I think (Lennon) really realized what he was doing when we were there, he was just about to get up on stage. He had his great white suit on and we were walking (to the stage) and he said, “Wait a second,” and he went to the corner, and he punched. Threw away. He was very, very nervous. He didn't even have a very good voice. HIS voice was almost lost. So we were with a singer, Giannis, going up there and we didn't have a strong voice and we just walked on stage and played.”

Rock n' Roll is revived

“I felt sorry for John. It really felt out of place in the scene when I look at it now. John was never a frontman on stage. People don't realize (that) when you're with a band you can kind of say, “Here's the next number…” It's never been the frontman who actually orchestrates a stage persona. He never had that. He did 'Cold Turkey' and it was such a stupid version, the way we played it. When I heard the song I was excited. “We can go into the studio and make a great version of this song!” And later we did. I liked the record, but what he played on stage was just terrible…and the audience didn't clap. John was dreaming, “Wake up!” Telling people to wake up and get involved.

“And then, of course, came the big surprise when suddenly… we had no idea if Yoko was singing classical opera or what she was going to do. Suddenly this scream started. 'What is this;!' We couldn't believe it. It was just… ridiculous. John said, “Well, when Yoko's number comes on, we play an E chord,” so we played in E and just turned our instruments. We had no idea what was going to happen. So we were just improvising, making weird noises on the guitar, on the strings. And I had flat strings so I couldn't make a lot of noises. If I had a flute or some crazy instrument I could have improvised something, but with my bass I couldn't do much.

“I knew that Yoko really wanted to come to spread the message of peace, which is very nice. So you had her laying there (on stage) and she was really like a dying bird. It was humming, making all these noises. I was standing behind her, and I could really see that this woman was really trying as hard as her little body could to let the world know that there was a war going on and people were dying and bombs were falling, and that was the feeling I got out of it. The public didn't get it of course. They wanted to see John and they didn't care about Yoko, and suddenly this woman who was making these noises appeared.

“And Yoko is amazing. He didn't have… how should I say it? At that particular moment he had no feeling for the audience. The charisma he meets whether a Little Richard gets up there or a Chuck Berry, they have their own tricks to engage the audience and he had no idea what stage presence really was. He found out much later, but not at the time. And of course you had a rock n' roll audience, not an art audience. People wanted to hang out and have a party, and then Yoko tries to spread that message. It was really tough. I'm really proud of her for actually doing this. When you watch the documentaries, you can at least see the effort he made to tell the world, “Please make peace.” That's what he was trying to do.”

No Encore

“I think we pretty soon forgot about it and didn't even talk about it. All I remember is after (the show) we took a long drive in a limousine to some guy's huge mansion, it must have been the guy who did the concert. He had a golf course in his garden and I remember Terry Doran driving a golf cart and he said, “That f–king thing doesn't pull a chocolate mouse!” (laughs) It was so slow and he wanted to drive it pretty fast. I remember sitting in a pool and someone took some pictures. We had a good time. We were laughing. But there was no mention of the concert or anything. We were ready to go home.”