On December 15th, 1969, John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band took to the stage for a Unicef benefit concert in London. It would end up being the final time he’d perform in the U.K..
No one knew then that the Peace for Christmas concert at The Lyceum would be Lennon’s final appearance in his home country but it feels fated that it was such a memorable one.
Lennon and Yoko Ono were accompanied by a truly all-star band containing Eric Clapton, his Beatles bandmate George Harrison, The Who’s Keith Moon, and several backing members of The Rolling Stones (Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins, Bobby Keys).
The surprise supergroup performed only two songs but they lingered long in the memory of those who listened to them. ‘Cold Turkey’ was a seven-minute epic, Lennon’s haunting depiction of heroin withdrawal; “this song’s about pain,” Lennon said dryly while introducing the number.
A ludicrously long 40-minute version of ‘Don’t Worry Kyoko’ was also played, full of rough riffing and intense instrumentation, which caused half of the London audience to walk out of The Lyceum.
Not that Lennon cared. “A lot of the audience walked out, but the ones that stayed, they were in a trance,” he once said about the concert. “It was one of the first real heavy rock shows… It’s only to be expected that some people were disappointed in that we only did two long numbers, but we play 1984 music!
I don’t know what they want. I’m trying to get it across that the Plastic Ono Band plays the unexpected… I don’t do variety anymore. I stopped that when I was with The Beatles.”
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Luckily footage – albeit grainy – remains from Lennon’s final concert, which you can see below. As one YouTube commenter noted, it’s “awesome to see this madness in action.”
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Check out footage of John Lennon’s final U.K. gig at London’s The Lyceum:
