Proctors to Showcase John Lennon’s 1972 Concert Film

Accompanied by the seven-member Plastic Ono⁤ Band ⁤with Elephant’s Memory, Lennon and Ono organized​ the live benefit for ​the students of⁤ Willowbrook⁢ School in New York City. This school for children with mental disabilities‌ came ⁣into the national limelight after Geraldo Rivera reported on the abusive conditions at the state-run‌ institution.

The 2026‌ multiscreen concert film features Lennon’s ⁤“New York City,” “Instant Karma!,” “Imagine,” “Mother,” and “Give Peace a Chance,” as‍ well as performances of “Come Together” and “Hound ⁣Dog.” Other artists who performed at the shows included‍ Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Melanie,⁢ and Sha Na Na.

Three rehearsals ⁤were held before the live events. ⁢Lennon’s evening performance was first aired on U.S. television in December 1972.

In a 1972 interview‌ with New Musical Express, Lennon said,​ “That Madison Square ‍Gardens gig was the best music I enjoyed ⁢playing since‌ the Cavern or even Hamburg. It ​was just the same⁣ kind of feeling ⁤when The Beatles used to really get into it.”

Lennon’s ⁤“One to One” charity ⁢concerts at Madison Square Garden were‌ inspired by George Harrison’s‍ multi-artist staging of his two benefit⁤ concerts for Bangladesh at the ‌same venue, which were organized to help refugees facing starvation. Lennon and Ono moved to New York City in 1971, living in‌ a Greenwich ​Village townhouse on Bank Street, not ‌far from the Bank⁤ Street apartment where Sex Pistols’ bassist Sid Vicious died ‍of ​a heroin overdose in early 1979. In 1973, Lennon ‍and Ono moved uptown to The Dakota on Central Park West, where Lennon was ‍tragically shot and‌ killed on Dec. 8, 1980.