In September 1969, Toronto experienced their own Woodstock: the Toronto Rock ’N Roll Revival Festival, a landmark event featuring music acts old and new. A significant live album emerged from the concert: Live Peace in Toronto, which featured John Lennon’s debut live performance without the Beatles (with his newly formed Plastic Ono Band). A new documentary, Revival69: The Concert That Rocked the World, takes viewers behind the scenes of a festival that came very close to never happening at all, along the way showing rare clips and new interviews with the artists who performed over 50 years ago.
After producing the successful Toronto Pop Festival in June 1969, concert promoter John Brower decided to organize a sequel of sorts, this time leaning towards the rock genre. He initially booked classic rock acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry, but also added a newcomer: Alice Cooper, who also backed Gene Vincent. Brower also managed to book the Doors, a huge “get” at the time. One huge problem remained: ticket sales were still slow. Brower knew it was a long shot, but he contacted John Lennon to see if there was any chance he’d consider performing at the Festival.
At this point, Lennon was with Yoko Ono and working on projects outside the Beatles. Brower reached their then-assistant, Anthony Fawcett, who agreed to speak with the couple. To Brower’s shock, they accepted the invitation and put a band together featuring Eric Clapton (guitar), Alan White (drums), and Klaus Voormann (bass). Tales of how Lennon and Ono almost backed out of the show on the day they were supposed to board the plane for Toronto—and how he threw up right before walking on stage—show how nervous he was about performing for the first time without his usual bandmates.
Surviving musicians who played at Revival69 share their memories of the show, along with members of the audience (including Geddy Lee, who admits he took acid there but vividly remembers being in awe of Lennon). Cooper giddily recalls how much he enjoyed backing Vincent during the legend’s set, then shocking the audience during his and his band’s decidedly avant-garde performance.
Voormann’s recollections about Lennon’s set prove particularly interesting, as he mentions how little time he and the band had to rehearse. Therefore they just played whatever came to mind until “Cold Turkey,” which seemed to mystify the audience. Their spirited rendition of “Give Peace a Chance,” however, won back the crowd.
Although it is mentioned that the Doors played the closing set at the festival, it is revealed that their performance was never filmed. Why is a mystery, as it would have been a compelling part of the film. However, seeing clips of other performances, particularly those of Lewis, Richard, Diddley, and Berry tearing up the stage much as they did in their prime, is a treat.
Revival69 lends new understanding to an event that has been discussed mostly concerning the Live Peace in Toronto album. Director Ron Chapman (working with American filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker’s original concert footage) effectively places the Toronto Rock ’N Roll Revival Festival in context, demonstrating the impact it had not only on Canada but on rock music in general. The clips may be too brief and the film ends too abruptly, but the film still stands as a fascinating document of a turning point in music and culture.
