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Legendary songwriter, singer, musician and peace activist, John Lennon, would have been 85 today (Thurs, Oct 9th) and his remarkable life, timeless music and extraordinary legacy is being celebrated around the world with fan-led events and performances, including the Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park, New York City, plus an advance global listening party for Power To The People,<\/em> the relighting of Yoko Ono Lennon\u2019s Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland, the launch of Disc Two of the online text adventure Escape To Nutopia, and more.<\/p>\n The John Lennon Estate will be hosting a free global listening party today at 8 pm BST\/3 pm ET\/noon PT at citizenofnutopia.com<\/a>, a community hub and interactive art project celebrating the world of John & Yoko, for fans to listen together to nine tracks from the forthcoming John & Yoko release, Power to the People<\/em><\/a>. Fans will be able to interact in real time with other fans across the world, and everyone will be represented on a world map, mirroring the sense of togetherness and unity that underpinned the original concert.<\/p>\n The tracks featured will include three live performances from the iconic 1972 One To One concert, John\u2019s only full-length performance after The Beatles, and six studio and live performances spanning the breadth of the expansive box set.<\/p>\n Immediately following the listening party, Escape To Nutopia will launch Disc Two, the much-anticipated second installment of the immersive, interactive fiction game that puts players into the mind of John Lennon.<\/p>\n Partly inspired by text-based computer games like Infocom\u2019s \u201cThe Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide to the Galaxy\u201d and the pioneering \u201cColossal Cave Adventure,\u201d the experience digs deeply and authentically into John & Yoko\u2019s home life, based on thousands of hours of archival research and multimedia evidence. It plays with the nature of perceived realities, memory, time, dreams and illusions whilst remaining deeply grounded in their art, music and history.<\/p>\n The game is a collaboration between the John Lennon Estate and Loud Beings.<\/p>\n Imagine Peace Tower by Yoko Ono Lennon on Vi\u00f0ey, in Reykjavik, Iceland, will be lit for the 19th time on Thursday, October 9th at 8 pm BST\/3 pm ET\/noon PT. A peaceful ceremony will be held on the island to celebrate the event. Icelandic songwriter Una Torfad\u00f3ttir will perform music beside the Imagine Peace Tower, and the Mayor of Reykjavik, Hei\u00f0a Bj\u00f6rg Hilmisd\u00f3tt, will give a speech. It is customary that as soon as the tower is lit, the song \u201cImagine\u201d will be played, and people will have the opportunity to take photos.<\/p>\n The Imagine Peace Tower is an outdoor artwork by Yoko Ono, built on Vi\u00f0ey in 2007 and dedicated to John Lennon. The tower is lit annually on Lennon\u2019s birthday, October 9th, and shines until December 8th, the day of his passing. The artwork is a symbol of Ono and Lennon\u2019s continuing work for world peace. The tower is in the form of a wishing well, with the words \u201cImagine Peace\u201d inscribed on it in 24 languages.<\/p>\n On October 10th, the day after John\u2019s 85th birthday, Capitol\/UMe will release Power to the People<\/em>, a massive 12-disc box set produced by Sean Ono Lennon and his five-time Grammy Award-winning production team, that chronicles and celebrates John & Yoko\u2019s political activism and their early years in New York City. The exhaustive 123-track box set features 90 never-before-heard and previously unreleased tracks, including a wealth of unreleased demos, home recordings, jam sessions, live cuts, unique mixes and much more. All tracks have been completely remixed and re-engineered from the original analog tapes by Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon, using brand new HD multitrack transfers by Rob Stevens, with the mixes mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios. The set was overseen by compilation producer and book author Simon Hilton and co-designed and art directed by Sean, Simon and Liz Hirsch.<\/p>\n Power to the People<\/em>\u00a0offers an aural time capsule of John and Yoko\u2019s first NYC era, when they traded Tittenhurst Park, their estate in Ascot, England, for a small apartment located at 105 Bank St. in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, and includes the music they were inspired to make during a time of great civil unrest and the deeply unpopular Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece of the collection is the One To One Concert that took place on August 30, 1972, at Madison Square Garden in NYC, featuring John & Yoko\/Plastic Ono Band with Elephant\u2019s Memory and Special Guests. These two performances were John\u2019s only full-length concerts after leaving The Beatles.<\/p>\n