Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon donate Give Peace A Chance acetates to charities

Tuesday 5 December 2023 John Lennon, People, Press release No Comments

Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon have donated 50 limited edition acetate discs to charities.

The 12″ acetates contain both songs from Plastic Ono Band’s debut single, ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and ‘Remember Love’.

The discs are intended for the charities to sell or auction to raise funds. It follows a similar initiative in 2022, when the acetates contained ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’ were given to UK charities and record stores. Copies of that disc sold at auction for up to £7,000.

Here’s the press release:

Yoko Ono Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon, in association with Abbey Road Studios and Universal Music Recordings, have made available an extremely rare and collectable strictly Limited Edition of 50 vinyl acetates of the Plastic Ono Band’s iconic single ‘Give Peace A Chance’ / ‘Remember Love’ originally released in July 1969, with this new version released on December 1, 2023.

In a note accompanying each record, Sean Ono Lennon says:

‘Happy Holidays. To raise the spirit of Peace and Love this December, here is one of only fifty Limited Edition acetates that have been hand-cut at Abbey Road. It’s yours – to sell, auction, raise money to help your charity or to fund your Xmas party – to GIVE PEACE A CHANCE and REMEMBER LOVE.

We’d like to follow the journey these acetates take and the goodwill that they spread – please use the hashtag #GivePeaceAChance and we’ll re-tweet and share their progress on social media to help promote the good causes and good vibes.’

The 50 double-sided 12″ acetates were individually hand-cut on the lathe at the legendary Abbey Road Studios by mastering engineer Sean Magee. These rare vinyl acetates are the latest ‘Ultimate Mixes’, produced by Sean Ono Lennon, mixed by Paul Hicks, engineered by Sam Gannon and executive produced by Yoko Ono Lennon.

Each edition is stickered and numbered out of 50 and includes a machine printed signature from Yoko Ono Lennon, making them incredibly collectable.

GIVE PEACE A CHANCE

Recorded on 1 June and first released as a single on 4 July 1969, ‘Give Peace A Chance’ is an anti-war song – written by John Lennon & Yoko Ono and recorded with a small group of individuals during their Montreal Bed-In for Peace – that rapidly became the anthem of the anti-war and counterculture movements worldwide, notably sung by half a million demonstrators led by Pete Seeger on Vietnam Moratorium Day in Washington, D.C. on 15 November 1969, and continues to be played on the radio and sung at protests and marches all over the world to promote peace and non-violence.

John Lennon: “I was pleased when the movement took up ‘Give Peace A Chance’ because I had written it with that in mind. I felt an obligation even then to write a song that people would sing in the pub, or on a demonstration. I remember hearing them all sing it – it was a very big moment for me. That’s what the song was about.”

REMEMBER LOVE

Also recorded on 1 June, ‘Remember Love’ – written by Yoko Ono and performed and recorded by John & Yoko in the same hotel room directly after recording ‘Give Peace A Chance’ – gently reminds us all to maintain a deep and fundamental connection with love for one another in all that we set out to do.

Yoko Ono: “You are the positive change. Be yourself, love yourself, and spread the idea of peace over our planet in your own way. If you do that with true conviction, our world will be a better place almost immediately.”

ABOUT JOHN LENNON

John Lennon is arguably the greatest songwriter of his generation. As founder and leader of The Beatles and also as a solo artist, Lennon has won seven GRAMMY® Awards, including two Lifetime Achievement Awards, Five BRIT Awards including two Special Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music, 21 NME Awards, 15 Ivor Novellos and an Oscar (Academy Award). He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Lennon in the Top 5 of the magazine’s “100 Greatest Singers Of All Time” list.
johnlennon.com / @johnlennon

ABOUT YOKO ONO

Originally from Tokyo, Yoko Ono was the first woman admitted to the philosophy program at Gakushuin University in Tokyo, where she studied for a year before moving to New York, where she studied writing and music at Sarah Lawrence College. Ono became an influential conceptual and performance artist prior to her marriage and artistic partnership with John Lennon. George Macunias, founder of the Fluxus collective, gave Ono her first solo gallery show in 1961. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Ono worked on music, both solo and in collaboration. The Whitney Museum of American Art presented a retrospective of her work in 1989, as did the Japan Society Gallery in 2000, and the Museum of Modern Art in 2015. She received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Yoko Ono lives and works in New York City.
imaginepeace.com / @yokoono

ABOUT SEAN ONO LENNON

Sean Ono Lennon is a British-Asian-American musician, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, artist, actor and polymath. He is the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono and brother to Kyoko Ono and Julian Lennon. He has been a member of Cibo Matto, Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Plastic Ono Band and guested with many other bands. He is a prolific songwriter, film score composer and producer and runs independent record label Chimera Music with partner Charlotte Kemp Muhl.
chimeramusic.com / @sean_ono_lennon (Instagram) @seanonolennon (Twitter)

CHARITIES

Action Aid
ActionAid is an international charity that works with women and girls living in poverty. Our dedicated local staff are changing the world with women and girls. We are ending violence and fighting poverty so that all women, everywhere, can create the future they want. Learn about our vision, our mission, our approach, and our impact.

Action For Humanity
Action For Humanity is an international NGO with over 11 years’ experience of responding to crises and emergencies. We are the parent charity of Syria Relief, the UK’s largest Syria-focused NGO. We now provide life-saving aid globally and help to restore health, safety, education and stability.

Alliance for Middle East Peace
ALLMEP is a coalition of over 160 organizations—and tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis—building people-to-people cooperation, justice, equality, shared society, mutual understanding, and peace among their communities. We add stability in times of crisis, foster cooperation that increases impact, and build an environment conducive to peace over the long term.

American Red Cross
Red Cross volunteers and staff work to deliver vital services – from providing relief and support to those in crisis, to helping you be prepared to respond in emergencies.

Americares
Americares is a health-focused relief and development organization that saves lives and improves health for people affected by poverty or disaster. Since it was established more than 40 years ago, Americares has provided $22 billion in aid to 164 countries, including the United States.

Amnesty International
Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people who are committed to creating a future where human rights are enjoyed by everyone. United by our shared humanity, we know that the power to create positive change is within all of us.

Anera
Anera, which has no political or religious affiliation, works on the ground with partners in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), Lebanon and Jordan. We mobilize resources for immediate emergency relief and for sustainable, long-term health, education, and economic development. Our staff serve in their communities, navigating the politics that constrict progress to get help where it’s needed most.

Beyond Conflict UK
Beyond Conflict is the mental health charity for conflict zones. Our mission is to tackle the psychological suffering of victims of war, terrorism and displacement. We believe there can be no lasting peace without addressing the psychological fallout of war. Right now we are supporting work in three countries: Ukraine, Bangladesh and Iraq.

British Red Cross
For the last 150 years, The British Red Cross have put kindness into action, helping millions of people in the UK and around the world get the support they need when crisis strikes.

British-Ukrainian Aid
British-Ukrainian Aid supports people suffering from the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, including the injured and wounded, orphaned children, the elderly, internally displaced persons, refugees and families who have lost their main earners.

The Carter Center
A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.

Centrepoint
Centrepoint is the UK’s leading youth homelessness charity. Alongside our partners, we support over 16,000 young people every year and campaign to end youth homelessness by 2037.

Choose Love
Choose Love (formerly Help Refugees) does whatever it takes to provide refugees and displaced people with everything from lifesaving search and rescue boats to food and legal advice. We elevate the voices and visibility of refugees and galvanise public support for agile community organisations providing vital support to refugees along migration routes globally.

Concern Worldwide
We deliver life-saving and life-changing interventions to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. From rapid emergency response to our innovative programming in health and nutrition, livelihoods and education, we go to the hardest to reach places to make sure that no-one is left behind.

Direct Relief
Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.

Disasters Emergency Committee
The DEC brings together 15 leading aid charities to raise funds quickly and efficiently at times of crisis overseas. In these times of crisis, people in life-and-death situations need our help and our mission is to save, protect and rebuild lives through effective humanitarian response.

Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres
MSF is an international humanitarian organisation providing medical care in more than 70 countries. Since 1971, we have been treating people caught in complex crises and chronic healthcare emergencies around the world. From our paediatric nurses to our off-road drivers, we are experts at working in fast-moving and highly-insecure environments. So, whether it’s launching a rapid response or delivering community care, we go wherever we are needed most. In 2022, we admitted more than 1.2 million people to our hospitals and held more than 16.2 million consultations, including at mobile clinics and in refugee camps.

Global Peace Foundation
The Global Peace Foundation organizes and implements field projects and expert conferences on grassroots peacebuilding, education, entrepreneurship, and youth leadership development in twenty-one countries in collaboration with public and private sector partners.

Hope for Haiti
Hope for Haiti’s mission is to improve the lives of the Haitian people, particularly women and children.

Human Aid
Human Aid & Advocacy is an international NGO, supporting survivors of war and persecution through access to sustainable aid programmes, while addressing the real causes of conflict. Human Aid & Advocacy was officially founded in 2010, however those involved in the founding of the charity have been widely engaged in charitable efforts since 2004.

International Committee of the Red Cross
The work of the ICRC is based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949, their Additional Protocols, its Statutes those of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and the resolutions of the International Conferences of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The ICRC is an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and armed violence. It takes action in response to emergencies and promotes respect for international humanitarian law and its implementation in national law.

International Medical Corps
International Medical Corps Worldwide is a global humanitarian alliance that comprises the resources and capabilities of three independent affiliate organizations: International Medical Corps, International Medical Corps UK and International Medical Corps Croatia. Together, our mission is to save lives and relieve suffering by providing healthcare services and related training. With headquarters in the United States, the United Kingdom and Croatia respectively, we collaborate to maximize resources for the delivery of appropriate relief and development activities.

International Peace Institute
The International Peace Institute is an independent, non-profit organization working to strengthen inclusive multilateralism for a more peaceful and sustainable planet. Through its research, convening, and strategic advising, IPI provides innovative recommendations for the United Nations System, member states, regional organizations, civil society, and the private sector.

International Rescue Committee
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, including the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in Afghanistan. We help to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. And we are proud to fight for a world where women and girls have an equal chance to succeed.

Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a global team of humanitarians working together on the front lines of crisis, disaster, poverty, and climate change to create a world where everyone can prosper. Beyond delivering aid to meet urgent needs, we develop long-term solutions to make lasting change possible.

Mind
Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales. Founded in 1946 as the National Association for Mental Health, it celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2016. Mind offers information and advice to people with mental health problems and lobbies government and local authorities on their behalf.

The Mines Advisory Group
The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a global humanitarian and advocacy organisation that finds, removes and destroys landmines, cluster munitions and unexploded bombs from places affected by conflict. MAG also provides education programmes, particularly for children, so people can live, work and play as safely as a possible until they clear the land. And we work in communities to reduce the risk of armed violence through weapons and ammunition management programmes which keep guns and munitions safe and secure.

Nova Ukraine
Nova Ukraine is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine and raising awareness about Ukraine in the United States and throughout the world. Thanks to your generous donations, we fund a variety of projects to help the people of Ukraine and to strengthen Ukraine’s democratic society. The Nova Ukraine team and volunteers have been working tirelessly to help people in need. We greatly appreciate the overwhelming support from all of you!

NSPCC
We’re leading the fight against child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands. We believe that every childhood is worth fighting for. We help children who’ve been abused to rebuild their lives, we protect children at risk, and we find the best ways of preventing child abuse from ever happening.

Oxfam International
Oxfam is a global movement of people, working together to end the injustice of poverty. That means we tackle the inequality that keeps people poor. Together, we save, protect and rebuild lives when disaster strikes. We help people build better lives for themselves, and for others. we take on issues like land rights, climate change and discrimination against women. And we won’t stop until every person on the planet can enjoy life free from poverty.

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund is a registered non-political, non-profit organization that was established in 1991 by concerned people in the U.S. to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths in the Middle East. It has since expanded to help suffering children from other Middle Eastern nations, based only on their medical needs. The P.C.R.F. helps to locate free medical care for children from the Middle East who are unable to get the necessary and specialized treatment in their homeland.

Peace Direct
Peace Direct exists to support local peacebuilders around the world. Local people are the experts in the conflicts that affect their communities, and only they understand what it takes to build peace that lasts. We work to make sure these local peacebuilders have the resources they need to make peace a reality.

Peace One Day
In 1999, filmmaker Jeremy Gilley MBE founded Peace One Day, a non-profit organisation, and in 2001 Peace One Day’s efforts were rewarded when the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September – Peace Day. Peace One Day’s objective is to institutionalise Peace Day 21 September, making it a day that is self-sustaining, an annual day of global unity, a day of intercultural cooperation on a scale that humanity has never known.

Project Hope
Founded in 1958, Project HOPE is a leader in global health development and emergency relief programs. An international nonprofit organization, Project HOPE saves lives and improve health, especially among women and children, accomplishing its mission by improving the knowledge, abilities and tools of the health workforce to deliver high quality health services to communities in need.

Refuge
Refuge provides specialist support to women and children escaping domestic violence, modern slavery, human trafficking, forced prostitution, rape, forced marriage and ‘honour’ based violence. Services include: 24-hr national helpline, women’s refuges, outreach and floating support, independent domestic and sexual violence advocates.

Refugees International
Refugees International advocates for lifesaving assistance, human rights, and protection for displaced people and promotes solutions to displacement crises.

Sanctuary for Violence NY
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Salvation Army
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Save the Children
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The UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
Created by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA provides assistance and protection to some 5.5 million Palestine refugees to help them achieve their full potential in human development. UNRWA human development and humanitarian services encompass primary and vocational education, primary health care, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvement, microfinance and emergency response, including in situations of armed conflict.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
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The World Food Programme
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UK-Med
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UNFPA
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. The goal of UNFPA is to ensure sexual and reproductive rights and choices for all, especially women and young people, so that they can access high-quality sexual and reproductive health services, including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.

UNICEF
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War Child UK
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War Child USA
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WhyHunger
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Women For Women
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World Vision
World Vision UK is an international Christian children’s charity working to bring hope to millions of children in the world’s hardest places. Our work involves long-term sustainable development programmes focused on children, their families & communities; relief and rehabilitation in response to humanitarian emergencies and advocacy to challenge the policies and practices that perpetuate poverty.

Last updated: 6 December 2023
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