In March 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster happened near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That same month, shortly before the disaster, the Hollywood movie "The China Syndrome" came out, warning of the dangers of nuclear power. An anti-nuclear movement had already been growing, and some charity concerts had taken place prior to that. But the movement was super-charged by the disaster and the movie. That resulted in a series of "No Nukes" concerts that took place over four nights in New York City, from September 19th to September 23td. Lots of big name musicians took part, and the concerts were a big success, raising money and awareness.
The biggest outcome of the anti-nuclear movement was that construction of new nuclear power plants came to a total halt for a long time. According to Wikipedia, "More than 100 orders for nuclear power reactors, many already under construction, were canceled in the 1970s and 1980s, bankrupting some companies." Then the Chernobyl nuclear accident happened in 1986, reinforcing the trend away from new nuclear power plants, which was worldwide (though to a lesser degree). It wasn't until 2023 when a new nuclear power plant went on-line in the U.S. However, that has been more the exception to the rule. Only one other nuclear plant is currently under construction in the U.S. as I write this in 2024, while 39 others have been shut down, while many more are expected to be shut down in the next few years, since most have already far exceeded their expected lifespans.
So by any measure, these concerts were part of a remarkably successful popular movement - and one I heartily agree with. Nuclear power is more dangerous than most people realize. There have been other big nuclear accidents, besides Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, that have been covered up or ignored. For instance, the Kyshtym disaster in Russia in 1957 is ranked the third worst disaster of all time, and probably killed tens of thousands of people, but it was hidden from the outside world due to Russia's totalitarian dictatorship. As another example, I saw on a BBC documentary that the Chernobyl disaster came close to being much, much worse. The melting core almost reached a body of water. Had that happened, all four reactors would have exploded, killing two to three hundred million people, and rendering most of Europe uninhabitable. We've been very lucky.
In case you're curious, here's an article about that:
Given all that, it's strange that these No Nukes concerts, and the anti-nuclear movement they were a part of, seem to have been mostly forgotten today. The concerts didn't turn into big cultural touchstones, like Woodstock or Live Aid. In fact, the main thing the No Nukes concerts are remembered for today are the two electrifying concert performances by Bruce Springsteen. An album of his best songs from these concerts was finally released in 2021, entitled "The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts."
Whatever you think of the cause, a lot of great music was performed during these concerts. This is the first of over a dozen albums which consist of different sets from the No Nukes concerts. At the end of 1979, a triple album of highlights was released, called "No Nukes: The Muse Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future." But this album didn't do so well, and is mainly remembered for one Bruce Springsteen song medley, called "Detroit Medley," which got a lot of radio play. A movie of the same name was also released in 1980, but it too didn't do that well, and was largely forgotten afterwards.
It so happens that some soundboard recordings exist from the four No Nukes concerts. They're very obscure, except for the Springsteen sets, but I found them. They only consist of some sets here and there out of the four concerts, much less than half of all the music performed. But luckily, there's just enough recorded music to present albums from all the major artists that took part. And the sound quality is excellent for all the recordings that do survive.
What I've done in some cases is cobble together performances from different nights, in order to get enough for an album. This John Hall album is a case in point.
If the name John Hall doesn't ring a bell, I'm not surprised, since he hasn't done much musically using his own name. But he was the main singer and songwriter behind the 1970s band Orleans, which had the big hits "Dance with Me" and "Still the One." However, Hall left the band in 1977. shortly after those hits happened. He was a solo musician at the time of these concerts. But a few years later, he became a politician. He was successful with that, his political career peaked when he served as a U.S. Congressperson for the Democratic Party from 2007 to 2011. He also continued to be very involved with environmental causes, especially anti-nuclear ones.
So it's fitting to start this series of No Nukes albums with Hall, because he was one of the main movers and shakers behind the No Nukes concerts, along with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and Graham Nash. As part of that, he wrote the song "Power," included here, which became the theme song for the concerts. It was performed by different musicians each night, probably as the finale each time.
This album hopefully sounds like one performance, but it actually is three different ones put together. The first five tracks come from a September 19th concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Tracks six through eleven come from a different concert on September 23rd, at Battery Park, also in New York City. The remaining songs, tracks 12 to 15, come from yet another concert, also on September 23rd, but held in Madison Square Garden. (There were concerts all four nights in Madison Square Garden, but only on the 23rd there was an additional concert at Battery Park.)
The last song here, "Shakey Ground," is a cover of a 1975 hit by the Temptations. It was part of Hall's set, and he sang and performed on it, but the vocals were more dominated by gospel singer Phoebe Snow. She was a minor star in her own right, since she had a Top Five hit in the U.S. in 1975 with "Poetry Man." But apparently she didn't get a set of her own during the No Nukes concerts, or at least I don't have any recording of such a set.
The version of "Power" here was probably the last song of the night. Hall shared the lead vocals with Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Carly Simon, and Jackson Browne. But I'm almost certain there were many more stars on stage at the time, as is usually the case for final encores during concerts like these.
I made a major edit with the song "Trust Yourself." The recording ended probably half a minute to a minute before the song finished. I had to get creative and make up an ending by patching in some music from earlier in the song. I also added in some applause after that, to help it fit in with the other songs.
One song written and sang by Hall, "Plutonium Is Forever," made the officially released "No Nukes" album. However, I think he performed a set every night, and I don't know if this version is from the same night as the album one. Everything else here is unreleased.
This album is 44 minutes long.
01 talk (John Hall)
02 Messin' Round with the Wrong Woman (John Hall)
03 Let the the Good Times Roll (John Hall)
04 Good Enough (John Hall)
05 Trust Yourself [Edit] (John Hall)
06 Run Away with Me (John Hall)
07 Plutonium Is Forever (John Hall)
08 talk (John Hall)
09 Reach (John Hall)
10 talk (John Hall)
11 Power (John Hall with Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Carly Simon & Jackson Browne)
12 talk (John Hall)
13 Dance with Me (John Hall)
14 talk (John Hall)
15 Shakey Ground (John Hall & Phoebe Snow)
The cover photo of Hall comes from one of the No Nukes concerts, but I don't know which one.
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