Crosby, Stills & Nash - Survival Sunday (2015)

1980 BENEFIT SHOW FROM CS& N WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS The third annual Survival Sunday event was organised by the Alliance For Survival, an LA based affiliate of the larger and longer standing Abalo Alliance, which had emerged in the early 1960s and who, by the late 1970s, were focussed primarily on protesting and demonstrating against Pacific Gas & Electric s Diablo Canyon Power Plant in San Luis Obispo, CA, 50 miles north of LA. Following the discovery by a local journalist of a report by Shell Oil Company geologists, completed prior to construction of the Plant in 1972, and revealing the existence of the Hosgri Fault 2½ miles offshore from the facility, regulators forced PG&E to redesign and reinforce the facility. The period was rife with anti-nuclear concerts, protests and a larger movement which included a series of concerts at Madison Square Garden through Musicians United for Safe Energy, as well as Peace Sunday at the Rose Bowl (with over 100,000 in attendance) and multiple Survival Sundays held at the Hollywood Bowl. Supporters of these events included numerous high profile names from the music world, including Bruce Springsteen, Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and many others. Jackson Browne even got himself arrested for civil disobedience while picketing at the site; he defended himself at the subsequent hearing, admirably telling the SLO courthouse he considered his actions to have been patriotic. Crosby, Stills and Nash all supported the movement and indeed headlined at the 1980 Survival Sunday, held on May 25th that year. The line up also included Peter Paul & Mary who joined CSN, Joe Walsh and others on stage for a finale of an appropriate Blowin In The Wind. CS&N perform in various configurations with Nash opening the set on a solo Military Madness followed up with songs by Crosby & Nash together, with all three, and with Stills performing with Joe Walsh. The trio too all sing back up on a dynamic Get Back fronted by Walsh. The concert of course was one small gesture in a series of similar small gestures of the time, but one which hopefully drew more attention to the potential dangers of the nuclear power industry, dangers which remain just as controversial today as they did almost 40 years ago.