FLASHBACK to 1967 when Peace and Love was the key phrase and the Monterey International Pop Festival turned the key and opened the door to the era of rock festivals. Produced by Lou Adler, the three day marathon would pave the way for other monumental concerts such as Woodstock, Stonehenge, Bangla Desh and Live Aid. Nearly thirty years on, however, such was the quality of the music on offer, that it is still regarded by many as the ultimate rock ’n’ roll event.

It was a new experience at the time. The hippy generation was in the ascendant and men and women with long hair and gentle eyes flocked to Monterey in vast numbers to see The Who, The Mamas and The Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, The Jefferson Airplane, Lou Rawls, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, among others. About the only top name of the ’60’s generation missing from the list were The Beatles.

In fact, the Fab Four were in Abbey Road recording Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, while that complicated assignment precluded any direct musical involvement in Monterey, they got into the groove by creating a piece of art to be used as an ad in the festival programme. Flowers, spirals, stars and hearts are included in a colourful doodle, signed by all four band members. The medium was felt tip marker coloured pencil and ink; the messages “Peace to Monterey from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Loving You” and “It happened in Monterey a long time ago” are scrawled in individual, distinctive handwriting.

It’s been 27 years. Aside from an appearance in Beatles’ publicist Derek Taylor’s 1984 retrospective Fifty Years Adrift edited by George Harrison, the art work has remained in the vault of Festival Art Director Tom Wilkes, who has long felt that the work could usefully be exploited in some social context. On December 14, 1993 at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe the original Beatles/Monterey Artwork was unveiled as a cornerstone of a fund-raising promotion for Project Interspeak, a non-profit making agency concerned with environmental and social issues.

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“The piece reflects a time of great spiritual change in the world. As such it has significant cultural value as an artistic document,” said Wilkes. Although he sees the artwork as representative of the end of the ’60s, he believes the ’90s may see a culmination of the search for personal meaning and global understanding.

The director of Interspeak, Jack Healey (former director of Amnesty International in the U.S.A. and president of Action Center for Human Rights) and Rick Garson (developer of Billboard Entertainment and organiser of Live Aid, and Amnesty’s Human Rights Now and Conspiracy of Hope tours) were also present at the unveiling. Garson, who refers to the work – humorously perhaps – as the “Dead Sea Scrolls of Rock ’n’ Roll” expressed the team’s intention to use music and entertainment marketing techniques to effectively communicate environmental and social issues.

Realising how difficult it would be to fund Interspeak, Wilkes founded the Planet Gear Inc., a profit-making company which will produce 1,000 limited edition lithographic reproductions of the original Beatles artwork, which will sell for thousands of dollars. Along with this historical image, Planet Gear, Inc. will produce television events, print material and other activities to fund Project Interspeak on a world-wide basis. Twenty percent of the net proceeds will benefit a coalition of environmental and human rights organisations such as the Action Center for Human Rights, International Society for the Preservation of the Tropical Rainforest and the National Resource Defence Council (NRDC).

Also on hand “to witness the marriage of commerciality and spirituality,” was Cynthia Lennon, first wife of John and mother of Julian, and NRCD spokesperson Bobby Kennedy Jnr.

Around the world the notion of Peace seems to be making a comeback. 1994 will mark an appropriate time for the Beatles/Monterey Artwork to tour the globe spreading the word: “It’s so fine. It’s sunshine. It’s the word LOVE.”