As he promised months ago, Sean Lennon and the Lennon Estate have this week formally announced the release (on 10 October, 2025) of a mega box set focusing on John Lennon playing (mostly) live in New York in the years 1971 and 1972.

It’s called Power To The People (The Ultimate Collection) and the release is timed to celebrate what would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday.

The big box set comprises 9 CDs and no less than 3 Blu-Ray audio discs, all packaged in the 10-inch sized slipcase size that’s been the hallmark of all the Lennon super-deluxe re-issues so far. This one will come with a cool lenticular cover of John & Yoko’s faces, presenting a “dynamic 3D effect”.

The box set will come with a 204-page hardback book designed and edited by long-time Lennon Estate historian and archivist, Simon Hilton (he’s done all the box sets so far and is great). It will feature an oral history about all the included music through the words of John & Yoko and those involved, sourced from both archival and new interviews.

The book will be illustrated with previously unseen photos, lyrics, drawings, tape boxes and memorabilia. Additionally, the set includes a newspaper print poster, sticker sheets and a VIP envelope containing replica concert tickets plus backstage and after-show passes that have all been uniquely reproduced with textured, archival materials.

The centerpiece of Power To The People is the ‘One To One Concerts’, which were Lennon’s only full-length concerts after The Beatles, and his final shows with Yoko Ono. They raised more than US$1.5 million (2025 equivalent of $11.5 million) to support children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Both the afternoon and evening performances are being released together for the first time, though they’re not complete (see below).

Alongside those two concerts, Power To The People (Super Deluxe Edition) offers an aural time capsule of John & Yoko’s 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. As a result the set will contain 92 bonus tracks.

Paramount to their recorded musical endeavors at this time was their 1972 political blockbuster album, Sometime In New York City, recorded by John & Yoko with legendary drummer Jim Keltner and New York band, Elephant’s Memory.

For this special collection, songs from the album have been completely remixed from scratch, stripped of the overly heavy production sound that constrained such inspired and inspiring songs as ‘Attica State’, ‘Angela’, ‘New York City’, and ‘Born In A Prison’.

Noticeably missing though is the controversial song (back then and perhaps now even moreso), ‘Woman Is The N***** Of The World’. Some fans are upset about that but the song is still easily available on streaming services and on CD if you want it. Live versions from the ‘One To One’ concerts can also be had on the Lennon Anthology collection from 1998 (evening performance), and on John Lennon – Live in New York City released in 1986 (afternoon performance). For those hoping the song might be a secret hidden track in this new box, a note has been added to the official website pre-order page: NB – This is the full track listing. There are no hidden tracks on the CDs or Blu-Rays.

For this box set the tracks from Sometime In New York City have been re-ordered, rejuvenated and completely re-imagined as a new set of Ultimate Mixes, and is now simply entitled New York City. It includes extended versions of ‘John Sinclair’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, so while we lose one song we gain longer versions of others.

In addition to the Deluxe 9 CD/3 Blu-Ray box there will be a four LP version with the afternoon and evening ‘One To One’ concerts:

There’ll also be a 2LP edition on black vinyl featuring a “hybrid” best-of from both live shows:

This “hybrid” best-of will also be available as a Limited Edition 2LP in transparent green vinyl:

Both the afternoon and evening ‘One To One’ shows will be available as a 2CD Deluxe Edition housed in a triple gatefold digisleeve:

And there will be a 1CD Edition containing the “hybrid” best-of which, like the 2LP edition combines the two shows to create a one show best-of in a digisleeve: