Grateful Dead

As I asked for it, guess I should start talking, eh? My real name is René, and originally I come from Chicago. First Dead show was in 87 or 88, and caught a show whenever I could, up until 1992, when I moved to Germany. Had a job opportunity here, and decided why not try Eurpope for a while. Would be an adventure, right? It was indeed, but am still here, amongst a population where it is few and far between that anybody has even HEARD of the Grateful Dead. But I digress. Was rough to adjust here, in the beginning, but I learned alot about life in America by leaving, and now I do not care to go back. Or at least for the moment. But what I DO miss are the community of friends who are Deadheads, the dancing frenzy late at night to somebody's tape, the exposure to tapes I haven't heard before, the joy seeing of a car driving by with a Deadhead bumpersticker and knowing is a potential friend, talking about show experiences with somebody/anybody without having them look at me with a blank stare on their face, and and and. Have met the occasional Deadhead here, even a guy in Düsseldorf who saw the shows in '72, but is uncommon. Anyhow, am done w/Germany now, and will be moving to Sevilla in the fall. Again not Deadfanland there exactly. But is enough blabbering from me for now. Will be back again, for sure!

Are you kind? Hey, I'm in Germany too! Sent u a pm!! I agree with ur comments there! At least there are lots of good concerts here unlike New Zealand where I was previously! Still, it's just not the same cats! Send some love out to your lost sailors and ramblin' roses!!!

Fellow Deadheads, here in Lafayette, CA we are working on a fundraising event for our Town Hall Theatre. Raising funds is the second motive. The first is to honor Brent's life. Brent was a resident of this semi-rural city, just east of San Francisco. Our community is rich with music tradition. With that tradition, doing something for Brent is way past due. A local artist has agreed to paint a portrait of Brent to be displayed permenently at our historic Town Hall. We are looking for a photo of Brent you would be willing to share with us for the artist to use. The photo would have to be something you took and would give us the rights to use it. In exchange for permission to display Brent's portrait and plaque, we will be organizing a celebration in October to raise operating capitol for Town Hall. If you think you can help us with this request, please send Brent's photo to: Jay Lifson, Executive Director, Lafayette Chamber of Commerce jay@lafayettechamber.org 100 Lafayette Circle #103 Lafayette, CA 94549

Tiger Lilly, Very good suggestion and I look forward to hearing from Heads around the world. I am also not living in Deadhead land myself. In fact my story is as follows when it comes to the Dead and more properly said "realism and a connectiveness to both time and space." My first Dead Show was with my parents back in Utica, New York in 1981. I don't know if there are any Hockey fans out there, but this is the same venue that some parts of the movie "slap shot" were filmed. My god what a great movie! Anyway I was 6 years old so that makes me 31 years old today. I really started seeing the dead when I was in high school and then around 1993 I was hooked on Phish and after graduation in 1994 I tried going to college but dropped out and went on Phish tour up until 2000. The fact that Phish was breaking up was a blessing for me because life on tour and living in hotels etc etc is not something one could keep up for too long. So I went back to school in 2000 (fall) and completed my undergrad degree and my masters degree in about 3 years. I was going to school year round and taking 5-6 classes per quarter in Portland Oregon. During those years I stumbled upon China and fell in love with Asia in general. So here I am in Shanghai China and I have been here for about 4-5 years. As soon as I graduated from Uni I took the US CPA exam and drove from Portland Oregon to New York where I caught a flight to Shanghai. All I had were my Bose speakers and my clothes. Actually on my last drive accross the States I passed (and pulled over to talk) one of my dear friends (in Nebraska) who I used to travel with from Ned, Colorado. That’s the magic I am talking about and the magic that I miss. Anyway I have been here in China ever since and now have a company in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and I have sold 10% of the company to a Swiss company. I travel a lot (Africa and Europe) and work my !@#$ ass off but it has been a long and strange trip and I am always looking to find another adventure. When I was in Mali, Africa I wrote my Aunt an email which was focused on where I was and what I was feeling and she wrote back the following: “You know Greg, I can’t believe that at one time you had dreadlocks and were such confused young men following the Grateful Dead and Phish." I replied that those experiences are the very reason why I have the courage and street smarts to do what I am doing now. Well that’s my story in a short comment and would love to share more and talk about music, global events, and politics etc.

By the way i have a lovely family here in China. My wife is Chinese and we have a beautiful gift/daughter that actually came on Christmas morning about 4 am while i was on my 5th bottle of wine and had the Dead up very loud on those Bose speakers that i dragged around the world!! My suggestion to my daughter is as follows: To truly see life, please look to the shadows. When i was about 20 and living in Summit County Colorado i bought a book that my X-girl friend gave to me when i was 18. The book was Siddhartha and this time i bought it for myself so that i could read during those long dark nights of living in the woods on the Great Divide in Summit County Colorado. Anyway, in the back cover of this book i found this phrase. "to truly see life, look to the shadows." I have followed this suggestion every since and have passed it down.

Hi: I am right here in the USA, but my Music (online at www.archure.net quick load midi files = 40 sec) has some International variations. When studying music at College of Marin in the 1970's, given a list of sub majors, "I chose International Music", but it's mostly Rock, with some New Age, a trace of Jazz, and even some Western (Country & Western). Back in the 70's as a Music Major, I used to see some of the Dead around, at parties. I used to have these "Neptune" parties, and "Full Moon" parties (and Venus and Jupiter too). And I gave the Dead some Astrological advice, before their European tour (1977?) providing them with a list of good day based on the chart of their first performance (since lost record of it). I also did Stevie Nicks chart, and tried to persuade her to stick with Fleetwood Mac, she knew my girlfriend Kris Karlson (Artist: she painted me a Teripin Turtle, but she kept it), and my good friend Marcus McCallen III (Musician). So I am trying to corner the International Market, with Rock and an International, Flavor. www.archure.net (quick load) or even quicker load time http://archure.net/music/songlist.html (no gifs no graphics, the whole page loads quicker) -Archure (Chris Holley) Music for the New Millennium by ARCHURE reg tmrk www.archure.net

Are you kind? Nice to hear!

Jodester what is inspirational?

But what are you saying to us Archure, besides your impressive resumé? Especially where you say "So I am trying to corner the International Market with Rock and an International Flavor"? Looking for bookings/connections over here? If that is the case, then I can help you. And I also second Trifecta Jodester. WHAT is inspiring for you? Trifecta's story, or Archure's list of contacts?

I was trying to reply to Trifecta but Archure must have submitted his post before I hit the "post comment" button. But your all inspirational to me anyway. It's good to hear folks are doing things and doing well (hopefully ;) !!! Are you kind?

jodester, I was not sure what you were commenting on and i was confused when the infomercial was in between my message and yours. By the way what is "World Music." Jodester where were you when you lived in N.Z. All Blacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have great respect for kiwis as they can always drink more than i can and wake up early in the morning as if they drank only water the night before. Do you know what i mean? Shanghai

I was born is Christchurch, grew up outside of Jacksonville Florida, went to High School in Christchurch and went to the University of Grateful Deadland! ;) Since being in the land of German beer I've been careful not to drink to much as it is so easy to! I have to learn the Haka as everyone seems to love the All Blacks rugby team, well, at least the more internationally minded folks I meet. Just today someone asked me when the next rugby world cup is, as if being a Kiwi I must know such a thing!?! ;) It made me wonder though, maybe I'd better check... hmmm...! :) I would say ALL music is world music as it's all related through the mists of history with the interconnecting trade routes and all. But what is considered world music as a categorical term must surely be Mickey Hart and his homies right?!? Although I thought he came from the same place as Spock; Vulcan! Maybe it's all in the ears of the beholder!?! ;) Are you kind?

Well said! Germany, Germans to me are sort of boring, but I did meet an exciting German once on a flight from Frankfurt to Shanghai. It was a red eye flight and I noticed this huge big man and I thought that he and I would definitely be sitting next to each other as I usually can feel out who is going to be sitting next to me on these 10 hour flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai. Well it turned out that he was a container ship captain and I give much respect to these individuals as they have seen the sun come up over the oceanic horizon many times and they have the Merritt times down. Do you know what I mean? Well we got pissed and talked for about 3-4 hours until some German guy behind us said enough was enough. He said, your stories are very interesting but I want to sleep so please stop ordering beers and go to sleep!! Well long story short we agreed. Trifecta

Am i alone? Maudits français...

LOL! Non, ce n'est pas possible que tu est teut seul la! Je connait un Deadhead Parisien. Et je suis beaucoup de temps en France- en Nancy, Paris, et Toulouse. Bon chance á trouver un autre ici!

Merci beaucoup pour ton message! All Deadheads that want to speak french can send me messages!

good day everyone ... this is my first post on the new site ... it looks tres cool from here in rio nido, ca (north of SF) ...

Hand me my old guitar and pass the whiskey 'round.Matt

Hey all, I grew up just south of San Francisco in Half Moon Bay and Redwood City. Now I live in France like Garcia44. Was living in Paris working as a cook, and now I've been travelling around South and Central America for a year with my wife. When we go back to France we'll be moving to the south to Toulouse, and in a couple years maybe move back to San Francisco, but like tigerlilly said you learn a lot about the states by leaving, but I've been to some great places and in my heart home sweet home will always be the San Francisco Bay. It is so nice to see this site finally up and running after waiting for sooo long. But just to let the heads in europe know, I did come across a European version of dead.net, but it seems pretty empty there. www.eurodead.net, now that we're here, we'll have to get the people on that site over here. Hand me my old guitar and pass the whiskey 'round. Matt

france near lyon!

I know I'm probably the only one in Beccles, Suffolk but are there any deadheads out there in the rest of this green and pleasant land. Never got to see the dead live so I'm extremely jeolous of all those who did (thats everyone writing here it seems). I play the albums, read the books, and read your experiances to fill the void. At least I've converted the family, took awhile before Gill my wife would listen, then said "I thought they were heavy metal or something with that name" oh! well got there in the end. Spent the 70s and 80s seeing lots of gigs cant remember most of em so they must have been good at the time. I got the hang of it after a while and if poss got tickets 2 nights running. The first to watch and enjoy sensibly the second to get off my face and really enjoy. Now with a family I go to nice gigs/festivals We are off to Latitude Fest down the road to us tomorrow. Should be good, poetry, theatre, and good music, Arcade Fire,Tinariwen etc. this year and fine beer as well. If anyone fancies listening to Radio 4 Loose ends, Sat night its live from the Fest. Take care all you fine folk, I'll let you how the fest goes when I get back. Cheers Cliff

Sure there are a couple here, have seen posts from British guys here and there! Is one guy posting under "Howard" if I remember correctly. Watched footage on t.v. last night from Isle of Wight (sp?) festival 2007, which looked like were some fun bands there, and also alot more DRY and organized than the original fest.

I see if I can track em down. Yep fests are getting more organised, but losing the nice laidback hippiness feeling. I have not been to Glastenbury for a few years but watching it the box its all very yuppy and corporate now. As to weather its been awful for ages now so I'm expecting the wellies to come out from the shed. Still looking forward to it no end, switch off from work and TV and all that stuff. Did you get to the origanal IoW fest that had some excellent bands on, missed that as well. Born at the wrong time I guess although having topped 50 it seems I should have done more.

Nope-didn't make the original, was just a baby, and on the wrong continent :-). Have only seen a documentary about it.But you are right, show from this year looked pretty corporate and tame, despite some interesting bands. One singer-Amy Winehouse caught my attention with her great voice! Such a skinny person, and such a big voice! Gave me a good laugh to watch all those young kids watching Country Joe, and looking very blankly at Donovan. If I remember right, they both WERE at the original fest.

I am an English Deadhead but currently live in Spain. I know of 4 Deadheads in Norfolk and as far as i know there is one in Lowestoft which isn't too far from you. I am just back in Spain after going to a Deadhead party in Kent and seeing Barry Melton 7 Green ray, The Cosmic Charlies (an English Dead cover band based in Essex) http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/eurotraders this might be of interest to European Deadheads Bob Witcher - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

I went to all 3 in the 60's 70's the first was the best seeing The Airplane at their peak Bob Witcher- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

of you, Sunshine Daydream!

Saw the Airplane also at The Roundhouse in London around the same time as support for the Doors. Had to wait until 1970 to see the GOGD Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Anyone else out there in Spain i know of Federico in the Basque Country but nobody else Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Am moving to Sevilla in September-so WILL be at least one more in Spain

I live the other end of Andalucia in the mountains of Granada Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

I'm living in Clovenfords 30 miles south of Edinburgh in the Scottish Borders. There are a fair few Scottish names that appear from time to time on Eurotraders - see Bob's earlier post. Nice to met you and Karen in Kent. All the best, Greg

Then you could maybe give me tips later about cool places to check out on weekends in Andalucia. And perhaps occasionally about getting along in Spain. Was in Sevilla for a weekend in June, and the Spanish sure are different from the Germans!

I oringinally grew up in Chicago, but now live in Spalding, Lincs. in the UK. I have three teenage daughters, loads of animals, and a wife. I think it is great that the new boards and Dead,net are so much more user friendly. Love reading the stories from all my bothers and sisters here. Brings back so many fond memories of yesteryear. Love and Peace to all, cheers,

The avatar of Greg and i is the logo of Eurodead, Eurotraders companion Website Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

i was a SOL Party in Kent at the weekend Now listening to The Barry Melton / Green Ray who topped the bill Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

http://b7.dimeadozen.org/announce.php/f2fdcd9a72a16b872f8495d167a76e48/… - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

What a great place to live, I visited there once, never wanted to leaveHand me my old guitar and pass the whiskey 'round. Matt

Hello there After that fine day out in Kent on Saturday (good to see you Bob and Greg, even if only briefly) the next excuse to get out for Deadheads within range of London is the Charlies annual Jerry Day. The sun will shine, oh yes! The Charlies play acoustically in the garden in the afternoon, then the usual 2 electric sets in the evening. Well not exactly their usual stuff cos they only do Jerry songs on this day, no Bobby. For about £5 you'll get all day entertainment incl BBQ (flesh and/or vege). All this occurs at The Fountain, West Green Road, Tottenham, North London on Saturday 4th August from early afternoon to early morning. Here's their site http://www.cosmiccharlies.co.uk/ Also, all the sets from the Kent 'RETurn to the Summer Of Love' party on Saturday are now up on dimeadozen.org in at least one format each (SBD/AUD/DVD). Search for Hawkhurst and you will find them. Silverwood, Urban Spacemen, Difford & Tilbrook, Cosmic Charlies and Barry Melton with The Green Ray. Happy trails Paul

The downloads of the party are worth having perhaps we will see some of you at next years event See you at the party next year Paul, if not before. Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Greetings to all Deadheads from a newly joined-up member living in Bari, south Italy! Great new site format, spent the last hour flipping through all the features to the chagrin of my lady. Never saw the Dead in concert (they'd stopped touring Europe by the time I saw the light) but bought my first LP at the tender age of 15 - Workingman's Dead on vinyl if I recall rightly - and 21 years later I'm still digging on those sweet, sweet sounds. A big hi to all, any Italian Deadheads out there: sarei contentissimo scambiare due parole anche in italiano! Peace!

They played Europe in 1990 but the nearest show to you be in Germany a long way from Bari Bob W - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Near Montauban, France! Moved here last year and loving it. have you noticed that the Member map feature does not register locations in Europe. Have left a message on the Technical topic..hope they can fix it.

The map system is great, it goes down the street map level of village but can't put a flag for me there :-( Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

There's been a few mentions of Germany, not exactly fulsome in their praise. Check out these people, they're family, as much as anyone. I'm sure they can make you hug a Hun. http://germanheads.de/ I have no probs with the maps by the way. If anything it's too accurate, someone might suss out where I am and grab my CDs etc while I'm out! Still awaiting the SBD of The Charlies from Sat, Aud is not enough. Cheers, Paul

you never you might end up with Matrix as well Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Friends, deadheads, amurkans, lend me your ears. I'm sitting here in Frome, Somerset, England listening to Bobby and the boys, from Tuesday night. The wonders of the internet. And there was me for a large chunk of the 80s - along with quite a few other folk, I now discover - believing I was the last deadhead in England (copyrighted for the title of my probably never to be written Autobiography). Fact was, with no internet back then, tape trading was not even a blip on the horizon unless you toured (and I was knee-deep in children and broke), and the studio albums of the 80s led me - sadly - to believe the Dead had turned into an MOR band. (Sorry Brent, that was you!). The advent of the net, to which I had access at work from 1993, and then at home from '97 changed that. Now I'm sitting at my PC with over 800 downloaded shows by the Dead on it, most of the recorded output, lots of Dog, JGB and the rest of the family. Currently 18 weeks on non-stop family music on 1.5 terabytes worth of HD. And more to come! But how did I get here? I blundered into the Dead in '66. 15 years old then, my older brother, bless him, introduced me to the glory that is rock 'n roll in the 50s, spinning Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley & Elvis non-stop on his bedroom Dansette. It's always been rock 'n roll for me (you can dance to it), and not "rock" music (no dancee, just shakee your long hair). The Dead the prime rock 'n roll dance band, and for those who naysay that, the Dead were ALWAYS a dance band, and always a rock 'n roll band. Don't argue with me, you at the back. Respect your elders. I was at Public (ie. Private) school in Cambridge in the second half of the 60s. Friends had parents who boarded American students. I heard tapes of the Airplane late 66, and then Saint John Peel, 3 miles offshore on pirate Radio London, hit me late on night, early '67 I think, with Golden Road. Sold, one lifetime's worth of obsession and utter delight, to the lanky teenager in Woodford, Cheshire (nothing bu the dead & dying, now, in my home town). Oxford Uni, '69 to '72. First year exams stopped me seeing their first show here, a one-off in 1970. But the Dead became the soundtrack to my exporation of psychedelics ("majored" in that, rather than the Eng. Lit. & Lang. I was meant to be studying). So the Europe '72 tour was my live initiation. Bless them, they turned up in our Finals term, and wrecked it, happily. Priorities. Only got to see 5 of the shows, from what I recall, but all of them beyond description. And the Wembley Dark Star is for me one of the finest pieces of music, of any description, of all time. It never fails to move me, so sweet and ecstatic is it. Utter bliss. Got to see them every time they came over. 81 to 90 was like a desert, so the 90s shows were a delight, to find the band, and Jerry, in such fine form. But it was no surprise to me when the big man left us. He had too much to carry, and sooner or later that breaks you. I still tear up when I think of him, and bless him every day for what he gave us all during those years. As an old friend of mine once said to me, "He's the only guitarist who can drop you with a note". So true. And the only to make me laugh out loud, and then weep minutes later. He talked to our hearts, through our ears. So, I'm sitting here at my desk, in gorgeous, green, wet Somerset, reflecting on over 40 years of connection to the many-headed monster that is the Dead. I get my live fix by flying over for the Ratdog Beacon shows these past two years, and come out of thos just as I did from seeing the Dead, high as a kite, skipping on tiptoe, and with a shit-eating grin splitting my face. Gotta love it. Love to you all, fellow deadheads - we are indeed everywhere :-) Jeremy

And in the end I arrived in France been livin in and around Paris since 1996.If you know of an event that might interest a DH or just want to talk music while drinking a cold one send me a message.

Je vous rassure, il y a encore quelques français qui savent ce qu'est la musique !!Bien sûr, nous sommes un peu frustrés de ne pas avoir d'évènements majeurs concernant la période psychédélique, à part en septembre à Montreuil. La chaîne Arte fait aussi des efforts avec cet été le Summer of Love. Bref, si vous êtes là les Deadheads, faites-le savoir et je serai ravi de faire connaissance. A bientôt Pascal