Grateful Dead

Haha. I'm totally ignorant about sports. I was always the kid who hung out in art-class (ie: sketching naked girls) or in the computer room during lunch breaks (eg: finding out about the Dead). I'm more of a joint man, as well ;)

In my daily jousting with various American pals on the 'net - mostly jazzbos around the same age as me - music/jazz/whatever goes hand in hand with our interests in sports, food and politics etc. When WE were in school, computers were science fiction stuff. :)

Yeah, but when you were in school, you still had the Dead ;)

but only in a general sense. AFAIK, none of the extended Dead ever made it to Australia and/or New Zealand. Least wise, not as performers. Surely, some of them have spent vacation time with their families/whatever "up" here.

kennyw wrote :"AFAIK, none of the extended Dead ever made it to Australia and/or New Zealand. Least wise, not as performers. Surely, some of them have spent vacation time with their families/whatever "up" here." Bear (Owsley Stanley) moved to Far North Queensland some years ago;going by the Rolling Stone article he is now busy knocking off the cane toads. Some time ago i read that one aussie promoter (Chugg ?) was going to bring the GD to OZ just after the 1978 Egypt gigs but than he got cold feet.It was not explained in the article why he pulled out.

I was living in London at the time of Egypt shows and made tentative efforts to get there that came to zero. About a year later I also hads me tickets to shows at the Rainbow that were subsequently cancelled. Jerry was sick I think. That was as close as I ever got to seeing them a second time. Knocking off cane toads? More likely distilling them in some fashion and then slurping up the resultant toad broth. Maybe with Jerry-flavoured icecream croutons floating on top.

In the interests of keeping this thread ticking over - and simply because I'm in a talkative mood - let me share with fellow Melbourne DHs my latest cheap eat hit: It's called Zam Zam Cafe Restaurant and it's at 364 Lonsdale St, just up the hill from Elizabeth St. I remember when I moved to Melbourne 20 years ago, Indian tucker wasn't really a feature of the cheap eat scene. Basically most Indian eateries were a la carte and on the pricey side. Now they're all over the place, especially in the CBD. I think the inlfux of Asian students is good for my tummy and wallet. Yum yum pig's bum! I've been to Zam Zam three times in the past coupla weeks - and each and every time it's been packed, mostly with folkses from the sub-continent. I take it as a good sign when I'm in a very pale-faced minority in these sorts of joints. Zam Zam is well above average for its ilk, such as Flora in Flinders St or Bismi's Gold An Fork, just around the corner in Elizabeth St. Yesterday I had the vege thali - a big heap of "bryani" rice, a dollop of yougurt, sublime and simple dahl, a "dry" jumble of a bright orange onion and cauliflower concoction and a "wet" potato and eggplant thingie (the least successful) and a pappadam. All for $7.50 fangs very muchly. Now even though I ordered the vege option - as I am wont to do in such places - don't think for a minute this is health food. It's overcooked, oily and salty. But sometimes there's nothing better, even if there are equally priced and far healtheir Viet options no more than a block away..

I might just go to Jungry Hacks for lunch tomorrow.

Greetings fellow Melbourne heads! Having arrived from the chilly and wet northern lands of Europe, I'm hoping to either hear of some meeting/s that have been had or get something going. I remember Mr Weir also hoping to get a meeting arranged, so I ask here "what's goin' down?" If nothing else, I would propose a tues evening or sun afternoon for a get together. What does the community say? Cheers The Estimated Prophet

Nuthin' ... we've been waiting for your return from nothern climes. Sundays and Tuesday work for me. But I'm simply too lazy/idle/idol/ideal to put any energy into oragnising anything. Name a a place and a date and I'll likely front, though. Can I bring Bennie? He doesn't have a GD T-shirt, but he does have a Melbourne Victory one. And he likes his dad's GD Ts a lot - especially the movie one. I like the idea of having folkses around to our joint for Sunday blackeyed peas or red beans 'n' rice, but I usually find that I really dig the cooking bit, and by the time people show up I'm knackered and I wish they'd all just fuck off. When's that Hawkwind covers outfit playing in Brunswick?

Hey all, It would seem that a meeting of Melbourne heads is ready to go...perhaps first off we should meet at a public place to get a feel for each other and see from there. I am open to a date of Nov 4th Sunday and would nominate the Town Hall Hotel in North Melbourne which is pretty central...say around 4pm or so. Sound ok?....let me know and it's on. as to the band Sonic Attack..(hawkwind covers band), we will have them back most likely in Jan...I missed the show last time but everyone I talked to about it seemed pretty impressed! tEP

Sounds fine to me.

Who's coming - Town Hall Hotel, North Melbourne, 4pm, Sunday, November 4. Maybe I'll have my new "Grateful Dad" T-shirt I ordered last week. And I'll be packing my frisbee.

... I'm over the whole GD thing and that I'll go postal if I hear another version of Suger Magnolia, I pick up From The Vault Three from Greville Records last week and order Dick's Picks No,29 a few days later - that's the six-disc epic of 1977 shows. Yummy! Also accompanying my (so called) work day today are: Black Sun Ensemble - Bolt Of Apollo Kiefer And Pitcher - To All Dead Sailors Tibby Edwards - Plat It Cool, Man, Play It cool

Cup Weekend and the GLW's birthday! I probably won't be in town and am unlikely to get a leave pass in any case being the GLW's birthday and all. I'll have to take a rain-check on this one.

Hi All, It's great to find other Deadheads in Oz! I saw my first show at Madison Square Garden in 1979/80 can't excatly remember and my last show in 1987 before leaving the states. Been in Brisbane/Gold Coast/Tweed since 1995. The best link I have found so far for replacing the old tapes with digital is: http://www.archive.org/details/GratefulDead Enjoy

Hey now.... My friend Dave and I will be at the Town Hall North Mel at 4 pm for our first meeting...I trust mr Kenny W will be there as well. I hope others can make it too, but if not, that's ok, we'll make it a regular event. all best and hopefully see you sunday!! tEP

I'll be there from 4pm for about an hour or so. I know one other person, a PBS listener who emailed me during the week after she heard a '72 Dark Star on The Pearls, who sez she'll coming along, so it looks like we got us a gathering. And I also yesterday told another pal - a fellow journo who saw the band some time around 1967, just after they stopped being the Warlocks - about our get together, and he's pissed he can't make it. But will, I'm sure, make it for future events. This is a guy who styles himself as a completist, but has confessed to having placed all the discs from one of the, er, less impressive Dick's Picks in his multi-disc player, pressing play and the going out for a day's gardening. This allowed him to at least claim: "At least it's all been played at least once!"

Pearls Before Swine - the lotGD - Cow Palace, Winterland June 8, 1977. Thanks Tony! Joy Of Cooking - Back To Your Heart Andy Pratt - Andy Pratt Ben Webster/Gerry Mulligan - Complete In The Car - Fillmore box, disc 4. Yowza!

It was great to meet up with Mr Prophet and his pal Dave for an hour or so's GD chinwagging. Next time Sunday December 4 from 4pm at ?????? Hey Prophet, seeing as we're both westies, what do you say we make it the Commercial in Yarraville? Heck, they might even lettuce spin a few discs. That's providing, of course, I don't cater at my joint. Ya never know. Stay tuned!

Make that Sunday December 2

Digging as we speak DP29! What a killer set - and, at $33 for six discs, an incredible bargain. I'm digging old favourites anew and loving tunes that've never really done it for me in the past. There's multiple instances of physical reaction: For me it starts as a flutter around the heart/lung region, followed by a delicious feeling scooting up my spine and across my skull like a mixture of mercury, honey and cocaine, capped by an exquisite shudder and often goose pimples. Not that I'd know anything about cocaine. It's a strange thing about my life - especially considering the places I've been and the people I've often been there with - that no one at anytime has ever offered me anything stronger than a joint. A bloody good thing, too, otherwise I'd have been six feet under a long time ago! :) Which reminds me of a fellow music pal (but not a Deadhead) who confesses to experiencing a loosening of the bowels whenever he steps across the threshold of a secondhand record store!

The first Mel meetin' of heads was a fine one.....Sun Dec 2 at the Commercial Hotel in Yarraville is a good choice Mr. Weir, but perhaps it depends on who puts their hands up this time around. If there are only a few, your place may suit just as well. That's up to you. Ok, fellow melburnian deadheads....let's try and make this one if at all possible. Register your interest here or at kurtperry@tmb.net.au as soon as possible! Cheers Kurt tEP

Ok u got me ! i will turn up at the commercial on Dec 2,probably early as i do like a sip from time to time.Cheers Chas

The most painful aspect of my lunch-time visit to the dentist today was financial. Geeez mon - one filling , a bit of repair work on another and a cleanup and I'm $300+ out of pocket AFTER insurance has paid its miserly share. Mumble grumble. Other than it was 99% painless and whatever discomfort was felt was superly mitigated by Dick's Picks No,29, disc 3: While I was there having my tooths attended to we heard, at quite a nice volume for a dental surgery, Terrapin Station, Playing In The Band, Uncle John's Band, Drums and The Wheel. Sure beat the commercial FM radio/Cold chisel crappola that was playing when I arrived! ************* Don't forget: Commercial Hotel, Yarraville, this Sunday, 4pm. Far as I can tell, there'll be at least five of us this time 'round.

Yes, come one come all---The very cool Commercial Hotel on Whitehall St in Yarraville is the place...4pm the time. Sunday the 2nd of Dec! All best, tEP

I just waded in here to say hi to all aussie deadheads out there.....c'mon out 'n play mates!!A trueblue deadhead here...............!:) "May your dogs be with you"

I haven't been at the Commercial on a Sunday arvo for at least a couple of years, so I'm just assuming it'll be open. Bennie and I went a couple of months ago for the $10 Monday meal deal. We drove past on the way to tae kwando this morning and the out-back beer garden looked like a cool place for us to visit. See yez tomorrow! ******* A long 12 hours of boring post-election newspapering today, with the following to keeps me awake: Roky Erickson - I Have Always Been Here Before. I love the sound of distorted autoharp in the morming! GD - DP29, Steppin' Out With ..., Vault III

Well we're getting there - our first get-together had three folks, the secnd six. Looking ahead - a "film eveing" is planned for Sunday, February 6, at a venue and time yet to be finalised. Stay tuned right here; newcomers please register your interest, too.

next one planned for Sunday, February 3.

Anything happening in Sydney or Adelaide? I'll be in those two cities in December and January. Happy Trails

... to all my fellow Melbin/Oz Deadheads. Bennie and I are bunking at Grandma's joint in Blenheim (top of the South Island) for the next week or so. With nothing more strenuous planned than movies, A-League and Premier League and Food Channel on the box, the odd movie, winery eats, lots of reading (Michael Moorcock's Gloriana) and so on. I look forward to hooking up with you all on our return. Cheers, Kenny

... spotted in Blenheim, NZ: 0 Musical highlight: Hearing "Everlasting Love" by U2 on the plane home. Now that's a band I generally loathe, but it's a great tune. I wish I still had the album with it on by the tune's composer, Mac Gayden, AND all the great Barefoot Jerry stuff.

Did anyone pre-order Road Trips Vol 1 and actually receive it? I pre-ordered on November 3rd and then waited until January 4th before emailing a complaint to the Dead Store that it had not received. It was shipped again and arrived in 6 days! "Lost in the post" - well maybe, except that I know at least 3 others Aussie Deadheads who had the same experience with this shipment.

... definitely ain't gots mine. I'll be addressing this issue when I return to work next week. There's an email for a person named Casson on the relevant thread who's dealing with this shambles. She works for the fulfillment company involved, "fulfillment company" being a phrase that fundamentally gives me the creeps. Kinda, you know, definitely NOT a GD vibe. Small consolation: Going by the "listening party" they, it sounds like a dog anyway - a judgment confirmed by a Maldon GD buddy who HAS got his copy.

Just got back from seeing this local country rock band at Manchester Lane, Mlebourne. Encored with Friend Of The Devil (the fast version)..

Hey Ya'll, Meeting is on in Melbourne...Feb 10 Sun at 2pm on til around 5/6pm. Address is 45/91 Moreland St Footscray Park outside on Parker St please and walk thru gate and around chimney to black double doors.....ring 45 and I'll fetch you 0411 030 952 Will provide some snack type stuff, but welcome to bring your own, as well as BYO drinks Please let me know if you can make it.... Cheers The Estimated Prophet

... during my lunch break. Which all reminded me of another Melbourne gig/band/aggregation that I was very Grateful to catch - at the 2000 Melbourne Jazz Festival: SPACE IS THE PLACE (A Tribute To Sun Ra) Successfully paying tribute to an enigmatic cult figure such as Sun Ra was seemingly littered with obstacles that could have produced a display of pretentiousness. Such fears were spectacularly, explosively rendered an instant non-issue by an expanded version of local outfit Bucketrider, performing as the Molecular Omniverse Chaos Myth Arkestra. The more exotic and ritual trappings of Sun Ra's art -- the costumes, the chanting -- seemed perfect foils for the music, which was was performed at suitably intoxicating high volume and with mind-shredding goosebump intensity. Six horns, including a rare stanza of duelling bass saxophones, two drummers, funky acoustic bass, jagged guitar, keyboards, percussion and vocals rocked the house. This was jazz that simultaneously evoked the ensemble cacophony of the music's earliest days and the electronica of the present and the future. This show, the festival high point, deserves much wider exposure.

It's my wedding anniversary on February 9th: Dinner at "Silks" followed by "An Evening With Burt Bacharach" at the Melbourne Concert Hall. So....I should be good for a leave pass on Sunday. See you all then!

Heck, bring the missus - what could be better than following up a wedding anniversary with the chance to hang out with a bunch Melbourne Dead Heads? :) I hope Burt does Sugar Magnolia for ya. ********* I just posted this at Jazz Corner: About fucking time ... When I went to see the Hitmen just between NYE and Xmas, I opined to a friend that the most anxiously awaited - a wait strateching into decades - reissue in my life was the mid-'80s classic Pilgrim's Progess by Melbourne outfit Harem Scarem. At last. It's here. Back in my life - and making my hair stand on end, sending chills up my spine and giving me multiple cases of goose bumps as I write. Put out in a masterful reissue by Aztec. Oddly enough, the balls to the wall, Stonesy guitar riffing sounds perfectly obvious; at the time it sounded like rock 'n' roll cataclysm to me, such an invigorating blast was it. Still sounds awesome, though - simply a brilliant rock 'n' roll album. Chris Marshall's singing bears comparison with the likes of Tim/Jeff Buckley - any tendancy to the pretentious is swept aside by sheer bravado and passion. The arrival of harp man Chris Wilson, drummer Peter Jones and guitarist Barry Palmer - all future fixtures, along with the other guitar man, Charlie Marshall, on the Australian scene in years to come - lifted a workmanlike Melbourne blues/rock outfit into the stratosphere.

OK, so I wimped it as far as getting a ticket goes, figuring there's LONG way to go until a World Cup berth is in the bag. A lot of games to come. Still, I'm really looking forward to tonight's opener with Qatar, even if I will be watching irt at home with Bennie. It's staggering that even after the Asian Cup debacle and lousy season for Melbourne Victory, the MCG is still gonna jammed to the rafters. So many intriguing, unknown aspects. Go Socceroos!

For some reason, I've had in my mind that last night's game was at the MCG. What the hey - it was still bloody fantastic. We're on our way - 3-0 and cooking. ************* OK so I got my replacement copy of Road Trips Vol1 No1, including bonus disc. You all got yours by now? Sounds pretty mushy to me. And now there's another one out already, 1977 so much more to my taste. But $12 for shipping still frigging irks me. What do you reckon? ************* See y'all on Sunday.

Stop whingeing, Kenny, at least you have yours. I'm still waiting. Happy Trails

rrussell8 - I recommend that you contact the Dead Store and ask for a replacement to be sent. None of us got these discs from the pre-order "shipment". While we have never received an explanation I suspect the blame lies with some "fowl up in shipping" which is what I was told last time I had a problem. If only they would stop employing poultry!

I contacted Customer Service. Then, a couple of days ago, possibly in response to my post above, CS contacted me by email and the same day RT V1 No1 arrrived, bonus disc and all. I am totally delighted by this release, and recommend the Good Lovin on disc one to anyone who wants to know how well GD could rock. It is an absolute ripper! The sequence leading up to it is pretty good too. Happy Trails

Monthy meeting is on again....same place as last time...45/91 Moreland st Footscray. Date is 16th of March - Sunday from 2pm onwards. Bring drinks and perhaps a snack if you like....all welcome!!! phone contact for details is 0411 030 952 Cheers The Estimated Prophet

Enjoyed the meeting & can't wait for the bush bash next time,a pity that more people don't get on board & stay on! as this ship has a lot of sail in her yet.Over to you guys.Cheers Chas

If you guys fancy catching up for a meet. Why not come along to our next gig. We are Melbourne's HAWKWIND cover band. And we have a gig on Saturday 3rd May, at the Cornish Arms Hotel, Sydney Road, Brunswick.We are on stage at 9pm, and would love to catch up with you all! Sonic Attack: Psychedelic Space Rock in Melbourne, Australia www.sonicattackband.com

WHY DO YOU CHARGE SO MUCH FOR ECO BAGS