Grateful Dead

BTW,You can thank my old friend and former roommate Phil Casanta for bringing the Grateful Dead to the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Phil was the Entertainment Director for the Fairgrounds. It took Phil THREE YEARS to convince the County Fair Board Of Directors to say yes to Phil. BTW, After expenses the Ventura County Fair made more money on a weekend of Grateful Dead shows than they did on the yearly County Fair! I'm not kidding. That's why the Fair Board agreed to Phil's suggestion for 3 days of shows in 1987 instead of 2. And it was the stuffy, hung-up conservative local politicians and Bible-Banger cabal that put an end to the Dead shows in Ventura. The local police force had no problem with the crowds, in fact, they said they would rather work a weekend of Dead shows instead of motocross crowds. Go figure. Three cheers for Phil Casanta! WooHoo!

One of my favorite shows from my local stomping grounds. The first set is relaxed and very well-grounded. You could tell the entire band was having fun. Masterpiece was truly a masterpiece, Bobby W.'s vocals doing it justice. Let It Grow was glorious! But the second set was the centerpiece. Opening up with Shakedown Street was the perfect choice for all of the visiting Dead heads that had been tripping around downtown Ventura for the previous 2 nights and for the local Heads that had been hanging out with their Out Of Town Comrades, it was good vibes all around! Estimated>Eyes>Drums>Other One>Morning Dew>Sugar Mag. OMG! Need I say more? BTW, At the beginning of Shakedown Dan Healy gave the green light to the tapers and a daisy chain of tape machines formed up behind the mixing board, there were quite a few 2nd set board tapes of this show in circulation later on.

1987 to me was a fun year and also the year of The Dew. we got 17 Morning Dew's. My favorite being the march 2nd Dew because Jerry sounds as if almost in tears the way he sings it,always loved the emotional Dew'sOne that note this was last year the boys played the beach at Ventura.I am so lucky to have caught every year. I remember back in late spring of 1982 when the dead hot line announced the Grateful dead will play two shows at the Ventura county fairgrounds in Ventura California. EXCITING time back then when we could call the hot line and get the future dates for upcoming shows and tours. Loved those days of my life .