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  • KYTrips
    9 years 4 months ago
    Afterthoughts
    So... Sitting here at the office on my first day back at work since the Chicago shows. First of all, it was one helluva weekend! While the music was always the priority for me, I'd forgotten the sense of community one can feel at a concert. The crowd for all three shows was into it, and they showed the love. I'll never forget the whole crowd singing "you know our love will not fade away" for the entire break between the end of NFA and until Phil came out prior to the 1st Encore. The atmosphere was electric inside the stadium every night. While I have been to MANY concerts and sporting events over the years, it dawned on me that I hadn't felt that feeling since... well... 20 years ago when I attended my last Grateful Dead show at RFK Stadium in 1995. I won't wax poetic about whether or not these were "great Grateful Dead shows" or not. I will simply say that I had a fabulous time. I thought Friday night's show was the strongest, followed by Sunday and then Saturday, but I enjoyed them all. And the 1st Set on Friday was REALLY good. How many times could you say after a GD show that the 1st Set was better than the 2nd Set (especially when the 2nd Set included a Scarlet>Fire AND a Help>Slipknot>Franklin's)? Personal highlights for me were: 1) opening with "Box of Rain" (after all, the end is the beginning, and the beginning is the end); 2) "Passenger"(!!??!!), which they nailed; 3) Scarlet>Fire; 4) encoring with "Ripple" on Friday night; 5) "Shakedown Street" and "Deal" to bookend the 1st Set on Saturday; 6) "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)... Are you kidding me?!!?; 7) a really beautiful "Stella Blue"; 8) Trey singing "Althea"; and 10) a very fitting, and haunting "Days Between". I'm not a big Phish fan... I like some of their stuff, but I've never really been into them. But for anyone who was/is/or will be negative about the selection of Trey... they can kiss it, because I thought he was fantastic!! His enthusiasm alone was great, but I thought he really shined through and he should be proud of the performances he gave. All-in-all, it was a fantastic experience. I'm so glad I went. It was closure to a certain degree, but man was it a good party! See you all down the road. Be kind.
  • Citrusdeadhead
    9 years 4 months ago
    Recordings from SC shows
    Anyone know of recordings available for the SC shows?Thanks !
  • estimated-eyes
    9 years 4 months ago
    amazing weekend
    That was an amazing three nights and ones that will remain with me till the end of my days. To me, night one was strongest-- truly not a weak link in that setlist and it smoked. The Help/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower to close was simply amazing. Having seen many fine shows over the past 30 years (GD, Clapton, Stones, myriad blues artists), that night ranks up near the top for live events I have attended. Some of it is that so many circumstances fell into place to make the entire night perfect-- and then the music made it ever more perfect. Night two highlights: Standing on the Moon, not one of my favorites, was delivered beautifully by Trey-- I had tears flowing the whole song. Golden Road was hot and Foolish Heart jammed. Trey really delivered all weekend-- big props to him. Night three was about delivering needed songs-- Estimated, China/Rider. Set two had a purpose-- songs about closure, togetherness and the sense of moving on. While the last two nights had a couple ballads I could have done without, I saw where they were going and enjoyed it. BTW, they did show Keith and Donna in the slide show. They did it a little awkwardly by transitioning from showing a bunch of random slides to all of a sudden showing each individual member. The crowd didn't realize it until Brent came up.
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<? // pull in news from "50th Anniversary" feature type taxonomy $news = views_embed_view('story_lists', 'block_50news'); echo $news; ?>

Grateful Dead Original Members Add Two Dates To Final Concerts

April 10, 2015

The original members of Grateful Dead have announced two additional shows at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on June 27th and 28th, as part of their “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead” run. Along with the three shows at Chicago's Soldier Field on July 3rd, 4th, and 5th, the run will mark the original members' last-ever performances toget

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13 years
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.....for this family guy. Hopefully they will webcast it. That would be awesome too! Its going to be a great year! Hopefully a box set announcement is coming soon. '69 or '81 would be sweet(or both)!!!
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13 years 9 months
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The first time I saw the Grateful Dead was 1966 in Golden Gate Park. I came over from the Sunset district with a couple of friends to play around in the park, and then we heard this music playing and we went to it. I came up behind Pigpen and then saw Jerry, Bobby, Phil, and Billy, and that is the day I fell in love with the Dead and the guitar. They always seemed to me like the big kids from the neighborhood that made great sounds and made people dance. It makes me both thankful and sad on this 50th(my 49th) anniversary. Thank You Pig, Jerry, Bobby, Phil, and Billy for the countless pluses in my life because of my connection with you. Here is to the next Fifty!!!!
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10 years
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Hi - I've never done mail order (all these years and never had to)....but I want to do mail order for the July 2015 shows in Chicago. Will the site send me a message or how do I know when tickets are available by mail and how to get them? Thanks so much all
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10 years 10 months
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Hopefully they will webcast it. Probably package and sell dvds or something?
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10 years 11 months
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I was really hoping for a few different locations at more intimate venues (under 63,000!). This feels like a re-run of the final sad tour. Great line-up, I sort of hate to miss it. But given the location, venue, expense, likely heat, etc., I’m afraid I need to shine it on. After all the anticipation this is a let down. I’m sure it makes sense for the band, but not for me.And why Chicago? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING ANYWHERE BUT SAN FRANCISCO???
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17 years 5 months
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Three shows, 65,000+ seats, tickets upward of $300+ for the good seats, $60+ for seats at the other end of the field in the nose bleed section, over booked hotels, scalpers galore, 100,000 ticketless dead heads and phish heads mixing it up on Shakedown. Jerry looking down and shaking his head saying, "What the f&@k were they thinking?" The only redeeming thing would be a box set of high quality soundboard CDs of all three nights along with DVDs of the complete concerts made available for purchase later in the year for those of us too poor and too far away to attend this hysterically historic event. Lots of luck guys, you're going to need it.
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16 years 10 months
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Welcome to Chicago again everyone. To those of you I saw 20 years ago at Soldier Field, I will see you again. Can't wait - what's not to like? The Dead, Bruce, Trey, Jeff - great lineup and 3 days here. Thank You GD for picking the best place in the world to see a show. Come to our city, enjoy the food and be Grateful that the authorities here accept DeadHeads and are friendly towards us. Peace!
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16 years 10 months
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Welcome to Chicago again everyone. To those of you I saw 20 years ago at Soldier Field, I will see you again. Can't wait - what's not to like? The Dead, Bruce, Trey, Jeff - great lineup and 3 days here. Thank You GD for picking the best place in the world to see a show. Come to our city, enjoy the food and be Grateful that the authorities here accept DeadHeads and are friendly towards us. Peace!
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15 years 10 months
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Logistically, this is probably the best I could have hoped for, even a holiday weekend to boot! I am in for at least one or two nights in Chicago. It is less than two hours from my home in southwest Michigan, I have a brother-in-law in Chicago who is a Phish-fanatic who I have been coaxing into the Dead over the years, he lives right on the train line to downtown. Only logistical issue is how much the wife is willing to let me spend on tickets. In my mind, for ticket prices today these prices are very reasonable. I hope to get on the field, preferably in the GA in front one night. I wonder how crazy of a hot ticket this is going to be. Seeing a lot of lukewarm response on dead.net, but I reckon it will be a hot ticket to get. I, too, am wondering whether to go GDTOO route or not...
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15 years 2 months
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I don't get it...it would have made a lot more sense to have it in the Bay Area, where they started.
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15 years 10 months
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I think it being centrally located in the country is why they chose Chicago. Bay Area, everyone east of the Rockies is driving. Chicago, everyone east of the Rockies can theoretically drive there.
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11 years 3 months
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Glad to hear it, Snafu- I haven't heard the 45 rpm lp releases of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty yet because my turntable is currently mothballed, but I've got the hybrid sacds, and they sound AMAZING! The hi-res format, the re-mastering (which is generally substantially more important than the format, and which MoFi aced in this case), even the packaging are all top-notch. Even on a typical cd player, which can only play the cd layer these discs should sound better than all previous cds. Until I hear the lps, and I'm sure those will be comparable, if not even better, these SACDS are the editions of these albums that I'll be listening to. While I haven't heard the HDTracks versions, as I generally don't download yet, and don't want to pay $200-$250 for a package of albums of which some later ones are- cough, cough- not top-notch- it would be hard to imagine the downloads would sound be much better than these, if at all (though with the plangent process used there, possibly they could).Actually, if anyone has listened to both the SACDS plus the HDTracks downloads of those two albums, I'd be interested to hear their feedback on the comparison.
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17 years 4 months
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Can someone please explain to me why reserved tix are $215.00+fees?
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16 years 3 months
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mato1949 - your idea of cd & dvd versions of the shows is a great idea. I've been out of work since the end of July, and won't be able to buy tickets now, and doubt I'll be able to afford scalper's prices. Live would be the best, but the other option would allow a lot of us to get the "Farewell" too.
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9 years 10 months
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Question to all…anyone…In the mail order directions it says…1) that money orders need to be an exact amount per show for tickets desired. ok But it also says to put "any" if one does not care what tickets he gets. My question. How can I get an exact amount money order if I will accept tickets that are different prices? Help please…
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9 years 10 months
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wow
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12 years 11 months
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1st Set Jack Straw FOTD Box Of Rain Jack A Roe BIOTDL All Over Now EL Paso> Mexicali Let It Grow> Deal 2nd Set Scarlet> Fire> Shakedown> Playin'> Eyes> Drumz> Wharf Rat> Sugar Mag> SSDD E. UJB I will make 2 very realistic predictions; (1) There will not be one song repeated (2) We won't see Dark Star until the 3rd & FINAL night perhaps as an encore going into or out of Unbroken Chain Oh Deadland just imagine what is going to transpire? It still hasn't "hit" me...yet
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11 years 3 months
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Great set suggestion/prediction there, wissinomingDH. I second that emotion. Now...let the speculation begin regarding the very last song. An acapella "We Bid You Goodnight"?
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11 years 5 months
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Anyone that is productive and works and wants to do it can. Greyhound bus, cheaper hotel or camping, drive, etc.....
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16 years 1 month
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You will have to send extra money orders to cover each price level, and the ones they don't use will be sent back to you.
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11 years 3 months
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We Bid You Goodnight, Brokedown Palace combination would be fitting. US Blues for sure will get some play on 4th of July. I will come up with my setlist prediction eventually. I would imagine the first night to include China > Rider and Viola Lee Blues. With a few cover songs mixed in,, my money is on The Weight, being one of them
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11 years 3 months
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I mentioned this a little while ago on the chat. Please, no curses. I hope they decide to invite Donna Jean to the show. At least for a couple or three songs. She's certainly a part of the history and I definitely think she deserves to be there, unless there's some sort of drama that still exists that I'm unaware of.
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10 years 9 months
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Repeat 3 times..NY, Bay Area, ATL, please, I'll hit 'em all up!
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16 years 7 months
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Glad to hear about the SACDs. I will be getting them eventually. It will be interesting doing a comparison between the DVD-A and SACD versions. Don't remember if I mentioned it but Abraxas is on the 45 rpm/ SACD list also
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12 years 2 months
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I can't believe they chose Chicago. I'll have to drive at least 20 minutes to get to the lake front and have to kill time between shows walking the beach or strolling down navel pier. Maybe stop in a museum or sit in grant park and stare at buckingham fountain. Stroll through millenium park Are you kidding me? And all this July fourth weekend they will probably have fireworks over the lake too. "Wave that flag". I give up ill go. And it will be the best way to celebrate a band that has meant so much to the American music scene for the past 50 years! Oh and I will be celebrating as well because I turn 50 this year too! Thanks boys looking forward to being there with everybody else.
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12 years 6 months
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I'm in Chicago but way out in the burbs. My buddy in Chile got a room at the Congress and needs somebody to get him some tix and we hope the deal goes down. I don't want to go in and out, I want to wander around the parking lot looking for tie dyes and well, ya know... I kind of agree it's sort of a weird vibe place, even Alpine has the more "farm" vibe but I can't help but think that Soldier Field looking like a spaceship makes it a reasonable choice. I talked to another buddy at work today and he went to the last show and was like "that was the only show I went to and it was killer" so I can only hope one or tow of these shows will work out with some magical moments, killer playing, amazing sound, beautiful sunsets, etc.
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9 years 10 months
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I am assuming I won't know if I got mail order tix before online goes on sale. Do they reserve some tix for each...could it all sell out by mail order? IS MAIL ORDER YOUR BEST CHANCE FOR GETTING GOOD SEATS, OR YOUR ONLY CHANCE??? They arent even announcing the VIP deals until 2 days after the mailorder....probably can't afford that anyway... SO HAPPPY!! SO EXCITED!! SO GRATEFUL!!
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9 years 10 months
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ugh, trying to reply to someone, screwed it up, sorry
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13 years 10 months
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Yeah, the VIP thing is weird, not that I would spend for that, but they're not announcing the VIP deals pricing until 2 days after mail order, so if you were considering spending $200 for best possible seats but wanted to see if vip was an option at $300 or so you won't know if it might instead be $1,000 instead and by then it would be too late to mail order and expect good seats. Weird way to set up the timing of ticket sales. Edit - in answer to someone who inquired about best way to get seats. In the past they pretty much divvied up tickets equally between mail order and ticketmaster, so in this case I would expect that they probably divvied up the tickets equally between mail order, Internet, and ticketmaster, so your odds of getting the best seats are probably the same with any of those, just different logistics. With mail order it's more like a lottery between everyone who has a jan 20th post mark, Internet will be first to get through first served, same with ticketmaster.
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9 years 10 months
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Thanks for explaining that, in the past I have had mailorder tix, but was never the one sending in, and never knew how it all went down...And now that you put it like that, I'm sure the VIP thing WILL be astronomical. How long do you estimate it might take to find out if you got the mailorder or not? Is it possible you might know before online goes on sale?
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13 years 10 months
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I never thought of that and I don't know. I always used to mail order, but it's been 20 years and I don't remember how long it took to find out!!! I do know this. For mail order, be sure to follow the instructions they list for mail order EXACTLY. You don't want to use the wrong envelope size, or forget key information on the index card, etc.
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10 years 7 months
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Well Well Well you can never tell >>>Still have my Day Job, Can't wait to see Dogs and Cats in CHICAGO Design some Cool stuff people
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11 years 3 months
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Well that spread fast. Check out Sportcenter Bulls x Celtics highlight. Fare Thee Well gets a nice shout out from Sportscenter anchor Neil. He is always quoting St. Stephen during his highlights, so I figured he is a Deadhead. After a nice shake and bake from Derick Rose, Neil quickly promotes the Fare Thee Well event. Just an idea, highly unlikely with today's announcement. Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Fran would have been nice to see the core 4 play a few gigs. But 1 venue makes sense. Just an idea Boston in late April Chicago in July New York City - sept. Or Oct. And to end 2015, San Fran for a New Years run.
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14 years
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I'm glad to see GDTS is stating they plan to fill mail order requests BEFORE on sale to public dates. In the past, this was a real nail biter! Do I buy on sale because my mail order isn't here? The money involved becomes crazy.Guests? This could surely be crazy who do you think will show?
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15 years 10 months
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I get the central US location, but why not Alpine, which would have a much better vibe than a stadium? No worries, though. I will be flying in from Singapore for these shows. How could I not? The gang at GDTS had better be getting some rest, 'cause it'll be crazy there for the next few weeks.
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9 years 10 months
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What about Oakland Coliseum and Shoreline farewell?
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9 years 10 months
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What about Oakland Coliseum and Shoreline farewell?
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9 years 10 months
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Hi folks. First time posting here, although if you're on the Lockn' forum at all, you may know me from there. Anyhoo, considering that secondary ticket resellers are already listing nosebleeds that they don't even HAVE starting at $235, I'm gonna make my very first foray into mail order on Tuesday. My only problem is what to write on the outside of the envelope. There are three levels of mail order tickets, but I'm only interested in the two lowest price options, so I can't put "any." The GDTSTOO site advises what to write for one kind of ticket, but not for multiples (less than "any"). Still with me? What I'm tentatively writing is as follows: 7/3 2 res tix @95.50 or 2 GA tix @115.50 7/4 1 res tix @95.50 or 1 GA tix @115.50 7/5 1 res tix @95.50 or 1 GA tix @115.50 I imagine that any confusion whatsoever gets your order bounced, even if everything else is correct. I emailed GDTSTOO, but who knows if they'll get back to me, or in time? Experienced mail orderers, what do you recommend? Thanks!
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15 years 4 months
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Yeah, I get what you're saying - Alpine would be MUCH better. I guess they are playing Soldier Field not only because it is a center spot in the country but because that is the last place they played with Garcia in '95. As you say, go with the flow. We are all very glad the Boys are doing this but would LOVE if the played an East Coast and West Coast location as well. It is such a "thing" that we just can't get enough. Never could... Now,,,should I draw up my divorce papers before or after the shows?? Leaving the wife and kids on the beach while I fly to Chicago for 4 days won't go over too well! Oh well...
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15 years 4 months
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Funny story - With all of the instructions for mail order it seems pretty complex but it's really not. They lay it out for you very well in the instructions. But... ...when I mailed away for two tour books for the '87 tour I was meticulous about it and sent it away. Waited...waited..waited..and waited some more. Until finally it was getting very close to the date for the first show and I started to panic. I think I called GDTS and they said it was sent. I called the Post Office and they had something with my name on it that they were JUST about to "Return to Sender" (back then it was in San Rafael). AHHHHHH - Nooooo!!! Hold on to them I'll be right there. Went to the Post Office and rescued my precious package and inspected it carefully. On my SASE I put 45 for the street number. Only problem was that we lived at 47. Kids - some words of advice...have a smoke AFTER you complete the order, NOT before. And maybe have someone double-check it for you! See you all in Chicago!!