Grateful Dead

I might just be that person...LOL Plumstead is in SE London. It's a well known fact that I only got to see the boys once, Bickershaw 72-05-07 but what a show that was. A sublime Dark Star that will long live in my memory. I'd been listening to the Dead since Aoxomoxoa caught my eye in the Co-Op. I took an instant like to the album cover and had to have it. Up to then I think I had caught a couple of miscellaneous tracks on the radio but after that I had to have more. Since then I've been buying, d/l and editing shows,and there just isn't enough time in the day to listen. I'm backed up with sweet music that should see me through to my retirement and beyond (yes there might just be an afterlife). And Mr Witcher, who is our resident Spanish correspondent, there will not be a matrix of the Charlies from SOLparty emminating from this direction. It's just too much of a chore. We have the aud (my favourite), the sbd and the video. Isn't that enough for a grown man :-) Mick

Are you still in London? My great-grandfather came from County Cork to help build the Union Pacific Railroad back in the day.

Could I be the first Irish person in here? That would be a new experience! Anyway, briefly... Moved to London after I finished school in 1970 and remember buying American Beauty and Astral Weeks (Van Morrison) on the same day that autumn (Fall!). I don't think I'll ever do better than that again. Got to see the Dead at the Lyceum in 1972 and then somehow fell away from all that until the 80s when I was in the States and someone (thanks Bob Hapgood if you ever hit this Forum) turned me on to the great taping tradition. Got lots of stuff from very generous US traders (I didn't have much to trade at the time). One of my favourites is the Warfield concert. I later found it on the Reckoning CD. STill I have Dead besotted periods and have only truely come to appreciate Gerry as a guitar player in later years. Good luck to all here and many thanks to the people who have totally revitalised the old web site. Finally a thumbs up to Bob Hunter. I am a semi regular reader of your diary Bob, thanks.

I´m from the woods of Karlstad quite close to Norway. But I worked a summer in Uppsala actually, very nice place! Have some friends there as well.I know Uppsala were one of the most interesting places in Sweden in the early 70s, with all their musicforums and stuff. A lot of great experimental bands came out of that place, like Samla Mamma Manna, and others. Linköping is almost a blank spot on the map for me though.. Oh, those nice ladys on the countryside.. I think they are angels in disguise, they have saved me in similar ways as your story. Nice to see a story from Sweden, Thanks.

This was posted on Eurotraders some of you might be interested Paris celebrates the Summer of Love June through October with a series of exhibitions in Montreuil. It gets live on Saturday 8 September with a Deadicace gig and, though not announced on the site, Barry Melton will be there too. All you need to know and other links at http://www.ridethewind.org/Deadicace.htm Really hope some of you can get there. Barry fans may already know he's also performing amidst an eclectic line up in France at the Rochefort festival sometime around 24 August, with French backing band and Deadicace members Jamasutra. Details of Rochefort are at: http://www.anythingmatters.com/rochefort/index.html "Try on your wings and find out where it's at Hey, hey ....." Bill - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Pretty sure this is my first post on this site.It´s so nice to read all your anecdotes and thoughts concering the Dead. Big thanks to you all. Your keeping these nights, when i really should be sleeping, interesting. Me myself lives in Sweden, with our long winters, and my name is Joakim. I´m in to ecological lifestyle, and doing my best to live as eco-friendly as possible, with plans of beeing self-sufficient as soon as possible. Wonder if there any fellow swedes here? But Im not that hung up on nationality or geography, we are universal people us ´heads it seems to me. The Love connects us. I havent seen any GD-show, I was only eleven years old when Jerry left the earth to join the places where only his music had been before. So I have not that much to contribute with when it comes to that. But I´ll do my best.

This might be of some use for you to contact like minded folk. There are lots of Deadheads in the London Area. You could see the Cosmic Charlies who regularly play London, The next show is in August for Jers Birthday http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/eurotraders/ http://www.cosmiccharlies.co.uk/ Bob W - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam

Greetings from a London deadhead...got switched onto the Dead by an old girlfriend while living in the US in the early 90's but, alas, never got to see them live...my only live experience is the post-Jerry Dead at Jones Beach, PAF at the same venue and RatDog when they played the Astoria a few years back...still, have managed to d/l numerous live shows via archive.org (before they stopped sbd recordings) and bt.etree.org with my favourite years being 1974 and 1977...it's great to have this forum because being a deadhead in the UK is a somewhat strange existence...you have this huge connection to this amazing world of GD music that somehow creates little resonance with most of your compatriots...I do my best to proselytise among my group of friends...put on some GD when they're round for dinner or something and wait for them to say, "this is good, what's this..." (a frequent reaction)...anyway, good to see there are some likeminded folk here in Europe!

I moved from the US to Grenoble, France in 1999, and unfortunately the only deadheads I meet here are the ones the old friends that come to visit me here. I'm about to move to Copenhagen for about a year and then return to Grenoble. Anyone out there in either of these cities...I'd love to get together and share some music and show memories over a cold beer or bottle of wine. Most of my european friends just don't seem to get the music. I'm sure there are some of you out there. I'd love to hear from you.