SECTION FIVE

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COLUMN TEN, JUNE 1, 1996
(Copyright © 1996 The Blacklisted Journalist)

GRATEFUL DEAD REPORT



COMING SOON! MY INTERVIEW WITH JERRY IN THE EARLY '70S, WHEN JERRY FORGOT TO TELL ME SOMETHING AND I FORGOT TO ASK!

Bill Kreutzmann, who is still playing his drums, but, having dived into oceanography and marine life, will be snorkeling in Hawaii, so he won't be there. Planner and landscape architect John Lazor, a Deadhead who works for the Garden State's Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, says he knows a lot of Jerry Garcia diehards who believe that the Grateful Dead "aint nothin'" without Jerry and so they won't be there, either.

Still, Lazor says, he doubts the venues---from Atlanta, Georgia, to Phoenix, Arizona---will be large enough to hold the crowds that turn up for the shows. Himself one of those who taped every Dead performance, with his microphone lost in that forest of mikestands which sprouts at every Dead show from that section reserved for Deadheads with their own recording rigs, Lazor plans to spread his own blanket on July 12, when, in alliance with a bunch of their musician buddies, the late, great Jerry's Dead survivors mount the stage at the Entertainment Center in Camden, New Jersey, to try to recapture what they can of the multitude who loved Jerry most of all. And another Jersey Deadhead, Dr. Jerry Geldzahler, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon (he's a whiz!), says he's sure he'll spread his blanket at New Jersey's Liberty State Park on July 11 with all the other Deadheads from this area..

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," said Dr. Geldzahler. "Out of respect for Jerry's ghost, I wouldn't miss it!"

"It's like a good, old-fashioned rock and roll tour," Dead publicist Dennis McMally bubbled. "All open amphitheaters! No seats! Five acts! All the parking lot craziness! The 'Furthur' Festival. The way Kesey spelled 'Furthur' on his bus. Semi-jokingly, we call the tour 'Ship of Fools.'"

The 32-dates of the Furthur Festival tour begin at the Lakewood Amphitheater in Atlanta on June 20 and end at the Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix on August 4. Like my friend Lazor says, the venues won't be big enough and, like I said when Jerry died, they should keep playing till nobody comes.

"It will feature Mickey's band, which is called Mystery Box," Dennis said. "And Bobby's band, which is called Ratdog. And Bruce Hornsby and the parking lot craziness, which, hopefully, we'll bring in a fairly organized way in the concourse of the amphitheaters and give everybody a taste of that Grateful Dead ambience or whatever. . ."

According to the press release, Dead old friends Los Lobos and Hot Tuna are also on the bill. Dennis's pr handout adds: "With the Flying Karamazov Brothers and acoustic musicians between acts and an all-out 'Vendor's Faire' on the concourse, the guys are ready to do what they do best---spread joy across America. . . Put on your dancing shoes!"

Furthurmore, Dennis adds over and above his press release:

"That's for the summer! And then also, Mickey, Billy and Bobby are all committed to playing with the San Francisco Symphony in June in the American Music Festival. They'll play some John Cage and also jam off a piece by Henry Cowall, who's an American composer. And Mickey's album, Mystery Box, which he's been working on for years, should be out by now. And Bobby's been working on Satchel, which is a Broadway type play based on legendary baseball pitcher Satchel Paige that hopefully will open in Philadelphia in October. He's been working on it with Taj Mahal, David Murray and a Bay Area guy named Michael Nash. Phil's working in the studio, seeing what there is of old tapes. And particularly also video. During the last five summers, we videotaped our shows and we want to edit them down. Over and above that, we have an album of old takes called Dick's Pick Four. Dick Latvala is our archivist and this tape is from Fillmore East, February 13, 1970, which is interesting because the Dead co-headlined that weekend with the Allman Brothers."

THE TOUR SCHEDULE:
6/20 Lakewood Amph.			Atlanta, GA
6/22 Blockbuster Pav.			Charlotte, NC
6/23 Walnut Creek			Raleigh, NC
6/25 Va Beach Amph.			Va. Beach, VA
6/26 Nissan Pavilion			Bristow, VA
6/28 Deer Creek M.C.			Noblesville, IN
6/29 Alpine Valley			E. Troy, IL
6/30 The World				Chicago, IL
7/2  Blossom M.C.			Cuyahoga Falls, OH
7/3  Pine Knob M.C.			Clarkston, MI
7/4  Darien Lake Amph.			Darien Center, NY
7/6  Saratoga PAC.			Saratoga, NY
7/7  The Meadows			Hartford, CT
7/8  The Ballpark			Old Orch. Bch, ME
7/10 Great Wood PAC			Mansfield, MA
7/11 Liberty State Park			Jersey City, NJ
7/12 Entertainment Ctr			Camden, NJ
7/14 Star Lake				Burgettstown, PA
7/15 Polaris Amph.			Columbus, OH
7/17 Riverport Amph.			St. Louis, MO
7/18 Sandstone				Kansas City, KS
7/20 Fiddlers Green			Denver, CO
7/22 Wolf Mountain			Salt Lake City, UT
7/24 Hilton Amph.			Reno, NV                            
7/26 The Gorge				George, WA
7/28 Country Fairgrounds		Eugene, OR
7/29 Cal Expo Amph.			Sacramento, CA
7/30 Shoreline Amph.			Mountain View, CA
8/1  Ventura City Fair.			Ventura, CA
8/2  Irvine Meadows			Irvine, CA
8/4  Desert Sky Pav.			Phoenix, AZ  ##
 
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