tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post7640751655934172776..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: May 29, 1971: WinterlandLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-88035394711259662282012-07-27T01:14:46.617-07:002012-07-27T01:14:46.617-07:00Bill Graham then held a press conference - as repo...Bill Graham then held a press conference - as reported in the 6/4/71 San Jose Mercury: <br /><br />"Rock music impresario Bill Graham angrily denounced Thursday attempts by police to revoke his dance hall license for Winterland, where a psychedelic-spiked beverage sent 30 young people to hospitals for treatment of 'bad trips' Saturday... <br />On Monday, Police Chief Alfred Nelder said Graham's permit to use the Winterland Hall should be revoked, for failing to protect his patrons at a concert by the Grateful Dead. <br />'You don't just close down an establishment because once, for the first time in five years and 1,300 concerts, this happens,' Graham told a news conference. 'Just because there's a train accident, you don't take the trains off the tracks.'"<br /><br />Evidently, Winterland stayed open. <br /><br />Graham had already made the announcement a month earlier that he was going to close the Fillmores, and Fillmore West only stayed open another month. <br />As the 6/11/71 San Francisco Chronicle reported: <br />"A week ago, stung by a police department threat to remove his permit for operation at Winterland, Graham suggested that he might doggedly prolong the life of the Fillmore West. <br />Now, he said, in weariness, in frustration, in bitterness, in anger - it's all over... <br />Ever since the disaster at Winterland two weeks ago, when a number of people drank water laced with what is believed to be LSD, the 41-year-old producer feels that the police have been harassing his audiences. <br />'I just don't want to fight anymore,' Graham said."Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com