tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post8534141960057215792..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: May 5-7, 1972: Bickershaw FestivalLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-14755357292077529222022-05-30T03:58:46.164-07:002022-05-30T03:58:46.164-07:00I found the interview Nick Kent did with the Dead,...I found the interview Nick Kent did with the Dead, in the 5/12/72 issue of Frendz, posted here: <br />http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2022/05/april-1972-band-interview-empire-pool.html <br />He was clearly a fanatical Dead fan at the time! Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-750403482331858122017-11-24T01:51:17.728-08:002017-11-24T01:51:17.728-08:00"but it soon degenerated into a sort of mud-c..."but it soon degenerated into a sort of mud-caked psychedelic concentration camp filled with miserable-looking young people on dodgy hallucinogenics being lashed by torrential wind and rain and being sold inedible food. The Dead performed splendidly [. . . .] but there was no getting around the fact that the whole ugly debacle was destined to be acid rock's last hurrah here in the British Isles. A relentless downpouring of bad weather, bad facilities, bad drugs and (mostly) bad music; it had worked like a charm three years ago at Woodstock but it wasn't working anymore."<br /><br />That doesn't tally with my memory and I was there the whole three days. Security was all but non-existant, but I certainly don't remember any violence or threats of violence. Yes it was grim at times (and looking through the seat of the toilet into the mix of colours in the liquid pit below was a whole psychedelic experience of its own). But the music was good all the way through even if Dr John, who highlighted the first day, was so out of his tree that he could not perform properly. I have fond memories, still, of Stackridge playing Purple Spaceship over Yatton, Hawkwind's lightshow (which was exceptional for the time), Family, a drunken Ray Davis enjoying himself, Country Joe being a superb raconteur, Cheech & Chong calling for a minute's silence for J Edgar Hoover (who had just died), and more. I was 22, it was wet and muddy but it wasn't that cold even if conditions weren't optimum. I'd come to see the Grateful Dead and after a log of fine music I saw the Grateful Dead while having my first acid trip. [Incidentally that crack of Bob Weir's "I don't know what you're burning down there, but it smells rotten" was a reference to the thick clouds of cannabis smoke wafting up towards the stage.] <br /><br />Really glad I went cos the Dead never seemed to be quite the same after Pigpen faded away. RCLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14430700198634060431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-71281558173498670052014-09-13T00:20:43.688-07:002014-09-13T00:20:43.688-07:00I added an excerpt from the Melody Maker review of...I added an excerpt from the Melody Maker review of the festival - a nicely written description of the Dead's show. This writer listened closely to the music (comparing Dark Star to the Live/Dead version, which was "feeble in comparison"). According to him, the band took a long time to warm up - starting out dead, but "slowly took a hold on themselves," by the end of the first set "the music was really getting strong," and in the second set "they were hardly recognisable as the same group that opened the show." A familiar experience for Dead concert-goers! Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-8355941291600691282014-09-12T23:18:09.362-07:002014-09-12T23:18:09.362-07:00Nick Kent wrote for the underground paper Frendz i...Nick Kent wrote for the underground paper Frendz in 1972, his entry into music journalism. His interview with the Dead during their London stay was one of his first interviews, and presumably it ran in Frendz, but I haven't found it. <br />I did find his March '72 interview with Wayne Kramer of the MC5, in which he brings up the Dead - they're talking about Coltrane - <br /><br />Kent: Are there any rock bands that hitting the level that Trane was into?<br />Kramer: No, definitely not.<br />Kent: I agree. Coltrane's music is very spiritual whereas rock is very physical. But surely the whole coming together of a really inspired rock concert is in a way a spiritual event.<br />Kramer: Oh definitively. Absolutely. But on musical terms, there are no bands hitting the note like Trane did.<br />Kent: What do you think of the Grateful Dead? They're the only band I can think of who got near to the feel of free jazz in their more innovative days. The music on 'Live Dead' for example.<br />Kramer: Oh yeah, the Dead were into some very heavy territory at one time<br />Kent: The original Quicksilver too....<br />Kramer: I never really listened to them mainly because they refused to play a gig with us at one the Fillmores. There was always conflict between our scene and the west coast scene. Bill Graham was very wary of the MC5... <br /><br />(Kent also mentions, "The west coast scene seems to be dying. The music has got very complacent of late." <br />Kramer admits, "I was never into that scene on any real level. I was hearing these great reports about this band Jefferson Airplane, how they were burning up all the halls they played at. But when I heard their record 'Somebody to Love' - it's a great lyrical thing but there was no real drive going for it.") <br />http://makemyday.free.fr/frendz.htm <br /><br />I also found a long article Kent wrote about Hawkwind for Frendz in July 1972, in which the Dead came up. He's talking about how unprofessional, untogether & disorganized Hawkwind are (in a good way) - <br />"This is where the parallels with the good old Grateful Dead are relevant. Both bands in their infancy worked on a recklessly idealistic level - and have been righteously fucked over because of it a few times - simply steering their chosen course by maintaining a positive approach. Now the Dead have gradually reconciled themselves and their business and are being run gently but firmly by professional good kharma. The Dead are superstars but without all the jive aspects that term infers and have reached this state slowly but surely like anyone setting out to fulfill a vision of any substance. Hawkwind are now reaching a state of stability but have yet to prove to themselves if no-one else that they can hold it together and gain a balance between their original aims and their peak of success." <br />http://www.starfarer.net/frendz.html <br /><br />So this is additional confirmation that Nick Kent had a very positive view of the Dead in '72, particularly their Live/Dead album: "the only band I can think of who got near to the feel of free jazz in their more innovative days." <br />He wasn't impressed by their following live albums, though, and the turning point for him seems to have come with Wake of the Flood in '73, which he absolutely hated - the Dead lost their charm for him then. Hence his later statement that their long decline began in '72.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-29696657152736380892014-09-12T00:11:18.080-07:002014-09-12T00:11:18.080-07:00Despite the article's claim that "video f...Despite the article's claim that "video freaks got good tape of the Dead," and the presence of video screens beside the stage (at least during the night hours), there appears to be no footage of the Dead's show except for a few disappointing, distant audience shots.<br /><br />One striking setlist note: whoever wrote the Bickershaw festival program had attended the Dead's April 6 Wembley soundcheck, and they played 'Hully Gully' - never heard in an actual show until 10/16/81. <br />The program hype is also a good early example of the view of the Dead as keeping the '60s trip alive through the darker days that have followed.<br /><br />Usually retrospective writings have no place on this site, but I thought Nick Kent's recent brief overview of Garcia & the Dead was an interesting contrast to the article he wrote in '72. (Haven't found whatever interview he did with them in London.) Though acknowledging that they could be splendid live in '72, he also admits to their dull streaks, and his account is grimly colored by what happened in the next couple decades. The Bickershaw festival is also remembered as a mostly ghastly event, an "ugly debacle" best forgotten. His review at the time was more even-handed about the festival, and downright ecstatic about the Dead - pointing out the "beautiful" Dark Star & "sizzling" Good Lovin' as highlights, and not a word about endless noodling. <br />Of course, two years later he'd write a more dyspeptic article about how awful the Dead were; but people can change their minds!Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com