Sep 7, 2012

March 1972: Letter & Tour Itinerary

Dear

The Grateful Dead will be in Europe this year during the months of April and May. For your advance information I am enclosing our tour schedule, the concert dates of which are fixed and contracted for; hotel information will be forthcoming shortly.

I am also enclosing some literature on the Grateful Dead in case it should be of help to you as background information for any media stirrings that might evolve around the Dead's presence in Europe.

We have been trying to go to Europe for several years now, with such frequent near misses that from a European perspective the reality of the Dead may at times seem somewhat suspect; and from our perspective, "going to Europe" takes on the aspect of an annual management exercise. These false starts have always resulted from the contradiction between economic realities and our basic desire to do something sufficiently more than a "standard" tour to make the turn-on memorable for ourselves and our audiences. "More than standard" means to us two things: firstly, to bring our whole scene over (some 50 people), and secondly, to interact with our friends and fellow-travelers in Europe so as to make the tour a creative experience in itself.

Now we have established the conditions in which a tour with these wider options can happen: We have created a fund so that we can bring over all of ourselves; and the itinerary has been arranged in such a way that enough time is between concert dates to let us react positively and spontaneously to any events that might turn up (radio simulcasts, trips to the moon, etc.). In other words, the skeleton of fixed concert dates ensures that the tour will happen, and how we fill it out will depend on the energy interchange that can be generated while the tour is occurring.

This expanded tour will be documented by 16-track recording of all the music live. The tapes will be mixed in the United States, and will comprise the material for the Dead's next album.

We are anxious to make ourselves available to the interests of the European media. It would be a help to us in our planning if you could give advance notice of interviews, etc. An appointment insures that an interview happens.

Initial contact by letter or wire to myself or Rock Scully can be made at the Navarro Hotel in New York City between 20 and 31 March, and at the Kensington Gardens Hotel in London between 1 and 10 April.

We are all looking forward to coming to Europe, to making music there, and to meeting anyone who is interested in us. I should like personally to invite you to contact me for any further information you require.

Yours sincerely,
Jon McIntire
Manager


* * *

EUROPEAN TOUR: CONFIRMED

APRIL 2nd Arrive London
3&4 free
5 technical set-up
6 sound-check
7 Empire Pool - Wembley
8 Empire Pool - Wembley
9 free
10 Depart London
11 Newcastle City Hall
12 ferry to Denmark
13 free
14 Tivoli Theatre Copenhagen
15 Tivoli Theatre Copenhagen
16 Aarhus University
17 Danish/Swedish Television
18&19 free
20 Depart Copenhagen
21 Kinney Germany - informal meeting
22 Beat Club - Bremen (stay Hamburg)
23 Depart Hamburg
24 Rheinhalle Dusseldorf (stay Cologne)
25 Depart Cologne
26 Jahrundert Halle Frankfurt
27 free
28 Depart Hamburg [sic]
29 Musikhalle Hamburg
30 free

MAY 1 depart Hamburg
2 depart Konigswinter (overnight stop)
3 Olympia Theatre Paris
4 Olympia Theatre Paris
5 Lille Opera Lille France
6 Depart Lille
7 The Bickershaw Festival
8 Depart Manchester/arr Amsterdam
9 free (stay Leiden)
10 Concertbegouw Amsterdam
11 Civic Hall Rotterdam
12 dep Leiden
13&14 free Luxomburg [sic]
15 Radio Luxumborg - tests
16 Radio Luxomburg
17 dep Luxomberg
eve: South German Radio Stuttgart
18 Deutsches Museum Munich
19 free
20-24 Swiss Date
24 Depart Zurich
25 free
26-30 Possible Lyceum London
31 free

JUNE 1-5 London recording studio
6 depart London

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