08/26/99

   Grateful Dead So Many Roads 
A long awaited live retrospective of the band's entire career....
from their very early years as an electric band in 1965 to their very last years through 
1995 featuring the songs that never made it to record before.....
This 5 CD box set will feature all previously unreleased material.......
primarily live performances along with some rehearsals and unreleased studio performances 
including outtakes from American Beauty and Workingman's Dead. The box set will have very 
elegant and deluxe packaging....including a special hardbound slipcase in hemp fabric, 
a full hardcover book with never-before-published photos, and featured essays from many 
prominent writers....plus an additional hardcover book that holds each of the CDs with 
detailed track listings. This first-rate set promises to be a true collectors item. 




08/15/99 -------------

Now available from GDM, 1-800-CAL-DEAD or www.dead.net online store:


                           Phil Lesh and Friends
                         Love Will See You Through
                             GDCD4401 ~ $16.00
                                  

         -----------------------------------------------------------
                  CD ONE
                      1.Dancin' in the Streets        22:07
                      2.Broken Arrow                   8:56
                      3.Big Boss Man                   6:57
                      4.Friend of the Devil            6:45
                      5.Mr. Charlie                    8:04
                      6.Mississippi Half-Step          8:58
                        Uptown Toodeloo
                      7.Franklin's Tower              14:35

                  CD TWO
                      1.Dupree's Diamond Blues         4:39
                      2.I am the Light of the World    4:05
                      3.Good Shepherd                 10:53
                      4.Mashed Potato Jam             12:46
                      5.New Potato Caboose             3:39
                      6.Caboose Jam                   10:46
                      7.St. Stephen                   26:02


         -----------------------------------------------------------

            PHIL LESH and FRIENDS ~ THE BAND
                              Catlin Cornwell
                                 Zoe Ellis
                              Jorma Kaukonen
                               Steve Kimock
                                 Phil Lesh
                              Prairie Prince
                                Pete Sears
         -----------------------------------------------------------

                    Recorded:    Warfield Theatre, San
                                 Francisco
                    Recorded By: Jeffrey Norman
                    Mixed By:    John Cutler
                    Cover Art:   Prairie Prince, Mick
                                 Anger
                    Photography: Jay Blakesberg, Susana
                                 Millman
                    Design:      Gecko Graphics






August 6th, 1999

I met Dick Latvala in 1981, the new Dead biographer meeting the ultimate Dead 
Head.  We both lucked into our dreams of serving the Dead cause, as historian 
and tape archivist.

Dick fulfilled himself, and that is as much as almost anyone can say for 
themselves -- he fulfilled himself, and he was loved.  By his widow Carol, by 
his son Richie, and by many, many  loving friends.  By every Dead Head who 
ever listened to a CD and appreciated his passion.  By the spirit of Pigpen 
and Jerry that he joins.

Dick Latvala, Grateful Dead tape archivist and Dead Head extraordinaire, died 
today, August 6, 1999, at his home in Petaluma, California.  He was 56.

"May the four winds blow him safely home."  ("Franklin's Tower," by Robert 
Hunter)

--Dennis McNally



7/18/99

In the July 20th edition of the San Jose Mercury News:

http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/svlife/docs/061778.htm

Recovered from surgery, Phil Lesh revives some
music with Friends

BY BRAD KAVA
Mercury News Pop Music Writer

FORMER Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh has a
recurring dream.

He's on his way to the stage, carrying his
instrument, and he gets lost in the bowels of
some arena, like the hilarious scene in the movie
``Spinal Tap.''

Finally, he gets inside the hall, only to see
himself playing on stage, while his other self is
in the audience watching.

It sounds funny, Lesh, 59, says from his Stinson
Beach home, but it came true about a year and a
half ago and it sparked his current tour, which
lands at the University of California-Berkeley's
Greek Theater on Aug. 20 and 21.

After leaving rock to concentrate on writing
classical music after the 1996 death of guitarist
Jerry Garcia, Lesh went to a benefit show at Club
Ashkenaz in Berkeley at the invitation of David
Gans, the guitarist who has done a radio show on
the Grateful Dead for years on KPFA-FM (94.1).

``I sat there listening to that cover band
playing Grateful Dead tunes. It was so close to
what I know and experience as Grateful Dead
music, but yet it wasn't. It was kind of like
déjà vu, it was a hallucinatory experience.
Here's Grateful Dead material and I'm in the
audience. Who is playing this stuff? Listening
with a non-critical ear, it was uncanny. That
gave me the idea that the material is strong
enough to invite different kinds of approaches to
it and different kinds of interpretations to it
being played and actually expanded on and
improved on in ways by different musicians.''

He started sitting in with the cover bands,
including Gans' group, Broken Angels. And then he
and his wife, Jill, who is now his manager,
decided to hook up with different musicians who
loved the Bay Area band, staging small ``Phil and
Friends'' shows.

His first club shows were with former Dead mates
Bob Weir, Vince Welnick and Bruce Hornsby, and
together they went on a national festival tour in
1998 called ``The Other Ones.''
Then Lesh found out that the hepatitis C he knew
he'd had since 1991 had flared up. He needed a
new liver or he'd die. He got a liver transplant
in December.

``After the operation I didn't want to let that
go,'' Lesh says. ``I felt like I had just gotten
started with it. The last show with Bobby (Weir)
and Steve Kimock in August '98 was a real
beginning, showing me how flexible and
stimulating it could be to play with different
people.

``My wife and I started looking around for who I
could play with, and I became gradually aware
that not only is there this subculture of
Grateful Dead cover musicians, there is a whole
jam band subculture.''

His first appearance after surgery was April 15
with Kimock and members of Phish at the Warfield.
The result was stunning. The ``Lesh and
Phriends'' show may have been one of the best
Dead shows since 1972.

The jamming was inspired, with guitarists Kimock
and Trey Anastasio and keyboardist Page McConnell
taking risks that hadn't been heard at a Dead
gathering in years.

Lesh has been reviving songs that his former
bandmates had shrugged off, either because they
didn't like the lyrics anymore or felt they had
been done to death.

Lesh says he'd like to release a 10-volume CD set
of the three Phriends shows, the set lists of
which included ancient and rarely played Dead
tunes such as ``Viola Lee Blues'' and ``Cosmic
Charlie.''

``We did it all in four days of rehearsals,''
Lesh says. ``Those guys were so young and
enthusiastic and were ready to jump on the
material with both feet.''

Ironically, in earlier days, the members of Phish
had distanced themselves from the Dead -- tired,
no doubt, of comparisons with the elder jam band.

Lesh said he talked with Anastasio on the phone
for hours discussing Dead tunes they'd like to
do. He listened to tapes of Phish that showed him
he could fit in with what they were doing.

Following are excerpts from a Mercury News
interview with Lesh:

What was the difference for the bassist playing
with Phish and the Dead?

``Playing with the Grateful Dead was kind of like
putting on an old shoe. It's really comfortable
and you know what's going to happen. With these
guys it was like getting on a skateboard maybe
for the fifth or sixth time.

You don't really have much control over it, but
you know where you want it to go. You do the best
you can to control it. It's more exciting for me
to do this now than it was at the end to play
with the Grateful Dead because I never know
exactly what's going to happen. They constantly
challenge me as well as I challenge them.''

For years the Dead claimed to have a kind of
telepathy, moving from song to song collectively,
the way birds seem to know how to fly south. Did
you have that with other musicians?

``At first it was semi-telepathic. But as time
went on in the Grateful Dead, we evolved very
subtle cues. Somebody could play a single note
with a certain tone color to it and know that
that referred to a particular tune or a
particular key or a particular direction. A lot
of it was planned out with these other shows. I'd
tell them the cues beforehand. But sometimes the
floodgates were opened and it just goes. It has
its own life.

``The Other Ones had a different idea. They were
doing the tunes and everyone was taking solos.
But that's not what I have in mind, where we're
exploring at the same time.''

I'd heard you said that in early years the Dead
were happy if they were great 20 times a year;
later it was down to three. I'm sure the audience
thought you were on every night.

``The Deadheads knew that the possibility of a
bad show was lurking around the corner. After 30
years we got to the point where a bad show was
like, acceptable. But the peaks, at the same
time, . . .  were just around the corner. It's
like, hyper-space, where any point in the
universe is like a step away from any other.

``All the brain waves have to be in synch. All
the soul waves have to be in synch. It's kind of
like chaos theory where all of a sudden out of
chaos it'll snap into a period of order and that
order will degenerate back to chaos again. No one
understands why or how that happens.''

There's been a recent spate of strange Dead
books, mythologizing the band almost like Elvis.
One is an epic poem that compares them to Jesus.
Another claims to be afterlife conversations with
Garcia.

``We used to say that every place we played was
church, but that's a far cry from becoming
religious figures. I never saw us in that light.
What we have, I just want to address this because
it's not what we're after and I don't think it's
what they're after. What we're after is shared
experience of the transcendent. And we're just a
vessel. We're a pipeline. And the energy that
creates the transcendental experience comes
partly from us, mostly from them, and partly from
the infinite. We aren't creating the experience.
It's a collective creation.''

Can you do it without drugs?

``We have been. Yes, yes, unequivocably. I can. I
can't speak for anyone else.''

Have you heard the joke: What did the Deadhead
say when the drugs wore off?

``Who are those guys?''

No, that music really sucks.

``(Laughs) Yes, I've heard that. And it may be
true.''

Lesh says he feels reborn since his surgery, and
he has made announcements at shows asking people
to make sure their relatives know they want to be
organ donors.

His life, he says, was saved not only by a donor,
but by the good wishes of fans while he was
recovering.

``The Deadheads to me are the salt of the earth.
God bless each and every one of them. I not only
owe them my career, I owe them my life. The
healing prayer they sent to me, I know, was a big
factor in my recovery. As far as the way they
feel about me, I try to earn it. I try to be as
human as possible.''

Lesh is taking his current Friends on the road
for seven West Coast dates with Gov't Mule, Moe,
String Cheese Incident and Galactic. Various
members will jam with Lesh for the final set.

What if demand gets as big as it was for the
Grateful Dead?

``Maybe we'll just have to do more extended
runs.''

--------------------------------------------------
Lesh and Friends play the Berkeley Greek Aug. 20
and 21 as part of the ``Summer Sessions'' tour.
Friday features Galactic and Gov't Mule. Moe and
String Cheese Incident play Saturday. Tickets are
still available for the first show.








Culled from email from "Grateful Dead Records" 

Dick's Picks Volume 14 Released

Forward into the Cyberfog!   

...

That said, we wanted you to know that our very own Dick has labored
again, and brought forth His Pick Number 14, a magnificent 4 CD's
taken from two legendary nights at the Boston Music Hall, 11/30 and
12/2/73.  It was a good year, '73 -- the Dead played jazzier than
ever, and there was this southern senator named Ervin who was actually
cool.... Enjoy!


It'll cost you $23.50, and you can get it online
 ( http://mars.dead.net/site/store.cgi?cat=Music )
or by calling 800 CAL-DEAD.

You can view the set lists
http://mars.dead.net/site/images/music/4034/40341.html






San Francisco, CA
June 14th, 1999

Furthur 1999--It's Officially Off

Dennis McNally, speaking officially for Grateful Dead Productions, and 
Metropolitan Entertainment, has confirmed that there will be no Furthur 
Festival this year. 

Bassist Phil Lesh had a liver transplant last December, and earlier attempts 
to put a tour together were scotched as well.
Still...there was much longing for some kind of get together, and rumors 
floated about some mini-Furthur after Woodstock.

But...

"We tried our best, but it was too late. Look for us next year. We just 
didn't have the time," said McNally.









05/25/99

Grateful Dead Music Museum's Groundbreaking
Planned For 2000

Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports

SAN FRANCISCO -- In keeping with the sunny, positive vibe of
their best-loved music, members of the Grateful Dead camp
expressed confidence that their planned $50-million-plus Terrapin
Station interactive music museum would break ground here next year
and become a focal point for world music.

"We always wanted to have a place in San Francisco to play and
serve as a home base," said former Dead percussionist Mickey Hart 
of the ambitious project, which is expected to feature a theater 
named after the band's late leader Jerry Garcia. "Terrapin is
still in the works, and I think we've found a site that will work."

Although Hart would not elaborate on the location of the proposed 
site other than to say it would likely be on waterfront property, 
he explained that the multimedia performance space and world-music 
museum will be a place for the Dead's living members to perform and 
present the best music of the current generation.

Plans announced last year called for the museum -- named after the 
Dead's popular 1977 album -- to include a state-of-the-art theater and
a multisensory psychedelic dance hall called "The Wheel." Also planned 
are several rooms of Grateful Dead archival material and music that 
will give fans access to the world's largest library of the group's 
live recordings.

The project's coordinator, Neil Cumsky, said the project will focus on 
the multi-use live performance Jerry Garcia Theater -- named after the 
Dead's late singer/guitarist -- and on the chronicling of musical 
cultures from around the world.

"We see this as the Lincoln Center of the West," said Cumsky, referring
to Manhattan's fabled cultural showplace. He estimated that 
groundbreaking could take place within 18 months.

Cumsky said the amount of state-of-the-art technology in the museum's 
plans will likely require that it be built from scratch rather than 
being housed in a previously existing structure. He also said he sees 
the Jerry Garcia Theater as the cornerstone of Terrapin Station. The 
venue is planned to accommodate 2,000 fans for nighttime concerts, 
but also will be designed to break down into two or three smaller 
venues for daytime events.

Despite the Dead's reputation for attracting a crew of rabid followers 
-- known to be an integral part of the rock 'n' roll drug culture and 
affectionately known as Deadheads -- a spokesperson for San Francisco 
Mayor Willie Brown said the mayor's office is eager to help the band 
and its devotees find a home for the project. The mayor's press 
secretary, Kandace Bender, insisted this city deserves the museum more 
than any other.

"It seems utterly appropriate that this project happen in the city," 
Bender said. "The Dead are a part of San Francisco's history." The 
Grateful Dead and their free-form jamming style of live performance 
came out of the Bay Area during the '60s. Years after they broke up 
following Garcia's death, the legend lives on through their music and 
the hippie culture that was born of it.

While he could not discuss how Terrapin Station would be financed, 
Cumsky said the project's coordinators had "no lack of confidence about
funding" what he estimated would be a budget in excess of $50 million.

Numerous sites are being considered for the museum, Bender said, adding
that each is being evaluated based on the impact it would have on the 
surrounding neighborhood.

While Hart said the current plans are focused on a spot near the city's
waterfront -- specifically the increasingly developed Embarcadero area 
-- neither city spokespeople nor Cumsky would comment on the potential 
placement of the museum because the site is still under negotiation.

But Hart had no doubt about the role of the venture. "It will be the 
heart of world music," he said, "and also music in general. We want it 
to be a cultural icon, not just a museum."

Hart envisions Terrapin Station as the kind of fan-friendly space the 
Dead -- known for such psychedelic tunes as "Friend of the Devil" 
(RealAudio excerpt) and "Fire on the Mountain" (RealAudio excerpt) -- 
have wanted to build for nearly 30 years.

The 55-year-old percussionist and leader of the Planet Drum world-music
ensemble said he's most excited about a plan to build a museum room 
filled with percussion instruments. He also said he looks forward to a 
planned computer database that would allow Dead fans to access the
band's live shows and custom make a CD featuring the music.

"There's lots of plans afoot," Hart said, "including a dance space that
you can get totally lost in."

Hart ruled out the possible Dead reunion show at Terrapin Station on 
New Year's 1999 that former bassist Phil Lesh had alluded to last year. 
Hart said it is impossible for the museum to be finished in time for 
such an event.

A clerk at a Dead-inspired emporium located in the heart of San 
Francisco's hippie community, the Haight-Ashbury district, said the 
museum sounded like a great idea, as long as it didn't commercially 
exploit the band's image. "It's nice to see that the torch is lit," 
said Marcel Onate, a clerk at Positively Haight. "Even though Jerry's
not here."

In an effort to raise the funds for the project, the Dead released a 
three-CD collector's set last year, The Terrapin Limited, which 
documents a Dead show that took place at the Capital Center in 
Landover, Md., in March 1990. 





03/23/99

FORMER GRATEFUL DEAD MEMBERS WEBCAST

San Francisco -- Grateful Dead veterans, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh and Bob
Weir, along with rocker Sammy Hagar will reunite to webcast a four hour
concert to benefit the Sonoma Open Nature Land Path at Bohemia Waterfall
Park
The event will take place Tuesday, April 27th, from 7:30 PM to 11:30 PM
live from the Luther Burbank Center For the Arts in Santa Rosa, California

PC Communications will broadcast the live event through the Internet,
with fans from as far away as Australia and Taiwan able to listen to the
CD quality audio and watch video at rates from 28.8 to 300k --the later
of which approaches television quality.


"We're a sucker for a good cause," says President Peter Crowley, whose
company will donate the hardware, bandwidth, and manpower required to
bring arguably the world‚s favorite band to more than 160 nations. "Not
everyone who likes the Dead will be able to connect," Crowley adds, "We
expect to have space for about 50,000. First come, first serve." The
event will be broadcast over Real Networks Real Broadcast Network,
which allows the largest number of people possible to connect to a
single broadcast.

Working in association with Bill Graham Productions, PC Communications
will accept secure credit card donations for the Open Nature Benefit
Suggested donations range from $5 - $25. "If space runs out on the
broadcast," says John Murray, the webcast producer, "there's no
reason why you can't still make a charity donation on our site. There's
a real need here to keep these open spaces for our kids to enjoy"

To view the live webcast, make sure to download a free Real Networks

RealPlayer (http://www.real.com) in advance, and set your world wide
web browser to: http://www.muzic.to

The event will also be archived on the web for later viewing.

For more information about the webcast or to make your charity
contribution, check out our web site or send donations to:
Open Nature Land Path to: PC Communications
138 - 28th Avenue San Francisco, California. 94121





03/17/99

Ex-Dead Members Shelve Furthur Festival For '99:
Tour starring Grateful Dead alumni, the Other Ones, canceled because of delays related to bassist Phil Lesh liver surgery. 

Despite coming off a successful outing in '98, the Furthur Festival -- the popular concert tour organized by alumni of the Grateful Dead -- will not return this summer, according to the Dead's longtime publicist, Dennis McNally. "They decided to wait and see how [former Dead bassist] Phil [Lesh] was doing, and by the time they realized he was fine, it was too late to book a major tour," McNally said. Lesh underwent a successful liver transplant operation in December and has been recuperating since his surgery, McNally said. 



02/18/99

NEW YORK -- The long, strange trip that is the Grateful Dead got a bit
stranger Saturday night. Hanson, the teen pop group behind "MMMBop,"
joined Dead singer/guitarist Bob Weir onstage at the downtown club Wetlands.

Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson bounded onstage midway through Weir's second set with bassist Rob Wasserman and drummer Jay Lane, joining them on several Grateful Dead concert staples, including Bob Dylan's "All Along the
Watchtower" and the blues numbers "Going Down the Road" and "Wang Dang
Doodle," according to Tara Doran, merchandiser for the club.             

For an encore, Weir, Wasserman, Lane, Hanson, Hanson and Hanson played
Weir's "One More Saturday Night", another Dead staple, Doran said.

The Hanson brothers sang harmonies on most of the songs, and keyboardist
Taylor Hanson played a keyboard solo. "People in the crowd were calling out,
'MMMBop,' " Doran said.

The show was the last night of a sold-out three-night Weir-and-Wasserman
stand celebrating the 10th anniversary of Wetlands, a club with a long tradition of booking Dead-inspired acts. It was Weir's first New York club booking in 25 years, meaning he hadn't done a New York club show since long before any of the members of Hanson were born.

"I talked to [drummer] Lane about playing with Hanson," Doran said. "And he said how it was great Weir's music has no generation gap."

Wasserman, speaking backstage the night before, when Hanson's equipment
already had been set up, didn't seem to know much about the group's music.
He knew one thing, though. "They're fans, I guess, of the Dead," he said, with a smile.

Plenty of other Dead fans were in clear evidence both inside and outside the club on Friday, when Weir and Wasserman were joined by slightly older guests -- former Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes and Hot Tuna's Michael Falzarano on mandolin.

Outside the club, a dreadlocked young man sold vegetarian burritos from a cardboard box next to a New York hot-dog vendor, while a few people looking for a way inside stood on the sidewalk requesting a ticket in the
traditional Deadhead fashion, by holding up a finger.

Inside, a largely middle-aged, male, tie-dye-wearing crowd cheered on Weir and Wasserman. Some fans wrote down lists, and the smell of marijuana filled the venue.

"This is the ultimate setting," Dave Glueck, a 27-year old accountant who lives in Westfield, N.J., said. "It was great seeing the Dead in Giants Stadium [in East Rutherford, N.J.], surrounded by 70,000 people, but a small show like this -- this is what I've been waiting for my whole life."

Weir was dressed casually in a sleeveless purple T-shirt and jeans for
Friday's two-and-a-half-hour show. He led Wasserman and Lane through
Grateful Dead tunes including "Sugar Magnolia" and such Weir solo tunes as "Looks Like Rain" -- another regular from Dead setlists -- and "Festival."

The energy picked up with Haynes' arrival. He gave "West L.A. Fadeaway" a funky, rock edge. Falzarano's mandolin playing was featured on a medley of the Bob Dylan songs "Maggie's Farm" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece."

Wetlands, a combination club and environmental-activism center, has a long reputation for booking Dead-inspired bands, and its month-long anniversary celebration will spotlight Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, Parliament Funkadelic's Bernie Worrell and electronica act the Cold Crush Brothers in the coming weeks.

"The Wetlands was built on the spirit of the Grateful Dead," the club's
owner, Peter Shapiro, said. "Musically, culturally, spiritually, they've been such an influence on other bands, like Blues Traveler and Phish."

Proceeds from the weekend's shows benefited the Federal Lands Action Group.

Weir, Wasserman and Lane play together in Ratdog, a band that plans to
release an album in the fall, according to Wasserman.

-- Dakota Smith



12/18/98

from Dennis McNally:

Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh underwent successful liver transplant surgery yesterday, December 17, at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. His doctors report that he is responding well to the procedure and expect an early release from the hospital.  His wife Jill, and sons Brian and Grahame, are with him.

Although generally in excellent health for many years, Lesh discovered in 1992 that, like many of his generation, he had at some time in the past been infected by Hepatitis C.  In September 1998 he underwent a spell of internal bleeding that made clear the seriousness of damage to his liver.

In an effort to maintain a calm atmosphere for his children, Lesh has
maintained a public silence about his health until the completion of his surgery, but he intends in the future to become active in work related to this disease and transplant surgeries in general.  

He specifically wants to thank all the many well-wishers who have communicated with him over the past months for the healing strength they have lent him.




Philip Lesh - 11:48pm Dec 4, 1998 PDT (#637 of 663) 

Dear friends, the time has come for me to contact you directly. There
will be no "official" word from Dennis McNally at this time because
we have two young sons, and the media have a way of putting out
sensationalized versions of half-truths and rumors. I will be having
surgery very soon, most likely within the next couple of weeks. I
feel that my family (all of you) should know when it's happening, so
Tom Kirschner will post here when I go into surgery and update when I
come out. I feel confident that I will be on the mend and booking a
benefit very soon but I would like your help. I believe very strongly
in the power of prayer and healing energy and I am asking for you
continue to put me in your prayers and send me your healing light. I
want you to know that I love you all and that you are in my prayers
also. (Michael Bauce post #200, I said a special one for you) I would
like to add that the holiday season puts a tremendous strain on the
resources of medical centers all over the country, so please remember
to give blood if you can. Love Phil  

Due to some system problems the original message appears to have been
lost on DeadNet Central, but some copies were re-posted this week.  

This morning on KFOG radio (from San Francisco) I heard an
excerpt of an interview with Dennis McNally in which McNally confirmed
Lesh having surgery...




October 07, 1998


   Pssst, Phil Lesh Is (Not) Dead 
   Jon Rochmis, SF Gate   Wednesday, October 7, 1998
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Phil Lesh, to the great relief of thousands of Deadheads and to
   varying degrees of embarrassment to those who prematurely reported his
   demise, is still alive and resting comfortably at his San Rafael home.
   
   That's the official word from the stodgy Old Media.
   
   But Lesh, 58, the Grateful Dead's bass player, has a badly diseased
   liver and requires a life-saving transplant very soon. On the other
   hand, he's not so ill that he's not on the verge of committing to
   appear in several shows this winter.
   
   That's the unofficial word from the wide-eyed New Media, which can be
   broadly be defined as, well, you.
   
   Make that: you, equipped with a modem.
   
   At the moral heart of this phenomenon is a struggle that traditional
   journalism has faced every day since its birth: where does a person's
   privacy end and the public's right to know begin? And add this
   volatile spice into the mix: news is now being dispensed,
   simultaneously, to hundreds of thousands of people from unofficial and
   often unquoted sources who may not be quoted accurately.
   
   Interestingly, this type of information-processing frequently proves
   to be reasonably correct. (See Drudge, Matt; Subj.: cigar).
   
   In McLuhan's day, the medium was the message; today, the medium is us.
   
   The Internet -- through email, the World Wide Web, and Usenet
   discussion groups -- has been swarming in recent weeks with alarming
   reports of Lesh's allegedly failing health, along with heartfelt
   messages from Deadheads wishing him well.
   
   These reports have shot through the Web from people who know his
   caretakers, from people who know people who know his caretakers, from
   people who are purportedly his relatives, friends, and bandmates, and
   from people who love hopping onto a current event (rumor or fact) and
   adding their own spin to it.
   
   None of this information glut should be surprising, given that 1) the
   Dead are from San Francisco, which is Ground Zero for Internet
   communications; 2) Deadheads have established a rich, active
   electronic network for correspondence and bootleg tape-trading; and 3)
   they've been through this before, with the death of Jerry Garcia
   three years ago.
   
   For a point of perspective, however, it's important to know this: As
   long as 25 years ago, Phil Lesh was rumored among Deadheads to have
   life-threatening cirrhosis of the liver. Deadheads at that time often
   pointed to his seemingly distended abdomen during concerts and
   remarked how ill he looked. In those days, it should be added, Garcia
   had no serious illnesses or life-threatening drug addictions.
   
   Also in those days, there was no Internet.
   
   Today's news, gossip, rumor, and other information have infinitely
   more carriers than traditional media, as the latest Phil Lesh episode
   illustrates. And in many ways, this information often hits harder than
   what the mainstream media ultimately presents.
   
   "He's in the ICU at Stanford Hospital here in Palo Alto, CA, suffering
   from liver failure due to cirrhosis," one woman wrote to an email list
   in mid-September. "... Phil ... almost coded yesterday morning and
   they moved him up to ICU. ... It 'doesn't look good.'"
   
   A three-inch brief appeared in the next day's San Francisco
   Examiner, quoting Dead spokesman Dennis McNally as saying that Lesh
   was "doing excellently."
   
   McNally went on to add that Lesh's condition "may have been a 'threat
   in the past.'"
   
   That prompted one person on the official Dead Website's discussion
   forums to write, amidst the throngs of good-wishes, "I have learned
   not to believe a whole lot of what Dennis McNally says."
   
   And, as Dr. Alan Eshleman, who hosts SF Gate's Health conferences,
   said, "I saw the (first) story (quoting McNally) and it sounded
   fishy."
   
   But, at this point, it appears as if McNally provided the most
   fact-based -- if spare -- information, as Clintonesque as his
   statements may have been.
   
   Meanwhile, Stanford Medical Center was bombarded by calls from friends
   and the media; Lesh not only was given an alias but his real name was
   removed from the records.
   
   McNally sounded frustrated, if not downright angry, when reached by SF
   Gate a few days after the worst of Lesh's latest health crisis. "Some
   people have taken a particular joy in reading verbatim to me all the
   gory details that they have read on the Internet," he said. "This
   dignifies gossip, and once they see it printed, no matter where it is,
   it assumes a weight all its own."
   
   Asked about the tone of his official responses to media queries,
   McNally said, "I'm not going to jump every time a person who thinks
   that just because he has a modem that he can talk about somebody's
   private business. What I will say is this: His life is not in any
   immediate danger, unless you say that all of our lives are in
   immediate danger. It's called old age.
   
   "But I'm not going to give out any details or prognosis because that
   is a matter between Phil, his family, and his doctors."
   
   Interestingly, however, several posts on Dead Central's discussion
   boards have purportedly come from Phil's wife, Jill, and from Dead
   lyricist Robert Hunter.
   
   So, what exactly is Lesh's condition: Cirrhosis? Cancer? Hepatitis? Is
   he or has he ever been on his deathbed, as some of these 'Net reports
   would have it? Said Dr. Eshleman, who stresses he has no knowledge of
   Lesh's health: "I suppose if the life-threatening ailment *were*
   cirrhosis, then, yes, it could be treated over a period of a few days
   and the patient could be returned to home. But the patient would not
   be cured. He'd still have a very serious condition. The
   hospitalization would amount to a "tune-up," as we say in medicalese."
   
   That seems to support McNally's report, as does this email which began
   circulating on Monday from a longtime Deadhead who lives in a small
   town in Colorado:
   
   "Just got off the phone with my connection to (Dead rhythm guitarist)
   Bob Weir. Phil is at home. He is suffering from massive blockages of
   the liver. They have performed a procedure that will divert some blood
   from his liver, but the bottom line is he will need a new liver. He is
   at home and resting well. There will not be another (Furthur Festival)
   for sure until Spring. Depending on Phil's health there may be a 'Phil
   and Friends' Christmas show like last year's, but it will depend on
   his health outlook, and that would have to clear soon for the
   arrangements to be made for a Christmas show. Bob sent word through
   our mutual friend that is he thankful for the prayers ... and that
   when he speaks to Phil this afternoon, he will pass our wishes for
   good health and a speedy recovery on to Phil and his family."
   
   Another post detailed the procedures Lesh went through for his
   cirrhotic condition: a shunt was inserted to divert toxins that his
   liver can no longer handle, which doctors hope will enable him to
   continue to live normally. He also underwent other procedures that are
   precursors to undergoing a transplant, and that he has been placed on
   a liver transplant list. He doesn't, however, require an immediate
   transplant.
   
   Lesh could not be reached for comment.
 







October 07, 1998


Grateful Dead's $40 Million Terrapin Station Stalled

Plans to build elaborate museum/performance space are on hold while search
continues for site.                  

Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports:

Grateful-Deadheads may have to wait longer than they thought for the grand
opening of the ambitious Terrapin Station museum project, dedicated
specifically to their favorite hippie-band and its legions of rabid disciples.

Nearly a year after the announcement of plans to build a $40 million
multimedia-shrine to the defunct, San Francisco-based psychedelic-rock group,
a location is still not secured and a tentative ground-breaking date is not
yet penciled in.

As it now stands, the project -- which was originally expected to be
completed by the end of December 1999 -- might not even get underway before
the new millennium, according to Gary Lambert, editor of the Grateful Dead
Almanac, the band's official newsletter.

Plans announced last year called for the museum, named after one of the
Dead's most popular albums (released in 1977), to include a state-of-the-art
theater, a multi-sensory psychedelic dance-hall called "The Wheel," a pair of
live-music venues and several rooms of archival Dead material and music.

"Basically, the only thing standing in the way right now is closing on a
site," said Lambert, who said he has participated in numerous planning
meetings for the museum. The Dead newsletter -- sent free of charge to more
than 200,000 fans -- printed several artists' depictions of what portions of
the museum might look like and predicted that a home for Terrapin Station
would be decided on soon.

Despite the Dead's reputation for attracting a ragged crew of tie-dyed
followers -- affectionately knows as Deadheads -- a representative for the
office of San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said they are eager to help the
band's pet project find a home.

The mayor's press secretary, Kandace Bender, said Monday that there is still a
great deal of mutual interest in Terrapin Station and that people from Brown's
office and the Dead's representatives are still in discussion about various
San Francisco sites, which she said she could not reveal at this time.

Pressed for a timetable on the museum, Bender could offer only a "hopefully
sooner, rather than later" answer. "This is a massive project," Bender said.
"They need to find the right site."

Cathy Simon, of the San Francisco-based firm Simon, Martin-Vegue, Winkelstein
and Moris, is the design principal on the project. She said last fall that the
idea behind Terrapin Station was to simulate, from start to finish, the full,
multi-sensory experience of the psychedelically inclined jam-band in concert.
"[It's] for people who have never been to a Dead show, or for fans who can no
longer achieve that experience," Simon said.

The architectural firm's marketing director, Ana Blanco, confirmed Monday
Lambert's assertion that the search for a site is ongoing, but Blanco said
through a representative that no other information was currently available.
Lambert said that among the sites being investigated is one that would be
readily adaptable to the museum's plans. "It would be easier if they didn't
have to build it from scratch," Lambert said, declining to name the site.

Last summer, former Dead bassist Phil Lesh suggested that the band might
possibly re-form to celebrate the opening of the museum on New Year's Eve
1999. The Dead broke up following the death of leader/guitarist Jerry Garcia,
who passed away in his sleep Aug. 9, 1995, at a Northern California drug
treatment facility, where he had been admitted to battle his heroin
addiction.

At the time of Lesh's statement, Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally said
it was too early to speculate on whether the band would reunite for the
occasion. "Phil [Lesh] said and volunteered that if this all magically
happens, he would expect the band to reunite to christen it," McNally said
this past summer. "It's a concept that's at least two years away, and to get
excited about it is to distort the reality."

In an effort to raise the first several-million dollars to get the project
off the ground, the band offered a three-CD collectors' item set, entitled
The Terrapin Limited, in 1997. Sales figures for the set, which McNally said
could potentially raise between $4 million and $5 million on sales of 100,000
copies, were not available at press time.

Lesh's prediction of a New Year's 1999 museum-opening "may now prove to be
optimistic," Lambert said of the bassist's earlier statement. "I still think
it will definitely happen, but after years in the Grateful Dead organization,
I've learned not to expect anything in any time-frame. Some things happen
faster than you would expect, but this is also a band that could easily go
six years between studio albums."

In the interim, however, three surviving members of the Dead -- Bob Weir
(guitar), Mickey Hart (drums) and Lesh (bass) -- regrouped this year as the
Other Ones to headline the hippie-centric, summer-tour Furthur Festival.

The 1998 Furthur tour, on which the trio played a number of Grateful Dead
classics, such as "Fire on the Mountain" (RealAudio excerpt), was the most
successful in the event's three-year history. Former Dead drummer Bill
Kreutzmann is the only full-time ex-member not to participate in the Other
Ones.

On Monday, McNally said he had no new information on Terrapin, other than his
assurance that Dead staffers are "working on it."


September 29, 1998

Phil Lesh hospitalized. Palo Alto Former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh was hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment and is expected to be released shortly, the band's publicist said Saturday. 

The 58-year-old San Rafael resident has been receiving medical treatment at Stanford Medical Center "for a couple of days" and is doing well, said spokesman Dennis McNally, who did not release further details to protect the family's privacy. 

"They're feeling pretty good about things and he should be coming home in a couple of days," McNally said. 

When asked if the ailment had been serious, McNally responded that it may have been a "threat in the past," but would not elaborate. 




September 19, 1998

Dick's Picks 2-6 go public

On October 27th, BMG/Arista will start distributing DP 2 through 6; they've
had DP 1 for some time.  It remains to be seen whether there are any deadheads
left out there who haven't purchased all the DP's, but this will make it
easier for those missing some to find them locally.



April 24, 1998

Mickey Hart will be appearing as part of the Smithsonian Institute's 50th
anniversary of Folkways Records May 1st at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Mickey will apparently not be performing, rather serving as some sort of
MC. Performers include Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Mike Seeger & The
New Lost City Ramblers.



April 22,1998

Mail order for 5 of the Furthur '98 shows has been announced and first mail
in date is April 24th. 

"Furthur dates, on-sale dates, and ticket prices are to be determined and
will be announced. Tickets will be available from normal outlets and GDTS
Too, the successor to the Dead's ticket sales office. Facilities do not yet
have sales information."

This implies that more dates may be added to the end of the tour, presumably
covering more of the west coast.




April 9,1998

The Furthur Festival, featuring The Other Ones (Grateful Dead members Mickey
Hart, Bruce Hornsby, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir, and friends Dave Ellis, Stan
Franks, and John Molo), Rusted Root, and Hot Tuna, is pleased to announce its
1998 tour schedule

so far:  

6/25 	Lakewood Amph., Atlanta
6/26	Blockbuster Pav., Charlotte
6/27	Nissan Pav., Wash., D.C.
6/29	Continental Airlines Arena, E. Rutherford, N.J. (N.Y.C.)
6/30	Nassau Coliseum, Hempstead, NY
7/1	Great Woods Center, Mansfield, MA (Boston)
7/3	TBA , Philadelphia, PA
7/4	Saratoga P.A.C., Saratoga, NY
7/5	Darien Lake P.A.C., Buffalo, NY
7/7	Hartford Civic Ctr., Hartford, CT
7/8	Montage Mountain, Scranton, PA
7/9	TBA, Pennsylvania
7/11	Alpine Valley Music Ctr., E. Troy, WI
7/12	Polaris Amph., Columbus, OH
7/13	Pine Knob Music Ctr., Detroit, MI
7/15	Deer Creek Music Ctr., Indianapolis, IN
7/16	The World Music Theatre, Chicago, IL
7/17	Riverport Amph., St. Louis, MO
7/19	Fiddler's Green, Denver, CO
7/21 	TBA, Los Angeles
7/22	Shoreline Amph., Mountain View, CA


The tour will be produced by Metropolitan Entertainment.  

**********************************************

Vince Welnick
Keyboardist for The Grateful Dead
Vince Welnick, keyboardist for the last 5 years of the Grateful Dead's
existence, has a new CD being released nationally on 4/28, Missing Man
Formation on BMG/Grateful Dead Records.  The "Missing Man" referred to here is
Jerry Garcia, the late guitarist for the Dead.  

The interview will take place on 4/28 at 7PM Pacific time, at AOL kwd: dead.



April 8,1998

Soundkeeper is offering T-Shirts with original Jerry Garcia artwork. Jerry
Garcia considered Soundkeeper's mission of tracking down and prosecuting
polluters a cause worthy of his personal support.  The original Garcia
artwork, reproduced in full glorious color on this 100% organically grown
cotton T-Shirt by Patagonia, was donated by Jerry in 1994 to help
Soundkeeper raise the necessary funds to carry on this work..(M, L, XL).
The artwork is being generously shared by Riverkeeper with other Keeper
organizations across the nation including Soundkeeper.

Soundkeeper was organized in 1987 by Long Island Sound commercial and
sports fisherman who believed that saving the global environment depended
on everyday citizens fighting to save their local environment.  Soundkeeper
is a non-profit environmental organization that employs a full-time
Soundkeeper and a team of scientists, attorneys and law students who have
brought numerous successful cases against everyone from chemical companies
to sewage plants to midnight dumpers.

Nationally, Soundkeeper has participated in the battle against power plant
cooling systems which kill one trillion fish per year, and it helped found
the National Alliance of River, Sound and Bay Keepers, which currently
represents twenty Keeper programs on waterways around the country.

For information or to learn more about Soundkeeper programs for your
community contact:

Soundkeeper
7 Edgewater Place
Norwalk, CT 06855
Phone:   800-933-SOUND
Fax:       203-866-1318
Email:    likeeper@netaxis.com

Soundkeeper is a registered trademark of The Long Island Soundkeeper Fund,
Inc.





March 2,1998

The Grateful Dead was more than the sum of its human parts; it was a
process, an attitude, an adventure. The 1998 Furthur Festival is 
pleased to announce that it will present "The Other Ones," an ensemble 
composed of Mickey Hart ( percussion, vocals), Bruce Hornsby (keyboards, 
vocals), Phil Lesh (bass,vocals), and Bob Weir (guitar, vocals), 
joined by friends Dave Ellis (saxophones, vocals, from Ratdog),
Stan Franks (guitars, from David Murray Octet), and John Molo 
(drums, with Bruce Hornsby).

These three former (and one de facto) members of the Dead, touring 
together for the first time since 1995, will spend two or more hours 
every night reinterpreting one of rock's most enduring repertoires in
both acoustic and electric configurations, resuming an experiment that 
will go on in ever-new directions.

The tour will run from late June to the end of July, visiting all the 
better arenas and amphitheatres across the United States, and will 
include the talents of Rusted Root and old friends Hot Tuna. The 
traditional vending village will be along for the ride. The tour will 
be produced by Metropolitan Entertainment.

The adventure continues.


Dicks Pick X is released
