I’m Pete Bickmore, from eDeadShop. I got mixed up selling licensed dead products in 1996 when I was one of the first vendors allowed to sell inside the show on the 96 Further Fest.
I love the Grateful Dead in all it's frenditions and I love what I do. On this blog I am going to try to write about some of the experiences I had on tour and I hope that you will too. .
I'd love to know when you first dead show was? What swung you over to the dark side? and what that experience was like...please tell about any shows or any bands that you think we'd all like to know about
thanx for taking your time and stay grateful
pb
7 comments
I got on the bus in 2/1982 with my mom’s new b/f moved in. He was an amazing artist with very different taste in tunes & my dad was a D.J. so I was very educated in music styles. Pigpen guy could hit notes that moistened my 11 year old panties!! I had no idea music could move my consciousness in such a profound way. I joined the AF in 1985 & 5 days after my service was up, I drove up the east coast to attend 13 concerts (I kinda remember 8 of them). I never got to see Donna Jean or Pigpen, but the other guys Rocked my existence to such a degree that I realized how much of a DeadHead I’d become and have Proudly identity as such💙⚡️❤️
Summerof ‘90. Raleigh, NC. I had tried LSD prior and had heard the HD. But that hot July day they landed in each other’s lap.
Had seats in the upper but saw the party going on in the field.. knew I HAD to get there. A rosey cheeked fella with a “chap-stick” tube of Tylenol® was attempting a throw to dozens of hands, but mine won.
Chest bowed I saunter down to the field showing Event Staff thestub he just saw me catch. And it was on!
I’ll say it again..
Jerry Garcia & LSD changed my life, I’ve never looked back & simply could not imagine life without ’em.
Long live Jerome Garcia & Dr Hoffman’s problem child.
(~);-}
Gratefully Dedicated
Summer of 79 a handful of friends and me went to the Glens Falls Civic Center in upstate NY. We drove through the night and got there at day break. By 10 or 11 am there were several hundred freaks in this quiet little town The local PD said we couldn’t hang out all day in the middle of town so we asked where we should go? They said “follow us” everyone that could drive loaded their vehicles and we all caravanned to a beautiful park with a lake went swimming and had an amazing sunshine daydream. About 6 pm most of the stores were closed we went back to town and had a great show. I will never forget how cool the Glens Falls PD were to us all!
The first time I heard the Dead was 1972 it was a bootleg Aoxomoxoa, very strange, not a fan. In 76 I became a big NRPS fan, I went to every show I could. 9-3-77 the Riders were playing a show with Marshall Tucker and the Dead in Englishtown NJ. I went with friends and took my younger brother. The Dead were phenomenal, Listen to Dicks Picks 15! We’ve never been the same. It’s over 40 years and my brother still thanks me
Growing up I loved music and listened all the time. I loved everything from Led Zeppelin to Yes to Charlie Daniels and the Allman brothers to B.B. King and Lionel Hampton but hated the Grateful Dead.
I still remember the summer day that some friends and I got some Thai stick. I think I was 15 at the time and indulged to the point of being uncomfortable. I went home and put on my headphones and wnew fm. They were just finishing introducing a new album they were going to play in its entirety but I missed the name and band. I spent the next hour or so listening to Blues for Allah. I had never heard anything so amazing.
By the time it was over my mind was back in the right spot and I jumped on my bike and rode the few miles to a record store and listened to that album repeatedly. Soon after that a met a guy that shared some cassettes of shows and I was hooked.
My first show was the dead with willie Nelson and nrps at giant stadium. It was general admission so we left the day before at about 4 pm and we ended up spending the night on a road that led up to the parking lot. I never saw so many freaks in one place on so many different drugs. I wandered around just taking it all in. I was up the entire night and the day of the show and most of that night too and had the best time of my life. Since then I have always tried to see as many shows as I can.
It’s amazing to think how much better my life is all because one day I way too stoned and was lucky enough to hear that album.