GOOD OL’ GRATEFUL DEADCAST

Episode: BONUS: Over There: The Dead In England
Air Date: June 14, 2021
Host: Rich Mahan & Jesse Jarnow
Summary prepared for: Listeners who want a deep-dive overview of the Grateful Dead’s complex, fascinating, and bittersweet history with England — from missed opportunities at Glastonbury to the formation of a unique British Deadhead scene.

Overview:

This bonus episode explores the Grateful Dead’s elusive relationship with England—from their near-mythical absence at formative UK festivals, to their actual, select visits, and how a passionate British Deadhead culture blossomed in the gaps. Drawing from British critics, music historians, and devoted fans, it’s a chronicle of missed chances, transformative gigs, fan ingenuity, and the powerful longevity of the Dead’s appeal—across seas and generations.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Dead’s Early Relationship with the UK

• The Mystery of the Invisible Dead (03:41)
  • John Mulvey (Mojo editor) reflects on the British Deadhead as a rare, hidden subculture:

    "They were a properly invisible cult for most of that time." (03:41)

  • Dead culture in America was always visible (tie-dye, heads everywhere), but England’s Dead fandom was an underground network.
• What Might Have Been: Glastonbury 1971 (04:44)
  • Richards Lee & King explain that in 1971, the Dead were nearly booked as a spiritual act at Glastonbury, which would have radically altered their British cultural footprint.
  • The festival did happen—minus the Dead—but seeded the modern UK festival scene.
  • Richard King notes:

    "If they had played Stonehenge and Glastonbury, I think their relationship to Britain would have been completely different." (06:38)

• Early Plans and Cancellations (09:07)
  • The Dead scheduled and cancelled numerous UK gigs before eventually playing the Hollywood Festival in 1970; these constantly shifting plans built up their mystique.

2. First Gigs & Formative British Deadhead Experiences

• Hollywood Festival, 1970 & Rumors of Shows (09:41)
  • The band’s true UK debut was in Newcastle-under-Lyme at the Hollywood Festival, an unlikely locale for such an occasion.
  • BBC filmed, but the project was abandoned.
• Robert Hunter’s London Burst of Creativity (10:44)
  • Legendary Dead lyricist Robert Hunter recalls writing “Ripple,” “Brokedown Palace,” and “To Lay Me Down” in a single creative burst in a London flat.

    "Those three songs … were written in one creative bust that Hunter had in my flat in London near Kensington Gardens." – Alex Allen (11:21)

• Europe ‘72 Tour: A New British Fandom (13:18)
  • Alex Allen, a committed fan, describes seeing iconic rain-soaked festival and Lyceum shows in ‘72:

    "I remember ... the Dead came on and the sun shone." (13:18)

  • The Lyceum gigs, with Pigpen’s last appearance, anchored the Europe '72 album and cemented a generation of UK fans.

3. Evolution of the Dead’s British Presence in the ‘70s and ‘80s

• Shifting Scenes and Festivals (17:09 / 30:53)
  • 1974 Alexandra Palace shows featured the Wall of Sound; by now, the British festival scene reflected a grittier, more “outlaw” vibe than the American hippie ideal.
  • Richard King:

    "Festivals were kind of a bit more like that [chaotic] than a kind of flowery, peaceful scene. By the 80s … it was a tough, outlaw, edgy scene. ... They were not a hippie band. They were a British freak band." (30:53)

• Cancellations & Cultural Disconnect (19:56 / 21:19)
  • The Dead repeatedly announced, then cancelled, UK gigs (notably 1976 and 1978). Even the Grateful Dead Movie premier was cancelled.
  • The British press — except for the one-off magazine Darkstar — snubbed or misunderstood the band.
  • Richard Lee:

    "There were lots of cancellations. … So there’d been lots of attempts to get here. They were cancelled for one reason or another." (19:56)

4. Growing the British Dead Scene: From Fanzines to Tape Trading

• From Dark Star to Spiralite (20:30 / 30:16)
  • Dark Star magazine (1975–80) gave UK Deadheads cultural oxygen; the later Spiralite newsletter, born in the ’80s, became the anchor of a real UK Dead network.
  • Richard Lee describes how this created a new tape-trading and gathering culture:

    "That's how the whole thing started to take off from those tape trading exchanges." (27:57)

  • Early parties, cover bands (Cosmic Charlies, Shotgun Ragtime Band), and record store networks helped grow the UK Dead family.

5. Later Tours: 1981, 1990, and the Last Hurrah

• 1981 at the Rainbow: Generational Transmission (23:05 / 24:11)
  • Fans like Richard Lee and Alex Allen recall excitement and shock at the large, youthful turnout.
  • Allen notes the multi-generational reach of the band by the ‘90s and into the “Fare Thee Well” reunion shows.
• The Spectacle of 1990: Wembley (44:29)
  • The Dead returned with Hornsby and Welnick; British Deadheads (and many traveling Americans) turned Wembley into a mini US-style scene.
  • Allen:

    "I said, 'It's going to be Werewolves of London.' Of course, it was. It was very appropriate." (44:29)

  • King describes the culture clash at the venue and the quasi-psychedelic moment of seeing “Dark Star”:

    "I’d like to think I was … communing between the rave scene and the Dead by taking this LSD from Manchester." (48:53)

6. British Deadhead Creativity & Legacy

• Digital and Scholarly Dedication (36:49 / 37:16)
  • Alex Allen describes the genesis of whitegum.com, the comprehensive Grateful Dead lyrics archive, originated in his UK home and now a global Dead resource.
  • Matt Schofield (deaddisc.com), another renowned UK Deadhead, has collaborated with Allen for decades.
• Cultural Impact, Even Without Mainstream Popularity (56:13)
  • Richard King notes that in even the heaviest alternative record shops, the Grateful Dead remained a tough sell in the UK market.
  • Yet those who found the Dead in Britain experienced deep personal transformations:

    "Their lives were transformed by the Dead just as much as any American heads." (57:44)

  • Richard Lee’s Dead-inspired path from music fandom to archaeology highlights the unexpected effects of Dead culture abroad.

    "That article in Darkstar had such a huge impact on me. ... That as well helped shape what I do." (58:10)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Glastonbury, Lost Opportunities, and Mythology:
  • "If they had played Stonehenge and Glastonbury, I think their relationship to Britain would have been completely different." — Richard King (06:38)
• Hunter’s Songwriting in London:
  • "Those three songs, Ripple, Brokedown Palace, and To Lay Me Down. The lyrics at least were written in one creative bust that Hunter had in my flat in London near Kensington Gardens." — Alex Allen (11:21)
• First Encounter with a British Dead Crowd (1981):
  • "I turned up at the Rainbow and it was wall to wall full of hippies, all these really young hippies. And I was thinking, where have all these people come from?" — Richard Lee (23:05)
• The Dead as Outcasts in British Record Shops:
  • "[The shop] had every Popul Vu album, every Fela Kuti album, every Can album ... and not once did I sell a Grateful Dead record." — Richard King (56:13)
• Ecstasy of the Last Night (1990):
  • "I’ve taken acid, I’m watching the Dead ... I went into that place .... I was a changed person afterwards, you know, same thing that happened to so many other people. ... I’ve never left it." — Richard King (50:00)
• British Deadhead Generational Transmission:
  • "The sort of generations ... just kept expanding. I went to the Fare Thee Well shows ... you could see they were all generations." — Alex Allen (24:11)
• On the Magic and Mystery:
  • "There are moments of revelation whenever I'm listening to the Dead from any period ... where they're playing this to tens of thousands of people. What an extraordinary fluke of genuinely extreme experimental music being played on a mass stage." — John Mulvey (58:55)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment | |--------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 03:41 | John Mulvey on the invisible British Deadhead scene | | 04:44 | The unrealized 1971 Glastonbury moment | | 09:41 | Hollywood Festival: The Dead's actual UK debut | | 10:44 | Robert Hunter’s London songwriting burst | | 13:18 | Alex Allen, the making of a UK Deadhead | | 17:09 | Alexandra Palace ’74, Wall of Sound | | 19:56 | Richard Lee on Dead cancellations | | 20:30 | Dark Star Magazine and UK Dead culture | | 30:16 | Spiralite Magazine: fan ingenuity | | 36:49 | Alex Allen and the whitegum.com lyric archive | | 44:29 | Wembley '90 and “Werewolves of London” | | 48:53 | Richard King’s first show, Dark Star, and LSD | | 53:01 | Glastonbury '94 and Dead tribute bands | | 56:13 | Dead out of step with British record store culture | | 58:10 | Richard Lee’s journey from Deadhead to archaeologist| | 58:55 | John Mulvey on the magic of Dead's mass appeal |

Additional Notes & Resources

• Key Guests:
  • Alex Allen (whitegum.com founder, former UK civil servant)
  • Richard King (author and music historian)
  • Richard Lee (Spiralite magazine, archaeologist)
  • John Mulvey (editor of Mojo magazine)
  • Ned Lagin (musician, on 1974 shows)
• Deadhead Publications:
  • Whitegum.com (lyrics)
  • Deaddisc.com (recordings reference)
  • Dark Star & Spiralite magazines (UK fanzines)

Conclusion

The Grateful Dead’s legacy in England is one of missed connections, passionate pockets of fandom, and utterly unique personal journeys. Through festivals barely attended by hippies, legendary cancelled gigs, fanzines, and Dead tributes in Glastonbury village halls, a British Deadhead identity slowly, stubbornly flourished. The episode resonates with stories of connection against the odds, and the universal draw of the music—the Dead as both the world’s most American band and a profoundly international phenomenon.