![]() ![]() Gijsbert Hanekroot/RedfernsĬritics may have been surprised but fans knew better. Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead perform on stage at the Tivoli Concert Hall in April 1972 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Skeptics chortled - but all 7,200 copies were snapped up in four days. Fans heard hints of that with a few later archival releases, but in 2011, the band and Rhino raised eyebrows by releasing a box set of the tour that included every show. The album sold well enough, but there was more to be heard. The results were an embarrassment of riches, more than enough to fill the three LPs that they persuaded Warner Bros. With a dedicated crew manning a mobile 16-track studio, the Dead recorded every show. That was one of the tour’s real achievements. Road manager Sam Cutler - another Brit - put the tour together, and the band cajoled Warner Brothers into underwriting the adventure as an advance on a live album. A Cambridge-educated Englishman who had become close friends with Garcia and band lyricist Robert Hunter in the early 1960s, Trist scouted venues and made contacts across Europe that paved the way. When the idea for the tour began to take shape in 1971, the Dead dispatched Alan Trist to reconnoiter. That became part of the tour’s legend, but like all of the Dead’s art, hard work made what looked like pure serendipity possible. Grateful Dead in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1972. For bassist Phil Lesh, Lille would forever be the show that taught him what Cézanne had seen. ![]() And for the band, that afternoon was both a reminder of their early days, playing for free in Golden Gate Park, and a glimpse of the magic light of the French countryside. French fans were already passionate about the Dead, but that show, in Lille, burnished their reputation forever. In another standout, the band played to the ornate splendor of the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, where they channeled the spirit of the orchestral music the venue normally hosted.Įven a canceled gig in France produced miracles: Some expert schedule wrangling let them return a couple of weeks later, making good on their promise with a free show in the town square. One of the most notable gigs included a brutally cold and rainy outdoor festival in Wigan, England, that earned them enormous goodwill for their professionalism. In addition to England, the Dead performed in Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxembourg. The six weeks they spent in April and May would be formative. And by 1972, the Dead were at the top of their game, and if they had already learned how places and audiences and venues shaped their music at home, what could a full tour of the Old World do for their celebrated improvisations? There had been a few foreign excursions before then, notably their week-long Canadian tour with an array of bands in 1970, and even quick trips to England and France, but nothing extensive. Michael Putland/Getty ImagesĮurope ’72, as both the tour and the album documenting it were known, was the first real opportunity to see what an extended sojourn might do for their music. Singer-songwriter and guitarist Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead, London, April 4, 1972. Part of that was the caliber of the music they made, but the tour also embodied the Dead’s philosophy, from their approach to music and performance to the way they did business. In the time since, the tour has become one of the more famous chapters in the Dead’s storied history. When the Dead set off for England on April 1, 1972, on their first, full-fledged foreign tour, almost 50 people made the trip: not just the band and crew, but partners and paramours, managers and press liaisons, even a dedicated recording crew - all friends and fellow travelers. And that made the idea of choosing a core group to go to Europe more than just difficult, but also somehow wrong - which was why Garcia ended the discussion by saying, “Everybody goes.”įive years later, the band honored that promise. That was why band meetings could be a little chaotic, with not only the members and managers but also staffers, roadies and even a few stalwart fans, like Sue Swanson and Connie Bonner, who ran the band’s newsletter at the time. ![]()
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