50 years ago today, the grateful dead play overseas for the 1st time, an afternoon set at the hollywood festival (attendance ~45,000) in newcastle-under-lyme. after black sabbath, before traffic, with many between. decent soundboard: https://archive.org/details/gd70-05-24.sbd.hanno.6481.sbeok.shnf [1/11]

BBC footage of the band’s short strange trip to london is in @longstrangedoc, with record company reception & tasty rehearsal footage from @RoundhouseLDN. my gosh, i would love to see a full edit of a “dont look back”-style dead movie. [2/11]

a really detailed reconstruction of the hollywood festival, with tons of oral history & lore. mungo jerry was apparently the band that blew almost everybody away! http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/Holly-fest-menu.70.html [3/11]

at the hollywood festival, weir is interviewed charmingly backstage (with good questions!) & briefly subdued by mickey: [4/11]

before getting dosed (consensual, it seems) & abandoning their duties, the BBC captures the band tuning up & start of CASEY JONES:
part of CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER (in colour):
part of GOOD LOVIN’: [5/11]

fan footage of 5/24/70 (with lots of great crowd shots UK heads) synced lovingly to pristine audio by master rogue archivist voodoonola: [6/11]

5/24/70 newcastle-under-lyme: not quite a mindbender, but excellent fun that heats up as it goes. a glimpse into how the dead programmed themselves for an entirely new audience, opening with the big hit CASEY JONES, even though it wasn’t released yet. [7/11]

in all the elegant BBC film from this gig featured in @longstrangedoc, i don’t recall any sustained wide-angled shot of the stage, which festival organizers seem to have adorned with giant inflatable schlong & breasts? must be that british wit. [8/11]

solid intro to the dead, really, with healthy CHINA CAT SUNFLOWER > I KNOW YOU RIDER, 23-minute THAT’S IT FOR THE OTHER ONE > ATTICS OF MY LIFE (even with lesh shouting chords to pigpen during latter) & kinetic GOOD LOVIN’ with kinetic rhythmic conversations. [9/11]

67-minute DARK STAR > ST. STEPHEN > NOT FADE AWAY > TURN ON YOUR LOVELIGHT. DARK STAR begins uptempo & mellows. flexatone & super-hot gongs sound like blown-out synth & crystallize into slo-mo TIGHTEN UP jam & the bright beyond. weir pushes for DANCING IN THE STREET. [10/11]

glockenspiel twinkles through ST. STEPHEN peaks. always adorable when, in the midst of a LOVELIGHT rap about playing pocket pool, pig shouts out his gf. “i got myself a sweet little thing back on california coast.” #deadfreaksunite [11/11]

first show memories of 5/24/70 from UK heads.

future dead archivist dick latvala’s 1983 notes on 5/24/70. the version he was listening to: https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-24.136424.sdb.unknown.phillips.flac16