November 2007
We have both good and FANTASTIC news for you this month! The good news first:

Rhino has just announced the first title in a new line of live releases that will replace the now irrevocably deceased "Dick's Picks" series. "Road Trips Volume 1 Number 1" is a double CD of selected songs culled from the East Coast fall tour of 1979. For a limited time period, the album comes with a full-length (77 min.) bonus CD with more tracks from the '79 tour. Order "Road Trips" now from www.dancingbear.dk.

The fantastic news is, that this is but the very start of a revigorated release schedule of live Grateful Dead. The "Road Trips" series will not be subject to the same format limitations as "Dick's Picks", so we may safely expect both compilations, complete shows, multitrack releases, box sets and DVDs There is even a hint suggesting that the big "Winterland '73" box set, that was dangled before our collective noses about 18 months ago, is lurking just under the horizon.

Or, in the words of the inimitable Blair Jackson:
.."And this is just the BEGINNING of what we promise will be a tidal wave of releases, which will include more rarities from the deepest corners of the vault, multitrack releases, box sets (the patient will be rewarded; nudge-nudge, wink-wink, say no more), DVDs, downloads and who-knows-what-else. So keep your Third Eye tuned into this space for more in the coming weeks and months!"

The official press release is available in it's entirety on our website; please visit the product description of "Road Trips" by following the link in the second paragraph (above).

We expect to be back with further news before long.

September 2007
While waiting for the upcoming, heavily hinted, official Grateful Dead releases from Rhino, and complaining about not being able to download any more tasty tidbits from "Tapers' Section", we still have a few exciting new items in the Dancing Bear store:

"A Night at the Family Dog" is a new DVD at a very affordable price, where Santana, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane perform seperately and together one night in 1970 at promoter Chet Helms' venue "Family Dog at the Great Highway". The Dead deliver "Hard To Handle" and "China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider". Owners the "Fly Jefferson Airplane" DVD should be warned that "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" is included in both releases. For my own part, however, I really won't mind listening to that bass solo a few times extra!

Earlier this year, the CD catalog was augmented by a couple of new tribute albums where popular Dead songs were subjected to bluegrass, swing, blues, and electronic treatment. Now comes a much more - according to reviewers - serious interpretation: "Dead Symphony No. 6". American composer Lee Johnson has scanned the GD catalog and has come up with a number of melodic themes that have inspired him to a classical, symphonic treatment. Ten out of the twelve movements, in a variety of instrumental settings, bear the titles of the songs that inspired them, but in some cases it's a very liberal interpretation. There is further enlightenment in Blair Jackson's review of the CD and interview with the composer, the major part of which is cited in the product information page on www.dancingbear.dk.

One of our customer has asked if we intend to market the recent DVD about the 1972 Bickershaw-festival, where the Grateful Dead played a long and memorable show. After reading the customer reviews on Amazon.com we have chosen not to add this DVD to our catalog, since the technical quality appears to be very poor indeed. We would suggest instead that you listen to the "Steppin' Out" set, as this 4CD compilation contains several outstanding performances from Bickershaw.

"Grateful Dead: The Game" has been in our catalog for a while. Now we have found a new supplier, which has enabled us to lower the price considerably. The contents and production standard compares to "Trivial Pursuit" and similar games, but the asking price is now way below what you would expect to pay for a similar board game in a (Danish) bookstore. Read more about the game on the product information page at www.dancingbear.dk.

From the same supplier we have ordered a colourful collection of sturdy, Jerry Garcia-designed guitar straps. One of the designs is "Blue Fish" which you might remember seeing on a - now discontinued - T-shirt.

Finally, we have found a specialty item that will appeal mostly to the ladies: A selection of pendants and bracelets featuring actual insects - scorpions and colourful beetles - encased in acrylic. The jewelry has no "Grateful Dead connection", but it might give some of you guys a sought-after excuse to order a bunch of stuff from Dancing Bear! We're testing the market with this offering, but if it proves to be a success we could have a wider selection of types and species available in time for Christmas shopping.

The latter three groups of items can be found in the catalog under the heading "Odds and ends".

June 2007
"Three From The Vault" will be released on June 26th, it is a show from the Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, N.Y., 19 February 1971. This was the first show following Mickey's decision to withdraw from the band, although, as you know, he rejoined in 1974. Even so, the Grateful Dead chose this show to introduce a couple of new songs: "Bird Song" and "Deal" had their live debut at this show. All pre-orders, that is to say, orders entered in the month of June, will also receive a copy of "Dick's 'Dex", a comprehensive 50+ page index of songs released on "Dick's Picks" vol. 1 - 36. This could be taken to mean that we have seen the final release under the "Dick's Picks" moniker, but we have no definite info yet about the future of the 2-track releases.

"The Vault Box" will be released on the same date. It contains FTV no. 1, 2 and 3 in one box set. "One" and "Two" are both highly recommendable, if you don't already own them. "Two From The Vault" (8/24/68) has even been expanded by 32 minutes of extra material that couldn't fit on the original 2-CD release. "Dick's 'Dex" is delivered as well with all pre-orders.

The three "Vault" shows (8/13/75, 8/24/68 og 2/19/71) are the theme for 3 new T-shirts, offered at a special bargain price (you save about 10 Euros) if ordered in June.

There is one other new CD set: "Music for the Planet" presents a string of more or less well-known "jambands", each represented by a single cut. The Grateful Dead, Phish, Gov't Mule, Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident are all there, 15 bands and 15 cuts in all. The Grateful Dead have contributed "Eyes Of The World" from the "Cow Palace" release.

WWW.DEAD.NET has, once again, changed it's web platform and design, and it looks like the new owners intend to raise the level of activity a great deal. They have promised a lot of new merchandise soon, so make sure you browse WWW.DANCINGBEAR.DK regularly. Also check the Bargain Bin; There are still great savings on CD's, DVD's, T-shirts, hats, sunglasses, posters, frisbees, stickers, postcards, and much more.

January 2007
Dear customers! Wishing you all a happy new year, please allow me to express my hopes that 2007 will see a return to normal with regards to the release of new Grateful Dead music and merchandise. The first milestone will be the upcoming release of "Grateful Dead Live at the Cow Palace, New Year's Eve 1976". If you haven't yet placed your order, you should be aware that the bonus CD "Spirit of '76" wil only be delivered with pre-orders placed on or before 15 January.

Towards the end of 2006 it seemed like the "Grateful Dead Store" would be reduced to selling CDs and downloads, but now the shelves are slowly being filled with both reprints and new merchandise. A fresh new item is the brand new board game "Grateful Dead: The Game" which seems to be a mixture of elements from "Monopoly™" and "Trivial Pursuit™". The game is in heavy demand, having been sold out several times since the release, but we will soon have a few copies in stock.

Please note that we have doubled the usual range of wall calendars: Alongside the traditional "Grateful Dead Calendar" we now stock the "Jerry Garcia Art Calendar". Here, too, we advise you not to wait too long, since calendars are usually sold out early in the year.

November 2006
At long last it has been confirmed: The responsibility for The Grateful Dead Vault and the vault releases has been taken over by Rhino Records. For their first release after more than a year's hiatus the have predictably reached for a real gem: "The Grateful Dead - Live At The Cow Palace: New Years Eve 1976". The 3-CD set will be released around 15 Jan. 2007.

This show has been on many deadheads' "most wanted" list for a long time. The song sequence is unusual and the playing is inspired. "Playin' in the Band", in particular, is one of a kind. The show date was revealed only a few days ago on artist Timothy Truman's website where he mentions the cover assignment from Rhino. Truman has worked with the Grateful Dead before: He designed the covers for "Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions" (proto-Grateful Dead jugband) and the tribute CD "Stolen Roses"and has made numerous contributions to "The Grateful Dead Almanac". He also draws the "Conan the Barbarian" comic book series - incidentally, the latest installment bears the title "Conan and the songs of the dead"!

In a recent interwiew with Relix magazine, executives of Rhino Records revealed that the releases based on 2-channel master tapes will continue. Whether the series will still be named "Dick's Picks" is still unclear.

The prolific writer Blair Jackson has compiled a new book: "Grateful Dead Gear". From the "acid tests" of the sixties to the famous "wall of sound" in the seventies and up to their exceptional later touring systems, the Grateful Dead were always on the cutting edge of technological innovation and experimentation. "Grateful Dead Gear" is an in-depth examination of every aspect of the Dead’s technical side. It includes clear and concise explanations of the band’s equipment technology, instrument design, and studio recording techniques, plus a history of the band.

A new DVD documentary has entered our catalogue: "Tom Snyder's Electric Kool-Aid Talk Show". Throughout the eighties, Tom Snyder hosted "The Tomorrow Show" which was probably considered rather avant-garde in it's time. Looking back at the psychedelic sixties, Snyder interviewed key figures such as Dr. Timothy Leary (LSD guru), Ken Kesey (author, prankster, etc.), Tom Wolfe (whose book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" cronicles The Merry Panksters and The Grateful Dead), and - of course - The Grateful Dead themselves. The band plays acoustic versions of On the Road Again, Cassidy, Dire Wolf, and Deep Elem Blues. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann are interviewed by the host.

October 2006
In the absence of new Grateful Dead releases, others have taken up the slack: No fewer than 3 releases celebrate the late Jerry Garcia:
"Well-Matched" is a 1-CD selection from the 1971 Keystone performances with Merl Saunders, previously released on 3 separate albums. The CD contains one previously unreleased track.
The latest entry in the "Pure Jerry" series is a classic JGB show from Hampton Coliseum, 11/9/91. The show ends with Jerry's only known performance of Louis Armstrong's signature tune, "What A Wonderful World".
"The Very Best of Jerry Garcia" is a 2-CD set. CD one is a "best-of" selection from Garcia's 5 studio albums, the other - you guessed it - is filled to the brim with great live performances, some of them previously unreleased, selected and commented by Blair Jackson.

"The Dead" decided to pack it in this summer, but Phil Lesh continues to tour and record with his loose conglomerate of musical cohorts. "Phil Lesh and Friends" will release a 2-CD set and a DVD later this month, culled from two concerts a San Francisco's Warfield Theater, May 18th and 19th, 2006. Jazz guitar great John Scofield is one of the friends, and so is vocalist Joan Osborne, fondly remembered from The Dead's summer tour of 2003.
Unlike most other CD/DVD release packages, there is no overlap, performance-wise, between the CD-set and the DVD. Pre-orders are taken now and will include a bonus-DVD with extra tracks and a filmed discussion between Phil, John Scofield and sax-player Greg Osby, about the art of improvisation in jazz and rock.

Finally we present "The Black Tie-Dye Ball", a 2-CD selection from the Rex Foundation benefit concert in New York, November 2005. The centerpiece is "The Zen Tricksters", a phenomenal jam-band from New York. They are joined by a host of musical guests, many of which come from the Grateful Dead and Ratdog extended family.

That is all for now. There are rumours about a Grateful Dead vault release before the end of the year. If they turn out to be true, you'll be the first (or thereabouts) to know.

May 2006
Grateful Dead Productions is currently engaged in a major re-structuring process. It's difficult to discern what's really happening, as all official sources have dried up completely. Having sifted through a lot of rumours and guesswork, we will nevertheless attempt to sum up the situation:

Sales figures for live Grateful Dead music are down - even the new series of monthly downloads has failed to live up to expectations. The dead.net. website has aquired a fancy new look with many clever details, probably very expensive. All in all: A major capital influx is needed.

There have been negotiations with Rhino Records (of the Time/Warner group) about taking over the GD Store operation, both the music and the merchandise. Vault keeper David Lemieux has volunteered to resign, the same goes for sound tech Jeffrey Norman, we suppose. Hopefully, they will both be available for new projects, just not as full-time employees.

Nobody outside GDP has any idea whether DeadNetCentral will continue. Let's hope it will, in whatever form, as it will be very hard to do without our main source of information about new releases and other events in the GD community.

In the meantime, we have a new thing brewing. The late novelist Ken Kesey and his commune of freaks,"The Merry Pranksters", were a major influence on the entity that later evolved into The Grateful Dead. Kesey instigated "The Acid Tests" with The Warlocks as a house band of sorts, playing the blues and strange "prankster music" when and if they felt like it. You can read much more about it in any Grateful Dead bio, not to mention Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test", including the many myths concerning Neal Cassady, "ur-rapper" and bus driver extraordinaire, the real-life model for several literary characters in works by Jack Kerouac ("On the Road" and others) and Allen Ginsberg ("Howl").

The Pranksters were crazy about recording their happenings on tape and film. They recorded the Acid Tests and - not least - their cross-continent trips (in every sense of the word) riding their colorful bus "Furthur", immortalized in the GD song "The Other One":
"The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began. There was cowboy Neal at the wheel of the bus to never ever land".

Many of these documentaries have now been issued on DVD by Kesey's family business, edited by his son, Zane Kesey. Each DVD is described in furthur detail in the Video section of the Dancing Bear shop. The Kesey releases are directed at the adventurous deadhead. But then again: Which deadhead isn't?

October 2005
The 10-CD box set "Fillmore West '69" vas sold out in record time, but now we can take comfort in a 3-CD set by the same name, a "best of" compilation of the same four shows. By avoiding repeats and the already available cuts from the "Live Dead" album, Rhino Records has produced a comprehensive overview of this historic run of shows at an affordable price. The 100-page booklet is identical to the one that came with the 10-CD set.

The main DVD offering this fall is the reissue of "Dead Ahead", compiled from a series of shows at Radio City Music Hall in October 1980. In this period, the Grateful Dead re-instated the 1970-71 tradition of starting each show with an acoustic set. "Dead Ahead" reflects this, starting out with a wonderful, laid-back acoustic "Bird Song". The DVD includes about 50 minutes worth of bonus material culled from the same shows.

With "Dick's Picks Volume 36", the series returns once again to one of the classic vintages, the fall of 1972. Just 4 days and 2 shows after "Dick's Picks Vol. 23" we find ourselves in "The Spectrum", Philadelphia, 21 September 1972. The show has been circulating in trading circles for some time, but given its musical qualities, most people will probably welcome a sonic upgrade after the Dead's studio wizard Jeffrey Norman has wrought his magic with it.

A string of Jerry Garcia solo bands, in addition to The Grateful Dead, has come together on the 2-CD set "Garcia Plays Dylan". It contains hitherto unreleased recordings starting in 1971 (Garcia-Saunders Band), Legion of Mary from 1974-75, and the various incarnations of the Jerry Garcia Band up to the early 90's, with the songs of Bob Dylan as the common denominator. With each order comes a bonus CD with 30 minutes' worth of additional music.

Our new section of Jefferson Starship and related solo albums is growing stadily. The latest addition is the remastered edition of Jefferson Airplane's classic live album "Bless It's Pointed Little Head", with a few bonus tracks. We also found room for Graham Nash's first and best solo effort, "Songs For Beginners". The album was recorded at Wally Heider's in San Francisco in the same time frame as Paul Kantner's "Blows Against The Empire", amongst others. A common feature of these sessions was the guest artists drifting into the neighboring studios to lend a hand, or a voice. The Nash album has evidence of this by the likes of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and David Crosby.

Any Airplane fan will be delighted with the "Fly Jefferson Airplane" DVD that was released last year. It contains some pretty amazing concert footage (even if a few songs are overdubbed with the album version), plus recent interviews with band members and manager. Unlike quite a few similar dokumentaries, we get complete musical performances without them being cross-cut with interview clips. The DVD even has an option whereby all interviews are skipped, leaving only the music.

Now is also the time to cast your gaze forward to 2006. In other words, "The Grateful Dead Calendar 2006" is out and ready to remind us of all the GD-related events of the past, many musicians' birthdays, and a wealth of other useful facts. While supply lasts, you will get a free copy of the 40th Anniversary 2005 edition with each order of the 2006 calendar.

31. July 2005:
As you know, we are nearing the 10 year anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death, August 9th 1995. The date will be marked by the release of the first (and perhaps only) Jerry Garcia Band DVD: Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1 September 1990. This show was originally scheduled to be a Grateful Dead show, but the band had to cancel because they hadn't yet found a replacement for Brent Mydland who had died about one month earlier.

Another new Garcia item, to be released August the 23th: A 2-CD compilation by the short-lived, jazzy, Garcia Band incarnation known as Legion of Mary. The cuts were culled from several shows covering most of the band's 1974-75 lifetime.

Newsflash: The Live Dead Box Set is about to surface! For years, deadheads have been asking (or demanding!) for the fabled Fillmore West run of Feb. 27 - Mar. 02/69 to be released in full. This is, of course, the run of shows that spawned the 'Live Dead' album, one of the best live albums of all time. The 10-disc box set 'Fillmore West 69' will be released on November 15. There will only be 10,000 copies made and pre-ordering has already started. We intend to put in a bulk order by August 20, so please send us your order by e-mail before then.

Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane released several solo albums after the JA had ceased to exist, some in his own name, some as 'Jefferson Starship'. These albums, featuring Grace Slick and a host of friends, reflected Kantner's strong fascination of Science Fiction and his new-age ideas about the destiny of mankind. The first album was 'Jefferson Starship: Blows Against the Empire' from 1970, the last was 'Planet Earth Rock'n'Roll Orchestra' (or just PERRO) from 1983. Jerry Garcia is one of the featured players and also co-wrote 'The Mountain Song'. PERRO had an extremely short shelf-life in the RCA catalog, but now it has been re-released on CD with all the trappings, including a double-sided poster in the individually numbered deluxe version. When the 3000 numbered copies are sold out, there will only be the slightly less elaborate standard version, at a slightly lower price.

Dancing Bear is one of a handful of European distributors of the PERRO release, and in time we will offer the earlier JA/JS albums as well. Please check out our new JA/JS/etc. section on the dancingbear.dk website (go to 'Music, other artists' and follow the link there).

The Grateful Dead DVD from Buffalo, Rich Stadium 4 July 1989 is just now being delivered to our customers. It is a great show with Jerry in high spirits and great playing by all. The sound is exceptional, the bass being particularly powerful and deep. If you enjoyed 'Downhill From Here', you will surely like this show as well. We still have copies in stock for quick delivery.
If you look at the set list, you might wonder why the band does 'Playin Reprise' in the first set. Well, that's easily explained: Two days earlier, in Foxboro, they opened the show with 'Playin' in the Band', went into 'Crazy Fingers' after the jam sequence, and never got around to finishing the song. So, of course, they had to wrap it up in the next show! This is not quite as crazy as it may sound to a non-deadhead, considering that half of the audience probably went to both shows.

14. June 2005:
It has sure been a long wait, but now at last there's news about Dick's Picks Vol. 35, to be released in just a few days. And the news is a tale worth telling:

In the Fall of 1971, shortly before Keith Godchaux was scheduled to start rehearsals with the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia stopped by his house with big cardboard box of tape reels, uttering these words, more or less: "This is our latest tour - learn our music!"

The reels contained the better part of the 1971 summer tour, and Keith seems to have locked them away and forgotten all about them. Until recently, that tour has been missing from the Vault and believed to be lost forever. But this spring, Keith Godchaux's son and brother were doing some cleaning up on Keith's parents' houseboat, and the box of tapes was uncovered and returned to the Vault in varying states of decay.

With the release of DP 35 we may all get a glimpse of this period in the band's development. The 4 CD set is compiled of shows from San Diego (8/7/71, complete), more than an hour from the Hollywood Bowl 8/6/71, and the salvageable bits from Chicago 8/24/71.

For those who just can't get enough, www.gdstore.com has just launched the first two installments of a new series of shows that will only be made available as downloads. The best quality (FLAC) is priced just a bit lower than a CD set, but of course you save the postage. All previous Dick's Picks and Vault releases can be bought the same way, at similar prices. Dancing Bear, however, will not be offering downloads.

New DVDs: "Truckin' Up To Buffalo" is the Fourth of July show from 1989, at Rich Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y. According to the release notes, this 'View from the Vault' does not include 'psychedelic' graphical effects, just the band and the music. This will surely be a relief to many of you!
The same show will also be offered as a double CD set, which qualifies as a Vault release. If you're a subscriber to the Vault series and you would prefer the DVD instead of the CD, just drop us a line. The release date for both versions is July 5th.

Two more DVD's are on their way, but these are documentaries with very little live music.
"Rockin' at the Red Dog Saloon" deals with the gestation of the scene that became associated with San Francisco about one year later. The place was Virginia City, Sierra Nevada, the house band was "the Charlatans" and everybody were doing crazy experiments with light shows, concert posters, and - of course - LSD. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service are all featured on the soundtrack.

The last new DVD release is "The End Of The Road", which was originally intended as a documentary of "the deadheads" and their lifestyle. By chance, the shooting and editing co-incided with the final Grateful Dead tour and the demise of Jerry Garcia in 1995, so the film also contains ample footage of the deadhedas' reactions and the great Wake ceremony in Golden Gate Park.

Summer is - hopefully - on it's way, so perhaps you should take a look at the Grateful Dead bandanas in the 'DeadWear' catalog page. We have found a new supplier, and this has brought the price down to DKK 41 (5.51 €). They come in four basic colors in a sturdy fabric, size 56 by 56 cm, with all the well-known symbols of the band printed in black and white.

More very exciting news are emerging on the horizon - more about those after the summer break. Have a good one!

22. March 2005:

With the latest additions to the Grateful Dead library, we have been moving closer to the inner circle: Roadie and manager Steve Parish released his "colourful" memoirs; official scribe Dennis McNally turned almost every stone in his weighty biography "A Long Strange Trip"; and now Phil Lesh enters the stage with his definitive version: "Searcing for the Sound - my life with the Grateful Dead", released on April 25th.

Phil is well known for his extensive knowledge and sharp wit, so it definitely looks like a great read. While we are waiting, here's an appetizer, a glimpse of the "Festival Express" tour as seen by Phil: http://www.phillesh.net/book/excerpt/index.html
The book may be pre-ordered now, it's 352 pages in hardcover at the affordable price of DKK 220 (29.67 EUR).

Another piece of history just turned up: A collection of rare studio demoes and live recordings from 1966, released on a single CD entitled "Grateful Dead: Rare Cuts & Oddities".

And, finally, yet another "Pure Jerry" release: Jerry Garcia Band in the 1989 vintage - two complete shows, on 4 CDs, from the Merriweather Post Pavilion.

14. February 2005

Dick's Pick volume 34 is out and ready for delivery. It's the show from 5th November 1977 at the Community War Memorial in Rochester, New York, with a sizeable bonus segment - on disc 2 and 3 - from the 2nd November at Seneca College, Toronto. We're back in the tried and proven vintages - this is the fifth installment in the series from 1977.

There is a popular saying among deadheads: "When Phil is on, the band is on". And Phil Lesh was really "on" that night; he started the second set with a 2 min bass solo, later more solos followed, plus a bass-drums jam. You're probably aware how rare this was, although we were treated to another fine solo on DP32.

There have been no other recent CD releases, but a few new t-shirts and stickers. BTW, we still have one 2005-calendar left.

The website has been a little patchy recently since our host had a serious server breakdown. We were able to restore most of the contents, but almost all the image files and setlist/reviews in the catalog are irrevocably lost. The Dick's Picks setlists are still available in the "The Dead Files/Dicks Picks" menu, and we are working on re-creating the rest. The whole unfortunate incident recalls another popular saying: "Real men don't back-up"!

22. December 2004

Since our last newsletter, yet another Dick's Pick - vol. 33 - has hit the street. This 4 CD set presents two complete shows, October 9 and 10, 1976. This is only the second Pick from that year, the first being DP20. For once, there is no need for a caveat regarding the technical quality - it is "just exactly perfect" - and the performance ain't half bad either.

The "Pure Jerry" series that deals with the multiple incarnations of the Jerry Garcia Band continues at an undiminished pace. The latest release - of last week - is a show from September 1st, 1974, at Garcia's home away from home, the intimate Keystone Berkeley club, featuring Merl Saunders. After replacing the drummer this band emerged the following year as "Legion of Mary", a near-legendary lineup that the PJ series will probably be getting back to before long.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. 2004 has been a truly magnificent year for all deadheads with the release of the "Beyond Description" and "All Good Things" box sets, 3 Dick's Picks, "Pure Jerry", the Dead tour, and the two amazing DVD releases, Festival Express and the Grateful Dead movie. There is nothing to indicate that the release schedule should taper off next year, so 2005 will surely be a happy new year!

20. October 2004

Dear customer! The next wave of new releases is upon us, and we haven't even received last month's pre-announcements.

The 'Pure Jerry' series continues with Jerry Garcia's "solo" shows on Broadway, 15. - 31. October 1987, fifteen 2-set shows featuring both the electric and acoustic incarnations of the Jerry Garcia Band. The final Halloween show, 31. October, is released as a 4-CD set. Concurrent with that we get 'The Best of the Rest', a 3-CD set with one acoustic and two electric discs, culled from the remainder of the Broadway shows. Order both releases together and get a DKK 50 (€ 6.73) discount.

For the past year, the "Festival Express" documentary has been screened at film festivals in the U.S. and Europe. It's a unique cronicle of the legendary 1970 train trip where a number of rock bands headed by Janis Joplin, The Band and The Grateful Dead played, sang and boozed their way across Canada, punctuated by 3 concerts (or mini-festivals). The film is a must-see, not only for deadheads who will enjoy seeing Jerry Garcia in his exuberant prime, but also for fans of The Band and Janis Joplin. Janis is featured in 2 showstopping performances, plus 2 more in the bonus footage. The 2-DVD set is almost twice as long as the theatrical version with 80 minutes of additional music and interview footage. The price is an added bonus - just 30.70 Euro for the 2-DVD package.

"Kingfish Greatest Hits Live" is another new release since the last newsletter. It features a great selection of songs, edited form a 1976 show at the Beacon Theatre in New York, and the performance by Bob Weir and the gang is top-notch all the way. See you on www.dancingbear.dk!

Bjørn Lindstrøm

27. September 2004

The new, improved and expanded DVD version of "The Grateful Dead Movie" is now available for pre-ordering.

A quick glance at the specifications confirms our high expectations: No less than 95 minutes of music has been added. That and a wealth of other bonus material makes up DVD 2, while DVD 1 contains the original - but technically upgraded - movie with several stereo- and surround-sound options. Read more elsewhere on the homepage.

The concurrent release, "The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack", is a 5-CD set culled from the entire Winterland run, 16-20.October 1974. Now, at last, we can hear all the tunes in their entirety, whereas in the movie much of the music was interlaced with interview footage and deadheads on the rampage. About half the 40 tracks are represented in the movie or the bonus footage, the rest is new.
The official release date for both is November the 5th.

Another hot item: The follow-up box set to "The Golden Road" has been pre-announced: "Beyond Description" featuring the remaining eight studio albums from the 1973 - 1989 period, plus the live albums "Reckoning" and "Dead Set". Nobody found it necassary to re-release "Steal Your Face", but as it was compiled from the same shows as "The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack", noone should have any reason to complain.
Just like "The Golden Road", each CD (or 2CD) has been padded with bonus tracks - studio outtakes and live versions., "Beyond Description" is released on October the 26th, but may be pre-ordered now.

Since our last communication, the first two offerings from the Garcia vault have entered our catalog: "Pure Jerry Vol. 1" (JGB from 7/29+30/77) is the first release in a series that matches the "Dick's Picks" format, i.e. spruced-up 2-track masters without the option to remix.
A multi-track series, much like "The Vault", has also been announced, marketed by Rhino Records. The first installment is "After Midnight", a legendary show from 2/28/80 featuring a lenghty jam that combines the J.J.Cale title tune with the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby".

All in all, the wish list for Christmas shouldn't be much of a problem this year!

11. August 2004:

In the last newsletter we stated, that we did not intend to offer the live recordings from The Dead’s summer tour 2004 for sale, since the shipping and other overhead expenses had turned out to be excessive in 2003.
Well, sometimes you get wiser with time, and both The Dead and ourselves seem to have learned something over the summer. At any rate, the live CD sets from the ”Wave That Flag” tour are now available from our regular distributor, Gdstore, so of course we sell them as well.
Tap into the Mucic section of the Dancing Bear shop to access the new page called ”The Dead 2004”. We have even been able to lower the retail price from DKK 280 last year to DKK 248 now. Please take note that the CD sets are triple as default, but in the event that a show swells enough to necessitate a 4 CD-set, the price still stays the same.

In a sudden fit of optimism (this was before there were any possibility of a sunstroke) we happened to order the same quantity of Dick's Picks Volume 32 that we have sold to date of the hugely popular ”Rockin’ the Rhein”. The order input so far clearly shows that most of our customers prefer 1972 to 1982, which should come as no surprise at all. To remedy that we have a quick summer sale, pushing the price of this 2 CD set down to the typical bargain-basement price of DKK199 (or 26.80 €). This price takes effect for all orders received by August 1st and later, and it will last until the present stock is exhausted.

”The Grateful Dead Calendar 2005” has just been released and - in celebration of the band's 40 year anniversary, it is chock-full of exciting goodies, over and above the customary format. The calendar is usually sold out around October, so don't wait too long to order! You'll find it in the "Odds and ends" section.

"The End of the Road" is the title of a documentary, released in the states in 2001, that deals with the "deadheads" phenomenon past and present, focusing on the last Grateful Dead tour in the summer of 1995 and the reactions following Jerry Garcia's demise. According to reviews, it is a pretty good movie that tackles it's subject in a way that even deadheads like ourselves should be able to appreciate. The movie contains no actual concert footage of the Grateful Dead.
One customer asked us if we could get hold of the movie, so right now we are trying to locate a distributor, probably the producer himself. As far as we know, it will only be available in VHS format, not DVD. Check out the news section of the Dancing Bear home page from time to time if you're interested. In case you are REALLY interested we would appreciate an e-mail pre-reservation, to get some idea of how many copies we should order.

15. July 2004:
At long last, Dick's Picks Volume 32 has been announced - a 2 CD set from 7. August 1982 in Alpine Valley, East Troy, Wisconsin.

In the opinion of many deadheads, the early eighties have been severely neglected in the Dick's Picks series. In truth, the band had it's ups and downs in that period, but the 'ups ' can hold their own aginst the 'golden age' of the seventies. And, lest we forget, the eighties shows had the distinctive sound, missed by many, of Brent Mydland's keyboards and vocals. Rumours of the selected performance have circulated on DNC for a few days, and the verdict so far is favourable. The Dancing Bear shop is taking orders now.

This year's DVD Vault release will be a new and expanded version of 'The Grateful Dead Movie', due in November. Jerry Garcia, who did all the editing himself back in 1976, had about 600 hours of videotape to choose from, and it's all preserved in the vault. Judging from last year's 'Closing of Winterland' extravaganza, we can expect lots of extra music and more interview footage, plus any number of surprise bonuses.

The Garcia box set 'All Good Things' was a nice surprise for us, and hopefullly for those of you who bought the box. It might be due to our ailing memories, but we were awestruck by the superb sound that used to be hidden (or perhaps drowned in background noise) in the old Garcia LPs. There is a difference of opinion about the effect of HDCD on standard CD players, but the 'headroom' and many subtle details comes across vividly om these remastered CDs. The added album of outtakes and live versions, as well as the many bonus tracks on the regular albums, are lovingly and knowingly hand-picked. Copious liner notes and a 128-page booklet by Blair Jackson and Robert Hunter? But of course! Highly recommended.

The Dead are in the middle of another summer tour of the U.S., this time with Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers Band as a full-time member. Live recordings of all shows can be ordered, just like last year, but not from us. The reason is, that we failed last year to reach the pre-order volume that would have given us wholesale rates and a collective shipment. Instead, all shows were shipped individually with the standard postage charge on every single one, which did not make it worth the effort for us. We would advise you to order live Dead directly from dead.munckmusic.com. Ratdog, the GD-tribute band Dark Star Orchestra, plus various 'special events' are also sold there.

Dancing Bear wishes everyone a wonderful summer, whenever it may occur.

13. April 2004:
We have many new releases just coming up - the latest is the long-awaited Jerry Garcia box set "All Good Things", soon to be releases by Rhino records. The box set seems to be finished in a manner similar to the "So Many Roads" set and carries a similar hefty price tag: DKK 733, or 98.50 Euro. It features Garcia's 5 studio albums, remastered in HDCD with outtakes added to every disc, a comprehensive booklet by Blair Jackson and Robert Hunter, plus an additional CD packed with alternative takes, jams, etc. The contents are described in more detail in the usual place on the website (i.e. click the picture!). Persistent rumours claim that a "Dick's Picks"- like series of Jerry Garcia Band releases is in the works, but let's wait and see.....

This year's first "From the Vault" release is "Grateful Dead - Rockin' the Rhein", a complete show from the Rheinhalle, Düsseldorf, yet another tasty morsel from the European tour of 1972. While supplies last, the package insludes a bonus-CD with additional selections from the 'Academy of Music' run in March 1972 (Dick's Picks Volume 30). Then there is a 2-CD set, "Weir Here - The Best Of Bob Weir" featuring a selection from Weir's solo albums and numerous spin-off bands, plus a whole CD of samples of his work as songwriter and lead vocalist with the Grateful Dead.

Speaking of "So Many Roads", a hidden treasure of the (probably) very last copies of this otherwise discontinued box set has turned up in a warehouse in the USA, so right now (but for how long??) we offer the original canvas-clothed box set at DKK 733, or 98.50 Euro. This is probably the last chance anyone will get! But - we have something extra up our sleeve: A single-CD sampler of "So Many Roads" can be had at the symbolic price of 10 Euro including postage. Send us an e-mail if you would like one, but be quick - we don't have very many.

Easter is here, so how would you like an Easter egg? The producers of "The Closing Of Winterland" DVD were lucky enough to have more material and space than they needed, so they hid a number of "Easter eggs" (mostly photos and interview snatches) in various places on the DVDs. The eggs are not that obvious - you have to be quick with the remote control at the right time - but fortunately someone wrote a guide. You can find it on the Dancing Bear website - just follow the link on the TCOW-DVD page ("click the picture....").

Want more? Other new items include mousepads, jigsaw puzzles, caps, sunglasses..... and, of course, a couple of new T-shirts. Happy hunting!

8. March 2004:
Dick's Picks rides again ..... #31 will be out around March 15th, but you can pre-order it now. It will be a four CD set with almost five hours of music from the last three nights of the 1974 summer tour - August 4-5-6, Philadelphia Civic Center and Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City. More info (setlist, cover design..) to come, so stay tuned.

The Closing of Winterland DVD-set has been the best selling release ever in the Dancing Bear store, and probably a similar success for Grateful Dead Productions. Now the DVD-set has been nominated for the "Jammy Awards" in the categories "Archival Album of the Year" and "DVD of the Year," and The Dead's 2003 Summer Getaway Tour has been nominated for "Tour of the Year." Gdstore is running a special on 'View From The Vault' I and II i VHS/PAL format (European). We have a few copies in stock that we sell at a considerable bargain - please chech the "Bargain Bin" on www.dancingbear.dk.

We would also like to direct your attention to out selection of Grateful Dead Stickers. Gdstore has premiered many new designs in recent months, whereas a lot of classics have been discontinued. But don't despair! Dancing Bear still holds many of the most popular stickers in stock, so if you don't mind advertising you deadheadedness, now is the time to put a GD sticker on the back of your car! Some stickers are also available as inside-window see-throughs. Who knows, you and your neighbor might discover a common interest that neither of you knew about - or you might even turn him on to the Dead!

3. November 2003:
Dick's Picks nr. 30 has just been issued - some people in the U.S. have received it already and are falling over one another to voice their enthusiasm (see http://dnc.dead.net/Grateful dead central/Dick's picks resurrected/Current topics/The picks/Dick's Picks 30).
The venue: Academy of Music, New York City. Time frame: 25 + 28 March 1972, just a few days before the band departed for Europe. CD 1 of the 4-CD set documents the March 25 show with Bo Diddley who leaves his mark on both the performance and the set list.

The recording is one of the legendary 'Betty-boards', the now sadly departed engineer Betty Cantor's sweet-sounding soundboard tapes. The original master tapes were consideres lost for a long time. The story of their emergence in a lost property auction -in a large trunk found in an abandoned baggage locker - and their later fate, is highly dramatic and mysterious and too long to recount here, but you can read more in 'The Deadhead's Taping Compendium' Vol.3.

New book: Steve Parish goes back a long way as roadie for the Grateful Dead and manager for the Jerry Garcia Band. He has written a highly personal book about life inside the Dead at home and abroad, titled "Home Before Daylight".

Delivery status: DP30 is already ordered and shipped. The 'Summer Getaway' shows ordered before the end of September will be arriving in a few days. 'The Closing of Winterland' pre-orders will be shipped from the U.S. on or just after the release date, November 11th.

We have a number of new t-shirts, stickers and patches in the catalog. The 2004 calendar is still not sold out. Enter your order now to ensure delivery in time for Christmas

30. September 2003:
1. Recently we had the opportunity to listen to some of the "Summer Getaway 2003" shows. So, what's a Dead-concert like in 2003?

Some changes are apparent just by looking at the set list. Instead of warming up with a selection of short songs, like the GD used to do, most concerts now start out with a quiet, searching jam that, after a while, slides into the first proper song. This pattern was probably introduced by the Dead's two 'Ratdogs', Bob Weir and Jeff Chimenti.

Vocalist Joan Osborne manages to breathe new life into many classic GD-songs that you thought you knew inside out. She even asserts herself most convincingly in the free-form jams, using her voice as a solo instrument on par with the guitars and keyboards. Phil Lesh handles more vocals than before (whether you like it or not!) and has contributed several new songs. Guitarist Jimmy Herring is everywhere, attentive and with superior technique. He is not trying to sound like a Garcia clone, which is OK, but in the jam sequences we sometimes catch ourselves missing Jerry's melodic imagination and unique sense of phrasing.

Favorites? The ongoing discussion on dnc.dead.net frequently mentions Hampton 27-6, Austin,Texas 4-7 and the five shows in Red Rocks, Colorado, and not least 9-10 August, Jones' Beach (a.k.a. Joan's Beach!), where The Dead started out with an acoustic set. The latter 2 shows take up 4 CDs each, but they are sold at the same price as the rest.

There are many, many treasures to be found in this tour where everyone is bound to find his favorite tunes in one or several versions. Setlists and short reviews are to be found on the Dancing Bear website. Please act now if you want to take advantage of the special discount.

2. The truly monumental video release this fall is "The Closing of Winterland", 31. December 1978. A mind-blowing 4½ hours Grateful Dead concert with several guest artists, plus lots of interviews and other bonus material, and an special bonus CD (while the stock lasts) with select NYE performances from other years. The release date is the 11. November, but you can pre-order right now.
Please note that this release is not part of our "Vault" subscription series, but must be ordered separately.
Please note also the extra-special package offer that includes a T-shirt with the striking Alton Kelly blue rose, from the original concert poster (the one with "Breakfast served at dawn", courtesy of Bill Graham!)

3. The fine, canvas-bound 5-CD box "So Many Roads" (SMR) has been in our catalogue for several years, sometimes at special bargain prices, while in the U.S., the price has always been very high. Now, Arista has dropped SMR completely from their European catalogue, a puzzling decision since the box has sold really well in Europe, according to our sources.

By a stroke of good luck we have 2 of the very last European SMR's in stock. They are being sold at the now-standard price of DKK 465 (62,60 Euro), but once they are gone, the U.S. import price will be about 700- 900 DKK, depending on where we can get it. We will keep it in the catalogue as a matter of principle, but we admit that it's way overpriced! If you don't have SMR yet, now is the time to strike. You can read more about it on the Dancing Bear website in the usual way, i.e. by a mouse-click on the catalogue illustration.

4. Yet another super saver: "Terrapin Limited", the 3CD Vault release of 3/15/90, has up to now had a "special" price that included a poster and a hefty contribution to the "Terrapin Station" project, now believed to be put on hold. At any rate, the price has been lowered from DKK 500+ to DKK 282. It is, of course, multitracked, great sound and a fine performance with Brent Mydland in rare form. And the Kelly/Mouse poster is still included in the numbered case.

21. August 2003:
1. The Dead, Summer Getaway:
In June we announced, that 24. August would be your last chance to order the "Summer Getaway 2003" live CD sets with the special Dancing Bear volume discount. Well, since then three new dates in mid-September have been added to the tour, so we have decided to push the deadline to 30. September.

Another new development: We have been offered a discount from the supplier if we can manage to put in an order of 200 CD sets or more. If we succeed, our customers will benefit from the discount - including those that have already ordered. It won't be easy - we are far from the 200 sets at this moment.

The extra discount will not be specified until the goal is within reach, but it would help us very much if you would tell us by e-mail - without obligation - if you intend to order a number of sets, and possibly how many. You can safely wait until the tour is over before you commit to any specific shows, but we would really like to have some idea of the number we may expect.

Setlists and reviews will be updated as quickly as possible. You can reach them by clicking the left-hand picture on the catalog line, just as you're used to in the Dancing Bear shop.

A few customers have inquired, whether it is possible to pay in installments. As a result, we have established a 3-installment payment scheme for all Summer Getaway-orders of 10 CD sets or more. The invoice will tell you the installment amounts and payment dates (by the end of 3 consecutive months). The 3rd and last installment may be altered later to a smaller amount, if we succeed in earning the extra discount described above. This will be announced by e-mail.

2. "The Grateful Dead Calendar 2004" has been released. If you want one you should hurry, since the last two vintages sold out by October. You might also want to check out the new, spectacular "The Dead" tie-dye T-shirts.

3. Did you all find the "hidden" bonus tracks on Dick's Picks Volume 29? They are at the end of CD 2 and 5, but for some reason you don't access them in exactly the same way. One consolation: You don't have to sit through several minutes of silence, like with DP13.

4. Some of you may have noticed, that the "Shopping basket" and "feedback" functions are out of order at the moment. The Dancing Bear website has relocated, and we found out too late, that the new host didn't support out e-mail functions in quite the same way.Faced with this, we have started work on a major upgrade, which will hopefully result in a vastly improved customer interface. You will get a personal ID and password, so you won't have to type your full name and address every time you order. We also hope to make credit card payment a little easier.

Right now, ordering is a bit primitive - by ordinary e-mail. We hope you can live with that for a while longer, and of course we will send you confirmation by e-mail as soon as we receive (and read) your order. Best regards, Dancing Bear

11. July 2003:
The big news are REALLY big this summer! A 6-CD Dick's Picks Vol. 29, and how about those 28 official concert recordings of "The Dead"s summer tour!

Last things first: We at Dancing Bear feel that the new incarnation of "The Dead" and the ongoing "Summer Getaway 2003" tour is a ground-breaking event that the maximum nomber of Dancing Bear customers should have the chance of hearing in the crystal-clear Soundboard mix. The reviews we've read are great - we are really looking forward to hearing the excellent singer Joan Osborne tackle the Grateful Dead songbook - and let's not forget the guest musicians, Steve Winwood, Willie Nelson, et.al.

Mickey Hart, whose tour diaries are available on the net, tells us that the band aims at rehearsing a repertoire of 150 songs they can choose from on any given night, just like the Grateful Dead in their heyday.You can peruse the setlists on various sites, so your only problem is to choose betwen them!

The organisation behind the new "official bootleg" concept, dead.munckmix.com, has chosen to add a fixed postage and hadling charge to each individual CD set ordered. That is not the way we usually do it at Dancing Bear, so we have elected to take the volume discount out of our profit - you can read more about it on our website. This is a unique offer, and we expect many of you to take advantage of it.

Please observe the time limit for this offer: August 24th is when we must have your order.

Dick's Picks Vol. 29 has already been received with extreme satisfaction by the lucky and fast deadheads in the USA who have received it already. It consists of 2 x 3 CDs, 19. and 21. May 1977, perhaps the most consistently excellent month in Grateful Dead touring history! As usual, we have ordered a bunch for our subscribers, and there may even be a few for the rest of you in the first delivery, if you order soon.

We must also mention the new 'celtic' CD, "Buckdancer's Choice", featuring the Californian/Irish deadheads in the "Wake of the Dead" band. Plus the retrospective "Birth of the Dead", formerly available as part of the "Golden Road" box set. Read more at dancingbear.dk We wish you a great summer!

25. March 2003:
Dear Dancing Bear customer! We have some good news from Dead-land, and some not so good. The good news is that View from the Vault Volume 4 has been pre-announced: The DVD presents two shows from the mini-tour with Bob Dylan in the summer of 1987. The sets with Dylan are left out, plus a few songs more. 1987 was the year where Garcia's appearance and playing was more lively than it had been for several years, following his coma in '86, so another peek at this period is more than welcome. VFTV-IV is released on DVD and 4CD (no VHS). It goes on sale officially on April 8th, but you can pre-order it right now.

The other piece of good news is that Dancing Bear has lowered it's prices considerably, following the declining rate of the Dollar. The price of a triple Dick's Picks set is now DKK 232, or 31,20 Euro. You can order two sets and still have them delivered at the minimum postage rate! Speaking of which, we regret that our Scandinavian customers have lost their favored status with the Danish Postal service, so the rates are now the same as the rest of Europe. We can't do anything about this, we just hope that you still value our service.

You might want to take a look at the 'Posters and prints' page. Prices go up and down here, but there are some amazing bargains right now; many great posters can be had for half the original price, or even less in some cases. The not so good news is that Grateful Dead Merchandising is in financial woes and will be cutting down their staff and moving to an area with rents at a more reasonable level than California. The sales of new releases like Dick's Picks is reportedly down to about 50.000 copies, and this makes it hard to turn a profit, according to inside sources. We have no indication of how this will affect the release schedule, or what else might happen. Outsourcing of the merchandising sales is under consideration, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps Dancing Bear will be able to branch out and offer a larger selection of music without sacrificing our one-source principle, the basis for our favourable prices. More inside news: We have launched a new service on the Dancing Bear site: 'Tell a friend', where we invite you to send us the name and e-mail address of a deadhead friend, who might be interested in shopping at our site. If your friend becomes a customer, he will get his first order free of postage and handling charges. (You'll find this sevice on the 'Write us' sub-page) Now, you will probably want to ask why YOU are not getting anything for providing us with a new customer! We actually agree with you, but to announce it on the site would be a violation of Danish laws of Fair Marketing! All we will say is: Try it, and see what happens! 10. December 2002: The legendary Monterey Pop festival has spawned a fabulous concert film and two live records (featuring Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding), and now a luxury 3 DVD box set has been released in the U.S. "The Complete Monterey Pop Festival" features the original movie in an vastly improved version with a 5.1 surround sound option, the two concerts mentioned above, complete and sonically improved, plus 2 hours of extra concert footage with supplementary performances by the featured artists, and some of the acts that didn't appear in the original movie. And, just to make it complete, lots of interviews with performers, festival organizers and D.A. Pennebaker who directed the movie. The Dancing Bear shop (Video) has more details about the box set, which is unavailable in Europe so far. As you probably know, Dancing Bear gets it's merchandise mainly from Grateful Dead Merchandising, but in this instance we have decided to make an exception. There is a need, however, for a certain volume in order to bring the price down, so we had to make this a time-limited offer. Therefore, we must have your order on the 24th of December at the latest. The order may also contain other items, naturally. The price of "The Complete Monterey Pop Festival" is DKK 740 (99,50 EUR), plus postage. Dancing Bear wishes all our customers a merry christmas and a happy new year. PS: The Grateful Dead did not play on the Monterey Pop Festival, although they were jamming with the other musicians in a nearby park. Consequently, there is no trace of them in the movie or the box set. The reason: The band regarded both the festival and the movie project as a commercial exploitation of the S.F. hippie movement and refused to take any official part in it. Sad, but very Grateful Dead! 18. October 2002: The CD releases from the Grateful Dead have a way of coming in waves, which is why things have been a bit quiet since July. But now we have two new releases from 'the vault' hot off the presses: With Dick's Picks Volume 26 (2 cds), David Lemieux and Jeffrey Norman have once again delved into the late sixties and come up with two hot shows, 26 and 27 April 1969, both of which have been greeted with much enthusiasm by the discerning deadheads on www.deadnetcentral.com (the dead.net chat-room). There is also a new multi-track remix: Nassau Coliseum, 15 and 16 May 1980. Until now, the year 1980 has been missing from the vault- and DP releases, probably because very few tapes from that year exist in the vault. But now we get a rare opportunity to hear a broad selection of tunes from the 1980 album "Go To Heaven". The complete setlist can be found at www.dancingbear.dk Bassist Rob Wasserman, whom some of us had the pleasure of hearing this the summer with Bob Weir and Ratdog, has just released another solo cd, titled "Bassically Me". We also present a bunch of new T-shirts, one of them featuring a really nice Garcia drawing. And, with winter coming, why not take a look at the two new ski hats, one with an embroidered SYF design and the other one sporting the Shakedown Man. All the above may be ordered now. The Dancing Bear website has had a minor face-lift: We have corrected an annoying error in the online shop. Before, your buy sometimes didn't register if the browser hadn't quite finished downloading the many illustrations before you clicked the 'Buy' icon. This can't happen anymore. Please bear in mind, that you should always get an immediate confirmation in a pop-up box after each buy. Before long, we will be ready to accept credit-card payment, a feature which several customers have requested. The stumbling block has always been that we didn't want our list prices inflated by startup- or monthly fees to some credit-card clearing house, since many of our customers are quite satisfied paying cash or by internet banking. Now we have found a partner, PayPal in the USA (well-known by all e-bay customers), who take no fixed fee. Instead, all credit-card customers will pay a 4% fee on top of the invoice total. This fee is calculated automatically so that it will be completely visible to you before you place the order. We still haven't finished building this feature into the ordering system, but it will happen before long. Finally, we have launched a new service, "Ask Dancing Bear", an extension of our repository of Dead facts "The Dead Files". We have long felt that our customers and other friends should benefit from our 30 years of following The Grateful Dead, a study which includes most of the 40'ish books that have been published about this musical and cultural phenomenon. So, if you have a question, large or small, straightforward or obscure, don't hesitate to write us. We look forward to hearing from you! 4. July 2002: Dear Dancing Bear customer! Summer's here, and we have lots of exciting Grateful Dead news for you: Dick's Picks Vol. 25 has been pre-announced and may be ordered now. It's a 4-CD set from May 10 - 11, 1978 in New Haven and Springfield. The Deadhead's Taping Compendiumhas glowing reviews of both concerts - they express the hope that 5/11/78 will come out as an official release soon. Well, it has! Over the Edge and Back - The Best of Mickey Hart If you're not familiar with Hart's solo output, this CD will give you a good overview. The majority of the selections - suc as the hitherto unpublished work performed at the opening of the Atlanta Olympic games - is inspired by Hart's love for world music - esp. the world of drums. But the CD also has samples from his wonderful etno-pop CD 'Mystery Box' w. new lyrics by Robert Hunter and vocals from the English girl trio The Mint Juleps. The Trichromes, feat. Bill Kreutzmann, has released a 'complete' CD with their own compositions (and - again - Hunter's lyrics). There are no Dead cover versions this time around. The tune 'Dice With the Universe' is a repeat from the 'mini CD' that bears it's name. Steve Kimock Band has released a new live CD, East Meets West, recorded in Japan and the USA. Steve Kimock is a former member of Zero, Jazz is Dead, The Other Ones, Phil Lesh & Friends, and many other Bay Area bands. More news will be coming in the weeks and months ahead: Steppin' Out With the Grateful Dead is the long-awaited 4 CD set of arvchive recordings from the European tour of 1972, The set consists of selections from the 7 concerts performed on the British isles. The expected release date is July 9th.. View From The Vault Volume III (DVD, VHS, VHS-PAL and soundtrack CD) is from the Shoreline Amphitheatre, June 16, 1990. The DeadNetCentral chatroom is already overflowing with mainly positive reactions from deadheads who were there or has heard the tapes. Judging from rumour, the show is rich in powerful and quite unique jam segments. Expected to be released in August. We will also take this opportunity to alert you to a release from last month: There And Back Again with Phil Lesh and Friends. This studio CD comes with 2 bonus live CDs with more than an hour's worth of music, and it has aldready proved to be a tremendous success with Dancing Bear's customers. One of Phil's friends is guitarist and singer Warren Haynes from the Allman Brothers Band, who handles the lead vocals on most tunes. He does this very well an has also contributed a few songs himself. It's a nice change to hear him outside of his usual context of the blues. The live versions of tunes like Passenger, Dark Star and The Eleven are a must-hear. It's not the Grateful Dead, but it kicks ass! In other merchandise: The popular CD bag is back in the catalog after a long period of absence. It will hold 24 CDs in the inside pockets (of elegant, red fabric - no plastic!) and it features the red-white-blue 'Lightning Bolt' logo on both sides. You might also want to check out the new 'Play Dead' logo, available on T-shirts and stickers. We look forward to hearing from you! 28. September 2001: Dear Dancing Bear customer! We are sending you this newsletter to alert you to a number of exciting new CD releases that have just popped up on www.dancingbear.dk. All the releases listed below are covered in depth on the website - to see the details just click the cover image in the catalogue or on the index page. Dick's Picks Vol. 23 - Baltimore Civic Center 9/17/72. At long last a new Pick from the great performance year of 1972, that has already given us DP11, Hundred Year Hall and - let's not forget - Europe '72. DP23 is a 3-CD set at the usual price: DKK 272. The Golden Road Box Set - All the classic Warner Brothers albums (1967 - 1973) on 10 CDs, digitally remixed with lots of bonus tracks (outtakes and live versions), an informative 100-page booklet plus a 2-CD set: "Birth of the Dead" with rare demos and live tracks from 1965-67. As an extra bonus, by getting the box set from Grateful Dead Merchandising, we get an additional 2-CD set containing a 2-hour radio programme from 1969 with interviews and music by the GD, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver. Our price for all this: DKK 1656. From the Vault: Nightfall of Diamonds - Meadowlands Arena, New Jersey 10/16/89. A 2-CD set, recorded in multitrack on Bob Weir's birthday. A stellar concert, tha some of us have already glimpsed (in incomplete and low-fi form) via audience recordings (a practice that the Grateful Dead condoned and supported!). Price: DKK258. Grateful Dawg soundtrack - Jerry Garcia's longtime collaboration with mandolinist David Grisman has been dokumented in a move, directed by Grisman's wife. We probably won't see it in theatres, but it might be released on video later. Buegrass and folk veterans Bill Monroe, Peter Rowan and Ewan MacColl are featured on this soundtrack. Price: DKK 204. Ratdog live at Roseland - to hear Bob Weir's Ratdog on their own you have to listen to the fine "Evening Moods" album released last year. This double live-CD contains mostly Grateful Dead tunes, performed in Ratdog's infectious swinging, jazzy style. We look forward to hearing from you! 13. June 2001: Have you visited www.dancingbear.dk recently? If not, we suggest that you check out the many new releases. A few highlights: - New video + 3CD: View from the Vault II (Washington D.C. 6/14/91). This is reported to be a very hot show - Help-Slipknot-Franklin's and Dark Star in the same set was a rare occurrence in any time period, especially after the seventies. - Dick's Picks 22 (Lake Tahoe, CA 2/23-24/68) - a double CD from 'the golden age'. Last time we had anything from '68 was 'Two from the Vault' back in 1992. - New videos by Hot Tuna, John Cipollina, Dave Nelson Band and Dose Hermanos (Tom Constanten/Bob Bralove) - In a different department, the popular GD mousepads are back with several striking designs, including one with built-in wrist support. Make a Deadhead statement in your workplace! Or take a look at the beautiful frisbees with SYF-, 'Dancing Bears'- or 'Skull and Roses' design. And finally, since it should not all be about sales: Now you can test your Grateful Dead knowledge in our new Grateful Dead Quiz, 'The Acid Test'. It comes in two levels; the socond one will probably (hopefully) teach even the most ardent deadhead a thing or two. But don't panic: You can get help in the Books department of the Dancing Bear Shop. (Oops, there's the salesman again!) We wish all our customers a great summer! Dancing Bear