Grateful Dead Spring Tour 1985

This series of tapes will all start with this intro. Eric Britt, Charlie Hulme and I had secured a contract to install audio and DJ equipment in a Holiday Inn in Cherry Hill NJ. We had been doing this work for a few months as a team and this was to be our first major traveling gig. For travel reasons Eric and I drove up with a bunch of installation equipment and some of the smaller supplies for the job while Charlie was going to fly in and meet us for the actual install. When we arrived in Cherry Hill the manager told us the job had been postponed by a week to 10 days. We called back home and asked Dave Dalzell what to do, he said stay up there, the hotel will provide us with rooms and as soon as the delay can be worked out, we will start. The date was March 25th, 1985. The Grateful Dead had just started their spring tour in Hampton VA on the 21st and were in Springfield MA on the 24th and 25th. They were headed to Nassau Coliseum for three shows starting the 27th.

I called John Hance and invited us to his house for the shows, and he agreed as he was already housing several of the Executive Crew amongst other guests. This was when Eric met JJ, and the conversations those three days between them were epic, being two giant crystals of humans which they are. This was also to be Eric's first time seeing so many shows in a row, ten total. These visits to these cities were his first travels to Maine, Massachussets, Philadelphia etc. We kept checking in with Cherry Hill and they kept moving the install date back until we were able to catch all the shows from March 27th through April 8th. And since Philly is so close to Cherry Hill we didn't have to travel far to pick up Charlie at the airport on the 10th!

This was truly a meeting of the minds, Sean had his bread van going during this time and there are several stories of folks sleeping outside of Chris Kidwell's apartment on the roof of said van the night between the two Portland shows! Sean and Gary were there as was Mike Davis, of course Pinney, John Borg and their crew, also iirc. The GDTS ticketing tour books for this tour cost $250 for 14 shows.

From a technical point of view, this tour featured new Oade Brothers customizations of my first 1982 vintage Sony TCD5M and the second late 1984 deck both completed in the winter of 1985. The OADE customization replaced the capacitors & raised the input overload point in the mic preamp. The most significant MOD was to remove the erase head. That MOD really lowered the noise floor. We also had them do this on Tom's deck. I recieved a reply from Doug after asking exactly what they may have done to the mic inputs for historical clarity; I appreciate his answer. We were running OADE modded equipment even in the analog days! We also switched to using Maxell metal tapes as exclusively as supply allowed. The TDK's always seemed to have drop outs or a tape would get stuck in someones deck, they just seemed less reliable at the time. Our microphone selection was either the Beyer M201's or the Beyer M88's as no binaural recordings were made on this tour as I recall they had been broken. Each mic rig had a small light stand we used for most shows, in fact I do not recall hand holding on this tour. One final tech note to point out that although there was an Official Taping Section (OTS) behind the soundboard, for only one of these shows were we there. We typically ran in front of the board about 20-25 feet, putting us 50-60 feet from stage most nights especially at GA shows. There were usually 6-10 people surrounding the mic stand, set in between several other groups of people doing the same thing. Per the executive crew plan, often the crowd noise near the mics was very limited!
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Eric's story:

This was the tour I began to be a DeadHead. As Kyle says, my first trips(!!) to NY, NYC, Maine, RI, and Penn.
It was all a blur, and all crystal clear!
Everything and Everyone was foreign to this suburban Texan and was so very familiar.
Driving into the City for the first time, listening to EARLY hip-hop, thinking, man, this music was made for this place, hanging on the corner across the street from Crazy Eddie's while others crossed and grabbed up some tapes for the shows. Driving through the Lincoln Tunnel for the first time. Just unreal memories. Meeting John Hance, my forever long distance guru. Meeting the rest of the crew! Chris, Tom, Shawn and of course meeting Greg. Love Ya Greggie!

Please understand that I NEVER danced to music, even my first Dead shows, I would stand, listen and observe.
But by the 3rd night of Nassau I was beginning to move, I mean I couldn't help it just trying to not bump into others around me, but then, I couldn't NOT dance! It was all starting to make sense! If one can ever make sense of a Dead Show!!
At break that 3rd night I decided I would go to the bathroom during the set, rather than the break when the lines were so long, and I decided that instead of heading back to our group I would just find a spot in the crowd to groove. It was a revelation! A stranger in the crowd, finding spots and moving into them like a Jedi Master, well, maybe a Jedi Pawan...gliding and rockin' in the crowd, moving WITH the crowd, with the People! Man. There is Nothing else like a Grateful Dead Show!!
Walking up to the show one night, maybe the night the glass near the entrance was broken, I spied a kid with an Army jacket like I wore in HS, but with 'Howard Sperm' written in it. I laughed, having NO idea who Stern was... Later I would become a huge fan. And, oddly enough, when Jerry died it was, among others, Howard who helped me through it all with laughter.
I digress.
So, let's talk about getting into shows with no ticket. Providence. Smallish venue, there were NO tickets to be had, and most were sold for way over face value. I had given up. Realize that a bunch of Frat Rats were working the doors, Kyle had let me know this before the rest of the crew went in. I checked out the side entrances, the Fire Exits!! And there was a line of freaks handing over $20 to get in. I thought, damn, that's high considering the show was almost half over, but after awhile they were taking $10, in front of me was a really skinny dude with really long and not well kept hair who only had change, by now, they were taking $5, the dude didn't have 5, I gave the Frat Rat $10 and told him it was for both of us. So my first miracle experience was a gift.
Now, compare that to Nassau where most of the tickets bought in the lot were fakes, lots of peeps were not allowed entry due to having spent over face, even double, for fakes. I am CERTAIN my tic for the 3rd night, bought from a mob looking dude in a big car outside the lot was a fake, but I got in, and my tic was torn so I got about 10% of it.
So, Cumberland County Civic Center.
Wow. These were the shows.
The 2nd set of the 2nd night, 4.1.85, was disjointed and as a result, weird!!!
It ended well though and upon exiting the venue, IT WAS SNOWING!!!!!! OMG, SNOW!!! It was crazy and we were all giggling, but we could not find John, no one had seen him, we got back to the place we were staying, and no John. Sometime later he shows, and all I recall him saying was 'but what did they play?!?, What did they play?!?'. We all roared with laughter, John, in his inimitable way had summed up the evening perfectly. [Ed. note- the major 3 inch snowfall had occurred as the previous night's show let out (3-31-85), BUT there was more light snow after the second night's show]

Philly was next, but that one is mostly a blur. A crowded crazy blur.

Good Times Like These Will Never Come Again.
Thanks Guys, for being there and inviting me along for that crazy ride.
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Gary's story:
Thu, Mar 25 at 12:40 PM
Kyle and the crew,

I hope all are well! If I had a gold dollar for every time I've thought of each and everyone of you, I surely could buy a town the size of......

So here goes some recollections of Spring 85. I'll apologize in advance for the undercooked smorgasbord I'm about to serve. The Executive crew was a well oiled machine by spring 85. Collectively, I believe we saw most every show in 1984 except a handful. Personally, I've never had more fun and adventure than 1983-87 of which I toured heavily with the crew. Thanks for having me!!!!

So,...I'll skip to Nassau Coliseum because I believe that's when we all convened under 1 roof for the first time on this tour. That roof belonged to John Hance, a force of nature whom I would get to know much better over the next several days. We had great seats the first night, probably around row 15 dead center and plenty of taper acquaintances nearby. The energy was through the roof pre-show and and the usual " what's gonna be the opener " banter was Strong. Lots of Shakedown this, Shakedown that... but someone in our crew ( I wish I could recall, I think maybe Tom, Sean, Kyle or Kibby???)... confidently, matter of factually states: 1/2 STEP. Now this proclamation excited the hell out of me ,as I had not caught one before. Lights go down... boom!!! Well hot damn, to this day... my favorite!!! ...and the crowds reaction is insane as Jerry puts his foot down!! I believe this was the 1st 1/2 step since 1982 (maybe) [Ed. Note- Kibby is Chris Kidwell)

So the scene at Johns place is crazy. Sleeping bags and tape decks covered the floor. John was gracious to open his collection of gems so we copied recordings through the night.
The next morning, John asked if I wanted to head out with him to run some errands etc....we needed batteries etc... ( we always needed batteries!!!) This would be the first time I had really spent time with John other than large groups etc.. Through the course of a few hours, we procured a healthy supply of batteries courtesy of Northrup Grumman. (John sneaked me on base with an old badge), stopped at his favorite bakery and got fresh bread and had a real nice visit with his sister at her place. As John drove through and around Farmingdale, we caught all green lights, I think the stop signs were green too, the grid could not contain John Hance!! [Ed. note: The Executive Crew Owes/Thanks Northrup Grumman about 500 black D Cell batteries!]

The 2nd night was a fun show, I was up on the side and met some wonderful folks from Brooklyn, Aaron and Carol Jussim. The 1st set was a dandy!!!

The trip To Portland ME was bonkers. John had jumped in with Sean and I in the bread truck. Wet, cold weather met us for most of the drive. The heat compromised bread truck was like an ice box on wheels. We pounded beers and peed in the empty bottles, I was learning guitar at the time and had managed to figure out small bits and pieces of about 20 songs. I played everything I knew as Poor Sean and John had to suffer through. As I finished up, John, with his beautiful LI accent says " Keep playing more of that smorgasbord stuff"!!! Sean also navigated the grid with his own set of rules, only occasionally rubbing against the rails. He rolled us right into Portland where the crew was waiting.

Kibby hosted the crew in Portland and I remember a great mix of touring heads and Chris's local friends. The Day Tripper from the first night was obviously a high point for the crowd. But my most vivid memory of Portland was Late in the day on the 1st. For some reason, Sean and I had stayed behind at Chris's place as everyone else had left for the show. Its a couple hours before show time and the house phone rings. Sean answers and its a gal who needs a ride to the show... her and her 5 friends. Sean, says sure, no problem... the gal thinks its some April fools shenanigans cuz who would have room for 6 people etc....this close to showtime. The look on their faces when Sean wheeled the bread truck up to there place was priceless. This was one crazy group of heads as one of the guys in the group greeted us with his closed fist held up to his nose and proclaimed "Nosecone"... over and over again. He spoke no other words except nosecone...too
damn funny.

Providence was a blur for me. My only real memory is Eric B and I hit the bars after one of the shows. Crazy packed with deadheads and college kids... Eric introduced me to double Stoli & soda's all night!!! I also recall while walking around Brown University during the day, we came across David Bromberg giving an outdoor concert in some square.

I always loved Philly shows. The end of the tour coincided with my 19th Birthday The band was a bit tour whooped by this point but the 1st 2 nights were fun with some nice song selections. The final night was just a blast. Greg M. sat with us up on the side and we partied down!!! We really thought we might get a St. Stephen that night haha, no complaints as that was a smoker of a show. I think Eddie ran Sean's deck and presented me with a master of the show ( complete with the Moosehead label from the keg we had ) I remember being so thankful to have all of you around for the after show party in the airport Marriott. We put the beds up on their ends and pushed them against the wall to make more room. A true blow out to end the tour!!! love to you all

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Sean's story: I am still in the process of reprocessing this time line, ;-) < TO BE CONTINUED >