Dead in China (Grateful, not virus-related)

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While I was reminiscing in another thread I came across this announcement published in Relix, dated 1987 (can you image what this would have been like?)

CHINESE TOUR:  The Dead office announced plans to offer a series of tour packages for the May and June 1988 Far East tour.  You must be on a tour to receive tickets for the shows.  No tickets will be offered by the Grateful Dead office.

            The tour will be limited to 500 only. At presstime, the Dead did not have the price of the tour.  There are three separate tours:

            TOUR 1:  Japan and Hong Kong.  12 days.

2 shows in Tokyo

1 show in Osaka

1 show in Hong Kong

TOUR 2:  Japan and Hong Kong and part of China.  19 days.  Includes:

All of Tour 1 plus

1 show at Shen Zhen

2 shows in Guang Shou

TOUR 3:  Includes of of tours 1 & 2.  29 days.

Plus:

2 shows in Shanghai

2 shows in Bejing

1 show at the Great Wall outdoors

            The price of the show includes all tickets, transportation, and lodging.  For info, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope, with your name, address, phone, which tour and number of people in your party to: CHINA TOUR, PO Box 1260, San Rafael, CA 94915

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Hey Alan are you aware of the cancelled Europe tour fall 78?

That China tour would have been insane, in the best way.  Outdoor show at the Great Wall, 10 years after the pyramid show!

 

Re China tour: Some guy wrote this:"... I has already started the design for the bumper stickers "Peaking in Peking" which I changed to Beijing, and was looking into importing persian rugs to make cash from the trip to pay for it..."

Re European 78? tour: Thankfully they dd not do that, because it was best if I graduated college. I was too broke anyway. Luckily, I went to school in the middle of New England and  there were a lot of venues within a reasonable driving distance.

One of the craziest "shows" back then in New England was when they canceled the show AFTER WE WERE ALL IN THE VENUE! 11-25-78. New Haven Coliseum. A show that lasted 73 seconds! Jerry had a respiratory illness. Can you imagine 11,000 lit-up deadheads loose on the streets of New Haven?  All I remember is everyone gathered around a big Christmas tree in the middle of the city.

https://archive.org/details/gd1978-11-25.aud.anderson.85058.flac16

China would have been insane. The show 2 days before the canceled New Haven show at the Cap Centre is killer. Jerry's voice showing signs of laryngitis

 

https://archive.org/details/gd78-11-23.sbd.cotsman.19155.sbeok.shnf

I never heard of the proposed Asia tour, but I was weening myself off of Tour in 1987 to focus on my undergraduate studies.  I even skipped all of the six Dylan/Dead shows.

Why didn't the Asia tour materialize?

Still have a 'Great Wall Tour'  tie-dye somewhere.  Long sleeve with a nice Dragon silk screen.  Have to locate that and snap a foto.

I heard of the tour at the time but don't know why it never happened. I remember Weir saying years ago after Jerry died that he was going to tour India with Sanjay Mishra and Wasserman but that never materialized.  India is the quintessential place for GD music imo. Full of hippies. They should have went.

Didn't Bill Graham make an announcement about this onstage at the Jan '87 Chinese New Year shows?

I saw the first two nights of that run and am sure i remember that.

According to my Duprees Diamond News I got at Jerry on Broadway the shows though not confirmed were to take place Spring 88 with 10-12 shows.

I believe I remember the talk then was that it came down to money. They weren't going to make any

and they already saw that movie in Egypt.

It would have been weird to hear about the heads who ended up in a Chinese prison over a few hits of acid.

 

One interesting rumor about China tour was that at least a million doses were smuggled in several months earlier (by whom I don't know) - so no one would have to bring any with them and there would be plenty to share.

Even with the tour off, those hits got circulated in China, and a year later the pro-democracy Tieneman Square protests happened. Coincidence?

Maybe the guy who stood in front of the tank was tripping balls and thought he could move it with his mind or something.

whoa! love these stories, thanks for sharing.

anyone know J. Dwork, a co-founder of Dupree's? he used to live in Portland part-time, would see him around in the mid-2000s...

Well dabreeze there's the Lithuania GD/Bill Walton connection and the fall of the Soviet Union. ..so who knows maybe it would be democratic china if the dead actually played those shows

Wearing my Lithuania GD shirt today for no reason.