Conference rdvax::grateful

	A moment of silence....




	WOW!


	That is terrible news.  RIP Father of Time, lover of the Grateful
	Dead.

Here are some excerpts from Burr Snider's article in the
Sunday 10-27 SF Examiner, without permission.
 
"If Elvis Presley was the king, Bill Graham, the nonpareil
Bay Area music impresario who died in a helicopter crash
Friday night, was certainly the emperor. [a benevolent one :-)]
 
Graham, who had fled the Nazi invasion of France as a young
boy, produced his first concert in 1965, a benefit for the
San Francisco Mime Troupe. Featuring the Jefferson Airplane
and Allen Ginsburg, it brought together the disparate elements
of the San Francisco art, music and literary scenes and signalled
the beginning of a cultural renaissance for The City.
 
Within a year, crowds had grown so large at Graham's shows that
he moved his venue to the Fillmore Auditorium, where he produced
eclectic, adventurous concerts featuring such acts as the Grateful
Dead, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana and Big Brother and
the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin.
 
The concerts subsequently moved to an old skating rink in the
Fillmore District known as Winterland. In 1968, Graham opened the
Fillmore East on the Lower East Side of New York.
 
Graham soon became known as the top concert producer in the world,
putting on such mammoth events as the Watkins Glen Pop Festival
in Upstate New York in 1973, which drew half a million fans, the
largest gathering of its sort in history. He also ran several of the
Rolling Stones legendary world tours, as well as The Band's `Last
Waltz' concert, the 1986 tour for Amnesty International and the
`Live Aid' concert. In addition to organizing a star-studded relief
concert for victims of the 1989 earthquake, Graham also donated
$1 million of his own money.
 
One of the accomplishments of which he was proudest was producing
in 1987 the first outdoor rock 'n' roll show ever in the Soviet
Union. Typically for Graham, it was on only 29 days notice. He 
demanded -and got- carte blanche from the Soviet bureaucracy for the
undertaking, bypassing customs laws and running roughshod over the
apparatchiks to get in his way.
 
He imported sound equipment from all over the world and cut through
red tape with a merry disdain for niceties to get his show on. 
Serving food smuggled in from Poland, his backstage restaurant was
said to be the best in Moscow.
 
But no matter hwo big the shows became, Graham was always a meticulous
hands-on manager. When you went to a Bill Graham production you knew
that the security would be good, the music would start on time, and 
the ambience and equipment would be absolutely top drawer. Graham always
felt that the audience was paramount and would accept no less than the
best. If he had to throw a tantrum to achieve it, you can believe a
tantrum would be thrown.
 
`Bill always represented the business as it was before it got so
corporate,' said Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, which started
performing for Graham in the glory days of the San Francisco Sound.
 
`He remembered how it was back when we were playing in bowling alleys
and he was the only one I knew who could cross that 10-foot fence
between the stage and the boardroom,' Slick recalled. `He could think
like an artist and deal like a businessman. Bill was one of those people
you think will never die. An era is gone with him.'
 
Graham developed a special relationship with the Grateful Dead over
the years, taking on the band's management for years and making a
traditional appearance at the Dead's legendary New Year's Eve shows
as Father Time. He always said that those few moments of being `the
show' were the best of the year.
 
In recent years Graham had turned his energies and attention more
and more to philanthropy. He had a special interest in education.
 
`If you had a righteous cause and wanted to do something, Bill Graham
Presents would do it for you,' said Wavy Gravy, the counterculture
clown. `I remember when people thought of him as an ogre - and in many
ways he was - but he had totally metamorphized in the last decade or
so. And he was a real angel for good causes. He was involved across
the entire spectrum, and with a lighter and lighter touch as time went
by.'
 
A memorial service for Graham will be held for family and close friends
at Temple Emanu-el on Arguello Boulevard Monday at 11:30 a.m. In lieu of
flowers, donations may be made to the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic,
3333 California St., Suite 109, San Francisco CA 94118 or to an 
organization to benefit education."
 
 

Article 1294 of clari.news.music:
Subject: Rock promoter Bill Graham dies in copter crash
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 91 15:45:42 EDT

	VALLEJO, Calif. (UPI) -- Famed rock music promoter Bill Graham was
among three people killed when their helicopter crashed during a
rainstorm into a 200-foot-tall electrical transformer northeast of San
Francisco.
	Graham, 59, of Corte Madera, Calif., was returning from a Huey Lewis
and the News concert at the Concord Pavillion at the time of the crash,
said Penny Hoyle, director of advertising for Graham's promotion
company, Bill Graham Presents. Also killed in the crash was the pilot
and Graham's female companion.
	Graham, rock 'n' roll's most famous music promoter, established the
first and most famous ballroom at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium in
1966. While booking virtually every major rock act, Graham helped
inspire the so-called San Francisco sound of the 1960s. He also changed
forever the way popular concerts and music paraphernalia are marketed.
	Born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin, Germany, in 1931, he moved to the
United States in 1941 and was raised in a Jewish foster home in the
Bronx. He formally changed his name when granted citizenship in 1949.
	Graham served in the Army, was awarded a Bronze Star during the
Korean War, and graduated from New York City College before moving to
the San Francisco Bay area. Leaving his executive position with a farm
equipment company, Graham took over management of the radical street-
theater improvisation group the Mime Troup in 1965.
	To raise money for the troupe, Graham promoted a benefit concert of
bay area musicians at San Francisco's Longshoremen's Hall on Nov. 6,
1965. On Dec. 10 of that year, Graham promoted another benefit concert
at the Fillmore Auditorium with The Jefferson Airplane, The Great
Society and The Warlocks (later known as the Grateful Dead).
	The financial and artistic success of his promotions led Graham to
the regular presentation of rock shows at the Fillmore. By the end of
1966 he was also promoting concerts at the larger 5,400-seat Winterland
Arena. The concerts, a mix of local and national talent, became wildly
successful.
	In 1968 the disgruntled Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead took
over an old dance hall on San Francisco's Market Street called the
Carousel. Graham, who had opened Fillmore East in New York City the same
year, assumed management of the Carousel and changed its name to the
Fillmore West following his departure from the original Fillmore.
	Over the next few years, Graham presented virtually every major rock
act at the two venues while also giving unknown acts a chance to perform
and booking a number of non-rock acts such as Miles Davis and the
Stables Singers. He also promoted final performances by The Beatles, at
San Francisco's Candlestick Park, and The Band.
	Soaring costs, however, forced Graham to close both the Fillmores by
July 1971, and Graham briefly retired from the concert promotion
business. But he returned in 1972 to promote a tour by The Rolling
Stones. He later promoted a come-back tour by Bob Dylan and a Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young reunion.
	Graham's career was punctuated by highly publicized clashes with
music groups or their managers over ticket prices and the size of
arenas.
	``I'm in the business to make money and I don't see anything wrong
with that,'' Graham once said, in his typical no-nonsense style. ``But I
also believe in giving the customers their money's worth.''
	Graham also was quick to share the credit for his success with his
adopted country. ``With all its faults, this is a wonderful country,''
he said. ``I'm not ashamed to say I love the United States.''
	Recently, Graham has remained active in arranging concerts and tours,
promoting groups such as Santana and Huey Lewis and the News. He handled
the Rolling Stones' massive 1989 tour, one of the most profitable ever.
	The 10 p.m. Friday helicopter crash that killed Graham and two others
knocked out power to some 24,000 homes in the Vallejo area, officials
said.
	Authorities said the five-passenger Bell helicopter was still hanging
in the 200-foot-high power lines early Saturday. Highway 37 remained
closed until authorities could bring in equipment to get it down.
	Sonoma County sheriff's deputy Jay Farmer said the wreckage looked
like ``some crazy erector set gone amok.''
	The chopper, which was reported flying low to the ground, slammed
into the 115,000-volt transformer, officials said. There was an
explosion on impact, but rainshowers prevented a major fire.

    I was mindlessly flipping through the channels on the tube with the
    remote when I hit CNN.  I saw about a two second flash of a familiar
    face.  It was Mickey Hart.  I didn't catch what he said.  The next clip
    showed the dead and the CNN person said the dead were doing this show
    in memory of Bill.

    The clip I saw had Jerry, Bobby and Mickey, and a few seconds of the
    Sugar Mags opener.  They mentioned that they weren't going to mourn for
    BG, but to honor his life and accomplishments (I'm paraphrasing
    somewhat.)

    Don
    (who wasn't mindlessly flipping, my purpose was to cover all channels
    within 10 millibleems)

Article 57785 of rec.music.gdead:
Path: e2big.mko.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!news.crl.dec.com!deccrl!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!abzcast
From: abzcast@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Denise Castleton)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Polo Fields Setlists
Message-ID: <1991Nov4.081518.22863@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 4 Nov 91 08:15:18 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lines: 65

Paraphrased from the WELL :-)

Processional: Dirty Dozen Brass Band, BGP employees, staff, and crowd

Bobby McFerrin: (vocal), Star-Spangled Banner (ala Hendrix)

Chief Oren Lyons (Onondaga Nations) speech :  
	"gathering today to celebrate a good man's life"

Jackson Browne: For A Dancer, World In Motion

Joe Satriani: Crush of Love

Aaron Neville, Chester Thompson (keybds), Evelyn Cisneros (SF Ballet)
	Ave Maria

Santana: Spirits Dancing in the Flesh
	Somewhere In Heaven (dedicated to "my friend and brother-eternal
		brother-Bill Graham, my spiritual teacher, Miles Davis,
		and let's not forget, Stevie Ray Vaughan")
	Third Stone from the Sun
	Oye Como Va
	Bertha (with members of Los Lobos)
	I Love You Much Too Much
	Jingo

Robin Williams: quote: "It's alright if any of you *aren't* on acid, today"

Art Agnos (Mayor of S.F.) : eulogy of Bill Graham

Journey: ("Circus Lights...we all need a clown") ?

Tracy Chapman: All that you have is your soul

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young:
	Teach Your Children
	Love the One You're With
	Long May You Run
	Long Time Gone
	Southern Cross
	Only Love Can Break Your Heart
	Wooden Ships
	Ohio

Wavy Gravy: speech (respect the earth)

Grateful Dead: Hell In A Bucket
	China Cat Sunflower>
	I Know You Rider
	Wang Dang Doodle (w/ John Popper of Blues Traveler on harmonica)
	with John Fogerty (or Fogerty w/ the Dead, that is :-):
		Born on the Bayou
		Green River
		Bad Moon Rising
		Proud Mary
	Truckin'>
	Other One>
	Wharf Rat>
	Sunshine Daydream (to finish up from 10/27 Sugar Magnolia)
	Forever Young (with Neil Young)
	Touch of Grey

Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Graham Nash: Amazing Grace

Recessional: Greensleeves (Bill's favorite)

  :^(

We got to the Polo Field around 7:00 am and it was already really
crowded.  We saw one of our friends almost right away against the
rail (front row center)  He had gotten there at 10 to 5 to get that
spot, and he said Randy and I should join him.  How can we say no?
;-)  They had a shrine set up in front of the stage with huge pictures
of Bill, Steve Kahn, and Melissa Gold.  There were all sorts of stuff
on the shrine like statues of gods from all religions, all different
types of food offerings, and a lot of incense.  There were a few large
flower arrangements, two of them with paper mache skeletons sitting in
them.  All through the show, different friends and family of the
deceased came by to burn an incense stick and pay their respect.  It
was very emotional for me watching the grieving from up close.  There
was always two women taking care of the shrine at any one point, making
sure all the candles stay lit, adjusting the pictures if they tilt and
showing people where the incense sticks are when paying their respect.

As for the show, all I can say is that it was just incredible!!  It
started off with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, then the list of performers
are Bobby McFerrin, Jackson Browne, Aaron Neville doing Ave Maria with
Evelyn Cisneros doing a very touching ballet dance during Aaron's
rendiiton Joe Satriani, Carlos, Carlos with Los Lobos, Los Lobos with
Carlos doing Bertha, Tracy Chapman, Robin Williams, Mayor Art Agnos,
Journey, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Wavy Gravy, the Dead, John
Fogerty with the Dead, Neil Young with the Dead, Joan Baez with Graham
Nash, and Kris Kristofferson.

The Dead set has its ups and downs.  There were some incredible jams and
there were also some really lame spots.  From my vantage point, John Popper
on harmonica with the Dead does not seem to be something that was planned
by the Dead.  When the Dead went into Wang Dang, we could see Popper hanging
out on Jerry's side trying to get his attention.  He said something to Jerry
and after a little exchange, Jerry said something to Bobby and to the drummers
and after a little more back and forth, Jerry turned to Popper and nodded at
him.  At points during Wang Dang, Popper was using Jerry's mike to do his 
harmonica thing and Jerry would walk up and give him a look like "Ummm...I
need it back".  I'd assume that if he was a planned guest, they'd have set
up a mike for him.  I guess it's a good way to be immortal - force your way
onto the same stage with the Dead ;-).  Of course, this is just my
interpretation of what was going on.  The set with John Fogerty was a
treat even though as much as I like CCR, some of their songs tends to be
repetitive musically (although some people will say this about the Dead
too).  Neil Young doing Forever Young with the Dead is one of those once-
in-a-lifetime things.  We were just wondering the night before how come
Neil never plays with the Dead (has he??).  This is the third Forever
Young I've seen this weekend.  Neil Young did it twice at the Bridge 
Benefit Saturday night.  Once opening the show and once again closing the
show with the rest of the folks appearing at the Benefit.

At the start of the Dead set during Hell in a Bucket, a plane flew over
and dropped 60,000 carnations onto the crowd.  All over the field, there
were clusters of balloons in the air which were let go at the end of the
show.  It got really crowded.  I didn't even realize how much until I
tried going to the bathroom after Robin Williams came on.  I missed Mayor
Art Agnos and Journey.  People were packed all the way up to the edge of
the port-o-potties.  I've never seen Polo Fields that packed ever before.
Talking about a sea of people!!  I just wonder how people in the back can
possibly see!!  Needless to say, I didn't try going to the bathroom again.
WHEW!!  I was glad that I was where I was, even though the stage was set
up so high that I couldn't see the performer's faces closely.  I can imagine
that Jerry cried during the performance like someone mentioned.  The show
was a very fit tribute to one of rock's biggest figure.  All in all, a most
wonderful time even if I had wished we had gathered for a more cheerful
reason.  I think Bill probably had the best seat in the house.

peace,
t!ng