![]() Rhythm guitarist Bob Weir agreed: “We were awful.” We were terrible at Woodstock, and, you know, Monterrey Pop Festival … all the milestones.” “We usually do pretty bad at the big ones. “We played terrible but the trip was great,” Garcia said during an interview on Late Night with David Letterman in 1987. A marriage of East and Westīy the time they took the stage at sundown on September 14, the Grateful Dead were beset by problems.ĭrummer Bill Kreutzmann was suffering from a broken wrist, Keith Godchaux's piano was out of tune and the band had issues with the electric outputs. They're always championing the underdog,” he said. “They were aligning themselves with the most dispossessed. Meriwether said the band's performance with el-Din was a pointed statement. Tens of thousands of Nubians were displaced and forced to resettle. On stage with the Grateful Dead all three nights was Hamza el-Din, an Egyptian Nubian oudist, composer and a friend of drummer Mickey Hart.Įl-Din and members of the Abu Simbel School of Luxor choir opened the shows with his composition Olin Arageed on nights one and two, and opened set two of night three with the song as well.īy performing with el-Din, the Grateful Dead were also sending a message.īorn in the village of Toshka, his home was like much of Nubia that was flooded because of the Aswan High Dam Project in the 1960s. The cover of the programme for the Grateful Dead's performances in September 1987 at Giza. “It was a sales pitch by the three of us – Alan, Richard and Phil,” Loren said.Ī telegram was sent on March 21, 1978, confirming the Grateful Dead would perform two open-air shows at the Sound and Light in front of the Great Pyramid and Sphinx. Half would be donated to the Faith and Hope Society – the Sadats' favourite charity – and the other to Egypt's Department of Antiquities. ![]() ![]() Loren, associate Alan Trist and Grateful Dead bass player Phil Lesh formed a scouting committee that would be responsible for liaising with American and Egyptian officials, Secret Service members and Egyptian first lady Jehan Sadat to allow the Grateful Dead to play in front of the pyramids.Īfter the mission to the proposed site, meetings in Washington and Egypt, discussions with government officials and a party for the consulate, the band still needed to convince officials the purpose of the show was to make music – not money.Īnd so the Dead paid their own expenses and offered to donate all the proceeds. The Grateful Dead ought to play in Egypt,” he said. “And I look down and I see a stage, and a light bulb went off in my head immediately. Loren recalled riding a camel around the pyramid site during a three-week visit in 1975. “The lead singer for Jefferson Airplane is the seed that resulted in the Grateful Dead playing in Egypt,” he said. Loren, who produced the shows, credited his friendship with Jefferson Airplane vocalist Marty Balin, who had a keen interest in Egypt, for developing his own fascination with the country.
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