The Grateful Dead concerts that kickstarted the reunion tours trend
Few bands can boast as dedicated a fanbase as the Grateful Dead. Formed in 1965 and primarily captained by frontman and guitarist Jerry Garcia, their reputation for unreined improvisation and scant regard for setlists created a unique experience for every show they played, cultivating a devoted community of ‘Deadheads’ committed to attending as many shows as possible.
The ‘Deadhead’ following became an integral component of the band’s mythos, Bob Dylan remarking in 1987 after having toured with them that summer: “With most bands the audience participates like in a spectator sport. They just stand there and watch. They keep a distance. With the Dead, the audience is part of the band-they might as well be on stage.”
Despite various minor reunions and a myriad of related side-projects after Garcia’s death in 1995, the remaining core members announced the Fare Thee Well 50th anniversary in 2015, a celebratory five-day tour across Santa Clara and Chicago. The demand was intense, breaking Ticketmaster records for the number of hopefuls snapping up their golden pass the moment tickets were available, and the multi-day event received a pay-per-view simulcast. The tour was a phenomenal success, taking $55million before home releases and merchandise had even been factored in.
A Grateful Dead event of this significance would always be a winner, largely due to their dependable and loyal Deadhead fanbase trusted to hoover up tickets and tie-dyed T-shirts. But the Fare Thee Well series of dates sent a signal to the music industry that there was a lucrative demand for similar live events, with scores of music fans ready to part with serious cash to see the acts of their youth. Whether cynically exploiting nostalgia or sincerely compelled to ‘get the band back together’, the era of the reunion tour had begun.
In the recent Deadhead chronicle, This Is All a Dream We Dreamed, writers Blair Jackson and David Gans touched on the band’s cult fandom. They said: “The Grateful Dead became an attractive destination; the culture itself became a destination. It was a package deal: strong songs, transporting improvisation, unhinged dancing, impressive drugs, and a compelling vibe. The group even came with its own set of philosophical gospels, flexible but potent, spun like most theosophies from a freestyle mix of scripture and believer practices. It was a unique place that fans really liked, and they wanted to revisit it.”
The reunion tour, as we understand it, isn’t entirely new. Riding the resurgence of interest in the ’50s that struck the early ’70s, Wembley Stadium hosted The London Rock and Roll Show, a day-long jamboree boasting Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, and even Bill Haley & His Comets. With The Police’s 2008 get-together raking in over £300m, and the holy grail of Led Zeppelin’s 2007 show certainly opened the door for Fare Thee Well and following reunion tours.
Speaking to IQ in January, Creative Artists Agency honcho Paul Franklin confessed to the commercial pandering that fuels many a reunion tour: “We are in a place where the ticket buyer wants to be entertained and with a greatest hits or anniversary tour, you know what you are getting in terms of a setlist which is always an attractive proposition and immediately helps create the demand.”
With the reunion tour becoming ever more of an established business model, even the Grateful Dead has committed to further dates since Fare Thee Well, ‘classic’ members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart recruited John Mayer to tour under the Dead & Company label, and Phil Lesh and friends have been giving the ‘Deadheads’ what they want at their perennial Capitol Theater residency in New York’s Port Chester.
