5-24-70: hollywood festival, ted askey’s lower pig farm, staffordshire, england.

the two-day outdoor event was packed with a variety of local and national talent, which included the likes of traffic, ginger baker’s airforce, mungo jerry, the flaming groovies, tony joe white, a very young black sabbath, and jose feliciano. the dead performed a fine electric set despite the tiny stage, crowded press arena, and a PA and monitoring system that they weren't able to hear. no problem, the boys played full-tilt for three hours straight to the delight of the newcastle-under-lyme freaks and adventurous locals. the british press were unanimous in their positive appraisal of the dead’s showing at the festival: mac garry (in zigzag 13) said that they were "totally magnificent.” his description of jerry’s performance was compelling: “…the solid red gibson looked so flimsy in garcia's hands that it looked like it would break like balsa if he squeezed it—but it seemed like every time he touched it, beautiful, clear ringing notes poured out—and on me and my uncle he was just fucking fabulous.” dick lawson (‘what would be the answer to the answer then?,’ friends 12) completely gushed over the show, describing their set as "the most ecstatic exploratory music ever witnessed in england."

speaking to lawson prior to the festival, garcia said: "we're going through some transitions. our music is not what it was: it's continually changing. what we've been doing in the states lately is having 'an evening with the grateful dead.' we start off with acoustic music with bobby and me playing guitars, light drums, and very quiet electric bass. pigpen plays the organ. then we have a band we've been traveling with, the new riders of the purple sage, where i play pedal steel, not guitar, mickey plays drums, and three of our friends from the coast, musicians that we've known for a long time, are fronting the band. so we start off with acoustic music and then the new riders--it's like very snappy electric country-rock; it's kinda hard to describe--and then we come on with the electric dead, so it keeps us all really interesting, and it's six hours of this whole development thing. by the end of the night it's very high" (p. 11).

for a band in transition, the dead sure don’t disappoint the UK crowd. playing at fearsome volume they work their way through a number of extended jams, some new tunes from workingman’s, and a generous helping of pig pen tunes. some highlights include an outstanding china cat sunflower > i know you rider pairing, a powerful, attacking version of the other one that neatly segues into a rare live offering of attics of my life, a highly charged good lovin’ with plenty of mckernan trimmings, and a dark star rife with rhythmic exploration and noise that likely transported the crowd to the edge of a blissful perfection.

the dead’s first european jaunt was mostly successful and certainly gained them some new fans. although they weren’t at the top of the bill at the hollywood festival, many folks had come to hear them out of curiosity to see if they were all they were cracked up to be. ramrod and the crew worked tirelessly to improve the sound, and the set was recorded by the band’s resident sound man & chemist, stanley owsley. regrettably, the BBC tv crew who were set to film the show were unable to fully perform their duties due to a dose of bear’s finest. the footage they shot was completely unusable. a few privately shot standard 8 films do exist though, and they are brief and recorded without sound. the best available celluloid documentation of the may of '70 mini-tour are outtakes shot on 16mm, which were discovered in the preparation for the dvd release of the grateful dead movie. the footage from the hollywood fest is of exceptional quality and made the cut as bonus content on scorsese’s long strange trip documentary. there’s also footage of the band, robert hunter, and sam cutler arriving at heathrow airport which is a total gas, not to mention a wonderful historical document.

in 1971 garcia gave a rolling stone interview and commented about his disappointment regarding the dead’s showing at the festival: “i enjoyed going to england. i liked the english people, they seemed to enjoy us, but we didn't play for shit. we only got to play once, at a thing called the hollywood festival while we were there. so it was a drag; but i'd like to go and really spend some time playing and get to know some people. but it was really nice." well, we all know that jerry got to follow-up on his agenda in the autumn of ’72, but that’s a different story that’s had more than enough press. as for this concert in staffordshire, i must say that i disagree with jerome’s assessment of the gig being a poorly played affair. yes, it’s a bit ragged and out of tune at times, but it makes up for its shortcomings with sheer grit, flagrant noise, and unrestrained abandon. that said, may 24, 1970 is a tape that i’m happy to revisit for just the force and character of the performance alone. it represents a band playing at the edge of new possibilities and ideas, ideas that would mature over the course of the year where the group would grind out well over 100 live dates, record two rootsy studio masterpieces, and integrate acoustic music into most major-venue shows. pretty impressive.

digitized by michael getz with an update by simon philips, this recording is a bit of 1970s gold. give it a listen and make your own appraisal. you may even find yourself taking it out for a second spin.
https://archive.org/details/gd1970-05-24.135716.sbd.phillips.flac16

and please do yourself a favor and also check out these rare black & white and color outtakes from the 1970 europe excursion. you'll most likely dig 'em as much as me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpJUZn_G6og