Words by Deadheads

The closing of Winterland was a chance for a gathering of the people who recorded and traded audio reels filled with Grateful Dead live concerts. By 1978, this was a small but dedicated group of fanatics. As I recall, we got in line around noon to be greeted by our new friend Dick Latvala, years […]

I was a 16-year-old growing up in Los Angeles. I was from San Francisco, but moved south in 1966 and still had a very large extended family in S.F. My first show was at the Forum on 6/4/77 and I did see the GD at Winterland on 10/20 and 10/21 1978. So, as you can imagine

Memories of the Winterland closing begin with a great anticipation and planning. Getting tickets, coming to the city the day before and getting a good place in line and the inevitable waiting and waiting in line, overnight – through the next day until finally – the doors opened and we dashed for the prized seats,

The closing of Winterland was the big to-do in my prime years of being a Deadhead. Having attended my first New Year’s run the previous year in 1977, attending the closing with the Blues Brothers and New Riders opening was a no brainer. The holy grail tickets for some reason weren’t too hard for us

The first time I saw the Dead was on March 23, 1975 at Kezar Stadium. Nobody but the Grateful Dead could have made those crazy sounds that day, but technically speaking they were billed as Jerry Garcia & Friends, so that makes the closing of Winterland the first time for me seeing them billed as the

After a friend of mine who worked for Bill Graham got me in the venue, the Blues Brothers were just finishing up as we walked through the front doors. I was enveloped in a world I had no idea existed. Up to that point, being that the closing of Winterland was my first Dead concert,

I met Phil sometime in the early to middle 1960s when I was a student with Ronny Davis’ San Francisco Mime Troupe at 16th and Capp in the Mission. While we were discovering improvisational theater, Phil, then, a trumpet player, was experimenting with jazz. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, we would run into each other.

I grew up in Orinda and my love for Winterland and the Grateful Dead started pretty early. The first show I saw at Winterland was Cream in 1967. We were 15, so my dear dad drove us across the bay and waited for us until the show ended. It was a great show that included the James

I’d just moved to Los Angeles with several pals from the East Coast. I was 21, fresh out of college, and excited to start an adventurous new life in California. Having our collective minds blown at our first California Dead show at Winterland in October ’78, returning a few months later for the closing of

I remember the night as if it were yesterday, well almost yesterday. I was living with Stanley Mouse in Petaluma. He had been working on the Blue Rose and I loved watching it come to life in wet paint. Over the days Kelley and Stanley added the lettering to make the poster. I don’t think I