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From the Blog: Fireworks, Calliopes & Clowns"
January 2009 – We had barely recovered from Rebel Salute when the circus came to town.
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Sometime in the Spring of 2008 I learned that Ratdog, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead’s band, would be doing a two show/five-day stint at Grand Lido Negril. I was over the moon. You see, I am, if nothing, three complete identities: I am a woman, I am a Jew and I am a Dead Head. I saw my fist show on September, 2 1978 and had a reserved seat on the bus until June 2, 1995, two months before lead guitarist Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack. While I’d always enjoyed a variety of music and had racked up a respectable and varied collection of concert ticket stubs that included Public Image Limited (PIL) and Parliament Funkadelic, the music of the Grateful Dead simply flowed through my veins. I’d grown up with this band, saw easily over three hundred shows in over fifteen of these United States – the music itself stirred something deep within my gut and either comforted or inspired me….or both.
Bob Weir had been touring with this “side project” for some time before Jerry’s death. The band went through many changes but with the addition of Mark Karan on lead guitar in 1998 it really began to gel. There were of my favorite “postapocalyptic” Grateful Dead experiences. Their music hit my soul that the Dead’s music did.
Les and I knew some high people in places, and they knew that we were the go-to folks for this particular adventure. While Little Feat cultivated the all-inclusive, destination concert scene at Grand Lido for five years, we had over twenty years of real Jamaica experience and knowledge to share. While backstage at a gig in San Jose that summer we met the band’s manager Matt, had a brief conversation about Jamaica and exchanged information with him. As we would not be staying at Grand Lido, we secured a spot on “the list”, and he secured us for advice and adventure off the resort.
Matt arrived in Negril in early December to do his advance work at Grand Lido. His time was limited to just a few hours on a Sunday so we’d thought perhaps we’d take him along on our weekly outing to Half Moon Beach. Matt wanted a little more adventure though – he was staying on the beach so he wanted to check out something different. He wanted to eat “real” jerk chicken and he wanted to experience some of the “real” Jamaica. We picked him up at Grand Lido in typical silly bus fashion and whisked him away.
Our first choice for jerk chicken was not happening so we stopped at Best in the West on the beach road. Since time was short we ate our chicken on our laps in the van as we cruised up into the hills for a scenic drive over Mount Airy and into Orange Hill. We spent some time in Orange Hill, sampling their product and downing a couple of beers, then it was off to spend the rest of the afternoon in the yard.
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When we originally made our arrangements for access into the show we were told that the event would be shut down pretty darn tight – it would be Les and I on the list and that was it. Having met and spent the day with Ron and Peg, Matt gladly added them on for access to the shows.
The first time I’d ever walked into an All Inclusive in Negril was the night the band and crew checked into Grand Lido. We met up with them in the “Main Bar”, collected our wrist bands and had a few drinks. Our “list” had grown and Matt very generously obliged – there were Dead Heads among us for sure that didn’t want to miss this event.
