MIKEL

The debut issue introduces MIKEL as a Grateful Dead newsletter, source of band specialty items, and reader-submission trivia/letters forum, alongside a 1982 summer tour itinerary.

A brief review and set list from the Dead's Ventura County Fairgrounds show that summer.

Reader thank-yous from the Alpine Valley/Midwest summer tour leg and set lists. A "Dead Covers" trivia note explains "Peggy-O" first appeared (as "Fennario") on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2 (1963), and a year later in shortened form as "Peggy-O" on Simon & Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. Note: most of this issue's content is illegible due to poor scan quality.

Coverage of the Oregon Country Fair's Veneta show debuting "Dupree's Diamond Blues" at the Eugene Decennial Picnic, plus fall tour dates and a "Dead Covers" trivia note on "Promised Land" (a Chuck Berry cover, first on the album Twist). Note: most of this issue's content is illegible due to poor scan quality.

Reader letters and tour dates (New Orleans, West Palm Beach, Lakeland, Charlottesville, Portland ME, Boston, NYC, New Haven, Syracuse, Palo Alto), plus a "Dead Covers" trivia note on "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," first on Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home (1965).

Notes the new Garcia songs "Keep Your Day Job," "West L.A. Fadeaway," and "Touch of Grey," and Weir's new "Throwing Stones," then in the live repertoire for the first time. Previews a planned Thanksgiving-weekend Grateful Dead appearance at the Jamaica World Music Festival in Montego Bay, West Indies. A "Dead Covers" trivia note covers "Big River," a Johnny Cash song from I Walk the Line.

A set list from an October 26, 1982 Jerry Garcia Band show in Reseda, CA (Ron Tutt on drums, Merl Saunders on organ, John Kahn on bass). Reports the Grateful Dead and Bobby & the Midnites would play the Jamaica World Music Festival in Montego Bay (the Dead November 25, Bobby & the Midnites November 27), with a free local show also planned. Details the 1983 Grateful Dead calendar, featuring Alton Kelley graphics, a cover collage by Peter Monk (namesake of the song "Black Peter"), and a previously unreleased Herb Greene photo of Pigpen.

Notes California's severe January-February 1983 floods and mudslides, the demolition of the Oakland Municipal Auditorium (site of the Dead's old New Year's shows), Bobby & the Midnites recording a new album in London, and the scramble for tickets to the March 29-31 Jerry Garcia/Warfield Theatre benefit shows.

Covers the long-awaited spring 1983 East Coast tour opener, featuring a 20-minute Help on the Way>Slipknot!>Franklin's Tower suite, and notes the Warfield benefit shows sold out for audiences over 2,000. Advertises the upcoming book The Official Book of the Dead Heads, edited by Paul Grushkin with a preface by Jerry Garcia and a cover painting by Alton Kelley, due from Quill/William Morrow in May 1984.

A rare personal essay from MIKEL's anonymous editor, reflecting on the difficulty of balancing personal life with running the newsletter, his Hawaii bridge-tournament work trip, and a vivid account of a stormy Compton Terrace (Tempe, AZ) show where Bob Weir powered through a darkening, rain-lashed first set with an improvised "keep the tempo up until the rain stops" rap before a cathartic "Let It Grow," followed by a rare "Help on the Way>Slipknot!>Franklin's Tower" in the second set.

Previews the band's return to Merriweather Post Pavilion (June 20-21) and notes the June 9-10 RFK Stadium shows with the Allman Brothers Band marked the 10th anniversary of their joint June 1973 RFK shows, played in 105-degree heat with a closing two-band jam on "Not Fade Away." Also reports a local Deadhead committee petitioned Harrisburg's mayor to declare June 22 "Grateful Dead Day."

Recaps the second major 1983 tour (Saratoga Springs opener through Poplar Creek closer), noting a new Bob Weir song, "Hell in a Bucket," debuted during the tour, with partial lyrics quoted.

Covers a July 30, 1983 Ventura show, and reports the cancellation of an upcoming Jerry Garcia Band Southland tour due to a foot infection. Marks the start of MIKEL's second volume.

Covers the Northwest tour finale at the Hult Center in Eugene, OR, including a rare vault pull "Wang Dang Doodle" at the Portland opener and an audience-pleasing "Uncle John's Band" in Seattle.

Covers the end-of-summer tour, with "U.S. Blues" revived as an encore for nine straight shows and a Willie Dixon-cover streak ("Wang Dang Doodle," "Spoonful") continuing into Boise. Looks ahead to the band's Santa Fe Downs shows around Mickey Hart's birthday.

A review of the September 10, 1983 Santa Fe Downs shows, where the band camped in the venue's infield, played a rare second-set "Cumberland Blues" under a rainbow, and celebrated Mickey Hart's birthday.

Previews a busy October featuring simultaneous Jerry Garcia Band, Bobby & the Midnites, and Grateful Dead activity, culminating in Halloween shows in Marin. Reports the New Year's show format (SF Civic vs. Oakland Coliseum) was still undecided, and previews a 1984 calendar from Paul Grushkin (creator of The Official Book of the Dead Heads) plus a MIKEL reader-submission calendar.

A review of the October 31, 1983 Halloween show at the Marin Center, with Garcia leading the crowd in a "happy halloween" chant, a rare first-set "Lost Sailor>Saint of Circumstance," and percussionist Airto Moreira joining Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann onstage for the drums jam.

A year-end retrospective on 1983's new songs ("Day Job," "Touch of Grey," "Brother Esau," "Hell in a Bucket") and the year's mix of stadiums and smaller halls following Garcia's August illness. Previews spring 1984 tour plans covering Long Beach/Irvine, Marin/Warfield, and Reno, and announces a limited-edition reader-artwork MIKEL calendar.

A review of the New Year's Eve 1983/84 show at the SF Civic Auditorium, describing Bill Graham's traditional descent on an illuminated globe as "Father Time" into the band's opening "Sugar Magnolia."

Details a precedent-setting fan-direct mail-order ticket plan for the band's April 1984 East Coast tour, allowing a Deadhead to order one ticket to each of 13 tour dates directly, plus separate mail-order info for the April 6-7 Las Vegas/Irvine shows.

Notes the band's energized spring 1984 West Coast shows, fresh off studio time on a possible new album, with the April 7 show falling on the anniversary of Albert Hofmann's 1943 discovery of LSD's effects.

Set lists and tour notes from the April 1984 East Coast tour. Note: most of this issue's content is illegible due to poor scan quality.

Covers a multi-night run at the Hult Center in Eugene, OR (late April-early May 1984) notable for Ken Kesey's repeated onstage and backstage presence alongside Wavy Gravy and Paul Krassner, leading a "Grateful Dead" cheer with the crowd; highlights include a strong second set on night one, a particularly inspired Garcia performance on Bill Kreutzmann's birthday (night two), and a closing "Morning Dew" on night three.

Set lists and tour notes, including Alpine Valley. Note: this issue's scan quality is extremely poor; nearly all content is illegible OCR garbage and was not indexed.

Covers the fall 1984 East Coast tour opener in Richmond, VA, and two notable New York shows: "St. Stephen" played for the first time in the 1980s (October 11), and a "Cassidy>Cumberland Blues" first-set jam the next night, with an encore cover of the Beatles' "Revolution."

Results of a MIKEL reader survey of 111 Deadheads on day jobs, ages, favorite shows, best new song, and most memorable experiences of 1983.

A lyrical review of the fall 1984 tour's early dates, centered on the October 9, 1984 Worcester show: Bob Weir's full-throated "Smokestack Lightnin'" (preceded by "He's Gone," doubling as a tribute to the departed Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and to John Lennon, who would have turned 44 that night), closing with a Beatles' "Revolution" encore. Also covers standout shows in Maine and at the Meadowlands.

Calendar and merchandise order content. Note: this issue's scan quality is extremely poor; nearly all content is illegible OCR garbage and was not indexed.

A year-end set-list recap including a 40-minute "Dark Star" and a marathon first set ending in "Lovelight," plus an "Ask Phil" music-trivia column.

Reprints an Omni magazine item on art therapists John Sappington and L.D. Tashjian of Pennsylvania's Horsham Clinic, who incorporated Grateful Dead and Ozzy Osbourne songs into art-therapy programs for troubled teens, using the music to help patients articulate emotional struggles. Note: this issue's date is uncertain -- the filename and page content do not clearly establish a precise month/year.

A memorial issue announcing the death of MIKEL's founder and sole editor/publisher, who had run the newsletter single-handedly since August 1982. A contributor recounts that his first Dead show was a free outdoor concert with Jefferson Airplane in Montreal in summer 1967. A temporary custodian (aided by contributors Benny and Julie of Huntington Beach, CA) announces she will hold the mailing list and forward mail until someone else takes over MIKEL, alongside a fall 1985 tour itinerary and set lists. This was the final issue of MIKEL in the corpus.