Beadles not about any more

Jeremy Beadle, a TV presenter, died on 30th January.

It's a little -known fact that Jeremy organised the Bickershaw Festival, an event in the North-West of the UK near Wigan, in 1972. He put together a world-class line-up of bands including the Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart. Apparently he and Jerry Garcia fell out over whether promoters were evil conniving rip-off artists or not. The weather was terrible but the Dead played a stunning set, including Pigpens arguably finest ever rendition of the Lovin Spoonful's 'Good Lovin', and in their ineffable way caused the rain to stop. A year later Pigpen was dead, and that was the end of the 'Good Old' Grateful Dead - the band that emerged in 1974, and then took a year out, was a very different beast.