Grateful Dead original members to reunite one last time

LONDON — Twenty years after the death of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, the four surviving members of the rock band are set to reunite. The Grateful Dead, who emerged from the counter-culture movement in California in the late ’60s, will celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary with a selection of shows in Chicago in July.

The reunion will feature the band’s surviving members — Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir — along with three unconfirmed guests to replace Garcia. Chicago’s Solider Field stadium — the oldest American football stadium still in use and home to the Chicago Bears — was the site of the Grateful Dead’s last show with Garcia in July 1995.

“It is with respect and gratitude that we reconvene the Dead one last time to celebrate — not merely the band’s legacy, but also the community that we’ve been playing to, and with, for 50 years,” said bassist Phil Lesh in a statement.

“Being able to get everyone together — the fans and the band members — for a special weekend is a really big deal,” said Garcia’s daughter, Trixie.

Garcia — who sang, played guitar and wrote many of the songs — died one month after that concert, signalling an end to a tradition which saw free-spirited “Deadheads” follow the band from show to show and swapped bootleg recordings. Among the band’s best known tracks are Truckin, Touch Of Grey and Casey Jones.

Surviving members of the Grateful Dead have played together before, including for a benefit show in 2008 for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, which led to a series of full concerts. But the Chicago concerts could serve as a finale for the Grateful Dead as band members have spoken increasingly about retirement. Weir is 67 and Lesh turns 75 in March.

Among the musicians who will play on stage in Chicago will be Trey Anastasio, the singer and guitarist for Phish — a band often considered the spiritual successor to the Grateful Dead in terms of their improvisational musical style and base of passionate but convivial fans. Also joining the band will be Bruce Hornsby, a genre-merging pianist and singer who frequently collaborated with the Grateful Dead in the past, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti, who has also played with the band since Garcia’s death.

Speaking of reunions, another cult favourite is getting back together. Actor Kyle MacLachlan has officially signed up to reprise his role as FBI Agent Dale Cooper in the Twin Peaks revival. As reported previously, David Lynch and Mark Frost’s seminal TV series will return on cable network Showtime next year after a 25-year hiatus. The eerie whodunit will be set in the present day, with Frost and Lynch writing and producing all nine episodes and the latter directing.

The 55-year-old MacLahlan who’s starred in films such as Blue Velvet and The Doors, said: “I’m very excited to return to the strange and wonderful world of Twin Peaks. May the forest be with you.”

Showtime president David Nevins, who wouldn’t reveal any potential plotlines, said the decision to bring Twin Peaks back was “something (Frost and Lynch) have been toying with for a long time. I think in David’s mind, 25 years seemed like the magic number”.

In the original Twin Peaks finale, the ghost of murdered schoolgirl Laura Palmer said she would return again in 25 years. (In 2016, it will be 25 years since the second season ended.)

It has also been announced that three more original stars of Twin Peaks are returning for the series’ revival. Sheryl Lee (who played both Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson), Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) and Sherilyn Fenn (Audrey Horne) are all in line to come back for the show’s third season. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH