Grateful Dead Records: Back Stage Passes, Tickets and Laminates, 1965-2009

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Summary

Creators:
Grateful Dead Productions
Abstract:
This series includes backstage passes, tickets, and laminates from Grateful Dead concerts and tours. Only some of the band's 2,300+ concerts are represented.
Extent:
6.8 Linear Feet 10 boxes
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Grateful Dead Records: Back Stage Passes, Tickets and; Laminates. MS 332 Ser. 12. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Background

Scope and content:

This series contains back stage passes, tickets, and laminates to Grateful Dead concerts and tours.

Backstage passes are usually printed fabric stickers about the size of a playing card that allowed access to a restricted area of a venue, where journalists and guests would be entertained during a performance. Designed to be used in conjunction with a ticket, backstage passes could be simple, abstract designs or images derived from mass media, popular culture, or even band members' children's doodles. Unlike laminates, which tended to feature artwork commissioned specifically for that purpose, backstage passes tended to be simpler and more casual, often more whimsical, and generally disposable. Over time, the standard rectangular shape was augmented by a variety of sizes and shapes, from circles to triangles.

Grateful Dead tickets can be grouped into several categories, roughly corresponding to era. In the 1960s, rock promoter Bill Graham quickly recognized the utility of reproducing concert poster images in business card-sized tickets in an effort to impede counterfeits, usually stamped along the bottom or back with the day of the show. These tickets are the most highly prized, collected along with handbills and posters for the concerts. In the 1980s, the band pioneered the direct sale of tickets to fans via mail order, creating tickets that often featured graphics incorporating band logos and motifs. Tickets for special events such as New Year's Eve were often works of art in their own right. By contrast, tickets printed at outlets such as BASS (Bay Area Seating Service) and Ticketmaster were created with a strictly information-only template using a thermal ink printing process that did not hold up well over time, with the lettering often fading quickly.

Laminates are small, playing-card-sized badges made of either printed cardboard sealed in plastic or printed plastic, usually designating an entire tour but sometimes only a single show or run of shows at a single venue. Worn on a lanyard or clipped to outer clothing, laminates serve as identification for band, band family, crew, or touring staff, providing access to secure areas, including backstage and performer areas. Over time, increasingly sophisticated designs intended to thwart counterfeit efforts (nicknamed "scaminates" by enterprising fans) supplanted the simple identification badge style common in the 1970s, giving rise to beautifully rendered artistic efforts by artists such as Timothy Truman, featured in the book Access All Areas: Backstage with the Grateful Dead (Grateful Dead Books, 1998). The interplay between art and security produced striking designs that incorporated cutting-edge production techniques that made successful unauthorized duplication all but impossible. Laminate holders did not require a ticket for access to the show and allowed free access to backstage and other secure areas of the venue.

Biographical / historical:

The Grateful Dead were an American rock band that formed in 1965 in Northern California. They came to fame as part of author Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, a series of multimedia happenings centered around then-legal LSD. Famed for their concerts, the band performed more than 2,300 shows over thirty years, disbanding after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia in August 1995. Although their only Top 10 hit, "Touch of Grey," charted in 1987, their popularity was based on concerts, and in their last decade they consistently placed in the top five tours every year. Known for the range of their repertoire and the caliber of their compositions, the Dead's songbook has been covered by a wide range of other musicians, from Bob Dylan to Jane's Addiction. They released thirteen studio albums and nine contemporary live albums during their career, and more than 100 live releases since then. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Grateful Dead Productions, 2008 and 2012.
Arrangement:

The material is arranged chronologically into three sub-series: Back Stage Passes, Tickets, and Laminates.

Accruals:

The first accrual of materials from the band was received in 2008. Additional materials for this series were added by a second accrual in June 2012.

Physical location:
Stored in Special Collections and Archives.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Property rights for this collection reside with the University of California. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. The publication or use of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use for research or educational purposes requires written permission from the copyright owner. Responsibility for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information on copyright or to order a reproduction, please visit guides.library.ucsc.edu/speccoll/reproduction-publication.

Preferred citation:

Grateful Dead Records: Back Stage Passes, Tickets and; Laminates. MS 332 Ser. 12. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Location of this collection:
Special Collections and Archives, University Library
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064, US
Contact:
(831) 459-2547
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu
Website