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May 6th, 1999

Furthur 1999--The Power of Rumor

Further on down the rumor-mill road with Furthur

Previously I reported on the rumors that were being floated by Metropolitan Entertainment regarding a possible scaled down 1999 Furthur Festival. Earlier, it had been announced that due to Phil's health, there was insufficient time to put a tour together. Of course, the online community rumor mill would have none of that, and churned out megabytes of "insider" info regarding the true nature of the struggle inside the GD, and Phil's problems with Metropolitan, and the large Furthur 98 Other Ones lineup.

Since then, Phil and Phriends have performed a triumphant 3-night run at the Warfield, and Phil will be playing at the 1999 Mountain Aire Festival in Calaveras County, CA. So... Phil's fine, what's up with the other guys?

Last week, someone at dead.net opened up a topic, stating that "Hart, Weir & Hunter have agreed to join the Furthur Tour in August. Dates & venues still pending." This in itself is not so surprising, since just about anyone can open up a topic about anything. What gives it an implied "officialness" is that from within the GD's own website, the top link from the Furthur page is linked to this discussion.

So, I called up Dennis McNally, GDP's official spokesman, and what he told me amounted to the following:

  • Metropolitan is trying to put together a tour with Mickey, Bobby, and Robert Hunter, and maybe some others.
  • It would probably be no more than a 3-week run.
  • They would probably play smaller venues than last year.
  • And, as of today, it has not been finalized.

So, this should surprise nobody, and it reminds me a little of the rumor storms surrounding Phil's liver condition. Back on October of 1998, Jon Rochmis wrote an interesting article about the online rumor mill in the SF Gate web site. It's worth revisiting at this point.

I think the surviving Deadhead community yearns for some gatherings, especially after The Other Ones tour of last year, and if it weren't for that, it wouldn't even get as far as it's gone.

Stay tuned...

Geoff Gould

GDF sysop

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