The Grateful Dead will release all 22 shows from its first-ever major European tour from April 1972. The run’highlights of which were documented on Europe ’72 ’ will be made available on 60 discs this September via Dead.net. Along with the music, the travel chest Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings box set contains tour memorabilia, a coffee-table book with never-before-seen photos and a comprehensive essay by noted Dead author Blair Jackson. Each performance will also be accompanied by an essay specific to the show written by Dead scholars David Gans, Gary Lambert, Nicholas Meriwether and Steve Silberman.

“This was a band at the top of its game,” Jackson writes on Dead.net, “still ascending in the wake of three straight hit albums ’ Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty and the live Grateful Dead (”Skull & Roses’). It had been a year since the lineup had gone to its single-drummer configuration, six months since Keith Godchaux had been broken in as the group’s exceptional pianist, and this marked the first tour to feature Donna Godchaux as a member of the touring band. There was a ton on new, unreleased material that came into the repertoire in the fall of ‘71 (after ’Skull & Roses’ was out) and during the spring of ‘72, including ’Tennessee Jed,’ ‘Jack Straw,’ ‘Mexicali Blues,’ ’He’s Gone,’ ‘Comes A Time,’ ‘Ramble on Rose,’ ‘One More Saturday Night,’ ‘Black-Throated Wind,’ ‘Looks Like Rain’ and Pigpen’s ‘Chinatown Shuffle,’ ‘The Stranger (Two Souls in Communion)’ and ‘Mr. Charlie.’ (Sadly, this was Pigpen’s final tour.) All those future classics were interspersed with songs from the aforementioned ‘hit’ albums’such as ‘Uncle John’s Band,’ ‘Brokedown Palace,’ ‘Cumberland Blues,’ ‘Casey Jones,’ ‘Sugar Magnolia,’ ‘Bertha,’ ‘Not Fade Away,’ et al ’ and then were topped off by loads of big jamming numbers ’ the Europe ‘72 tour produced spectacular versions of ’Dark Star,’ ‘The Other One’ ‘Playing in the Band,’ ‘Truckin’,’ ‘China Cat Sunflower’ > ‘I Know You Rider,’ ‘Good Lovin’,’ ‘Lovelight’ and even the early Pig chestnut ‘Caution.’ And that’s leaving out a truckload of other tunes, too! There wasn’t a clunker show in the bunch, and many are acknowledged today as classics. No doubt you already have some favorites.”

Each show will be mixed from its original 16-track recordings by Jeffrey Norman, the primary mixer of the Dead’s archival multi-track material for the past 15 years. The first 3,000 fans to order will have their copy personalized with a name requested by the purchaser. Once the 3,000 order goal is reached by April 1, Dead.net will continue to take orders through the summer but will limit production of the collection to a maximum of 7,200 pieces, all of which will be individually numbered.

The follow ’72 Grateful Dead shows will be included in their entirety

April 7                 Wembley Empire Pool, Wembley  
April 8                 Wembley Empire Pool, Wembley  
April 11                 Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle  
April 14                 Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen  
April 16                 Aarhus University, Aarhus  
April 17                 Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen  
April 21                 Beat Club, Bremen  
April 24                 Rheinhalle, Dusseldorf  
April 26                 Jahrhundert Halle, Frankfurt  
April 29                 Musikhalle, Hamburg  
May 3                   Olympia Theatre, Paris  
May 4                   Olympia Theatre, Paris  
May 7                   Bickershaw Festival, Wigan  
May 10                 Concertgebouw, Amsterdam  
May 11                 Rotterdam Civic Hall, Rotterdam  
May 13                 Lille Fairgrounds, Lille  
May 16                 Theatre Hall, Luxembourg  
May 18                 Kongressaal – Deutsches Museum, Munich  
May 23                 Strand Lyceum, London  
May 24                 Strand Lyceum, London  
May 25                 Strand Lyceum, London  
May 26                 Strand Lyceum, London