Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead - O'Keefe Centre, Toronto, 1967

Here is the concert poster for the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane playing in Toronto for a full week in the summer of 1967. The series of shows took place at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre from Monday, July 31 through Saturday, August 5. Legend has it that most copies - printed by Tea Lautrec in San Francisco - were confiscated at the border by Canadian customs, and very few survived. Designer James Gardner utilized the two band photos by San Francisco photographer Herb Greene, creating a masterwork combining psychedelic graphics with photos of 11 musicians, the two most famous band from San Francisco in the 60's. The Airplane are top-billed because their single "White Rabbit" had just entered Billboard magazine's Top 10 singles chart, and earlier that spring their "Somebody to Love" had set-up the historic summer with its national anthem. Eight shows in all were advertised by this poster. Pictured in the Jefferson Airplane photo up top were, left to right, guitarist/singer Paul Kantner, lead singer/organist Grace Slick, bassist Jack Casady in the center, group founder and singer Marty Balin, drummer Spencer Dryden and guitarist/vocalist Jorma Kaukonen. The Grateful Dead photo, from left to right, shows bassist Phil Lesh, drummer Bill Kreutzmann, guitarist/singer Jerry Garcia, guitarist/singer Bob Weir and keyboardist/singer Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. Second drummer Mickey Hart would join the group the very next month (September).