Grateful Dead live again

The band began with a tribute to Garcia

The surviving members of the Grateful Dead have played their first concert since the death of founding member Jerry Garcia in 1995.

Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir performed as The Other Ones in Wisconsin, two days after what would have been Jerry Garcia's 60th birthday.

Phil Lesh formed part of the original line-up

About 35,000 so-called Dead Heads were on hand to hear the band start the concert with the song He's Gone as a tribute to Garcia, who died of a heart attack.

"Everybody on that stage, and two-thirds of the audience will be thinking of Jerry," said Dennis McNally, Grateful Dead biographer and publicist for Grateful Dead Productions, before the show began.

Tribute

Garcia died in a drug rehabilitation clinic, causing a nationwide outpouring of grief.

Bob Dylan said in a tribute at the time: "There's no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. He had no equal."

Local authorities, fearing 200,000 Dead Heads would show up and overwhelm the communities at the concert site, at first refused permission for the concert.

But the concert was given the go ahead after the promotors issued warnings that anyone showing up without a ticket could be arrested.

The Other Ones will begin a 15-show tour in November.