Duke ’78

Duke ’78, is the worldwide retail breakout from the Grateful Dead limited-edition, dead.net exclusive boxed set, Friend Of The Devils: April 1978. It will be available 20th September as a 4LP or 3CD set.

When the Grateful Dead arrived at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the sixth stop of the first leg of the Spring Tour of 1978, they were a well-oiled machine. The expectation was there amongst concert goers that the Dead would deliver an exceptional show; the consistency of excellence was in full force on this tour. And as great as the previous five shows had been, no one could have known that the X-factor would appear in such force at Duke on April 12, 1978. Opening with a pair of classics, “Jack Straw” and “Dire Wolf,” it was clear from the first 10 minutes of the show that something special was happening. But what was to come couldn’t have been predicted; no one could have seen what the next three hours would hold. As the Dead barrelled through their first set with “Beat It On Down The Line,” and “Peggy-O,” there was something magical happening on the campus in Durham, NC that night” – David Lemieux