Pass notes’ look at marathon gigs (28 June) reported that the Grateful Dead “supposedly played for five hours at the Bickershaw festival in Wigan in 1973”. The recording of the music played that evening (and some stage banter) lasts just shy of four hours, but the band was on stage, except for a 20-minute break, for five hours. It was in May 1972 and it was utterly spellbinding. The audience in Rotterdam were treated to a 44-minute version of Dark Star four days later.
Chris Hardman
Manchester
• Reading John Crace’s sketch (After 13 years in power, who exactly do Tory MPs think ‘the establishment’ is?, 3 July), I was reminded of a favourite saying of my late father: “If you put all of their brains in a tin, you still wouldn’t have enough to make a rattle.”
Gordon Blunt
Market Harborough, Leicestershire
