Here is an interview conducted with the Charlies lead guitarist, vocalist and founder Brian Keneally.
Q: When did you first get into the Dead?
My first exposure to the Grateful Dead was around sept 1970 when Live Dead first came out. I was visiting a record store and this record was being heavily plugged, so it was my first ever chance to listen to them. I heard Dark Star and St Stephen.
Q: How long before you decided to cover them?
As soon as they brought out a song book, in 1973 after the Europe 72 tour. There was a promotion on the back of an album where you could buy T-shirts, or a song book and I sent off for the song book, and a friend of mine did the same so from about 73 to 76 we used to just entertain around squats and private parties playing Dead songs. That was just a duo though. And that's how we first started doing it. It was when I saw the Dead in 89 that gave me the inspiration to start up a Dead cover band. I'd done some studio work with various musicians but wanted to play the songs live. I decided to go electric and set up a proper cover band.
Q: When did you decide that Pat your son would fit the role of drummer? You must have started him at an early age?
Well, he has been surrounded by music all his life. The first inclination we had that he was musical was when he started bashing things in his bedroom and playing around with keyboards when he was very young. He showed a lot of aptitude as a drummer and he used to just hit anything that came into sight, so when he was about seven or eight we bought him a small drum kit from a studio we used to rehearse in. Around about that time we used to play at a lot of private parties so Pat used to turn up with his little kit and whoever was playing drums with us at the time would just let him sit by the side and just keep a beat going. Now though we have a kind of telepathy between us when we play. We both think about music in the same way, which means that certain things don't need to be said because they are just kind of mutually understood.
Q: Do you have a favourite Dead show?
I always come back to The Great American Music Hall of 1975 when they broke out Help>Slip for the first time. That is definitely high on my list of Dead shows. The thing was they took time off before this show having started to go down a slightly jazzier road, you only have to listen to the Eyes around 73 and 74 to hear this. And then they came out with Blues for Allah which was inevitable really and didn't play it live until the album was ready for release. I think that is the first time the Dead have ever done that. They would normally road test and album before releasing it later. For that reason this gig really stood out for me. I didn't even recognise them when I heard it. For those reasons that show is probably my favourite.
Q: Is there a Charlies gig that stands out for you?
The Charlies gig that most stands out for me was when we played Glastonbury 94. We had done all our sets and then a gig was set up outside one of the café stands nearby and we played from about 12 midnight to 6 in the morning, and we covered every song that we know except Dark Star. That was the one song that we never played. I don't know why we didn't play it because we did St Stephen > The Eleven, but we never did Dark Star for some reason. I think more people saw us at that gig than any other. People still come up to me and say I saw you playing when I went to see something at the circus tent at about midnight and when I came back at about three or four in the morning you were still playing. Literally we played all night long. It was a great experience. Warm summer night in front of hundreds of people. Definitely the quintessential Charlies gig.
Q: What equipment do you use?
I normally play a Strat. I have always played Strats and Telecasters. What I have found though is that if someone else in the band plays a Strat as well then you get into this sort of tonality thing where the guitars start to sound that same. Because most of the people that I play with play Strats or Teles I decided to start playing a Gibson Les Paul, because that cuts through like a knife. The Strat is good through a Fender twin reverb for certain things but the combo of a Les Paul through a marshall gives you that edge when you need it.
