Grateful Dead announces ‘Dave’s Picks Vol. 56’, featuring two 1981 London concerts

Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir performing with the Grateful Dead at the Greek Theater in Berkeley on September 13, 1981. Bob Weir plays an Ibanez guitar. (Photo by Clayton Call/Redferns)

By Jill Lances

October 15, 2025 at 6:00 am EDT

Grateful Dead has announced details of the next release in their Dave’s Picks bootleg series.

Dave’s Picks Vol. 56, the fourth and final Dave’s Pick of 2025, will feature two nearly complete shows recorded March 20, 1981, and March, 21, 1981, at the Rainbow Theatre in London. The shows were the opening two nights of a four-night stand at the venue.

The concerts, which were the first time The Dead returned to Europe in seven years, feature performances of such Dead classics as “Friend of the Devil,” “Scarlet Begonias,” “Fire on the Mountain,” “Althea,” “Truckin’” and “Alabama Getaway."

“These London shows are right up there with the best,” Dead archivist David Lemieux says in a video shot in front of Big Ben. “Some really, really wonderful, wonderful music to end the year.”

Only 25,000 numbered copies of Dave’s Picks Vol. 56 will be available and are available for preorder now.