November 16, 2007 (LPAC)--The new head of Great Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, the country's top intelligence body, Alex Allan, is a "Deadhead" by his own admission. "Deadheads" are better known as fans of the 1960s and '70s rock group the Grateful Dead, which finally disbanded in 1995 when, gratefully, most of the originally members went "out of tune" for the last time. Allan maintains a personal website fully devoted to the Grateful Dead where one can find information on all their music, concerts etc.

Members of the original Dead were part of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters who were part of U.S. Intelligence agencies experimenting with LSD in the sixties . They went around distributing free doses creating the hippies in Haight Ashbury—and then spreading across the country.

Allan who is 56 and a real White Hall mandarin, has been British High Commissioner to Australia and private secretary to both Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair. On his website Allan writes, "I first saw the Dead in the mud at Bickershawe in 1972, and was so knocked out I went to all the Lyceum concerts after that. I have been a Deadhead ever since, and saw them whenever they came to Europe, but sadly never managed a U.S. tour."

Don't believe us? Here is a photograph from Allan's Grateful Dead website, showing him windsurfing to work...on his Grateful Dead sailboat!

Apparently, according to the 'How I spent my Summer Vacation' section of his website, Allan has been very busy indulging in the following psychedilic activities. Allan:

--chaired the West Australian IVEC (Interactive Virtual Environments Center),

--took interest in "e-government issues" as an "e-envoy" for the British Government,

--has been involved in a "group" looking at the privacy implications of RFID tags...