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Posters for old gigs are fascinating; a glimpse into our collective cultural past. And in this digital age, they seem romantically analogue. Imagine spending hours of time creating a detailed glorious piece of art as an advert for a gig, who’s on and where it is and how much a ticket costs and where to buy it from. This for something which is designed to be disposable and apparently irrelevant after the show. But that's what happened with artists like Rick Griffin.
Posters and handbills became an important expression of the counterculture. They were very much an American thing, but we did have poster designers for the UFO club and the like.
But although they were an art, even a basic informative poster informing us of a gig on a set date have become a desirable piece of memorabilia, even if it’s a band on at a Polytechnic.
Part of the romance of them all is seeing which bands are playing together. Big bands that started in a humble way, would play with another band you’d see headline in three years. I even love those pages in the music press which advertised gigs. They were such a common part of all our lives, as you’d study say, Curved Air’s tour’s list of venues to see the nearest
One to you. Looking things up on the internet doesn’t seem as good
Better still, you sometimes picked up a leaflet which listed upcoming gigs and the price. Some of these are really collectable now. They really define the passing of time, especially as many of the venues have long passed into history and were often unusual in themselves like Spalding Bulb Hall, where bulbs were sorted, presumably. That is plants, not light bulbs.
The old Fillmore East and West posters and handbills sell for decent money now and others work too, there’s even been a revival in recent years for art nouveau artwork for the likes of the Black Crowes and Pearl Jam but even single colour posters with black print on are desirable now.
In some ways, they are historical documents that should be preserved in a museum because they are part of popular history.
