The earliest psychedelic concert poster plus a Dylan first, the Doors, B.B. King and the Stones steal the show
It’s standard practice for teens of any generation to pepper their walls with the photogenic pop stars of the hour, but those posters are designed for thumb tacks and fleeting crushes. Concert posters, conversely, were initially designed to simply get people to live-music gigs. Now, they’re often celebrated as works of art, and artists design them with longevity in mind in hopes of being saved and collected. One thing that hasn’t changed: Each creation potentially marks life-changing performances or even milestone events like first concerts, first dates or, in the case of Heritage’s July 11–12 Concert Posters Auction, the birth of an art form.
The two-day event boasts a range of prints of a certain age, aka the time frame when concert posters began to grab a new kind of attention and spotlight. These are posters for psychedelic art fans as well as intrepid followers of acts like the Doors, Otis Redding, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones and B.B. King – not to mention committed Deadheads.
Among the offerings is Frank Zappa/Mothers, Charlatans 1965 Very Rare, Early Family Dog Glittering Concert Poster (AOR-2.10), The Rolling Stones 1965 Charlotte, NC Jumbo Globe Day-Glo Concert Poster, Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker 1962 New York City “Traveling Hootenanny” Concert Poster.
Like film posters, vintage concert posters were borne of a need for advertising an event. But historically, while film posters were often sent back to the studio after films completed their run, music posters were a bit different.
The Frank Zappa/Mothers, Charlatans 1965 Very Rare, Early Family Dog Glittering Concert Poster (AOR-2.10) is so rare, most people haven’t seen it and Heritage could charge $5 for viewing. “A Tribute to Ming the Merciless” pre-dates any Bill Graham concert, any Fillmore Auditorium or Avalon Ballroom rock concert, any Acid Test, any Mime Troupe benefit and any Grateful Dead-anything.
The Rolling Stones 1965 Charlotte, NC Jumbo Globe Day-Glo Concert Poster makes it public auction debut via the collection of David Swatz. The poster is an original cardboard window card advertising the Rolling Stones performing at the Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday evening, November 15, 1965. The opening acts were the Vibrations, Patti and the Blue Belles and the Rocking Ramrods.
A Tribute to Dr. Strange (1965), San Francisco’s First-Ever Psychedelic Concert Poster (AOR-2.8) is an original and rare cardboard poster advertising “A Tribute to Dr. Strange,” the very first dance-concert of the San Francisco psychedelic era, held at Longshoremen’s Hall in S.F. on Saturday night, October 16, 1965. This “Rock ‘n’ Roll Dance Concert” featured the sounds of the nascent Jefferson Airplane w/Signe Anderson, the Great Society w/Grace Slick, the Charlatans not long after their Red Dog Saloon/Virginia City stint, and Oakland band The Marbles. The affair was MC’ed by Russ “The Moose” Syracuse, all-night DJ on “Super Freak 1260” KYA, a top 40 radio station in S.F.
Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker 1962 New York City “Traveling Hootenanny” Concert Poster is an original cardboard window card advertising “The Traveling Hootenanny” playing at Town Hall in New York on Friday evening, October 5, 1962. The six musicians given are Bob Dylan, Ian and Sylvia, John Lee Hooker, Judy Collins, Lynn Gold and Sandy Bull. This is the only known copy of this poster that all serious Dylan and poster collectors have ever seen.
While the auction is packed with high-value rarities, it’s also a fabulous opportunity for collectors at every level to find joy in the hobby. There are Grateful Dead gems from the First Printing “Skeleton & Roses” to Wes Wilson-signed designs to the first-ever poster to declare the band’s name. These are joined by an early Beatles-potato chip ad, an iconic and enduring graphic out of San Francisco and a Fleetwood Mac print so gorgeously contemporary it could’ve been designed today.
