Curated by Roger Crimlis and Alwyn W Turner Suffragette Cities is an exhibition of posters focussing on the Trans Atlantic trade route between London and New York in 1970s rock music, from glam through punk and new wave to the birth of hip-hop. Ridicule is nothing to be scared of…
Did you start collecting the posters for a love of the music of the bands or purely for the artwork?
Alwyn: I think the two tend to go together. The bands I like tend to be ones with a strong visual attitude, who are therefore interested in artwork. But if it comes to it, the music will always outweigh the visuals – I wouldn’t put up a poster for a band I didn’t like, no matter how good the imagery.
When did you start collecting?
Roger: When I was a kid, I used to blag posters from record shops, which were much more interesting than the store-bought posters. Later I worked for a while in a record shop, which gave me the chance to pick up many more. And I’ve been collecting them ever since.
What are your 5 personal favourites and why?
Alwyn: There’s a lovely 1973 poster for Dingwalls Dance Hall in Camden Town, a sepia-tinted still of Rita Hayworth looking impossibly glamorous, which doesn’t reflect the venue at all, but does show how powerful the imagery of Hollywood was in the glam era.
There’s a huge silkscreen poster of a dinosaur with a hand of cards clutched in its paw, which is supposed to be advertising a tour by the Only Ones, but has no obvious connexion with the band at all.
But the ones we’re most pleased to have in the exhibition is a set of flyers for the Roxy Club in 1977 – beautiful pieces of punk collage reproduced in full-colour on the first colour photocopier in London. They’re spectacular, and they have never had the exposure they deserve.
Roger: One of my favourites is for Richard Hell and the Voidoids UK tour supporting The Clash from 1977. It's the ultimate example of rips in pop culture. Richard Hell famously created the fashion for ripped clothes, and the poster has ripped photos of the band wearing ripped clothes collaged onto ripped graphics. And the 28-year-old poster has sustained a number of rips over the years as well.
The Roxy Music promo poster for the 1974 album Stranded. Although the poster is just an enlargement of the album sleeve, it’s the sheer size of the thing that is impressive. At over 2 meters long, I don't know many record shops that had enough wall space to display it.
What era did these posters peak?
Alwyn: I think the introduction of the High Street photocopying shop in the mid-1970s brought in a golden age of artwork. The technology made design and reproduction much more accessible to a new generation of artists.
Do these posters exchange hands for much money? What's the most valuable one you've come across?
Alwyn: The prices for 1970s posters are going up all the time, but there’s still a lot of very affordable stuff out there. The most expensive pieces tend to be for the big names – early Bowie gigs, the Sex Pistols, Roxy Music. Also, of course, if the act has a cult following in America that tends to drive the price up.
Roger: An early concert poster for The Who sold at Sotheby's recently for £15,000. Unfortunately I can't see the poster of Alice Cooper standing outside London Zoo with a banana and bottle of beer, reaching the same kind of price. Which is a shame, because I have four copies.
Can you pinpoint the poster that first got your interest in the medium?
Roger: The one that got me interested was the Alice Cooper poster with a calendar for 1972 on it. It had a picture of Alice on stage with a noose round his neck, and all the older brothers of my friends had it on their walls.
Who did most of the poster designs? They are quite a lot different to the record covers they are advertising?
Alwyn: Tracking down the designers is a difficult business. Some are well known (Jamie Reid’s work for the Pistols, Barry Jones’ promotional material for the Roxy Club), but most were never credited. Part of what we’re trying to do with the book that we’re publishing next year is to celebrate some of these artists who haven’t been given as much attention as they should have.
Are there any artists around at the moment that you think are doing exciting visuals?
Roger: There has been a huge renaissance in poster design in recent years. These have mostly been in the US and are screen-printed posters for concerts done by artists such as Frank Kosik. It’s interesting that concert posters have developed separately from CD sleeve artwork – probably due to the small canvas for art that a CD sleeve allows.
These posters have a very exciting and distinct visual style. They've put posters back on the map, and this has led to an increase in interest in posters generally.
Suffragette Cities: The Pentagram Gallery, 11 Needham Road, London W11 from 11/07/05 to 12/08/05.