Recordmecca Featured in Rock Poster Article in THE GUARDIAN

Here's an article on the revival in poster collecting in The Guardian (the UK newspaper,) featuring an interview with yours truly:

Never mind the Blu-Tack: the rock poster goldrush 

Would you pay six figures for a vintage rock poster? Dave Simpson on a booming market

Highly sought after . . . a detail from Emek’s 2006 Nick Cave poster, which took three months to complete.

"If you buy a £10,000 watch, the day you walk out of the shop, it's worth £6,000," says Jeff Gold. "If you buy a £10,000 poster, it's a £10,000 poster. And, if you have good taste and choose wisely, it will gain in value." A former Warner Bros record executive, California-based Gold runs memorabilia website Recordmecca, world leaders in a booming market in rock concert posters.

Uncertain economic times have led increasing numbers of people to turn to rock memorabilia, and to rare posters in particular, as an alternative form of investment. Some of the figures involved are eye-watering, with the biggest prices fetched by vintage artwork, what Gold calls "snapshots of an era". For years Elvis posters were the most highly sought after (particularly the year 1956), selling for up to $30,000. Then, in 2004, a poster for the Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium concert sold for $69,000 at auction; a poster for their 1966 gig at the same venue fetched $132,000 later that year.

Now contemporary posters are fetching silly sums, too. A Citizen Kane-style poster for a White Stripes' 2003 gig by Chicago artist Rob Jones sold on the night for £15, but fetched £1,600 on eBay in 2008. "Each [poster] was done in a limited edition of 333, for every concert, and there won't be any more," explains Jody Goodall, director of Manchester's Richard Goodall gallery.

Goodall recently sold a poster for Nick Cave's 2006 gig at the city's Bridgewater Hall for £500, 10 times the original price. Naturally, it's no ordinary poster. "It's hand-drawn by Portland-based artist Emek and took him three months to complete," Goodall says. "Every detail relates to a Cave song [roses for Where the Wild Roses Grow, and so on]. It's one of a limited run of just over 300, of which only a handful are in circulation."

The market in poster art is nothing new, but the web has turned a trend into a boom. As Gold explains: "You can find immediately something you'd previously see once in a lifetime." A poster's collectibility lies in a combination of band, artist, venue, the condition and the scarcity of the work. Sixties artist Rick Griffin's posters for the Grateful Dead fetch huge sums, as long as they are from the initial print run. Identifying such rare posters can mean determining the exact shade of colour, or using a micrometer to measure the thickness of the paper. "The difference can be thousands of dollars."

Poster art went into decline in the 1980s, but there was something of a renaissance towards the end of that decade, when Texas artist Frank Kozik started producing posters for underground bands: the Backyard Babies, early Nirvana. As quickly as these posters went up, kids tore them down. Some American artists – Emek, Rob Jones, Chicago's Jay Ryan – are as collectible in their own right as the featured bands.Many contemporary designs are undeniably beautiful. Gina Kelly, who has designed posters for Stornoway and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, says: "I focus on qualities like innocence, joy, psychedelia to make an image that I feel speaks to the band's audience." One of Jody Goodall's favourite designs is Jay Ryan's Kings of Convenience poster, featuring bears drinking tea in a tree. "Nothing to do with the band, it's just a quintessential, eccentric image." (He's offering it for £200.)

In the end, of course, a poster is only worth what someone will pay for it. Gold suggests that the closest thing to a surefire investment today would be a poster for Nirvana, "the 90s generation's Jimi Hendrix". Goodall argues that in 30 or 40 years' time, punk-era posters or those for Manchester's Hacienda will be the most highly sought after. Not every one of them, of course. "We always tell people, 'If you're going to buy one, love the poster,'" he says. "That way, if it doesn't appreciate in value, you're still happy."

The Virtual Museum: Some New Discoveries

 

With the Recordmecca website freshly updated, the time seemed right to share some of my new discoveries in another installment of "The Virtual Museum."

First up is perhaps the most unique item we've ever had the pleasure to offer--Grace Slick's dress, worn while performing with the Jefferson Airplane at the Monterey Pop Festival, in June 1967.  The Monterey Pop Festival was the first major rock music festival, and along with the Woodstock Festival, it is considered among the most important live music events ever. "Monterey Pop" (and the film made at the festival) introduced the Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and many other artists to mainstream audiences, and is viewed today as one of the major counterculture event of the 1960's. The Airplane was one of the breakout acts at Monterey, and their dynamic front-woman and singer, Grace Slick, is a big part of the reason why. 

This is the caftan (a Moroccan dress) that Grace wore that historic day at Monterey.  She can be seen wearing it in the film "Monterey Pop," as well as in the recently released extended DVD box set, which features the Airplane's complete performance at Monterey. At right are some still photos from the Airplane's set showing Grace wearing the caftan, as well as a Japanese EP with artwork featuring live shots from Monterey (she is also pictured wearing this while performing in San Francisco in the program for the Airplane's 1968 US Tour.)

We purchased this directly from Grace Slick and her daughter, China Kantner (who's father is the Airplane/Starship's Paul Kantner.)  Historic items such as this rarely surface; and when they do, it's unusual for them to be so well documented.  Not to mention the unimpeachable provenance of having come from Grace Slick, herself. 

 Next up is another item with extraordinary provenance--Joan Baez's own copy of the rare concert poster for her 1965 tour with Bob Dylan.   

Baez gave this poster to Tisha Fein, the longtime talent coordinator for the Grammy Awards. While working as music producer and talent coordinator for the 1970's television show "The Midnight Special," Fein worked with Baez on the show's salute to the singer (broadcast October 10, 1975.)  We obtained the poster from Fein directly, who authenticated it on the back, writing "Joan Baez gave me this when we did her Midnight Special tribute--Tisha Fein." 

This often reproduced poster is one of the most scarce and sought-after concert posters of all time. Folksinger/artist/Dylan friend Eric Von Schmidt created this image, carefully balancing the size, height and names of Baez & Dylan so neither would appear more prominent than the other.  Dylan evidently objected to the design, however, and the poster was only used for a few dates, and the rest were discarded. We framed this with a window in the back to show Tisha Fein's note. 

Here's a rare album cover slick for Buffalo Springfield's unreleased "Stampede" album.  "Stampede" was to be the Springfield's second album, and Atco Records went as far as shooting an album cover and printing a limited number of cover slicks--but management and personnel issues cropped up, and the album was never finished.  Bass player Bruce Palmer was stuck in Canada when the cover was shot, so a stand-in (with a hat obscuring his face) appears in the photo.  The band eventually did regroup and complete a second album, the superb "Buffalo Springfield Again."  I'm very excited about the Buffalo Springfield reunion, and the opportunity to see Neil Young, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay together on stage next month.

Finally, here's a beautiful photograph of Jimi Hendrix "in the mylar chamber" by the late artist/photographer/publisher/poet and filmmaker Ira Cohen. During the late sixties, Cohen photographed a number of musicians, poets and artists in a mylar room he built in his New York City loft. He shot Hendrix in 1969, and the guitarist was quoted as telling Cohen "looking at your pictures is like looking through butterfly wings." Cohen's mylar photographs appear on a number of album covers, including John McLaughlin's "Devotion" and Spirit's "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus." This photograph was included in the traveling show "The Jimi Hendrix Exhibit," and was used in the artwork for the CD "The Ultimate Experience."  This print, silkscreened on mylar, is part of an unfinished edition of 100.

If you're interested in more of this type of thing, check out the Recordmecca website.  And let us know if you have any rare records or music memorabilia you might be interested in selling.  We're always looking for collectibles and can pay high prices for the right material.