Kiss the sky: psychedelic posters of the 60s and 70s – in pictures
The late publishing legend Felix Dennis had a passionate hobby: collecting deliriously psychedelic music posters of the 1960s and 70s, advertising Hendrix, Yoko Ono and the Who among others
Main image: Martin Sharp, Exploding Hendrix, 1968. Photograph: Shapero ModernThu 6 Oct 2016 07.00 BST Last modified on Wed 19 Oct 2022 16.04 BST
Victor Moscoso, The Chambers Bros at the Matrix, 1967
Before his death, publishing magnate Felix Dennis built up an impressive collection of psychedelic music posters. Cultural historian Barry Miles, who worked with Dennis on the collection, introduces each image, beginning with this from Victor Moscoso: ‘He declared: “The musicians were turning up their amplifiers to the point where they were blowing out your eardrums. I did the equivalent with the eyeballs.”’ The posters are on show at Cultural Traffic, Juju’s Bar and Stage, London, 7-8 October.Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterHapshash & the Coloured Coat, CIA v UFO, 1967
‘Posters by Osiris were originally produced to advertise the UFO Club, the all-night dance concerts and multimedia shows held weekly in London’s Tottenham Court Road. The house team consisted of Michael English and Nigel Waymouth, who worked under the name of Hapshash & the Coloured Coat. Michael English said: “Sexuality was a strong force in our posters and there is a lot of that happening here. Dragons and pubic hair!” Unfortunately, the eagle-eyed printer made English remove the pubic hair from this image before he would print it’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterVictor Moscoso, Dance of the Five Moons – Country Joe & The Fish, 1967
‘Victor Moscoso was a member of the San Francisco Five, a group of local graphic artists who would pioneer the distinctive and instantly recognisable kaleidoscopic style that mirrored the psychedelic concerts they promoted. This poster was a breakthrough for Moscoso, who ran his blobby lettering around five moon-circles, surrounded by stars to produce a striking image’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterMartin Sharp, Exploding Hendrix, 1968
‘Felix’s poster collection was very personal; he collected what he liked, rather than obsessively ticking things off a list. As a consequence he concentrated on artists he really admired such as Martin Sharp, the first graphic designer of Oz as well as a good friend and the principal artist for Big O posters. His Exploding Hendrix, based on a photograph by Linda Eastman – soon to be McCartney – is among the most evocative and iconic images of the 1960s’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterTony Cox, Yoko Ono at the Saville, 1967
‘This Tony Cox poster advertises Yoko Ono’s Music of the Mind and the Fog Machine at the Saville theatre in the West End, advising potential punters to “be sure to bring a mirror with you!” The concert included a projection of her film Bottoms (Film no 4) in the men’s room during her performance’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterMartin Sharp, Live Give Love, 1967
‘The late Martin Sharp was one of the Australian founders of the UK edition of Oz magazine and was their original design director. After he began taking LSD, Sharp pushed the magazine very much in a psychedelic direction. He was a painter who appreciated the classics – he obsessed over Vincent Van Gogh and Max Ernst – but favoured more unusual printing methods. Here, his reimagining of Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam is adorned with bubbles, hearts, stars, planets and flowers, and printed on silver foil-coated paper’Photograph: Family Dog Productions
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterMartin Sharp, Mr Tambourine Man – Blowin’ in the Mind, 1967
‘Widely misread by baffled parents as “Mist Tam Urine Man”, this multi-stencil design, printed on gold foil paper, was apparently inspired by Sharp’s experience of Bob Dylan gigs and the Cambodian temples of Angkor Wat’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterStanley Mouse & Alton Kelley, Zig-Zag Man Big Brother & The Holding Company, 1966
‘Mouse and Kelley were also members of the San Francisco Five. They must have known that this poster, which carries the facade of the Zig-Zag rolling paper logo, constituted copyright infringement; the quote reads: “What you don’t know about copying and duplicating won’t hurt you.” Ironically, this poster was so popular that it became the first in the Family Dog series to be counterfeited. It is extremely rare in good condition, presumably because every hippie in San Francisco pinned it to their wall’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterHapshash & the Coloured Coat, Sunday at the Saville, 1967
‘Some of Jimi Hendrix’s first gigs in London were at the Saville theatre, which was rented out on Sunday nights by Brian Epstein. Earlier in June that year, Hendrix had opened his set with Sgt Pepper, days after the Beatles had released their album of the same name. Paul McCartney, who was in the audience with George Harrison, Pattie Boyd and Jane Asher, called it “one of the great honours of my career”’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterPeter Bailey, Jefferson Airplane, 1966
‘This is the first numbered Bill Graham poster, advertising Jefferson Airplane at the Fillmore East in San Francisco. Graham was a hard-nosed businessman and saw that a lot of money could be made in rock promotions. This caused conflict with other Haight-Ashbury groups who felt that he should contribute more to the community. But the bands all made good money playing at his venues, and tolerated his tantrums because he was honest and provided good facilities. He presented most of the defining American acts of the 1960s and early 70s’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterHapshash & the Coloured Coat, The Who, I Can See For Miles, 1967
‘This poster was a promotion for the Who’s latest single from the album The Who Sell Out. Michael English said: “All the underground posters are packed with secret signs, prehistoric forms and flying saucers. We believed and adopted anything that contradicted the rational world: our science was rooted in alchemy and black magic.” Roger Daltrey blows bubbles, Pete Townshend holds a sparkler, and Keith Moon prepares to launch what looks ominously like a grenade’Photograph: Shapero Modern
Share on Facebook Share on TwitterGut, Ben Franklin’s Birthday, 1968
‘Allen “Gut” Turk was a member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, an early manager of Blue Cheer, an art director for Jefferson Airplane, and a well-known Hells Angel. The artistic respect he earned in Haight-Ashbury during the late 60s was no doubt enhanced by his tremendous talent and his fearsome credentials’Photograph: Family Dog Productions
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