Not currently on display at the V&A

Bill Graham Presents

Poster
1966 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Fillmore in San Francisco is a historic music venue, named after its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard. Known as the Fillmore Auditorium in the mid-1960s, concert promoter Bill Graham began a series of concerts featuring bands from the counterculture of the time. In 1968, due to his spiralling success, he moved to a larger venue which he named Fillmore West. Having closed in 1971, and after extensive repair work to fix earthquake damage, Graham's was revived when Live Nation reopened the original Fillmore venue in 1994.

San Francisco in the mid-1960s was the hub of the LSD and Hippie scene and the cultural and political rebellion of 1967's Summer of Love. The resulting influence of these factors on the artists of the area created the fantastic psychedelic posters of the Fillmore. Art dealer Jacaeber Kastor said of the posters, "They couldn't just tell you the information about the show. They had to tell you what kind of people you might meet, what kind of far out trip you might have or perhaps even reveal the mysteries of the universe. Wow. Quantum mechanics, visual mudwrestling, Acid test pop quiz on a phone pole!"

The artist of this poster, Wes Wilson, was a designer in the San Francisco small press company Contact, creating posters for Bill Graham's Fillmore and rival promoter Chet Helms' Avalon Ballroom. He stopped working for Helms in August 1966, as he received more artistic freedom from Graham. He adapted his lettering style from an Art Nouveau and Expressionism exhibition, expanding the outlines and shapes exaggeratedly, creating intense patterns for the backgrounds. He used vibrant and contrasting colours, which, combined with the patterns, often made the text almost indecipherable. His choice of colours was to reflect the nature of the stimulating light shows that accompanied the concerts.

The Mindbenders were originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana. They became part of the mid 1960s British Invasion with their chart-topper, A Groovy Kind of Love, which sold over a million copies globally, and was later a number one for Phil Collins. They appeared in the Sidney Poitier starring film To Sir, With Love, but their exposure and success didn't last past the 1960s. Two members of the band, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, went on to greater success in the 1970s with 10cc.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBill Graham Presents (series title)
Materials and techniques
Lithography on vellum
Brief description
Poster advertising The Mindbenders and The Chocolate Watch Band, performing July 8th and 9th, 1966 at Fillmore West, San Francisco. Designed by Wes Wilson.
Physical description
Poster advertising The Mindbenders, and the Chocolate Watch Band performing July 6 1966, at Fillmore Auditorium (Fillmore West), San Francisco. Purple background with yellow illustration and purple and yellow typography, with white border. Designed by Wes Wilson.
Dimensions
  • Height: 50cm
  • Width: 35.5cm
Style
Copy number
Second Edition
Credit line
Given by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Object history
Transferred as part of a collection from the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, in 1985.
Subjects depicted
Place depicted
Summary
The Fillmore in San Francisco is a historic music venue, named after its original location at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard. Known as the Fillmore Auditorium in the mid-1960s, concert promoter Bill Graham began a series of concerts featuring bands from the counterculture of the time. In 1968, due to his spiralling success, he moved to a larger venue which he named Fillmore West. Having closed in 1971, and after extensive repair work to fix earthquake damage, Graham's was revived when Live Nation reopened the original Fillmore venue in 1994.

San Francisco in the mid-1960s was the hub of the LSD and Hippie scene and the cultural and political rebellion of 1967's Summer of Love. The resulting influence of these factors on the artists of the area created the fantastic psychedelic posters of the Fillmore. Art dealer Jacaeber Kastor said of the posters, "They couldn't just tell you the information about the show. They had to tell you what kind of people you might meet, what kind of far out trip you might have or perhaps even reveal the mysteries of the universe. Wow. Quantum mechanics, visual mudwrestling, Acid test pop quiz on a phone pole!"

The artist of this poster, Wes Wilson, was a designer in the San Francisco small press company Contact, creating posters for Bill Graham's Fillmore and rival promoter Chet Helms' Avalon Ballroom. He stopped working for Helms in August 1966, as he received more artistic freedom from Graham. He adapted his lettering style from an Art Nouveau and Expressionism exhibition, expanding the outlines and shapes exaggeratedly, creating intense patterns for the backgrounds. He used vibrant and contrasting colours, which, combined with the patterns, often made the text almost indecipherable. His choice of colours was to reflect the nature of the stimulating light shows that accompanied the concerts.

The Mindbenders were originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana. They became part of the mid 1960s British Invasion with their chart-topper, A Groovy Kind of Love, which sold over a million copies globally, and was later a number one for Phil Collins. They appeared in the Sidney Poitier starring film To Sir, With Love, but their exposure and success didn't last past the 1960s. Two members of the band, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, went on to greater success in the 1970s with 10cc.
Bibliographic references
  • Lemke, Gayle The Art of the Fillmore 1966-71, Thunder's Mouth Press, New York, 1999
  • Poster Collecting. Fillmore Poster. 06 August 2010.
Other number
BG 16 - Bill Graham's numbering system
Collection
Accession number
S.707-2010

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Record createdSeptember 17, 2010
Record URL
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