As Rock & Roll progressed radically throughout the
sixties, so did the way it was packaged, from the groovy new record sleeves to
the posters and flyers that advertised them and concerts. The latter advances
are on vivid display in writer Mike Evans and designer Paul Palmer-Edwards’s new book The Art of British Rock: 50 Years of Rock
Posters, Flyers, and Handbills. We begin with the kinds of block-letter,
boxing-style posters that unimaginatively announced concerts in the pre-British
invasion age, but quickly whisk along with the eye-blasting pop art and art
nouveau styles of the psychedelic age. The prog, punk, new wave, brit pop, and
contemporary eras follow on a wave of wild variety.
A lot of books like this make the mistake of trying to cram
in too much, shrinking the art for the sake of quantity.
Palmer-Edwards is more concerned with quality, giving us large-scale
representations of some amazingly detailed works that really require keen
attention. Stripped of all their original commercial intentions, many of these
pieces are as artistically conceived as the finest pop, op, and graphic arts
hanging in any museum. And while a lot of Rock art books allow the art to do
almost all of the talking, Evans's captions provide valuable information about the artists, the
techniques, and the tools that brought these works into being. There are also
full-page profiles of the most significant artists, including Roger Dean, the
Hipgnosis team, Barney Bubbles, Jamie Reid, and Vaughn Oliver, while Rock’s
most visually-striking band, The Who, receive special attention throughout. And
is it just me or is the Fairport Convention poster on page 71 clearly the
inspiration for Castle Grayskull?
