Pictures, films and magazines from the 60s and early 70s

The Sixties represented a period of renaissance in the creation of posters reflecting the burgeoning counterculture. These likewise reflected popular music, magazines and - alongside the Pop Art of Andy Warhol - icons of the era such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Marilyn Monroe. In the United States posters associated with the Fillmore and Avalon ballrooms in San Francisco produced between 1966-71 are now recognised as works of art and highly collectable, whilst in England the output of artists such as Michael English and Nigel Waymouth (operating as Hapshash and the Coloured Coat) and Martin Sharp (working with Big O Posters) during the same period set new benchmarks in regards to graphic design and the application of innovative printing techniques. Many of these posters were ephemeral productions, or "disposable art" as Life magazine referred to them in a 1967 cover story on the poster explosion. As such, they were usually subject to rough treatment, though attachment to bedroom walls or billboards, only to be quickly removed or pasted over once the event they promoted was over or unless a collector happened to rip them down and take them home or sell them at market. As such, few of the posters from the period survive in public or personal collections, with museums and galleries largely ignoring them at the time and classifying them as examples of low art.

Though somewhat scares, images of counterculture posters in situ can be found within selected films such as the English Performance (filmed during 1968) and A Clockwork Orange (filmed during 1970-1), or in dedicated magazine articles and newspaper reports around the world. A good example is the special London-based Sunday Times Observer Magazine special issue of December 1967, and the aforementioned American edition of Life magazine from September 1967, both of which focus on the pop poster phenomena. Below are some images taken from those sources, along with a discussion of the various posters which can be identified within them.

1. UFO Club entrance 1967

Members of the British psychedelic pop group Tomorrow admire a group of Hapshash and Big O posters, including Martin Sharp's Blowing in the Mind, 1967. This photograph was possibly taken in the foyer of the UFO Club, London (Hanke and Puterbaugh, 1997). To the left of Blowing in the Mind is a poster for the band Crazy World of Arthur Brown, making use of a still from the 1921 German movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; to the right and below are Hapshash and the Coloured Coat posters.An Avalon Ballroom poster can also be seen near the floor on the bottom left.

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2. Hapshash and the Coloured Coat 1967

Michael English (seated), Nigel Waymouth and record producer Guy Stephens are surrounded by a collection of Hapshash and the Coloured Coat posters, 1967.

3. September 1967, The Great Poster Wave, Life Magazine

A number of images of contemporary posters grace the cover and internal pages of this edition of US Life magazine, with an associated article entited The Great Poster Hang-Up - Walls and Walls of Disposable Art.

The article features an amazing photograph of a wall of posters constructed on a beach, with a group of surfers standing on the wall. The image portrays the variety of posters offered for sale in Head Shops around the country during that period.

4. 3rd December 1967, London Times Observer Magazine

5. April 1968. The Daily Telegraph Magazine

Nigel Waymouth, Mike McInnerney, David Vaughan, Michael English and Jon Goodchild. English “psychedelic” poster artists from The Daily Telegraph Magazine,  April 1968. Photo by John Marmaras.

Identified posters include:

1. Martin Sharp - Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Mind.
2. David Vaughan -
3. Nigel Waymouth -
4. Mike McInnererney -
5. Michael English - UFO Club.
6. Jon Goodchild -

6. 1968, Performance

A number of artworks by Martin Sharp feature in the set design for the film Performance. One of the elements was a blow-up collage based on Sharp's famous Blowin' In The Mind poster of Bob Dylan.

7. July 1971, The Kerova Milk Bar foyer, A Clockwork Orange

Though the film locations shooting of A Clockwork Orange took place between September 1970 and February 1971, the film was not release until December. One scene was in the so-called Kerova Milk Bar foyer. The Janis Joplin poster seen in the middle of the picture above was part of the July 1971 issue of OZ magazine, which would suggest that the studio set for the Kerova Milk Bar was set up around this time and filming took place around July of that year.The other posters date back to 1966, though a lot of these may have been reprints available from contemporary poster shots such as Print Mint in London. Identified posters on the wall include:

1. Janis Joplin, OZ magazine #36, July 1971.
2. Mike McInnerney, Jimi Hendrix, OZ magazine #30, October 1970.
3. Yardbirds Fillmore concert 23 October 1966.
4. Jefferson Airplane Fillmore concert 10-11 June 1966.
5. Michael McInnerney, Legalise Pot Rally, 1967. OA105.
6. Michael English, Summer Sadness for John Hopkins, International Times no. 14.5.
7. Michael English and Nigel Waymouth (Hapshash and the Coloured Coat), Middle Earth concert poster, March-April 1968.
8. David Vaughan, Jean Shrimpton, 1967. Big O Posters.
9. Christopher Logue, Kiss Kiss - Go to work on an egg, circa 1966.

8. Australian Women's Weekly, 1972.

Michael Organ
Last Updated: 21 March 2016.