As you probably know, Victor Moscoso is one of the Big Five San Francisco poster creators from the mid to late sixties along with Wes Wilson, Alton Kelley, Stanley Mouse and Rick Griffin. Their posters were a massive influence when I came to paint posters for my college at that time. I collected handbills and postcards of the posters for The Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom way back then and I still have forty-one of them (see my previous post to see them all), including seven by Victor Moscoso:
The seven Moscoso handbills in my collection.
I had record covers by Rick Griffin, Mouse and Kelley and Victor Moscoso. My favourite was The Steve Miller Band’s 1968 album Children of the Future, a gatefold cover designed by Moscoso. I lent the cover, along with about thirty others, to an exhibiiton of record cover art at Bildmuseet in Umeå in 1982 and the organisers chose to fix it to the wall with double-sided tape, which tore four one-inch squares off the cover when it was finally taken down. It took seven years to find a replacement mint copy.
Moscoso’s design for the imnner spread of the Children of the Future album cover.
Apart from the handbills, I had a couple of books by three of the Big Five. One of Stanley Mouse’s & Alton Kelley’s art and another with Rick Griffin’s.
Books of Alton Kelley’s & Stanley Mouse’s and Rick Griffin’s art.
So, when I heard that there was an exhibition of Victor Moscoso’s art in León, Spain, that runs from 13th November 2021 until 20th February 2022, called Moscoso Cosmos: The Visual Universe of Victor Moscoso, and that there was a lavish catalogue, I had to get hold of a copy.
The catalogue for the Moscoso Cosmos. the Visual Universe of Victor Moscoso.
This ain’t no puny thing either. It measure 32 x 24 cms (12.6 x 9.4 inches) and runs to 220 pages with 58 full-page prints of posters and artworks. It is a very welcome addition to my art library.
For anyone interested in poster art from the golden age of American psychedelia, there’s a Facebook group called Fillmore Poster Appreciation Society. Loads of beautiful posters are posted there and there’s loads of information about their creators and the various pressings of many. Even posters of British psychedelia poster artists turn up there. Martin Sharp, Hapshash & the Coloured Coat, Michael English and Nigel Weymouth (both separately from Hapshash). I can recommend a visit.
When at University in the sixties I used to paint posters for dances, balls and parties. Having limited imgination, however, I found inspiration from many sources. I bought Michael English’s posters of Coke bottletops, Fried eggs and, as one half of Hapshash & the Coloured Coat (with Nigel Weymouth) the third issue of English OZ magazine.
Unfortunately, I no longer have these two, but I do still have:
Tantric Love by Hapshash & The Coloured Coat. OZ magazine #3, June 1967.
While still a student, I used to spend Saturdays walking down the King’s Road, Chelsea, bird-watching. I found a boutique somewhere near the Town Hall that sold psychedelic postcards/handbills by artists such as Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin, Mouse & Kelley and, probably my favourite, Victor Moscoso. These were for concerts at the legendary Fillmore West and Avalon Ballroom. I managed to find forty of these and, some time later, my brother sent me a further postcard from a concert at the Fillmore East, making forty-one in all. I’ve spent a happy hour or two cataloging them, and here’s the result.
Wes Wilson — BG-34
Wes wilson — BG-58
Rick Griffin
BG-56
Rick Griffin – AoR 2.24
My collection of Fillmore and Avalon Ballroom Postcards and handbills.
I have no idea if any of these are particularly rare — but I still think they are beautiful and many seved as inspirations for my own poster designs that I’ll show in a forthcoming post.
Two record cover and poster designers that have inspired me both in my art and in my collecting have died recently. Vaughan Oliver, famous for his record covers, primarily for 4AD, and posters died on 29th December, 2019 just 62 years old.
Vaughan Oliver 1957-2019.
And less than a month later on 24th January, 2020, Wes Wilson, legendary San Francisco poster artist died aged 82.
Wes Wilson 1937-2020.
Flashback–It’s 1967-8 and I’m a medical student at Guy’s Hospital in London. On Saturdays I would walk along Kings Road in Chelsea visiting hip boutiques and girl watching. Somewhere along there I bought some Fillmore Auditorium and Avalon Ballroom handbills and in a record shop at World’s End bought “The Psychedelic Sounds of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators” and the band’s second album “Easter Everywhere” (with the lyric sheet included). The handbills cost two shillings to half a crown in those days, which was quite a lot of money (10p/15p in modern parlance by with considerably greater buying power). Eventually I had collected more than forty by the likes of Victor Moscoso (ten), Stanley Mouse (four), Rick Griffin (four) and, of course, Wes Wilson (fourteen).
Four Wes Wilson handbills.
I was on the entertainments committee (not actually a committee, just some students who wanted to organise parties) at the hospital’s Student’s Union and together with fellow medical student Andrew Batch, painted posters for rave-ups that we called Inflam. My posters were heavily influenced by the psychedelic posters I had found on the Kings Road. We painted four copies of each poster to hang on the various notice boards around the Hospital and they attracted quite a lot of attention. I offered one to the shop Gear on Carnaby Street, which they we willing to buy for £25, but I thought that was too cheap, so I (idiot) refused the offer.
I still have my handbills, all 41 of them.
I did actually qualify despite my partying and actually practiced as a doctor doing my various junior posts in London and Norwich, all the while collecting records and posters. many of which I ripped from walls around London. Records with great cover art predominated even if there were many soul records. I had first editions of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,Their Satanic Majesties Request, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Country Joe & The Fish, Doors and Neil Young records and even bought Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat.
Fast forward to the eighties. I discovered Victorialand, a Cocteau Twins album with cover art by 23 Envelope and thereby discovered 4AD records and began an almost obsessional race to collect album covers by Vaughan Oliver and 23 Envelope (Oliver‘s cooperation with Nigel Grierson) and v23 (his collaboration with Chris Bigg and others). I collected posters, calenders, 4AD catalogues and even had a little brass 4AD pin (I wonder what happened to that?) In the end my Vaughan Oliver collection included all the 4AD rarities, including the wooden box version of LonelyIs an Eyesore. My 4AD records went when I had to sell my collection, but I still have the first cover Vaughan designed for the company — the of Modern English‘s Gathering Dust seven-inch single.
Vaughan Oliver’s first cover design for 4AD records. Modern English Gathering Dust.
I bought a folder of fifteen 23 Envelope posters for £9.99 that I still have and also bought the softback This Rimy River (which went with my record collection), however I still have the limited edition of This Rimy River (No 65 of 400) which I took with me to v23‘s office/studio in November 2001 and got Vaughan to autograph it for me. He also signed Rick Poyner‘s book Vaughan Oliver: Visceral Pleasures, and the lid of of my Lonely Is an Eyesore box. I arrived at v23 at around 11 a.m. and introduced myself and started chatting about my collection. Suddenly it was lunchtime and Vaughan and Chris Bigg suddenly remembered they had an appointment at 4AD to re-negotiate their contract. So the suggested I look through their poster archive and then pop round the corner for some lunch and they’d come back after their meeting. Vaughan let me take a selection of posters from the archive as a souvenir of my visit.
Folder of fifteen 23 Envelope posters by Vaughan Oliver and Nigel Grierson.
The cover of the 23 Envelope poster folder.
The limited edition of This Rimy River.
RIck Poyner’s book Vaughan Oliver: Visceral Pleasures.
I am deeply grateful to both these artists for the inspiration their work has given me.
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