Celebrating some of the most acclaimed concerts in the history of rock & roll
Taking concert set lists as the starting point, we are creating a series of beautiful limited edition prints by hand on a traditional letterpress—a classic analogue process—by building up colours in layers, with each print subtly different.
Read on to find out more about the existing releases, which are available to purchase using the links on this page, and our future plans.
Our latest release:
The Rolling Stones 72 tour
The Rolling Stones 1972 tour
It’s time to reveal the latest in our series of handmade limited edition letterpress prints celebrating classic live performances.
On Wednesday 26 July 1972, The Rolling Stones performed the final concert in their legendary 1972 American tour at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The tour kicked off on 3 June 1972, and the 26 July gig—on Mick Jagger’s birthday—was the last of three nights at the NYC venue. Stevie Wonder and his band played support, and joined the Stones for the encore.
This limited edition letterpress print celebrates that concert and features the seventeen songs performed that evening. For this print we chose a beautiful blue Colorplan paper by G. F. Smith.
Each print is made by hand on a vintage letterpress using movable type — as ‘analogue’ as it gets. Each one is individually numbered and made on paper measuring 40 x 64 cm / 15.75 x 25 inches.
The edition is printed in full at the outset.
Prints are in stock and ready to ship.
Other limited editions available now
The story so far
We launched the series with one of the most famous performances in the history of rock & roll— The Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Monterey Festival in June 1967. The second print in the collection celebrates an acclaimed concert by Bruce Springsteen on 19 September 1978 at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. To coincide with our Paul Weller retrospective exhibition, Didn’t We Have a Nice Time, the third print commemorates the end of an era—the final concert by The Jam in Brighton on 11 December 1982. The next print in the series focuses on the Night of the Hurricane benefit concert by Bob Dylan in December 1975 – the final date on the first leg of his Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
The most recent addition to the collection celebrates the final night of The Rolling Stones legendary 1972 tour.
These limited editions are available to purchase using the links on this page.
In time, we will be releasing limited edition prints featuring David Bowie, The Beatles, The Who, The Sex Pistols, Oasis and more.
“Excuse me for a minute, just let me play my guitar, alright?”
More about the limited editions
Each print is made in an edition of 75, and individually numbered.
Dimensions of an unframed print are 40 x 64 cm (15.75 x 25 inches).
The paper is a 270 gsm heavyweight textured paper by G.F Smith from their iconic Colorplan range.
The production process is analogue. The prints are made by hand using a letterpress with movable antique wood type, where the layers of ink are built up one by one on the Colorplan textured paper. As a result, each print is subtly different.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Monterey Festival (1967)
For this first print in the collection we took inspiration from the ticket for the concert, the colours worn by Jimi Hendrix on the day, and Jimi’s inter-song (and sometimes intra-song) conversations with the audience and his bandmates.
The 1967 ticket from the performance at Monterey provided some visual stimulus—overprinted numbers in different colours; a mix of extended and condensed Grot typefaces; vertical and horizontal text; and dividing lines between text sections. Jimi was wearing an outfit strong on reds, yellows and oranges and those colours are all referenced.
The dark blue text went down first and the numbers representing the order of the songs in the set are then overprinted. The numbers change from red to orange as you move across the page from left to right. The final layer—in this case the small quotations—is then added in black. There are some nice points of detail. In the title of the third track, a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, the ‘o’ in “Rolling” looks like it is actually rolling. That’s not an accident.
The Bruce Springsteen print is loosely based on the stars and stripes, and has a little bit of a Sister Corita vibe about it as well.
Choosing the paper
We chose the 270gsm Colorplan paper by G.F. Smith for a reason—the heritage of the paper dovetails perfectly with the period we will be covering in this series of limited edition prints.
It is best explained by G.F.Smith—
“Right up until the late 1960s, Britain’s television sets still flickered black and white. Then, in the summer of 1967, the pioneers at BBC2 changed everything when they started to broadcast in colour. Britain’s front rooms were transformed, as were the worlds of fashion, advertising and magazines. Inspired by this explosion of colour in popular culture, G.F. Smith took a pioneering step of its own and began to assemble a paper range of a scope and scale that was —up to that point—simply unheard of. Over the next five years this remarkable range, Colorplan, was carefully, skillfully and methodically assembled. Colorplan remains an iconic and indispensable element of the designer’s craft. In 1972, the revolutionary Colorplan established a new standard. Today it remains without equal.”
Exactly.
“For the last time, the only band to leave a solid bond in your heart—The Jam!”
In stock and ready to ship
Each edition is printed in its entirety at the outset, and unframed prints are in stock and ready to ship.
Each limited edition print measures 40 x 64 cm / 15.75 x 25 inches.
The edition size is 75 worldwide.
Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue
On Monday 8 December 1975, the first leg of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue came to a close with the Night of the Hurricane concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. This was a benefit night for Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the subject of Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane” written with Jacques Levy, which had been released as a single the previous month.
This limited edition letterpress print celebrates that concert and features the twenty-two songs performed by Bob Dylan that evening. For this print we chose a green Colorplan paper by G. F. Smith – a reference to a background colour on a contemporary button/pin badge featuring Rubin Carter. The two typographic rules appearing at the top and bottom of the print are based on guitar straps used by Bob Dylan on the Rolling Thunder tour.
The limited edition print uses a mix of fonts including the Slab Serif and decorative Americana typefaces associated with Dylan and the time; plus simple bold Grotesque faces used on boxing posters.
Each print is handmade and the edition is printed in full at the outset.
Prints are in stock and ready to ship.
Framing
Our preferred style is a white frame with a white window mount, as shown in the picture below.
If you would like us to organise framing simply purchase an unframed print, let us know you would like framing, and we will give you a quote based on your location.
The Production Process
