Portland-based artist Mike King has been creating gig posters for bands since the mid 1970s. What began as a means of promoting his own bands’ shows turned into a prolific career. He gets paid now, but to begin he worked “in exchange for tickets to the shows, and for beers”. King has worked on posters … Continue reading "REM, Nirvana and More From ‘America’s Poster Champion’ Mike King" The post REM, Nirvana and More From ‘America’s Poster Champion’ Mike King appeared first...| Flashbak
Leave have been used away from nature to cover Adam and Eve (fig leaves), decorate Roman columns (acanthus) and to advance Christian thought (holly and ivy). Leaves tell us stories, as must leaves in a book. In autumn, green leaves turn to flaming colours of reds and yellows. New shoots and new beginnings turn … Continue reading "From Eve To Autumn – A Celebration of Falling Leaves" The post From Eve To Autumn – A Celebration of Falling Leaves appeared first on Flashbak.| Flashbak
“Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello… Welcome to the Nirvana form letter.” – Nirvana’s first newsletter, 10 October 1991 In 1991, Nirvana band members Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic signed the band’s first fan newsletter in black ballpoint pen, green felt tip marker and red felt tip marker. … Continue reading "‘NIRVANA ARE TRAINED PROFESSIONALS, NOT ROLE MODELS’: Nirvana’s first fan newsletter, 1991" The post ‘NIRVANA ARE TRAI...| Flashbak
Beginning in 1979, Camilo José Vergara has been returning year after year to take photographs of Fern Street in Camden, New Jersey. We’ve shared more from his project to create a visual archaeology of the USA with his pictures of Vyse Street in New York City’s South Bronx and 65 East 125th Street in Harlem. Now … Continue reading "The View West Along Fern Street Camden, New Jersey – 1979-2019" The post The View West Along Fern Street Camden, New Jersey – 1979-2019 appeared first o...| Flashbak
Smoke Gail & Ax’s Little Joker were tobacco and cigarette brands, primarily from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, advertised through trade cards, playing cards, and other ephemera, such as those from Duke, Sons & Co. and Gail & Ax’s. Around 1900, Little Joker tobacco published a series of adverts based on … Continue reading "The Baron Munchausen Little Joker Tobacco Trading Cards (1870 – 1900)" The post The Baron Munchausen Little Joker Tobacco Trading Cards (1870 – 1900) app...| Flashbak
Released in 1981, Computer World was the eighth studio album from German band Kraftwerk. Back in the early 1980s, pocket computers were very new and experimental. But the band foresaw what was the come and understood their then present, using the Casio fx-501P programmable calculator as an instrument for the first single from Computer World: … Continue reading "Kraftwerk Music for the Casio VL-80 Pocket Calculator, 1981" The post Kraftwerk Music for the Casio VL-80 Pocket Calculator, 1981 a...| Flashbak
Peter Campbell (1937-2011), who took these photos of 1960s London, was first and foremost a typographer, and only occasionally worked as a photographer in a professional capacity. His longest-standing professional association was with the London Review of Books, for which he was the resident designer from its founding in 1979 until his death in … Continue reading "London in the 1960s" The post London in the 1960s appeared first on Flashbak.| Flashbak
A few hundred years after the invention of the cat organ, in 1868 Austrian artist Moritz von Schwind (21 January 1804 – 8 February 1871) created his own music for cats, the Katzensymphonie. In the Katzensymphonie (1868), cats roll and climb over the musical score. The name is a play on words – Katzenmusik is … Continue reading "Sheet Music For Cats And Their Lovers : Moritz von Schwind’s Katzensymphonie, 1868" The post Sheet Music For Cats And Their Lovers : Moritz von Schwind’s Kat...| Flashbak
“Some photos become instantly ‘iconic’ and this sums up the 80s for me. The zenith of pop culture captured in a frame.” – David Koppel on being at London’s The Limelight nightclub In 1985, around 100 years after the Welsh Presbyterian church opened on Shaftesbury Avenue, just off Cambridge Circus, the place hosted … Continue reading "Star Spotting At The Limelight Nightclub in the 1980s" The post Star Spotting At The Limelight Nightclub in the 1980s appeared first on Flash...| Flashbak
The Beatles: Their Story In Pictures was published in 1982 by the TV Times and Look-in magazines. Drawn by comic book illustrator Arthur Ranson with a story by the writer Angus Allan (22 July 1936 – 16 July 2007), the book was based on the Look-in comic strip of the same name. Ranson … Continue reading "The Beatles: Their Story In Pictures, 1982" The post The Beatles: Their Story In Pictures, 1982 appeared first on Flashbak.| Flashbak
The work of largely self-taught artist Léon Spilliaert lives in a dreamy ghost-like space between Symbolism and Expressionism. Created mainly through ink, gouache, watercolour, pencils, chalk, Conté crayon and pastel, Spilliaert produced strange and moody, dramatically lit self-portraits and eerie landscapes of his home town of Ostend on the Belgian coast. As with his compatriot … Continue reading "Léon Spilliaert: A Mysterious World Between Light And Darkness" The post Léon Spilliaert:...| Flashbak
Jack Falat worked as a New Jersey Bell Telephone installer based in Passaic, New Jersey throughout the 1970s. A dedicated photographer, he took pictures around New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. Jack has submitted a number of his terrific pictures on 1970s NYC, and the captions are his. As ever, let’s imagine the … Continue reading "Wildly Wonderful 1970s New York City" The post Wildly Wonderful 1970s New York City appeared first on Flashbak.| Flashbak
“I could tell him, too, that to know and love one other human being is the root of all wisdom.” – Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited One of the best and greatest biographies ever produced about Evelyn Waugh is written by a man called Duncan McLaren. His biography Evelyn!: Rhapsody for an Obsessive Love … Continue reading "Waugh, Waugh, Not Jaw, Jaw: An Introduction to Evelyn Waugh’s Best Books"| Flashbak
Back in the 1970s (and before), parents didn’t stress about our health and safety as much as they do today. It’s not that they cared less – they just didn’t worry obsessively about it. It’s a far guess to say that some of the kids seen bike jumping and being bike jumped (which is the … Continue reading "Snapshots of Kids Bike Jumping in the 1970s"| Flashbak