Jimi Hendrix Experience 1968 Davenport, IA "The Death of Convention" Concert Poster....

Description

MAGNIFICENT SMALL-TOWN JIMI HENDRIX PSYCHEDELIA

Jimi Hendrix Experience 1968 Davenport, IA "The Death of Convention" Concert Poster. A brilliantly imaginative one-off psychedelic concert poster for the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing at the Coliseum (known to locals as just "The Col") in Davenport, Iowa on Sunday night, August 11, 1968. This poster is so scarce that to the best of our knowledge, it's never been offered at public auction before, let alone at Heritage.

This red, white & blue small-town psychedelic gem was designed by Mr. Leslie Bell, a sophomore at the local liberal arts university, St. Ambrose. Isn't that just like the 60's... to have a local college kid draw up a rock poster, probably getting paid with little more than a couple of free tickets. But Bell obviously spent a ton of time on this, putting incredibly intricate detail in Hendrix's face, and then crazy things going on everywhere else on the poster you look.

A real stunner for a 1960's counterculture rock poster is the appearance of current sitting U.S. president LBJ. There is Johnson's partially hidden face, right under Jimi's scarf. Can you think of another rock-concert poster, ever, that pictured the current U.S. president? And how about "The Death of Convention" appearing in the lower left corner area, wow. The infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention was about to take place two weeks after this concert, so it's clear this was an anti-Vietnam War protest poster doubling as a Jimi Hendrix concert poster.

Bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell are also drawn on either side of LBJ, separated by a 'hole' in the poster which showed the night sky behind them. And look at that "Aug. 11th" date in the lower right... made kids work hard to read it.

This item originated from the Jacaeber Kastor Jimi Hendrix collection, which was the finest and most complete in the world. One could argue that this poster was more far-out than 99% of San Francisco's psychedelic posters, just adding to its very special cache. It measures 14 3/4" x 17 3/4" and grades to Very Good Plus condition. COA from Heritage Auctions.

More Information: Even the show itself was pretty wild, by one local account. According to the book Jimi Hendrix – Concert Files by Tony Brown (Omnibus Press, 1999), Jimi started off the show by announcing, "We'd like to ask one question before we start: are you all experienced? It goes something like this." Jimi then kicked into a long, wild feedback introduction which eventually segued into "Are You Experienced?" What a way to start a show!

Local news coverage also gave some interesting background to this concert. This interesting blurb was published in the Hawkeye Beacon:
Remembers promoter Don Wachel, "Hendrix's management called us. He was playing Minneapolis and was en route to St. Louis. His price was $8,000, which was a lot for an act in 1968. We debated over a week over it because we would have had to get at least 2,200 people to break even. It wasn't a sure thing because his songs weren't on the radio and the general public didn't really know who he was yet." He goes on to say, "We took a gamble and didn't make any money on the show. I think if we would've had him six months later it would have been standing room only."

Regarding the concert from a business standpoint, Wachel recalls, "The night didn't go that easy. Soft Machine was contracted to play for $500. At show time, they demanded $1,000 or they wouldn't go on. I said, ‘Fine, I don't need you. We'll do a longer intermission and go on to Hendrix.' But both bands had the same road manager and that didn't work. I had to pay the extra $500 to Soft Machine." (Special thanks to the web site iowa.forums.rivals.com for conveying the Hawkeye Beacon story.)

In closing, how closely have you looked at our image? We've told you there's crazy little things going on everywhere. Down in the very bottom center buried in the red, it says "Bushman Banana." Just another quirky mystery found on this highly charismatic poster.

Condition details: Chameleon Restoration addressed a few edge and corner issues, touching up any printing or color where necessary, mending pinholes, eradicating surface blemishes and greatly reducing any creasing it might have had. The result is a wonderfully satisfying piece with little or no evidence of past damage. The word "Davenport" written in the lower margin was part of the promoter's original marketing, and thus not considered damage. That means this one was probably posted in an outlying town.


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