Into the Woods - Joshua Budich, St. Triphon, 2012

Artist: Joshua Budich
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 18 x 24
Event Date: 7.9.2012
Venue: Carrière des Andonces - St. Triphon, Switzerland
Signed, numbered edition of 295

Even though its four years old, this is one of the most recent Radiohead concert posters I have.

Now, I am a fan of Budich’s work in general. He’s got a boatload of great movie and pop culture prints available. And the image is beautiful, there’s no denying it. However, I feel like the connection with the band here is kind of lost on me. This one feels more like a Sigur Ros poster than a Radiohead one.

Also, I've seen the art for a horizontal version, but I don't know if they were ever printed.

The Embossed Aluminum – Emek, Santa Barbara, 2012

Artist: Emek
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Embossed Aluminum
Size: 12 x 24
Event Date: 4.12.2012
Venue: Santa Barbara Bowl – Santa Barbara, CA
Signed, numbered on the back in an edition of 50 distressed, 50 aluminum, and 20 copper

This one lives on the short list of my favorite posters of all time.

Emek is known for his unique print techniques and materials, and few posters of his posters are more unique than this one from the King of Limbs tour in 2012. Only 120 were made in three editions: aluminum, distressed aluminum, and copper.

When I first saw these I immediately fell in love with the distressed version and was lucky enough to find a fellow collector willing to trade his for my copy of Cyberman, another metal Emek print that I had laying around. Tree man for Cyberman - a solid trade.

For the frame job we (my framer and me) went with a black frame stacked with a metallic fillet (which are usually under the glass) and double metallic matting. The print itself is float-mounted a half-centimeter or so off another mat below. It hangs proudly in my living room where only one other poster collector (I’ve only ever met one other in person) has recognized it as the prize it is.

London Official – Stanley Donwood, London, 2012

Artist: Stanley Donwood
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 18 9/10 x 25 1/5
Event Date: 10.8-9.2012
Venue: Greenwich Peninsula - London, England
Signed, embossed, and numbered in an edition of 188

Seeing Radiohead in London should be a bucket list item for any fan. And Stanley Donwood, the artist-in-residence for the band, doing the poster for said show is about as official as you can get.

While all the Donwood posters for the North American tour are monochromatic on a field of black, this London poster is uncharacteristically colorful and printed on high-quality white paper. I like how “England” is printed in large, thick letters here.

These were printed in an edition of 188, a pretty large edition for Stanley but average for gig posters in general. Regardless of the larger edition, these do not come up for sale often; and I would image that if one does it’ll fetch well into the hundreds of dollars.

The Limbs of King – Tad Carpenter, Kansas City, 2012

Artist: Tad Carpenter, Vahalla Studios
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 18 x 24
Event Date: 3.11.2012
Venue: Sprint Center - Kansas City, MO
Signed, numbered edition of 300

Literal interpretations were a lot more forgivable when the band was new and we only had Pablo Honey and The Bends to listen to; but after OK Computer there is no excuse.

It’s well-printed and I like the centered band name and font, but even the metallic gold and silver ink used here is not enough to save it. Still, it’s a Radiohead poster, so I have one.

The Urban Skyline - Emek, New York City, 2012

Artist: Emek
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 25 x 30
Event Date: 9.28-29.2012
Venue: Roseland Ballroom – New York City, NY
Signed, numbered edition of 99

This one has all the makings of a real wallet-buster: small edition, popular artist, legendary venue in a major city, and glow-in-the-dark inks to boot. Yet this poster is pretty available in several places online. Why?

Well, first there’s the “official” Stanley Donwood poster that was created for this show in an edition of only 44 prints by the band’s official artist, signed, numbered, and embossed. That’s heavy competition for “official” poster for the gig.

Second, the poster is a very non-standard size. I, like many collectors, keep my posters in a large art portfolio that measures 24 x 36. At 30 x 25, this poster is just barely too big to fit in it. So you really only have two options with this one: frame it or find a way to store it. I keep mine between two pieces of foam core held together with binder clips with my other larger prints. And I resent that fact – this thing should be displayed. I may end up selling just on principle.

Apart from that, the printing is excellent, the detail in the clouds is outstanding (“broken hearts make it rain” was still four years away, btw), and it’s spot-on thematically.

The Regular King of Limbs Tour Poster – Stanley Donwood, Various Cities, 2012

Artist: Stanley Donwood
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Lithograph
Size: 18 x 24
Event Date: Various
Venue: Various
Unsigned, numbered in varying editions (Houston: 400, St. Louis: 300)

All the official merch posters from the 2012 North American tour are more or less the same (except New York). While they differ in ink color, edition size, and (obviously) city and date, they are all the same design monochromatically printed on a field of black. So I don’t feel bad about not having a copy of every one. I do, however, have a copy from both shows I went to:

I live in New Orleans which is four hours from Houston, so we got a room in a hotel right across the street from the Toyota center for that show. A few days later we went to visit family in St. Louis and saw them again at the Scottrade Center. The St. Louis poster was an easy get at the merch table, but the Houston poster must have sold out quickly because there were zero available. I had to pay a bit of a premium on eBay for that one.

These North American tour posters, while official, are a little unremarkable. I consider them souvenirs and have no intention of framing them. There were a lot more reasonably cool unofficial posters that came out of that tour that are wall-worthy.

The King of the King of Limbs Tour Posters – Stanley Donwood, New York, 2012

Artist: Stanley Donwood
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 16 x 24
Event Date: 9.28-29.2011
Venue: Roseland Ballroom – New York City, NY
Signed, embossed, and numbered in an edition of 44 (also lithographs in four colorways in editions of 150 each, some numbered, some not)

There were five different posters you could get for the New York show in 2012: four lithographs in differing colorways numbered to 150 each, and the official signed and embossed Stanley Donwood silkscreen numbered out of only 44, the smallest Radiohead poster edition I know. The latter is the one you really want, but the facts that NYC also got four different colorways just goes to show how big a show that is for the band.

I was lucky enough to snag a complete set of the four lithos off the Radiohead w.a.s.t.e. merch site soon after the show. Some arrived with damaged corners as though they were physically at the merch table in New York. Some were obviously on the bottom of the pile, too, as they very low in number. I even got a number one.

My orange poster is unnumbered.

The signed silkscreen was another story. You had to get these direct from Stanley, and I must admit the man knows how to ship a poster. The tube arrive airmail from England in the biggest poster tube I’ve ever seen in my life. It was so big I kept it. Inside it was wrapped in fine tissue on the inside and kraft paper on the outside, leaving the poster utterly unspoiled by its voyage across the pond. I still can’t believe I snagged one. Were I ever to let this one go, I would start the auction at $1000, and no less.

As for the three official Stanley Donwood gig posters, I have two. There is only one other I’m aware of, and it has slipped through my fingers time and time again. Someday I will have it, and I will frame them side-by-side-by-side. Until that day I am on constant lookout.

Haiti Relief – Kii Arens, Los Angeles, 2010

Artist: Kii Arens
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Lithograph
Size: 16 ½ x 22 ½
Event Date: 1.24.2010
Venue: Henry Fonda Theater – Los Angeles, CA
Signed, numbered edition of 250 (also yellow edition of 100)

This was a surprise poster drop that happened right in between the In Rainbows and King of Limbs tours. The boys played a benefit show for Haiti following the 2010 earthquake there. They raised over half a million dollars for relief efforts there. The boys have big hearts, that’s for sure.

A poster was designed by talented artist Kii Arens for the show using the appropriate image of a Band-Aid box as the major theme. There were two versions, the regular red in an edition of 250 and the rarer yellow variant limited to only 100 produced.

Check out the setlist for this one – it’s a knockout. A bunch of fans even recorded audio and video for this one that are available online in multiple sources for burning onto a DVD. There’s even cover art! Go get it.

Won’t Take My Eyes Off the Ball Again – Jermaine Rogers, West Palm Beach, 2008

Artist: Jermaine Rogers
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 29 x 24 ½
Event Date: 5.5.2008
Venue: Cruzan Amphitheater - West Palm Beach, FL
Signed, numbered edition of 150

So this is more or less a sequel to Jermaine’s 2003 Pay Attention! Poster, complete with plenty of defaced versions and even a tough-to-get process set. Again, the detail here is almost overwhelming and tells a story of a dsytopian future fun my network media wherein the masses appear to be controlled with only a few poor souls realizing what is going on. The color palette is also similar but slightly different from the ’03 poster. And once again it’s basically a visual Radiohead song – take your time with it. There’s plenty to see. The Protektor from the first poster is back and check out Obama and Hilary on the left there.

You’re All I Need – Jermaine Rogers, Tampa, 2008

Artist: Jermaine Rogers
Type: Gig Poster
Print: Silkscreen
Size: 32 ¼ x 23 5/8
Event Date: 5.6.2008
Venue: Ford Amphitheater, Tampa, FL
Signed, numbered edition of 151 (113 black paper, 38 white paper)

Jermaine has given us a lot of great characters in his posters over the years, but this one contains some of the most bizarre I’ve seen. Again it proves that, as a fan of the band himself, he puts a lot of thought into his Radiohead posters. And like his 2001 poster this one also comes with specific instructions for viewing.

Based on the In Rainbows songs “All I Need,” we have a couple in the center composed of an indifferent-looking woman and an absolutely obsessed looming man. It’s not a loving look he has, but one of desperate, unhealthy dependence. The whites of his eyes give focus to what is the kind of look you come to pity some poor bastard for having. This is clearly one of those joint Facebook profile, his-balls-in-her-purse, spooky kind of love sort of couples.

Plus the little bird guy is kind of cute.

This poster came in a single edition of 151 prints split into two paper types, 113 on black and 38 on white. As a completionist, I just had to have one of each. You would think the white would command a higher price on the secondary market due to its rarity, but really they are about the same in price probably because those blues look so good against the black background.