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.