Ain’t that poster love?
I’m sure a few of you must have stumbled upon this already. But, even though it was published on September 3rd in the UK last year, it’s still well worth a mention here.
The Art of Classic Rock – Rock Memorabilia, Tour Posters and Merchandise from the 70s and 80s by Rob Roth and Paul Grushkin, is a beautifully illustrated, large format hardback with over 750 colour photographs.
Published by Goodman Books, this lavish tome boasts a 32-page Bowie section packed with Bowie promotional posters, adverts, tour passes and shop displays from Ziggy Stardust through to A Reality Tour.
A couple of small misgivings…the captions aren’t always accurate and the main body of the text is simply a potted history of each artist by Paul Grushkin that doesn’t really offer anything new, though there are a couple of interesting bits with Rex Ray in the Bowie section.
However, the biggest disappointment for me is that I would have loved to have had Rob Roth’s own angle on how he amassed the collection and the story behind the most interesting items…a wasted opportunity I feel.
Minor grumbles aside, the book is still worth every penny for the visual content alone. And while I know there are a few of us collectors with a more impressive Bowie collection than that featured in the book, you have to remember that Rob Roth has sizeable archives by eight artists and this probably isn’t a complete record of his collection by any means.
The Art of Classic Rock isn’t available in the US until October 26th, 2010, where it will be published by Collins Design.