MC5 At The Straight Theatre Signed and Numbered by Gary Grimshaw

May 7, 1997 PRESS RELEASE

HISTORIC MC5 POSTER PUBLISHED IN DELUXE EDITION

(San Francisco) Artist Gary Grimshaw and Big Productions announce the publication of a limited edition reprint of the poster "MC5 At The Straight Theatre, March 14-16, 1969." This poster appears in The Art Of Rock (Abbeville Press) in color on page 201.

Originally printed offset in 4 process colors by Rip Off Press to advertise the shows, this authorized reprint is an oversized (20'1x24") 6-color silkscreen hand-pulled by The Firehouse in San Francisco on heavy stock. The artist prepared the film from the original 1969 art; hand-cut the color separations and worked closely with Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan (formerly with Psychic Sparkplug) at The Firehouse during the printing.

The MC5 are universally recognized as one of the all-time great rock and roll bands and the originators of heavy metal, punk and jazz rock before any of these terms came into use. This poster advertised their first west coast show with openers Congress Of Wonders (an inspired political comedy troupe) and clover (later Huey Lewis and The News) at Haight-Ashbury's Straight Theatre. The MC5 were touring behind their first album "Kick Out The Jams" and their political intensity as members of the White Panther Party was at its peak.

This new edition of 263 is signed and numbered by the artist. Gary states: "This is my favorite MC5 poster. Many thanks to the original Rip Off Press printer J. David Moriaty, now of Austin TX, for saving the original art for 25 years and returning it to me intact so that it could be reprinted. I vividly remember J. David, Gilbert Shelton, John Sinclair and myself goofing around the press the day before the first show. It is a thrill to see the poster printed finally in such fine quality, since the original prints are so rare--I wish I had one!"