Friday afternoon and already the drinkers at the bar are lining up shots. And why not? The Pelirocco is, after all, Brighton's most rock and roll boutique hotel.
The limited edition screenprints are pegged up all around the small space and go well with the pink leather. "One guy has bought the whole lot," the barman claims. It sounds like a boozy myth, but in fact he looks sober enough. Said customer must be a big music fan, perhaps even a big music name.
This is the second Hotel Pelirocco show by Brighton Rock Artist Group (BRAG), who describe themselves as a poster collective. In an age of digital imaging, not to mention digital music, their work retains the craft values that made these bills of fare so popular and collectible in the 1970s and 1980s.
Screenprinting is alive and well in Brighton. In 2006 the town hosted Sub Screen Sonic at The Basement. The relatively large exhibition was a response to Flatstock, the American Poster Insitute's annual convention of poster art, albeit with many US artists represented.
It's a genre with the personal touch. BRAG member Matt Douthwaite gives us a pastel-toned, pirate-themed poster for Nashville band Lambchop. It looks like no album sleeve you've ever seen and would certainly worry a marketing department.
Elsewhere, Jemma Treweek offers up a bright blue poster for a Vienna concert by Kylesa. The woman in the design is styled somewhere between psychedelia and art deco. It's stunning, and could probably boast a much wider appeal than the avant garde metal of the headline act.
Like all healthy scenes, the screenprint poster fraternity has its innovators. T[error]IST has pushed the boundaries here with two highway signage executions for a local gig by The Wedding Present. Both have a crisp, photo-realistic quality, with the venue and date artfully worked into the composition.
Prices start for as low as the cost of a new CD. You can bet they look even lower after a few shots of Bourbon.
Hotel Pelirocco, Regency Square, Brighton. Admission free, call 01273 327055.
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