The Paul Butterfield Blues Band Handbill
BG003 is the second poster in the series to feature the Jefferson Airplane prominently in the artwork. Bill Graham quickly realized that the Airplane's sound and name recognition made them a strong draw for San Francisco audiences, and he booked them frequently in the early days. Wes Wilson's artwork reflects his fondness for the human head, and the lettering design in BG003 suggests the facial features.
There was only one pre-concert printing of the handbill, which is black ink on white paper. It measures 6 1/2" x 9 3/8".
When the Avalon Ballroom and Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium began to hold weekly dance concerts, Wilson was called upon to design the posters. He created psychedelic posters from February 1966 to May 1967, when disputes over money severed his connection with Graham. Wilson pioneered the psychedelic rock poster. Intended for a particular audience, "one that was tuned in to the psychedelic experience," his art, and especially the exaggerated freehand lettering, emerged from Wilson's own involvement with that experience and the psychedelic art of light shows.