Curatorialist

Posters back in the day weren’t that easy to get your hands on. Not the good ones, anyway. The record store my band hung out in on the weekends had posters on the wall that were terminally Not For Sale. Which made me want them all the more. The most coveted ones were the black and white Specials and Selector posters that Chrysalis and 2 Tone labels put out. The look of those were raw and graphic, playful but serious. Nothing else in the record store looked anything like it. We got our cues as to how the rude boys in the UK were dressing from those posters, and we followed suit. Pins were a big deal back then, too, and nobody was pumping out more black and white pins than The Specials. We wore them on our black suspenders, we wore the white socks with the black shoes, we drew black and white checkers on everything. But I never got my hands on one of those posters.

I guess the chance has come up again as many of them are being reprinted. David Storey, one of the guys behind that iconic look, has a limited edition set of six that he’s offering on his site. A bit on the pricey side, but if adulthood isn’t for buying the crap you couldn’t get as a kid, then what good is it?

Check it here: http://www.david-storey.co.uk/shop.html