JOHN MAYALL’S BLUES BREAKERS 1968 US Tour Poster Cafe Au Go Go NYC Original Printing PlateAccording to Mick Taylor's website, John Mayall's Blues Breakers played the first concerts of their groundbreaking debut American tour January 9-21st, 1968 at Cafe Au Go Go on Bleeker Street in Greenwich Village NYC. This is the original photo-etched zinc letterpress printing plate of the the band's logo that was used to print the posters for the series of concert dates! For his first American tour, John Mayall’s band featured Mick Taylor on lead guitar and Keef Hartley on drums, along with a horn section (Dick Heckstall-Smith and Chris Mercer), plus Keith Tillman on bass. This was the last of his “straight-ahead” blues lineups. The band had already recorded the live album Diary Of A Band, but their September 1967 album Crusade had been released on London records in the US in January 68. There are no known surviving examples of the poster to have come on the market, but some handbills bearing the same logo have been seen. The plate would have been assembled into a galley with the necessary lead type set above and underneath to advertise the gig location and date, all locked together, and then run in the press, one inked impression at a time. After the print run was done, the type was removed from the galley for future use on other printing jobs, and this custom portion of the print run was put into storage in the back of the printhouse until needed for the next set of dates. The shop was located in lower Manhattan. Printing plate measures 15 inches high by 24.5 inches wide. The zinc plate material is mounted on a wood backing. Weight about 12 lbs. Screw eyes and wire have been added to allow this piece to be displayed hung on a wall. There are still traces of the black ink used to print the posters in the recessed areas. Condition is fine.

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