Amazing Electric Wonders

John Van Hamersveld is an American graphic artist and illustrator who designed posters and also record jackets for pop and psychedelic bands from the 1960s onward. Among the 300 albums are the covers of Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles, Crown of Creation by Jefferson Airplane, Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones, Skeletons from the Closet by the Grateful Dead and Hotter Than Hell by Kiss.

His first major assignment, in 1963, was designing what became the iconic poster for the surf film The Endless Summer, after which he served as Capitol Records' head of design from 1965 to 1968. During that time, he worked on the artwork for a total of 54 albums by Capitol artists including the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

In March of 1967, John Van Hamersveld was visiting his surf/artist friend, Rick Griffin, an underground poster maker, in San Francisco. He had money from his Capitol Records job to travel and had two loft studios with his roommates wanting something to do. He returned, awoke out of a dream, to a vision of the word “Pinnacle,” and started a production company called ‘Pinnacle Rock Concerts’ for which he designed the posters and his partners managed the deals and dates.

The Pinnacle concert production company was the first significant concert and production company to put on rock concerts and dances in Los Angeles, mostly at the Shrine Auditorium.  Though the Pinnacle concerts numbers just 14 and spanned less than a year, from November 1967 to September 1968, they included such some of the most important artists at the time including Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, Jeff Beck, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground and Vanilla Fudge.

This poster was the first concert for what became known as the Pinnacle/Shrine series of concerts promoted posters by the legendary John Van Hamersveld. The intent was intended a little bit to be a battle of the bands with LA’s Buffalo Springfield and the Grateful Dead from up north. Buffalo Springfield had released their second album, “Buffalo Springfield Again,” just 10 days before these shows and had a big Top Ten hit with “For What it’s Worth.”

Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA 11/10/1967 is a live album by the Grateful Dead that contains the complete concert recorded on November 10, 1967 at the Shrine Exposition Hall. The same concert recording was also released as part of the 30 Trips Around the Sun box set in October 2015.