Moody Blues - Peter Pain, 1968

Rick Griffin and Alton Kelley collaborated on this poster although neither would sign it! It features a repurposed (for what we don’t know) character used to advertise Ben Gay in the 1940s and 50s named “Peter Pain.” Ads would depict this bent over Leprechaun-like man, often with a weapon, inflicting muscle aches on some innocent victim. It was quite common for the San Francisco School of artists to appropriate commercial images in their work. Meanwhile, the homage to underground comix is clear, with talking balloons announcing all of the key information. Griffin was a well-known contributor to underground comix including Zap, Yellow Dog and many others.

This was the first appearance of the Moody Blues in San Francisco and their first tour in the U.S. with the exception of an Ed Sullivan and Murray The K’s Christmas Show run in late December 1965. But that was the first British Invasion and by 1968 the Moodies were a radically different band, totally changing their sound as the world changed around them. This appearance followed the late summer release of “In Search of The Lost Chord,” which followed up on “Days of Future Passed.”

Chicago began in that city as the Big Thing and in June 1968 they moved to Los Angeles, signed with Columbia Records and changed their name to Chicago Transit Authority (later shortened to Chicago). It was while performing on a regular basis at the Whisky a Go Go nightclub in West Hollywood that the band got the exposure to be asked to play these dates with the Moody Blues, predating the first Chicago Transit Authority album which came out in April 1969.

Frumious Bandersnatch was a psychedelic rock band in the late 1960s. The band was named after a character from the Lewis Carroll poem, "Jabberwocky". Based in San Francisco, the band was active from 1967 to 1969. Four members of Frumious Bandersnatch became regular members of the Steve Miller Band and others joined Santana alums Neal Schon and Gregg Rollie to form the band Journey in 1973.