Pink Floyd
14 Hour Techncolor Dream
April 29, 1967
Posters & Handbills
Any comments, corrections or additions to this listing would be greatly appreciated.
The 14 Hour Techncolor Dream was organized as a benefit for London's underground newspaper, the International Times. IT, as the newspaper was often called, was busted on March 9, 1967 for alleged obscenities and its offices raided in an attempt to close it down. In order to raise money for the paper’s defense fund, John “Hoppy” Hopkins, Barry Miles, and Jim Haynes organized the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream benefit concert. Coordinated by Jack Henry Moore, with posters by Michael McInnerney, the concert was announced by shooting rockets off over London and displaying posters in all the underground shops. The event attracted between 7,000 and 10,000 people, and featured poetry, theater, light shows, films, and two stages where bands played music simultaneously.
Bands were sent a form letter asking them if they would appear at the benefit, and what day and time would be best for them.
Groups that actually played at this festival included Graham Bond, Champion Jack Dupree, Alexis Corner, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, The Flies, Alex Harvey, John's Children, Ginger Johnson and his African conga drummers, The Move, One in a Million, 117, The Pretty Things, The Purple Gang, Savoy Brown, The Smoke, The Social Deviants, Tomorrow, The Utterly Incredible Too Long Ago To Remember Sometimes Shouting At People, The Soft Machine, and The Pink Floyd.
Numerous celebrities were in attendance including Ron Geesin, John Peel, Barry Fantoni, author Alexander Trocchi, Christopher Logue, poet Michael Horovitz and the New Departures, Denny Laine, John Lennon, and Pete Townshend.
Inside a see-through plastic igloo, Hoppy and Suzie Creemcheese distributed free banana peel joints. There was a large helter-skelter in the center of the main floor, mime troupes dancing in ancient Greek gear, The Tribe of the Sacred Mushroom, jugglers, an art exhibit by Yoko Ono (Cut Piece), David Medalla and the Exploding Galaxy Dance Troupe, comedian/activist Dick Gregory, artists Binder Edwards and Vaughn, and the 26 Kingly Street Group. Underground films, such as Flaming Creatures, were projected onto large sheets.
Pink Floyd played just before dawn on the morning of April 30th.
The poster for the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream is an iconic psychedelic image of the 1960s London Underground. The poster was designed and printed by Michael McInnerney, who was the art editor of the International Times newspaper at the time. When the paper was busted, McInnerney was asked to design the poster for the benefit show. McInnerney explained that "the psychedelic posters I produced were an attempt to illustrate states of mind associated with drug taking using the visual vocabulary of organic shapes found in art nouveau / jungendstil, as well as physical ideas of softness, meltingness, liquidness and poured forms." This style was exhibited in full in his poster for the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream.
The poster features a girl with kaleidoscope eyes and starry hair staring off into space as winged creatures fly from her fingertips. Below her a wizard looks on, as psychedelic bubbles float by. McInnerney said, "I never tired of watching people float around during these events, occasionally blowing bubbles, totally self-absorbed. I illustrated this with an image of rising bubbles containing various visual ideas from mythological to optical, as a reference to varied self-contained drug states."
Original posters for the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream vary in color due to the printing process and the large number of posters produced for the event. McInnerney shed some light on the printing process, explaining: "The poster was made using two printings. As the printing progressed, the inks where changed . . . and blended with one pull of the squeegee. No two posters where the same." Variations of the colors blue, brown, green, orange, red, and yellow are found on these posters. The one pictured at the top of this page is green and orange. Here is a sampling of some of the color variations.
1a) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (brown)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1b) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (brown & orange)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1c) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (green & orange)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1d) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (orange)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1e) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (orange & purple)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1f) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (orange & red)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1g) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (orange & yellow)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1g) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (red)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
1h) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream poster (blue & orange)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
1i) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream, Tickets Here poster
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Poster Size: 29 5/8" x 19 7/8"
Notes: Copies of this poster have been found with the words "Tickets Here " printed across the top of the poster. It is believed that these were used at ticket outlets prior to the show.
2a) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream handbill (portrait style)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Notes: First of two different flyers for the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream concert.
2b) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream handbill (landscape style)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Artist: Michael McInnerney
Notes: Second of two different flyers for the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream concert.
3a) 14 Hour Techncolor Dream (1970s reproduction poster)
Date & Venue: Alexandra Palace, London, England, April 29, 1967
Bands: Pink Floyd, etc.
Poster Size: 25 1/4" x 17 3/4"
PT: .0041"
Notes: One of two different commemorative (fake) posters made by British poster collector Nigel Mentzel in the 1970s. This one is purple and orange. He also made one in yellow and blue.
The original poster for the 14 Hour Techncolor Dream was altered by adding various bands to the list of performers (such as "frank zappa and the mothers of invention" and "john lennon," above "yoko ono").
There have been at least two other reprints of this poster over the years, one originating in Canada, and one from California. Both appear to be unauthorized.
