A scarce original concert poster designed by David Jenks for a run of shows by the Jeff Beck Group with support from Kensington Market and Earth Opera at the Boston Tea Party in Boston, Massachusetts, from Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 October 1968, during the short-lived British rock band's second US tour from 11 October to 8 December 1968 in support of their debut album 'Truth'. Released in July 1968, the milestone album has since been widely regarded as an influential blueprint for the hard rock that came after it. Christopher Hjort and Doug Hinman of the extensively researched 'Jeff’s Book' record that a sprawling version of the band’s new instrumental ‘Mother’s Old Rice Pudding’ was performed on the first Boston date – "basically a Hendrix-y wah-wah workout with long drum and bass solos."

Former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck formed the first iteration of the Jeff Beck Group in London in early 1967 with Rod Stewart on vocals and Ronnie Wood on bass guitar, with a revolving line up of musicians on drums and keyboard. The group first toured the US in summer 1968, inspiring a standing ovation when they opened for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East on 14 June 1968. In a rave review, New York Times music critic Robert Shelton reported ‘They were standing and cheering for a new British pop group last night at the Fillmore East’, while New Musical Express gushed ‘America has never seen a team like Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart… it’s like watching the brilliance of Jim Morrison teamed with Eric Clapton.’ A teenage Joe Perry (later of Aerosmith fame) caught the band during their first Boston Tea Party run in June 1968 and later recounted: "I’m down in front, watching Jeff in total awe. No one who was there ever forgot those early Jeff Beck shows." By August 1969, the Jeff Beck Group had officially disbanded and Ronnie Wood had joined the Faces, soon to be followed by Rod. Following Jeff’s passing in 2023, Rod Stewart paid touching tribute to his old bandmate: "Jeff Beck was on another planet. He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since."

Boston concert venue the Boston Tea Party hosted an impressive roster of acts over its four-year run from 1967 to 1970, including Led Zeppelin, The Who, the Grateful Dead, Velvet Underground, Elton John, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, the Allman Bros. Band, the Yardbirds, Van Morrison and Jeff Beck. Posters and fliers printed to promote the Boston Tea Party shows were more minimalist and striking in design than the intricate and flamboyant psychedelic posters produced by West Coast venues of the same era, and their extremely small print runs have made them infinitely more scarce.

Provenance

Excellent (A)

Unfolded cardstock, not backed. Near mint condition other than the most minor nicks and bumps to edges and corners and a small compression crease to upper left corner, probably from a paperclip.