The legendary 'Peace To Monterey' artwork by the Beatles

1967,

Footnotes

In 1966, Tom Wilkes, the vendor of this lot, was approached by the original producers of the Monterey International Pop Festival, Benny Shapiro and Alan Pariser, to be the event's art director. Wilkes's job was to design and produce all of the graphic material for the event, including the logo, stationery, posters, folders, bumper stickers, trade ads and the programme. Another of the festival's founders was Derek Taylor, who had previously worked as PR for the Beatles and had been based in Hollywood for several years. Through this connection, Wilkes had the idea of asking the Beatles to take out a full-page ad in the programme.

In February 1967, during recording sessions for what would become the 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' album, the group supplied this collectively-produced piece of artwork as copy for their ad, and paid approximately $1500 for its inclusion. This was the first ad placed in the programme, proving a prestigious model to follow and further advertising was then readily forthcoming. In a filmed interview in 1981, Terry Doran, friend and business colleague of the Beatles, recalled being present when the artwork was executed.

In what was to become known as 'The Summer of Love' the Monterey Festival, held 16th, 17th, 18th June, was the first widely-promoted rock festival, although the staging of large-scale outdoor music events was not new - jazz, folk and blues festivals had been held regularly for many years at the Monterey County Fairgrounds and other venues. The festival largely established the framework for rock festivals to come, most notably Woodstock, held two years later. Despite the large attendance at Monterey - more than 200,000 over the three days - the festival was remarkable for many things, not least the lack of violence, injuries (or deaths) and arrests. The organisers set out to provide high quality facilities for both performers and audience and established standards that few (if any) subsequent festivals ever matched.

All but one of the performers appeared free of charge, the audience paying a nominal $1 entrance fee. Those attending witnessed some now-legendary performances, none more so than that of Jimi Hendrix. Unknown in his homeland previously, Jimi was included on the bill upon the recommendation of Paul McCartney. Jimi's breathtaking playing and destruction of his guitar took the crowd by storm and established his reputation overnight. The Who, Janis Joplin and Otis Redding also all put in their first major US appearances over the weekend.

The overall lineup was a remarkable list of names and the festival was the first significant such event to bring together acts from the different regional centres of music in the US. Artists not already mentioned included Simon & Garfunkel, Canned Heat, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and the Mama's and Papa's.

Tom Wilkes is a designer, illustrator, writer and photographer. During his long career he has designed many now-famous album covers, for artists including the Beatles, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and Neil Young. His 1973 'Tommy ' album package won him a Grammy.

Proceeds from the sale of the artwork will help support the non-profit environmental/ socail issues marketing company PROJECT INTERSPEAK, to fund its agenda related to research and social/ environmental projects.


Illustrated: 'The Beatles Anthology', Cassell & Co., 2000, p. 254.
'Fifty Years Adrift', Derek Taylor, Genesis Publications, 1984.