BG-30
BG-30 · Wes Wilson
San Francisco
Jefferson Airplane
Grateful Dead
The same night the Avalon was rocking with FD-29, Winterland was hosting its own landmark show just across town. Bill Graham presented the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead — the billing order the poster itself prints — three bands that between them would define the San Francisco sound.
This was one of original vocalist Signe Toly Anderson's final engagements with the Airplane, though not — as this page once claimed — her last. Her farewell came eight days later, on October 15 at the Fillmore Auditorium, where Bill Graham introduced the band and she said goodbye from the stage; Grace Slick, poached from the Great Society, made her debut the very next night, October 16, also at the Fillmore. Slick would transform Jefferson Airplane into the powerhouse that recorded "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit." So the crowd at Winterland that Friday was catching Anderson in her last full week with the band — roughly a week, not days, from the handoff.
Wes Wilson designed the poster, and it represents a notable departure from his usual style. Gone are the sinuous human forms and lithe, nearly unreadable lettering that made him famous. BG-30 is almost Egyptian in its linearity and verticality — geometric, structured, controlled. It has more in common with his January 1966 Trips Festival handbill than with the flowing work he was producing just weeks earlier. Wilson was experimenting, and the result is one of the more distinctive pieces in his catalog.
The original was printed on smooth white stock at an unusual size: approximately 11⅞" × 24⅜" — taller and narrower than the standard Fillmore poster. That format perfectly suits the design's vertical emphasis. A postcard version (BG-30 PC) is catalogued, though its details rest on the gated collector references (classicposters / Eric King's printing guide) this pass could not reach.
Verification Notes
ANTAGONIST 2026-10-01: HARD ERROR CORRECTED -- 'last full weekend with Signe Anderson' was FALSE. Anderson's last show = Oct 15 1966 at the Fillmore Auditorium; Grace Slick debuted Oct 16 at the Fillmore (8 days later, different venue) -- per UltimateClassicRock + COAU Fillmore Aud 10-15/10-16; check-claims ok (chickenonaunicycle). BILLING ORDER corrected to the poster order: Butterfield Blues Band / Jefferson Airplane / Grateful Dead (was Airplane-first). Dimensions 24 1/4" -> 24 3/8". BG-30 PC postcard HEDGED (classicposters/Eric-King gated -- honest gap). Wes Wilson designer VERIFIED; two-night engagement Oct 7-8 VERIFIED (COAU). Oct 7 1966 = Friday (verified).
Were You There?
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