‘We love the bands and we want to keep them on the walls’: gig posters as heritage-as-praxis in music venues

Abstract

Gig posters and flyers have remained a reliable means of promoting musical performances well into the digital age. Although the primary function of posters is publicity for both musical acts and venues alike, they are often retained as memorabilia of a performance long after the last note has rung out. They are, however, an under-examined aspect of popular music’s culture and heritage. While posters have been included as part of the material items that make up popular music heritage when studies of this have been undertaken, the particular roles that they can play in this area have not yet been examined. However, when taken as an aspect of music heritage posters are significant as representations of an ephemeral ‘moment’ within local music history for both audiences and performers. Furthermore, as venue décor they align performance sites with a range of musical and aesthetic identifiers that act as visual representations of heritage. We argue that the posters are a form of heritage-as-praxis that helps to create a sense of identity and community in the venue, giving punters a clear idea of what the venue provides musically, and signifying the space as representative of a certain subsection of the city’s broader music scene.