The promotional art inspired by the performers, the intimacy of the venues
and the energy of the audience all combined to create experiences that are
indelible in the minds of those who were there. This era was the true genesis
for the years of great concert art that followed, as rock concerts evolved from
their dance hall roots to the clubs, arenas,
amphitheatres and stadiums of today.
Wolfgang was Bill Graham, the man
whose genius for bringing performer and audience together shaped the rock
concert as we have come to know it. Born Wolfgang Grajonca in Berlin in 1931, he
escaped Nazi Germany to grow up in a foster home in the Bronx and anglicized his
name at the age of 18. Bill Graham, who would come to be known as the midwife of
the modern rock concert, was smart and forward-thinking, an opportunist and a
listener, fair and ferociously demanding, and he remembered his roots: in the
1980s he opened a small San Francisco club and named it Wolfgang's.
Graham's creative vision led him to commission true works of art to promote
his shows and, fortunately for the modern collector, his entrepreneurial
instincts led him to overprint and preserve the exceptional art, photography and
recordings that came from these shows. For over 30 years, his company
accumulated and stored this material in newly minted condition. Until Wolfgang's
Vault, if you could even find a Bill Graham Presents poster, it was frequently
in less than mint condition because it was torn from walls or telephone poles as
a concert souvenir.
The vast majority of material in Wolfgang's Vault comes from the exquisitely
preserved, original archives of Bill Graham Presents, which we now own and
manage. Beginning with the seminal concerts of the mid 1960s and continuing
through today, we've assembled a superb collection that is being cared for in
state-of-the-art facilities.
We have only begun to mine the depths of the Vault. We opened in October 2003
with our unparalleled collection of Poster Art
and added our extraordinary vintage t-shirts, backstage passes, laminates and books shortly thereafter. In 2004 we released the
BG Archive photography
collection, and since then we have become the exclusive online source for five
of the greatest rock photographers of all time: Jim Marshall, Baron Wolman, Michael Zagaris, Joe Sia and Gene Anthony.
The Vault is constantly undergoing exciting changes and developments. We've
expanded our apparel line to include infant and kids wear, and we have launched Impresario, our homegrown
clothing line. Concert Vault,
which includes Vault Radio, has exposed thousands of listeners to the depths of
the Bill Graham archive, the King Biscuit Flower Hour and the Silver Eagle Cross
Country collections. The introduction of Big Ticket grants collectors access to a
pristine and extremely rare collection of poster
art that's not available anywhere else. We are regularly introducing fresh
new product lines and special features like wrapping paper and poster reprints. The Vault continues to
grow and evolve, with updates and additions constantly improving the look and
function of our site.