THOMAS JONSSON
COLLECTOR - SWEDISH CONCERT POSTERS

FACTS

ABOUT SWEDISH CONCERT POSTERS

Background
As well as movies, events and other occacions during a long period, have been promoted in Sweden, so have the concerts.

Since Ema-Telstar are, and has been, the biggest promotor of concerts in Sweden, together with Gröna Lund (Swedish venue and amusement park in Stockholm) most of the facts presented on this site will be about them and their posters. Of course, there are, and have been, other promotors, for example Luger, Motor, Liseberg, Julius, Karusell Konsertbyrå, Sacs, Telstar (pre Ema-Telstar) to name a few.

Most of the facts presented are facts and conclusions I´ve made during my own research and collecting Swedish concert posters since 1993. This means that it´s my experience and knowledge about the posters that´s presented and not an exact science and the absolute truth. All thought, I´m quite sure it´s not far from the truth. Since research is in progress, I´ll try to keep you updated.

Size
Swedish concert posters exists mainly in three different sizes. The largest one, 100*70 cm, is used by Gröna Lund, who has stuck with this size thru the years. This is the classic "one sheet" (30"*40"), which also is the most common size in movie posters. Other promotors have also used this size, mainly in the sixties and the seventies, and it´s very rare today. When Ema-Telstar, in the beginning of the seventies first started out, they introduced their own size, the slightly smaller 90*60cm (approx.). The third and smallest one is about 60*45cm and was in the beginning quite rare, but in the early nineties it came quite strong, now to be the most popular and frequent size for a Swedish concert poster.

Appearance
Until the beginning of the nineties, Swedish concert posters were designed to clearly show the artist. This sounds as a matter of course, but during the sixties and seventies, this meant that the artist was reproduced on the poster with a clear picture, image of the artist. This in contradiction to the posters of today, and the trend that started in the early nineties, when often the poster is similar to the artists latest album cover. The eighties posters ment strong colours and often drawn posters.

Ema-Telstar
Ema-Telstar promoted their first concert with a foreign band in 1970 (Chicago, Konserthuset in Stockholm) and during the late seventies, when they hade their breakthrough, their posters changed to the more characteristic Ema-Telstar poster. Sometime during the end of 1976, they started using the frame on their posters, which they haven´t done before. They also, for a long period (end of the seventies to the middle of the nineties) used colourful, drawn posters similar to the ones used by Gröna Lund. For a period (approx. 1976-1984) they often made the artist name, logotype on the posters diagonal.

Gröna Lund
Gröna Lund has thru the years stuck to the same concept for their posters. The posters are always drawn and the artist is shown, not just directly from an album cover. They always have an artist to design their posters, even today. During the seventies and the eighties they addad an exclamation mark after the artists name on the poster. 

Poster artists
The two persons that probably have meant the most for the concert poster art in Sweden are Nils Sture Jansson, the man who designed the concert posters for Gröna Lund during the period around 1970-2000, and Leif Illernäs, Illernäs Screen AB. During the 70, 80- and 90-ties, regardless if you look at a Gröna Lund poster or an Ema-Telstar poster, this is the only name you´ll see. The reason for this is that Illernäs Screen printed the posters for both Gröna Lund och Ema-Telstar.

Tour posters
During the seventies, the concerts in Sweden often were co-arranged with some foreign promotor, mainly the Danish promotor SBA (Scandinavian Booking Agency) and ICO, or the German promotors Fritz Rau and Michael Scheller. This often meant that these promotors or record companies printed tour posters, to be used for the whole tour. The Swedish co-promotor then printed the exact information about the concert, which meant that the posters where the same for the whole tour, in different countries, and not especially made for Sweden. Most swedish artists has thru the years also used tour posters, where the frame at the end of the posters, have been left out empty, not printed, to be filled in at the time for the concert. Now a days, when Ema-Telstar is an big international promotor (a part of the american combine Clearwater Channel Entertainment) tour posters are used again, where several dates in different countries, are printed on the same poster.