Vanilla Fudge, Richie Havens
The Youngbloods, Cold Blood
December 31, 1968 at Fillmore West
Artwork by Lee Conklin

Since the earliest days of Bill Graham’s business in concert promotion, New Year’s Eve has taken up worldwide residency as the premier night to bear witness to epic sets of live music. A New Year’s Eve concert brings together like-minded folks and bestows on them a perfect way to bid farewell to the disappearing year, as well as a celebratory way to ring in the next. Before New Year’s extravaganzas took place at the larger Winterland and Oakland Coliseum, the place to ring in the new year in the San Francisco Bay was at Graham’s Fillmore West with the emerging bands of the day—be it blues-rock, folk, or psychedelic—providing the live entertainment. One thing was certain: If the bill was assembled by Bill Graham, then it was certain to be eclectic and brimming with promise. This trippy poster is a visual testament to the night the world said farewell to 1968 and hello to 1969. Artist Lee Conklin, known for his elaborate and delicately constructed images inspired by the hallucinations of an acid trip, couldn’t refrain from the Bosch-like reminder that the sins of 1968 had piled up beyond recovery, a reference to the riots, police beatings, assassinations, and the escalating Vietnam War. Despite the dire suggestion of the images contained within the ticking hourglass, the night was one of surprise, festivity, and celebration. Happy New Year!

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