Rock Posters proud to capture artists' 'blood and tears' in billboards

Thornbury's Rock Posters factory to open doors for 40-year celebration Thu 23 Jul 2026 at 5:09am Pop diva Kylie Minogue and British rockers The Rolling Stones might be miles apart on the musical spectrum, but their posters hang side by side among scores of other performers at a Melbourne factory that has helped enhance the city's gig and live music culture. "It's interesting for people to see 40 years of history in the one place," said Marcus Seal, Rock Posters general manager. "The posters tend to bring back memories of going to a show, or listening to an album for the first time." Behind an unassuming factory facade in Thornbury, the steady whirr of printing presses thrums a base track for the creation of colourful concert billboards and advertisements that still adorn buildings across the city, despite the advent of social media advertising and influencers. Loading..."We watch artists go and stand in front of their own billboard, and that's what they want to show to their mum … it's not the digital ad that you see on Meta," Mr Seal said. "We've got tens of thousands of stories of Australian tours, record releases, art exhibitions, and we're still very vibrant and relevant today." He added that ink and paper conjured a special nostalgia, given "it's been around for 3,000 years, and it might be around for a few thousand more". The late legendary music promoter Michael Gudinski summed up the natural creative fit when he once quipped that "music without the art is like the rock without the roll". Unsurprisingly, he was an early and steadfast supporter of the company when it first opened in 1986. "I think a lot of Melburnians consider Melbourne as the music capital of Australia — Sydneysiders might disagree — but I like to think that Rock Posters probably could have only been started in Melbourne," Mr Seal said. "A lot of blood, sweat and tears has gone into these tours and these artists who work really hard to get there, so this provides a bit of a snapshot … it's a great privilege to be around it every day." Others will get their chance to reminisce when the factory opens its doors to the public for the first time this weekend, as part of the Open House Melbourne event. Mr Seal hopes visitors will gain a finer appreciation of the street poster campaigns that have helped shape Melbourne's cultural life, and the creative vision behind them. "You'd expect someone like Beyoncé to be very particular and for good reason. U2 and Sting were very particular too, and Kiss curate everything they do very well," he said. "They're all very evocative, but the Midnight Oil sprint hand is quite iconic; there's a lot of ACDC, and from the original Sex Pistols to the most recent tour of the Sex Pistols is also interesting as well. "It's wonderful to be amongst all this creativity". Rock Posters art director Luke Stewart has worked at the intersection of design and gigs for 27 years and said technological advances meant they could produce "roughly about 10,000 standard posters per week", but he still counted traditional screen print art among his favourites. "I really like a lot of stuff designed by Ben Brown, who is a famous Australian artist, like the Hoodoo Gurus poster: multiple colours, very bold and bright," he said. "Most people only have a couple of seconds as they drive past, and you want to be as bold and artistic as possible to catch their eye so hopefully they go to the gig. "It would be weird to drive around and not see any of this advertising for bands; it makes the cityscape something interesting to look at." And there are some colourful tales behind the creation of these rock star images. "The Cold Chisel Last Stand poster, I have on very good authority that it wasn't actually taken during the show even though it looks as if Jimmy [Barnes] is sweating, but I think somebody's thrown a bucket of water over him," Mr Seal said. "And that vodka bottle he's holding may not have vodka in it, not at nine o'clock in the morning, I don't think! "It's a classic iconic poster that's survived since that great tour, that didn't actually end up being The Last Stand. "But Jimmy would be able to tell you the truth." [Image text:] DXCU CANN'BAI CORPSE