Poster for The Clash’s On Parole tour, June/July 1978. Courtesy of The Mott Collection

Toby Mott talks us through his punk archive

Discover the impromptu ways Mott came by his peerless collection of punk graphic design collection in this video

The artist and graphic-design collector Toby Mott amassed his incredible trove of punk rock graphics in a manner befitting the form. A few days ago at the John Varvatos store, Mott described how he came by some of the items in his new book, Oh So Pretty Punk in Print 1976-80, such as this 1978 Clash tour poster, above.

As Mott explains in the accompanying video, there was no real merchandising stand to accompany many of the early UK punk tours, and the only way to acquire works was to remove them from the concert halls once the gig had finished.

 

Toby Mott John Varvatos

 

Watch this video to hear how Toby followed the band around the country on freezing National Express coaches, and if you like what you see order a copy of Oh So Pretty Punk in Print 1976–80 here.