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The Hip open a Poster Cellar with new art, reissues and “reimagined” pieces

Six years after The Tragically Hip took a final bow in Kingston, do you regret not picking up a poster from the tour? Is there a show or tour that played a pivotal moment in your life and you wish you had something to commemorate that moment? 

Welcome to the Tragically Hip Poster Cellar, where all your wall covering needs and wishes can come true. 

This is a multi-faceted effort from the band, announced late last week. The first part, called the OGs, is a raffle, featuring a series of five tour posters from the 2015 Fully Completely North American tour. One poster will be made available as part of a raffle, with five winners per poster, but only one entry can be submitted per person and a limited number of raffle tickets made available. Proceeds from this raffle will go to the Downie Wenjack Fund. The first poster, featuring a bright gold background and a hockey player with the 2015 tour dates in black print, already sold out of its allotted tickets. 

There’s also the Strictly Limited option, a four-times-per-year release of a new poster. The first offering is designed by Bob Masse, who rose to fame in the mid-’60s as part of a group of artists who would hand-design vibrant posters for folk musicians, mostly, and political rallies. Masse would design his posters for bands in exchange for tickets to their concerts and a chance to meet the musicians. Here, he’s designed a piece called “Maple Leaf Girl,” an art deco-style image of a woman with long, flowing auburn hair, holding a single maple leaf, with the band’s name above. Only 160 posters are available and can be purchased here.  

The third aspect is called Hip Originals and includes, right now, “Maple Leaf Girl” and the black background tour poster from the Man Machine Poem final run of shows in 2016, with Gord Downie’s signature white hat on the top. These posters are currently on sale for 50% off; this is where future “current” posters will be made available. 

Fourth we have  Reimagined Gigs, new posters for previous gigs. The current offerings here include a poster for the “Live at the Roxy” gig in May 1991, the show recently released in June for the first time, and the 1992 Canada Day shows in Toronto and Vancouver. 

Finally, there’s the Trade Zone, a private Facebook Group that’s open to fans for discussing posters, trading or selling merch and discussing the Hip’s artwork through the years. 

This promises to be an exciting new outlet for merch and collectibles as the years go on, especially as the band continues to release and promise new re-releases and special collections.

Amber Healy

I write about music policy and lawsuits because they're endlessly fascinating.

Amber Healy has 517 posts and counting. See all posts by Amber Healy

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