..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
poster boy
in the early 1960s, just as the beatles were kickstarting the world of popular music, i bought my very first single, a release on the parlophone label that, as far as i know, still resides in an obscure corner of the attic, along with several miles davis and art blakey recordings on good old vinyl. whe i say single, i do, of course, refer to an e.p. (extended play), a 7" circle of black vinyl containing four tracks instead of two. side one featured, 'twist and shout' along with 'do you want to know a secret?' and a b-side of 'a taste of honey' and 'there's a place', the very song sung by fishmongers across the world.
as i recall, kellogg's rice krispies packets sported coupons which could be returned in favour of sew-on patches, one of which contained caricatures of the fab four. as an easily impressed seven year-old, it was all i could do to save enough coupons and receive one of the aforesaid patches, dutifully attached to my blue anorak by a supportive mother. no doubt there were also posters of liverpool's finest available to plaster on bedroom walls, but i fear that my parents' conciliation towards pop music stopped short at the round cloth patch, for i have no recollection of any posters on my bedroom walls.
the early lack of posters was never remedied. after convincing my parents as i entered my teenage years that i ought to be given a room of my own, rather than sharing with a younger brother, the subsequent deal pretty much forbade any such adornment. this was based entirely on my occupying the spare room, one which i was honour bound to temporarily vacate should relatives visit from time to time. granny probably would be less than impressed by a staring ringo starr.
working on the principle that it would be entirely unseemly for one of now such advanced years to feature any form of poster either blu-tac'd or drawing pinned to the wall, i have taken to framing such artistry to give the impression that i am a collector of art rather than an overgrown teenager. quite frankly, i think mrs washingmachinepost is very much of the latter opinion.
but in all honesty, the notion of decorating the walls of the croft with posters demonstrating my affection for the velocipedinal milieu has never quite left. and yet, were one to favour some level of decorum in such matters, the framing costs would likely be exhorbitant, though if mrs twmp were not watching too closely, entirely justifiable. and that is a situation made all the more pressing by the arrival of some highly desirable, a2 size posters in the rouleur shop, depicting the five monuments. some people know just how to appeal to our finer senses and weak resistance.
i say this because, having enjoyed a weekend of omloop het nieuwsblad and kuurne-brussels-kuurne (neither of which were overly exciting, if i'm perfectly honest), we have eased ourselves softly into the spring classics. the new rouleur poster series consists of milan-sanremo, ronde van vlaanderen, liege-bastogne-liege and il lombardia by kristof ramon, with the series being completed by a stunning photo of the arenberg forest by marshall kappel.
each limited edition poster is printed on premium 262gsm art paper at the reassuringly (and not very) expensive price of £55. all that remains is to successfully persuade mrs washingmachinepost that all five framed and hung in the bedroom could be every bit as economic as new wallpaper.
monday 26 february 2018
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................