I have a great book called The Art Of Modern Rock. It’s about the artwork done for fliers, posters, album and CD covers from the Punk and Newwave years. One of the more interesting stories in the book is about how the city of Seattle, Washington dealt with the litter problem fliers, posters and handbills caused during the height of the Grunge Movement in the early 90s.
In Seattle it was a $200.00 fine if you were caught posting a flier in public, like on a wall or a telephone pole. But it was also a $200.00 fine for the band the flier was advertising, and a $200.00 fine for the venue it was advertising, and a $200.00 fine for the printer who printed up the flier and a $200.00 fine for the artwork’s designer, if they could identify and locate him or her. That’s a total of $1,000.00 in fines for posting a flier to your gig.
And now we all wonder why our cities no longer have happening local music scenes. To be honest, during the Punk and Newwave days here in L.A. the flier and poster litter was really getting out of hand but come on, keep things in perspective, this wasn’t graffiti marking a street gang’s territory for dealing drugs, this was young, creative people being creative and industrious. Sure, it might have cost the city a few more tax dollars in clean up crews on trash day but it seemed to have been tolerated and it gave all us potential young troublemakers a peaceable and creative outlet. If they’re going to fine you $1,000.00 for posting a hard worked piece of art then you’re going to be forced to spray paint a wall. Pick your battles more wisely.
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