30/03/2024 General News
We tend to think that it is social media which has created our full-on celebrity culture, and it is certainly true that Instagram, TikTok and the rest have enabled fans of musicians, actors and other stars to follow their every move in more or less real time, writes Emily Ayson.
But it is a myth that this kind of adulation did not exist before the ubiquity of smartphones, and in fact, if you want to find the most ardent memorabilia collectors, you need to be looking long before the days even of the internet.
Perhaps it is because in the days before you could live vicariously through your heroes’ online feeds, memorabilia was the best way of feeling close to those who fans idolised.
In the music field, it is rock and alternative bands which seem to attract the most enthusiastic collectors. Acts like The Rolling Stones, The Who, Iron Maiden and AC/DC had – and still have – as enthusiastic followers as the modern-day phenomenon that is Taylor Swift.
These are not fair weather fans. Back in the day, they would almost obsessively collect anything associated with their idols; everything from gig ticket stubs and concert programmes right up to autographed instruments were sought after.
Because it required more of an effort than simply logging onto Instagram, this kind of fandom meant a bigger investment, both in time and money. The rarer and more esoteric the memorabilia you managed to get hold of, the more sub-cultural capital you had. No-one was measuring themselves by online ‘likes’ in those days.
One of the most collectable bands was - and still is – Pink Floyd. Formed in 1965, the band sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Their album Dark Side of the Moon remains the world’s third best-selling album of all time.
Now a stunning collection of Pink Floyd memorabilia is set to go under the hammer at Keys in Aylsham. Amassed over many years by a single fan (who has since died), the collection includes an amazing assortment of memorabilia, including one of the ‘faceless masks’ used in the official video for The Wall, a pair of framed drumsticks signed by drummer Nick Mason, and a pair of framed celluloids by Gerald Scarfe from the animated The Flowers section of the film The Wall.
Alongside these are a mass of other memorabilia, including concert ticket stubs, programmes, art prints and signed merchandise.
It is interesting how wide an appeal such items now have. You could be forgiven for thinking that the main market would be amongst fans of a certain age who remember bands like pink Floyd from their own younger days.
But this doesn’t explain the way that such bands have filtered into contemporary popular culture (you can but a Pink Floyd T-shirt today at H&M). As a result, rock memorabilia from what might be termed its ‘glory days’ attract just as many bidders in their late 20s and 30s.