65 rare, highly collectible tour posters. 26 years on!

26 years ago, the highly acclaimed English band Doves embarked on their UK Winter Tour with their Platinum selling, groundbreaking debut album, Lost Souls.

Opening in Cambridge at the end of October 2000, and closing at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire late November, this leg of the band’s tour was accompanied throughout by a 640 x 450 mm hand-printed and blind- embossed Winter Tour poster.

In storage until now, and 26 years later, only 65 of these rare and highly collectible vintage posters remain from the original print run of 250, hand pulled by LW in that cold mill in Manchester’s Longsight district.

A print from this original 250 print run has recently been acquired for the permanent collection of the British Pop Archive.

The floppy disc of Linotype’s Kursivschrift, and subsequent metal plate used to set and emboss the wording ‘Doves Winter Tour’ into the bright white, textured c300gsm paper, remain on the studio wall.

Archive Condition Tiers

Stored in the studio for a quarter of a century, and whilst all in excellent condition, these final 65 original prints are offered across three graded conditions. Grade One – The finest copies from the collection. 15 available, £185.00. Grade Two – Minor corner creasing. Hidden once framed. 18 available, £160.00. Grade Three – Minor corner creasing or edge character, minor face wear. Majority hidden once framed. 32 available, £135.00

Packaging & Global Delivery

Archival Protection: Every print is tissue-wrapped in acid-free paper and safely packed inside a cardboard postal tube to guarantee safe transit. All posters with a numbered, signed certificate.

Worldwide Tracked Shipping: Dispatched from the UK with full tracking and transit insurance included.

Customs & Taxes: International orders (for posters outside of the UK) may be subject to customs duties, import taxes, or handling fees when they arrive in the destination country. These charges are not included in the purchase price or shipping cost and, where applicable, are the responsibility of the recipient. I’m happy to discuss estimates with you by email.

“It was the early winter of 1999 when I made plans to travel east to the city of Brașov, in the Transylvanian region of Romania.

I left Rotterdam by rail towards Vienna, catching the night train from Budapest to Brașov via Bucharest. Arriving late afternoon in a snow-covered Brașov, I checked into a palatial old Soviet hotel. After spending my afternoon in the room, I ventured out in the evening, stopping at a café before ending up upstairs at a David Lynchian disco, dotted with chaperones wearing what appeared to be white lab coats. I left and returned to the hotel for a late dinner.

It was past midnight when I left the hotel to photograph the city. The night was pitch-black, terribly cold, and the medieval streets were entirely deserted. Either side of me was flanked by building façades with doorways set just off the narrow pavement.

I set up my tripod in the middle of a cobbled road to capture a frame when the first loud bang rang out from a doorway behind me. A second followed moments later, closer this time. More bangs echoed down alternating sides of the street, edging nearer, until a final slam stopped just several metres ahead of me. It remains the single moment in my life where I have felt absolute, visceral terror. Ahead of me lay the open civic square, where a string of lightbulbs laced their way to a giant Christmas tree at the centre. With a single exposure, the tree was photographed.

In mid-2000, I exhibited a selection of bromide photographic prints at Manchester’s Cornerhouse (The Guardian, Pick of the Week). Jimi Goodwin had joined part of that European trip and spent a day with me in Rotterdam before I set off, but while visiting my Cornerhouse exhibition afterwards, saw the Christmas tree photograph and asked if the band could use it for their upcoming winter tour poster, and the poster was born.

I set about building the final artwork, hand-pulling a run of 250 prints from a cold autumn mill in Manchester’s Longsight district. To finish each piece, I set the wording 'Doves Winter Tour' using Linotype’s Kursivschrift and blind-embossed it into the bright white, 300gsm textured fine paper. I then joined the band on the road, selling these posters directly at the merch desk throughout that superb October and November 2000 UK tour.”