Rich & Johnny return in 2021 with a lengthy chat with Michigan poster/flyer historian legend Jack Bodnar. Intense insight to a heavy scene! Here are some post scripts from the talk via Jack himself:
Jack Bodnar talks more about The Brewery days in Lansing
By Jack Bodnar, January 18, 2021
I don’t know about you but when talking about the past, especially personal events that happened nearly 50
years ago, I often walk away wishing I had said this or that instead, and that I had been clearer. In my
conversation with Rich and Johnny, I think I got most of it right but what follows are additional insights that
might clarify a few things.
- Terry O’Connor was the (brilliant and whimsical) Brewery graphic artist…he died of cancer in the Florida Keys a few years back. Even though he spent his career as a graphics artist, mostly for Michigan State University, his three-year Brewery and Brewery-related output (1972-1975), which came at the end of the Classic Rock Art era (1965-1976), easily puts him in the Top Four pantheon of Michigan superstar rock artists, joining Gary Grimshaw, Carl Lundgren, and Ozone (Chris Frayne, Commander Cody’s brother).
- O’Connor created 30-35 Brewery concert posters. No one knows for sure how many, not even Terry when he was still alive. Many of the posters were printed in ridiculously small print runs of 50-100, which is why most people at the time and post-1975 have never seen them. This was compounded by the fact that shortly after The Brewery changed concepts to the Silver Dollar bar in April 1975, Terry’s basement, where he stored his Brewery original art and “reference” posters, was flooded and all was lost. A true tragedy.
