![\"Cassandra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/055c3fcc2ff9c372698d8bffaa46e198063e316a.png\")
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Above a circular foyer wrapped in overlapping posters of music legends, a framed photograph of one, Michael Gudinski, hangs alone in the corner of a hallway.<\/p>\n The Mushroom Records co-founder, whom Jimmy Barnes called \u201cthe heart of Australian music\u201d<\/a>, is pictured with his arm around a beaming John D\u2019Aquino \u2013 who stands here today, reflecting on the mantra of his friend and long-time collaborator: \u201cMusic without art is like the rock without the roll.\u201d<\/p>\n If Gudinski, who died five years after the picture was taken, is the heart of Australian music, D\u2019Aquino\u2019s Rock Posters is the brain \u2013 a timeline of the soundtrack to our lives.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been 40 years since D\u2019Aquino started the business with brother Frank, who died in 2020, and Joe Di Natale, printing their first poster in a gritty Victorian-era shopfront on Johnston Street in Fitzroy in Melbourne\u2019s north-east.<\/p>\n Today, Rock Posters\u2019 operation transcends state borders, headquartered in a dark, nondescript two-storey building off the busy Normanby Avenue in Thornbury. The inside reveals a cavernous and colourful archive of music history, with tens of thousands of vintage posters stacked chest-high.<\/p>\n Its reserved founder, D\u2019Aquino, has been reticent until now to allow people in.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was his,\u201d D\u2019Aquino says, gesturing around the art room of the Thornbury premises, referring to his brother, Frank. The room is half taken up by two massive Canon printers, which churn out about 100 posters an hour.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the heartbeat of everything we do,\u201d D\u2019Aquino adds. \u201cWithout this room, or the guys here, nothing else happens. It doesn\u2019t flow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n In decades gone by, all the posters here were screen-printed, 100 copies taking half a day to produce. The method is mostly history now, aside from the occasional job. \u201cIt\u2019s a world that\u2019s passed away,\u201d D\u2019Aquino says.<\/p>\n But the artistry lingers. It\u2019s hung from the factory ceiling in dozens of screen-printed posters, which are distinguishable from their digital counterparts \u201cfrom a mile away\u201d, Rock Posters\u2019 art director Luke Stewart says.<\/p>\n The colour is 10 times thicker; Midnight Oil\u2019s famed yellow hand (a favourite of D\u2019Aquino) almost as vibrant as the day it was printed in the \u201980s. A Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds poster shows the outline of the frontman\u2019s hair and eyes, dark against a wash of pink on the poster to promote the band\u2019s 1994 album, Let Love In. The Sex Pistols\u2019 poster for their legendary 1996 tour is still blazing fluorescent yellow and pink.<\/p>\n Screen printing is labour-intensive and expensive, but the process encouraged collaboration and creativity \u2013 particularly as posters were priced by colour (so many ended up as two- and three-toned prints). Artists themselves used to get involved, working directly with the Rock Posters team on design \u2013 another bygone interaction. Today, multinational promoters have teams dedicated to digital graphics.<\/p>\n Where 95 per cent of Rock Posters\u2019 output used to be music-related, that\u2019s dwindled to less than half today \u2013 but the business has grown to produce about 8000 posters a year, promoting everything from alcohol to fashion.<\/p>\n![\"Rock](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/96a6183376fcfb7930da9d6707ac423293567d7e.jpeg\")
Rock Posters general manager Marcus Seal and founder John D\u2019Aquino are opening the Melbourne institution to the public for the first time.Penny Stephens<\/p>\n
![\"Record](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/acdaab7e352263d9aa14f5a980e1b89d9b120948.jpeg\")
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