Mother Love Bone Stage Banner

This colorful, hand-painted banner hung in the background at Mother Love Bone concerts and was used in promotional images for their release of the E.P. (extended play) record Shine in March 1989 for Polygram Records.  

Mother Love Bone was a musical band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1987-88 and was a significant influence in the early Grunge movement. After the breakup of the band Green River, band members Jeff Ament (b. 1963), Stone Gossard (b. 1966), and Bruce Fairweather (b. 1960) recruited their friends, Andrew Wood (1966 – 1990), from the band Malfunkshun, and Greg Gilmore (b. 1962) of Skin Yard and Ten-Minute Warning, to form Mother Love Bone. With the success of their six-track E.P. Shine, in 1989, the band began to record their debut album Apple on their special label imprint with Polydor Records (a subsidiary of Polygram Records), Stardog Records. Tragically, Andrew Wood died days before the album’s release and the band broke up soon after.  

Despite Wood’s death, Apple was released in July 1990. Gossard and Ament went on to form Pearl Jam, but just prior, they were approached by Chris Cornell (1964 – 2017) of Soundgarden to record a tribute album to Wood. With the backing vocals of Eddie Vedder (b. 1964), they formed the band Temple of the Dog (the name from one of Wood’s lyrics) and released a full-length album of the same name. With the formation of Pearl Jam in 1990, Gossard, Ament, and Vedder went on to become one of the most successful bands of the 1990s.