I was at a gathering last night and several people I hadn’t met before were there too. One of these was a gentleman wearing a Peter Hook and the Light concert T shirt, which led me to go and say hello and talk about the last Auckland gig which was about two years ago.
There was a bit of confusion (geddit?) when I mentioned that I am also a fan of New Order/Joy Division and I thought we might have a little bit of a chat about the common ground we clearly share. Once he worked out what it was I was rambling on about, he clicked and we did talk about the gig and all was well. However, he also said that he goes to quite a few gigs and tends to pick up a T shirt each time. He only had a passing knowledge of JD/NO.
So my warning to you is this – don’t assume, like I did, that wearing a band T shirt means that the wearer is a fan of said band. We know that youngsters wearing Ramones T-shirts are probably not at home playing Rock n Roll High School and perhaps may not know some of the basics. However, I now know that this is true of gentlemen in their 60s.
I’m here to spare your blushes.
It is sad but true how little research people buy into their purchases, thinking their buy a random acquisition rather than the carefully thought through statement it demands. I am trying to think a way of making this sound less dicklike, but I can’t.
I nearly backed out of the OP for the same reason.
I used to see someone regularly who often wore a Cropredy branded shirt – something a bit higher-end that a standard T-shirt. I once started to talk to him about recently seeing Richard Thompson play live – he had no idea who I was talking about.
It turns out he got the shirt after working on the bar there one year – a local pub landlord did their beer tent at the time.
Before I went to Zimbabwe I came across a nice jumper/guernsey whatever. Cotton long sleeved a soft collar and nice thick red and green bands,
I’d be walking around Harare and occasionally some Aussie sounding voice would shout at me or thumbs up or some reference to rabbits. I had no idea what they were on about.
I lost the top but after I returned to Australia and moved to Sydney and became au fait with Rugby League (southern Australia being dominated by Aussie Rules). Turns out it is the jumper of the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Mystery solved.
Years ago a friend of mine visited a dour and grey 80s pre-glasnost Moscow. Taking shelter from the icy rain he wandered into a threadbare and gloomy cafe. Imagine his shock when he spotted a customer slumped across a table wearing a Wakefield Trinity shirt proudly emblazoned with the Rooftop Gardens(Wakefields premier nightclub) logo. My friends outstretched hand of friendship was rejected by the surly Russian who had no idea what he was talking about.
I have a “Henry Cow” T-shirt. I always encourage the unfamiliar with them (99.9% of folk) to check them out on YouTube. I’m sure it is appreciated.
I find that the sock confuses the casual onlooker…
I have a Slapp Happy T-shirt. It covers the bruises.
Yep, as someone who worked in 6th form colleges for a long time you regularly saw kids of 16-19 in band t-shirts but there was usually a big difference between what they knew about the band they had emblazened on their chest. It was usually like this…Ramones, Motorhead, Rolling Stones = absolutely nothing, or next to nothing. On the other hand, wearers of Smiths, Nirvana, The Cure tended to know a surprisingly large amount and had clearly spent a lot of time being listened to. Interestingly, more up to date modern band tshirts were rarely sighted.
My 19 year old daughter can often be seen wearing Beatles or Lou Reed T Shirts. Shockingly she likes both artists.
a lou reed T shirt. Not sure I have ever seen one. Don’t recall there ever being a merch stand at shows I went to.
And Rock on Lady Dai
One of those artists where it’s probably “cooler” to not wear them on a t-shirt.
I’ve never owned a Lou Reed T-shirt (although I vaguely remember seeing a Blue Mask T) – but I will confess to owning and wearing a Velvets T-shirt in previous decades…
I have a New York one somewhere, she wears one that has his image from the Transformer cover, it is very cool and so is she. I have a Velvets banana one too
Tangentially I know a chap whose son is an ardent Man City fan who only wears Man Utd replica shirts. I like his father cannot for the life of me figure this one out. The boy certainly doesn’t offer up any answers beyond a slight smile.
I can only think that maybe he lost a bet and he’s embarrassed about it.
I can fully understand how losing a bet that results in one having to profess support for City would indeed be embarrassing. 😉
Yep.
What was on the b – side?. lol
Heard Simon Mayo say once that since he turned 50 he stopped wearing band tee shirts. I am with his mate Kermode on this who responded that he was wearing them more.
Currently got a Stereolab orange sun tee-shirt under a blue French chore jacket. I am so hipster… My fav features the cover of The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of a Onion by ISB. Not had anyone reach out about that. Although, I was wearing a Safe as Milk tee a few years back while lecturing and a UG student came up to me after and said it was a cool shirt, but then added; “my dad likes The Captain too”. At least it wasn’t “granddad.”
Unfortunately, my body no longer supports a crew neck. I need a collar or a V. Don’t get many band T shirts in those. 😮
XXL polo shirts would be the go for our demographic Tig, but the image is gonna look a bit silly in the middle of a polo shirt.
I still wear crew necks. I wear T-shirts but only plain solid colours and usually with an overshirt. I also wear long sleeved henley shirts, crew neck sweaters, breton shirts, long sleeved Telnyashkas I buy from a px in Aberystwyth…but I am still absolutely gorgeous and looking my best is what my public demands. It’s a burden but what’s a boy to do? 😉
Overshirts….hmm….
It’s a shirt that one wears over another garment. 🤪
I only wear a shirt buttoned up. I don’t often wear a vest but a crew neck band T shirt would become a vest if I had an overshirt.
I never wear a vest, awful things. You could try throwing caution to the wind and try wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a t-shirt. This would open up whole new vistas of satorial possibilities.
I’m inclined to fasten more buttons these days than to leave them undone.
Let it all hang out daddio! Don’t be a square maaan.
I struggle to fasten the buttons on some of my older shirts these days.
I have an image, for @tiggerlion, of a white shirt and no tie, all buttons done up, right to the top. Under a suit jacket, with plenty of pens in the top outside pocket. And those driving gloves we know you for. Nothing scary or psycho killer about that, o, no…….
My daughter’s friend at the age of about 15 or 16 bought a Jimi Hendrix teeshirt. She had never listened to his music but liked the image.
12 years later at least she knows his music now so sone benefit came out of it.
As it happens I am wearing an original 70s Hendrix t-shirt today.
Aha! Today, I am wearing…bear with me… (sounds of unzipping and rummaging)
a “Nico – Marble Index cover” t-shirt!
Apropos of Hendrix T-shirts, I always wanted one with the photo of that poor kid holding a gasper from the cover of the Backtrack 3 Who/Hendrix LP. Don’t know why really, I always thought it was sort of cool in a ghastly twisted fashion. But then I was only a teenager at the time.
It’s not just pop music t shirts, though, is it? I expect a lot more kids had the Betty Blue poster on their wall than saw the film. When I was in school (early 80s) one of my mates had a huge CND logo on the back of his jacket but confessed he had no idea what it meant..
Mercedes logo?
Ginger Spice’s iconic (yes, iconic) Union Flag dress had the CND logo on the back.
While she may well be a CND member and have read books by Bruce Kent and Joan Ruddock, I suspect she views it as a generic peace sign, along with 99% of the public.
Putting my graphics hat on the CND logo is comprised of the letters C & D forming a circle. The circle is then divided by a stylised representation of a figure holding it’s arms out in despair. Once you know how to read the design it’s impossible to see it any other way. It’s a classic.
I did read that the central figure was based on the semaphore signals for N and D superimposed standing for Nuclear Disarmament as well as a cry of despair.
Yep. I was handed both interpretations at art school.
Well, I’ve learned something interesting today. I had no idea of the meaning(s) behind the symbol. Thanks, both of you.
Thinking of symbols that are impossible to see any other way once somebody points them out: the right-facing white arrow (or negative space, I believe) in the FedEx logo. It had completely passed me by until I read an article about famous logos/graphics.
Some logos are really clever. I used to design a few myself many years ago when I worked in the art room of a company that used to manufacture all kinds of vehicle decals. I can bore for Cymru talking about my favourite logo designs.
You’ve gone and given me a thread idea. Incoming…
I used to think some of the artwork produced by the Crass label, as well as the logo, was terrific. The music on the other hand sounded like an argument between a road drill and a cement mixer. In a well.
Saw a 20something in Berlin this morning wearing of all things, a Ride T-shirt. Black, with the cover of “Nowhere”. I used to have the exact same one back in the 90s. I asked him if he liked Ride. He shrugged and said it was his dad’s, he just liked the design. Kids, eh.
I’ve never owned a band T-shirt. Never saw any merch I liked by any artist I loved.
Also wasn’t keen on the idea of band T-shirts. I did however buy a ton of badges as a teen, the front of my jacket was full of them. Lost them all, some got stolen from my jacket, the ones I had left was lost in a move years ago.
I did have a couple of sweatshirts for theatre plays in the 90s (having actors in the family…)
And at this moment I’m wearing a very soft merch T-shirt from a Booktuber I wanted to support.
But no band T’s, as of yet.
I never bought very many, even when I was a younger and much more active concert goer.
I’ve got a Jimmie Vaughan one from a 1998 show at the Shepherds Bush Empire. A Stevie Ray Vaughan one, bought from Manny’s Music, now long gone from West 48th Street, NYC. A Nine Below Zero one, bought at the Town and Country Club in 1990 at their 10th Anniversary gig. A Black Crowes one from their ‘farewell’ show at the same venue in 2013. It’s an odd graphic. Pan, I think. ‘Get that one!’ said my pal. ‘It’s got a goat on it’.
Finally, a Grip Weeds one. The Grip Weeds being a virtually unknown indie band from New Jersey I became aware of via one of you here ages ago. I bought the albums and said t shirt. It’s my favourite.
Was that band name in tribute to Lennon?
The very same. Private Gripweed. How I Won The War.
A good friend of mine bought me one, a plain grey one emblazoned with “Music Band” in white in the dullest typeface possible. I like it.
I own one with the Unknown Pleasures album cover on it, the name Depeche Mode across the top, and Boys Don’t Cry down the side
I imagine … no…. I know that a number of Afterworders have the Unknown Pleasures cover on a different item of ‘clothing’.
I’m a downy-cheeked innocent, so kindly elucidate…
Right. Shows you how my mind works – I was thinking condoms.
Well the condom in French is known as “une capote anglaise” (an English hood).which is an item of clothing.
Couldn’t the t shirt make up its mind?
Yes! I’ve seen that one advertised. Very amusing. That was referring to @rigit-digit
I bought many T shirts at gigs in the 80s and 90s, stopping when they became too pricy.. I have a bag full of them in my wardrobe. Bizarre thing is every single one of them has shrunk, even ones that were never worn or washed. It’s truly baffling 😉
I only have one band T-shirt. It has been commented upon several times when at gigs – not by them – when fellow attendees have commented approvingly on my apparel. The Feat have that effect.
Well, of course. We bow before thee.
Got a pic?
I’m still waiting for the tab on the top of the site for the Afterword T-shirts merchandise section. I keep hearing about new additions to the purported collection. Maybe there could be a tie-in* sponsorship deal.
* but not tie dye. Apart from a special Deadhead section for Duco01
I wear a lot of band t-shirts, mostly purchased at gigs (especially the smaller ones) & will always ensure I am a fan of said band so that if anyone does approach me out in the wild I will be able to converse. I see someone on the school run who was wearing an Iron Maiden t-shirt & when I mentioned it she said she had never listened to them!
Years ago my team at work got me a Run DMC shirt, The problem is, outside of It’s Lke That, It’s Tricky or Walk This Way, I know little of them. I have never worn it outside of the house.
I did recently get a thumbs up from a train driver for the House Of All t-shirt I wearing. He must be one of the few other fans
This badges thing. Never really a thing down here. Yes some were on sale but never a seller. T shirts tea towels for some, caps , tote bags but not badges.
I think my favourite was a red Wonderstuff T shirt with IDIOT written on it large white lettering. I wore it in the early 90s, mainly. A young boy on a bike shouted at me “Oy! You’re an idiot!” as I walked down the street. Which I thought was fair enough.
This has stirred memories of being an idiot wearing a Who Wants To Be The Disco King? T-shirt at the local provincial disco.
Ooh, I had that one in black. Great tee shirt.
I still wear band T-shirts in my 50s but I’ve decided that displaying prominent band names is gauche at this age.
So I wear album cover T-shirts that don’t have band names on them at all or the band names are in very small font.
For example: AM and Unknown Pleasures no band names with Turn On The Bright Lights and Loveless small font band names.
Then it’s the opposite of knowing nothing about the music when someone mentions liking the T-shirt. I’ll make it very obvious I know more than them about the band and/or album to the point they may even be sorry they mentioned it… 😆
This. Having been moved to check, nearly all my band t-shirts are LP covers rather than just band names – the exception having the Henry Cow sock on the front and gig information on the back, from the 2014 Lindsay Cooper memorial concert in Italy.
Mind you, I’m in my mid-60s and don’t really give a monkey’s funky if onlookers consider me gauche…
“Consider me gauche” is an AW T shirt in its own right.
Arf!
Or “Consider me gouache”: for @pencilsqueezer
You know me so well.
I now NEED a T-shirt that boldly says, “I don’t give a monkey’s funky”.
I possess a New Musik t shirt. I like to think the rarified odd passer-by might spot it and then have the 1980 UK top 40 hit, World Of Water in their head all day. As you will all have now.
I wont. I am swimming against the tide.
There’s a chap in Exmouth who is ALWAYS wearing an Iron Maiden T shirt whenever I see him, and has a pair of headphones clamped on his head every time. I sometimes wonder – does he ALWAYS listen to Iron Maiden..?
It’s coming up to Bearded Theory festival, which must be a Valhalla for old t shirts. As ever, the front runners tend to be Ferocious Dog and New Model Army, regardless of whether they are playing or not. FD are, so I predict a surge for NMA. Levellers also feature frequently. It’s that sort of demographic.
I bought this t-shirt for 50p at a charity shop. Having seen the plethora of Tull etc t-shirts at Cropredy I figured no-one would be wearing one of these. I was correct.
Didn’t have the Grolsch stoppers though.