I've got a new hobby : collecting band shirts. It started a few months ago when I was absorbed in my Gentle Giant craze (which hasn't ended). In August, I was listening to Giant every night, cycling through their eleven studio albums over and over again as I engaged in a rediscovery of their music. It seems I wasn't the only one doing this, because over the Summer a GG revival appeared to take place. There was the fan video of "Proclamation" that played on FB and featured all the original members in cameo slots. Then one day, the Giant page on Facebook posted an announcement : "In honor of the 'Proclamation' video, the band is offering it's first ever t-shirt, with a screen print of a tour poster from 1971 on 100% cotton". I paraphrase, but they posted a pic of the shirt, the band's first, and it looked good. It was also was said to be high quality.
This last part is important, because now, in online reviews I've read, there appear to be too many instances, with merch being a big business, where a shirt looks cool on your computer screen, but when you get it in the mail it's really thin, or it's a cotton/synthetic blend. In the old days, when you bought a shirt at a concert, it was cotton and it was good quality. Not every shirt was a "Hanes heavyweight" (though some were), but most all were 100% cotton and were durable. That's why you saw so many Led Zeppelin and Yes shirts throughout junior high and high school, because kids could wear 'em for years. I mention this because I would never have started my new hobby if the material of the shirt was cheap. If there's one thing I love, it's my t-shirts.
But I hadn't bought a band shirt since I Don't Remember When. When was the last time I bought one? It would've been at a concert, sometime in the early 80s. I know I had a Motorhead shirt, and a Judas Priest. Back then you could get a band shirt for ten bucks at a show, and not a bootleg either, but an official one. Even earlier than that, back in October 1974 I bought a Golden Earring shirt for five dollars at their Santa Monica Civic show. The very first rock shirt I ever bought was at the Rick Wakeman concert a month earlier, in September '74 at the Hollywood Bowl. That one probably cost five bucks also (don't remember), but the thing was, I wore it for years, until it had holes in it, and even then I kept wearing it for a while. Finally in the mid-80s I threw it out, but I wish I hadn't. Even as a tattered rag it would have sentimental value now.
But I stopped buying band shirts for two reasons. The first was, by around 1986 most shirts had gone up to fifteen bucks, and the second reason was that, in the 80s I very often didn't have fifteen bucks to spare. And also, there was a "been there done that" aspect. I'd gone through the shirts of most of my favorite bands and artists, and over time had worn most of them out. And I had other ways to show my devotion, especially posters, and my collection of rock magazines : Creem, Circus, Circus Raves, Hit Parader, and the English weekly newspapers, Melody Maker and New Musical Express.
But considering t-shirts, you didn't always have to pay a high price at a concert. Down in Hollywood in the mid-1970s, there were a few shops that specialized in what were called "iron-ons", where you would go into the store and select an iron-on transfer of your favorite band's logo or a band photograph, and then the employee would run it though a heat press that would seal it squarely on the front of a colored t-shirt. Iron on shirts were very popular in the 1970s, because they were cheap and long lasting. It's fun to think back upon that time, when on a few occasions my friends and I literally rode our bikes from Northridge to the Sunset Strip, just to check out the rock 'n roll scene in Hollywood. It was a 40 mile round trip, but well worth it to a fifteen year old, and part of those adventures was stopping off at the Iron On stores.
Well anyhow, it had been roughly 35 years since I bought my last shirt at a concert, when I saw the Facebook post for the Gentle Giant shirt. I was so excited by what was happening with my rediscovery of their music, that I decided I had to have it. I figured that what I was saving in concert money in the year of covid, I could spend on the occasional band t-shirt. So I started with the Gentle Giant, and figured I could afford one a month.
My second shirt was a very beautiful Alcest tee, for their "Spiritual Instinct" album. Right now I'm trying to go for bands that not many people know about. For my third pick in October, I wanted a really bitchin' Triptykon shirt, but all they had left was Small size, so I went for an Emperor shirt instead. This was at the Rockabilia website (free plug), where they do the "recommended for you" thing. I have two Emperor albums, both of which are classics in the Black Metal genre, so even though they're not one of my very favorite bands, I felt legit in buying their shirt, especially because it looked awesome. :)
And finally, because of another Rockabilia recommendation, my t-shirt for this month was for "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Yeah, I know it's not of a rock band, but I had to have it. The thing is, I had me a Texas Chainsaw shirt back in 1988. For real. I've even got a pic of me wearing it somewhere. So when they recommended this new one, which featured the original movie poster on the front, I had to have it. It just came in the mail today, and it's heavy duty cotton. I'll be able to wear it for many years.
What should be my next pick? I'm thinking Bill Nelson or Van Der Graaf Generator, if they have shirts available. I'll let you know. I haven't actually worn any of my shirts yet. For one thing, it's suddenly become freezing in Los Angeles; the dreaded L.A. Cold is upon us, and from what I see we are twenty degrees colder than Wisconsin right now. So I can't break out my new band shirts just yet. But soon, or maybe in the New Year. We often get a warm spell in January, right around Super Bowl time, and that should be a New Year in other more important ways for all of us.
Maybe I'll break one out around January 20th, when it will be time to have fun again. /////
Much love, and I'll see you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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