I'm always amused when I hear people talking about where
they bought a new item of clothing; it's usually from high street chains such
as Topshop, River Island, H&M or Superdry. Why do I find this funny?
Because I buy the majority of my clothes from tables at the back of pubs and
clubs. Of course what I am talking about is band merchandise such as t-shirts or
hoodies. I, like many, many other fans of punk rock, will almost always be
sporting some form of band merch every day. I think the only time I'm not
wearing something punk related is either when I'm at work, when I've got one of
my beloved Crystal Palace shirts on or when I'm playing five-a-side with the
mighty Braziliant FC on a Sunday night.
Growing up I've never been interested in being a fashionable
male or really looking smart. Clean will do! You would think as I got older
(I'm 30 now) that I might grow out of this laziness but I never did. You will
always find me wearing the same thing I've been wearing since I was 18 years
old - a band t-shirt and a hoody. The first time I ever went to a gig I bought
myself a t-shirt as it felt like it would be a good souvenir of the night (and
it was). Since then my collection has grown and grown and now I would guess I
have over 50 band tees. That's a lot of t-shirts, most of them I haven't worn
in a long, long time but I can never bring myself to throw them away. They all
hold special memories of gigs that I have loved. In 2014 The Menzingers, The
Smith Street band and The Holy Mess played at The Electric Ballroom in Camden,
that was the best gig of the entire year and I ended up buying tees from all
three bands.
To me, wearing a piece of merchandise from your favourite
band is like wearing your favourite sports teams strip - it's a way of showing
your colours and showing support to your favourite bands. It also pretty much
guarantees that when I'm out with my friends that I won't be involved in that
awkward social scenario of wearing the same thing as somebody else in the
group, that's never cool. A lot of time when I'm wearing some band merchandise
I hope that somebody will ask me about the band and hopefully they will check
them out. That's another great thing about band tees; they serve as excellent
advertisements for bands. In this day and age where there are so many bands
around any chance to make people aware of your band is taken and getting fans
to wear a cool shirt with your bands name on is a big boost. It is also a big
help to bands if they manage to sell a lot of merchandise at gigs or online.
Being in a band is by no means cheap, often driving for miles to play shows
where they won't make any money. Selling some t-shirts could mean the
difference between a band eating or not eating the next day so all sales are
always very helpful.
I do have some rules regarding band merch. First of which is
never wear the t-shirt of the band you’re seeing to the gig. I always think it
comes across as super fanboy-ish, who wants to be that guy? Another rule is
only wear the t-shirt of a band that you've seen live, I always find it a bit
odd when speaking to someone about the band they're representing on their
clothes and when I ask where they saw them they respond "I haven't".
I find it especially strange if said person is wearing s tee with tour dates
on. I don't like tees with bad language or offensive imagery on them. It seems
really unnecessary to me. I'm not somebody who is easily offended by anything,
I grew up around swearing (Mumma C swears like a sailor) and I turned out okay
(aside from often looking homeless) but I feel uncomfortable wearing something
that might offend or upset somebody else. My nephew Charlie is currently
learning to read and I don't really wanting him to read a t-shirt I'm wearing
and pick up any bad habits from me, that would be bad uncle-ing. Lastly, I
mostly buy and wear tees from small UK bands rather than the big American
touring bands, mostly because I figure they need the money more.
To end - here are some pictures of some of my favourite
piece of merchandise.
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