666 : The Power of Black Cotton

The band t-shirt is sown into the fabric of our world. It is as an essential component of metal as the riff, the drum solo and casual drug use. It act as a form of cloth based branding, allowing us to identify other members of our tribe, as well as a lucrative income stream independent from record sales. I have hundreds of the buggers and I can trace the evolution of my tastes and my bank balance over the 38 years I have been attending gigs. 

My first was a woolies purchased Iron Maiden “Aces High” t-shirt bought to wear to a show on the “Somewhere In Time” tour. It has disappeared into the rag bin of history but would now probably be several sizes too small for me, but I still have my “Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour” shirt. Purchased at their legendary 1988 Monsters of Rock show I could never part with it (no matter how battered it gets) as it a physical reminder of an extremely important moment in my musical development.

And that's another reason they are so important. They are time machines tieing us to pivotal moments in musical history. I still have the Donington 1991 and 1992 event shirts and they scream "I was there" for more effectively than a hand me down anecdote. The almost ground zero of this is the Bolt Thrower shirt. As a band they were distinctly DIY and never licenced. Therefore the only place you could ever buy a Bolt Thrower shirt was at a Bolt Thrower gig. As they sadly called it a day a decade ago, it means that if a person is sporting a Bolt Thrower shirt they either saw them live or bought it for an extreme mark up on vinted. Whatever the reason it still means that it is worth hugging that person.

I regularly cycle past a long haired geezer stood at a bus stop in Droylsden in an array of thrash metal shirts. I wave at each and every time. Not because I know him but because the fact he sports a Forbidden or Kreator means he is part of my gang, even though I don't know him. Band t-shirts are our gang colours and there is nothing more communal than someone’s comment on your obscure shirt. Whilst on holiday I sported a “Sound of White Noise” 30th anniversary shirt. I wear it with pride as I love that album and, whisper it, think it's the best thing Anthrax have ever done. In a queue for the bar a flustered German rushes up to proclaim that he too loves that album and has never ever met anyone who shared that adoration. It was an instant bonding moment conceived through cotton. 

However the biggest reaction I ever get t-shirt wise is when I am adorned in one of my fifty plus Iron Maiden shirts. I keep saying that Steve and Co. don't need my money but I still come back with a new Maiden shirt every time I witness them in concert. With personalised version specific to particular shows they have tapped in to our desire to have something collectable and unique. 

Iron maiden shirts are now like Man united tops in that they transcend geography, race and culture. In Tunisia I came down to breakfast in “The Future Past” tour shirt and within ten minutes six separate persons had come up to me to profess their love of Iron Maiden, including three members of the hotel staff. Iron Maiden are a global phenomenon that knows no bounds and an Iron Maiden t-shirt allows you to wear your membership of that cult with pride.

As long as we feel we need to belong and we feel we need to show that we love a more obscure band than you, then the band t-shirt will flourish. It is also our way of putting cash straight into their pockets, so you may (like me) have dozens and dozens, but hey! What's one more????