666 : The spectre of the £40 t-shirt

It spread through the internet like the proverbial dose of salts. “Have you seen what Gojira are charging for merch?”. The French giants, long regarded as a band of the people were caught with their fingers in the tills asking for forty quid for a t-shirt and eighty quid for a hoodie. I think what hurt most and caused the most disdain is that they weren’t a band that we expected this of. Gene Simmons yes but Joe Duplantier? However, despite being in a cost of living crisis people must have paid those prices as I’ve seen brand new Gojira clobber all over the shop and the other night at W.A.S.P. the t-shirts were, surprise surprise, forty pounds. Where Gojira have trod others have followed

Now, much to my continual annoyance, we live in a capitalistic economy and capitalism (as my A-level in economics informs me) is based on the concept of supply and demand. Prices are based on what people will pay and the availability of the goods. Branded t-shirts are, for all intents and purposes, a luxury item and whilst it is up to the band how much they charge for them, it is up to us if we pay that. Essentially, we vote with our feet, or in this case our wallets. If we think it is worth forty quid to walk around with Blackie Lawless mug shot on our chest, then we will pay that much. The Merch stand was still busy on Friday, we where still parting with our money and therefore t-shirts will continue being forty quid. 

But is it as simple as that? In this post-record sale world, merchandise sales are a crucial part of a bands’ income. It can mean the difference between a tour making money or not doing so. The big machines such as Gojira, W.A.S.P. or Maiden (I bet you a pair of Eddie adorned boxer shorts that t-shirts are forty quid on their forthcoming arena jaunt) can afford for you to take or leave their forty quid wares. Its just another wad of dollars in their large Scrooge Mcduck pile of cash. But smaller units need that merchandise income. Its their life blood, it’s their petrol money and it’s the food on their plates. The more that high merch prices become the norm the more that the smaller acts will be priced out of the market.

Yes, we all want to be adorned with the names of our favourite bands but my concern is that, in this cash strapped world, if we are shelling out £40 quid plus for the wares of the big boys and girls, will we have the cash left to support the smaller more deserving acts? Much as I love my (many) Iron Maiden t-shirts, I know in my heart that Steve and the boys don’t need my money. But frankly the Black Spiders, Crippled Black Phoenix and Fleshgod Apocalypse merch I purchased in the last few months would have played a crucial role in keeping those acts financially viable (and there wasn’t a £40 t-shirt in sight).

So the point is the £40 quid price tag for the established acts is actually a red herring. The issue is that now that we have all stopped buying records, simply purchasing tickets for shows by the up-and-coming young guns may not actually be enough to keep them fiscally buoyant. Buying merch at those gigs (if we can afford) is now a necessity if we want those acts to develop and grow. So, the message of this blog is the reason you shouldn’t splash out on a £40 quid t-shirt at an Academy, Apollo or Arena is not because of the price tag or venue share. It’s because we all have limited means nowadays and we believe that we should be all reserving our limited means for those non-mainstream endeavours playing Retro, Rebellion or Bread Shed. The ones where your twenty or thirty quid investment is, frankly, keeping the band afloat.