A bit shirty

T-shirty

The origin of band T’s is not an easy thing to research and there seems to be quite a few claims as to the pioneers and earliest adopters including the Monkeys and The Beatles. However if you go back further than that Elvis was making T’s with his singles name’s on as early as 1956 and even before that in the 40’s Frank Sinatra fans would write his name on their tops and jackets, but maybe that doesn’t count as actual merch? The Grateful Dead helped move the concept beyond simple words by having artists like Hell’s Angel Allan “Gut” Terk design the official T-shirts for tours from the mid 60’s onwards. By the early 70’s the band T-Shirt was an established part of music culture and an important unit of economy (also an investment - the Allan Terk Grateful Dead T shirt above went for $17,640 at action last year).

(Hank Williams Jr T on the trip I bought it, outside the Integratron in Landers California - I also bought a really nice Harley Davidson T-shirt on that trip but my dog hazel ate it)

Over the years I have collected a lot of band shirts ( I have an alert on Ebay for “vintage baseball band shirt” and I’m pretty sure the best band t’s were made between 1978 and 1987 after which point they got cheaper in quality of short and print), many of these I prefer the actual shirt to the band. This goes to show how important a good shirt is and you can even make money from the haters. I have a Bob Dylan short form a gig at the Albert Hall which is frankly rubbish, poor quality, one colour and boring art - the gig was good though and I like the short as a reminder. While Bob will sell out of T shirts with whatever design he puts on them for a band like us a good selling T can make or break a tour. This is thanks to almost always having a decent profit margin - a design that doesn’t sell is simply one more expensive, heavy bag to carry around and a constant reminder that what you like isn’t always what other people like! The first OMITF T was a black short sleeve number with our album art by Darren Thomas Magee and it went down pretty well. When organising a short print run there is a lot to consider about the art but also the shirt it’s self. I personally really like a raglan baseball style band T shirt and I picked up my favourite in a shop in Los Angeles about 10 years ago (pic above) however some folks prefer the traditional shape with short sleeves. Some folks are more than happy to pay a bit extra to get a high quality heavy cotton or a vintage 50/50 (I think I prefer that).

(Here’s Henry and Maddy modelling our Go Easy band baseball tops with Henry sporting the original OMITF T underneath, snappy dressing Hen)

We’re going to be producing some new OMITF T shirts very soon and our pals at Indigofera are collaborating with us on a special design, more info soon on that.

It is always helpful to get some feedback on this kind of thing so let me know in the comments what’s your favourite band shirt and if you have any personal do’s and don’t when picking something from the merch stand.

And to help us make space for the new stock, for 1 week here’s a 25% discount code for our shop: