More about: BBC-6Musict-shirt daymatt everitt

Back in 2007, BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Steve Lamacq launched a new initiative on his show: Wear Your Old Band T-Shirt To Work Day. Designed as an exercise in nostalgia, for one episode per year Lammo encourages his listeners to participate with tales of the gigs at which they bought the T-shirts, who they were with and any further conversations about the band or artist. As any listener to Lamacq’s show can testify, it was one of several features that resonated with his audience. 

15 years on, the initiative has gone from strength to strength. Accordingly, this year’s event on Friday 4th November has a celebratory feel, with a wealth of treats including: a live set from indie darling Sports Team at Maida Vale; a panel of specially invited judges including Roisin Murphy, Orlando Weeks and all-round goddess Jo Whiley taking part in The Polyester Prize, where they will choose the best design from a shortlist of iconic T-Shirts, as well as the usual special guests and listener interactions. 

"It’s about what they represent...Not just the relationship you’ve got with the band, but that moment in your life when you bought them..."

While other features have come and gone, T-Shirt Day is now a huge tentpole in 6 Music’s calendar. But why is that? ‘I think Lammo really touched a nerve when he first did it,’ music news reporter Matt Everitt tells me when we speak. ‘It’s obviously a pretty potent thing, but it’s not just about T-shirts, is it? Like all the best ideas, it’s not just about the surface level of, ‘aren’t band t-shirts brilliant?’ It’s about what they represent and what they mean. Not just the relationship you’ve got with the band, but that moment in your life when you bought them, be that years ago or something really recent that’s quite visceral.’

‘It’s a really emotional connection that we have, which we have to fashion and clothes anyway, but with band t-shirts it’s such a personal thing. You’re choosing to ally yourself with a band and their ethos, be it their creativity or their politic beliefs or whatever. You’re becoming part of that world when you wear a T-shirt, so that’s a decision with intent behind it. It’s celebratory but it’s also saying something about who you are. It’s brilliant!’

Like all great ideas, T-Shirt Day’s strength is in its simplicity, but also on the agenda this year is a wider investigation into music merchandise overall, with Everitt running a series of features across the week covering a different subject per day on Lammo’s show. Topics include the effects of the pandemic, the change in merchandising over time and sustainability.

‘I think it was The 1975 who said, a couple of years ago, that they just wouldn’t make any more new T-shirts, they were just going to re-print on old ones, which is quite smart,’ says Everitt when we discuss the dilemma of offsetting merchandising with sustainability. ‘I think it’s just inevitable and it’s going to happen. It’s purely just going to be a matter of time before it becomes the default standard of what people do. I’m just generalising but being sustainable and ecologically sound tends to be the concerns of most bands and groups. They think it’s important.’ 

Merchandise has long been a valuable revenue stream for bands: for many, the merch stand is the first port of call for gig-goers, even before the bar. We’re all consumers to a greater or lesser extent, and the feeling of solidarity and intimacy with your favourite act is emboldened when their logo is emblazoned on your chest, in a way that owning the vinyl can’t replicate.

‘As has been talked about once or twice; for bands, especially starting up, merchandising is their blood, in many cases. It’s absolutely essential for them to be able to function as a group,’ Everitt explains. However, recently some venues have been cast in a bad light, the current point of contention being the prices they charge for bands simply to sell their products, as the presenter acknowledges; ‘If some venues are looking at increasing the cut of the merch that they take, that’s going to put you in a pretty difficult position. Maybe the saleability element is going to have to be slower because of conditions, especially with the cost of living at the moment. Maybe just keeping that income line going is going to slow down the chances and make it more difficult to make something that’s ecologically sound. They can’t straight away, but it’s going to end up there, I’m sure. Hard as it is, and was, to make money, the T-shirts are perhaps going to become even more valuable.’

Sadly, as we know, sustainability is one of several issues facing bands in 2022. Increased bills mean that venues are forced charge bands more for tickets, who in turn have to up the prices of their tickets, which unfortunately means that some fans will be priced out of seeing their favourite artists altogether. For a sector that’s barely recovered (if at all) from the pandemic, this is another body blow. 

‘It’s a very, very difficult time for everybody and bands are affected by that. If you’re a printing company, the cost of ink has gone up to print T-shirts. The cost of cotton you buy is going up, the cut and dye costs are going up…everything does. The cost of physically delivering a whole bunch of T-shirts from one place they might be printed to where they may be to another…it’s all going up. It’s unfortunately the situation we all find ourselves in, so those costs all end up, unfortunately, with the consumer, who’s got less money.’

The features on Lammo’s show include Matt speaking to people across the music industry, from singers to those behind the scenes, to discuss the various crises in more detail, as he explains: ‘We’re speaking to Clint from Inspiral Carpets, because we thought we’d look back at that relationship between bands and their merch. In the early 1990s their T-shirts were arguably, when they started out, more famous than the band. They were a major source of income and it was their entire marketing campaign. They had the ‘Cool As Fuck’ T-shirts, so we’re talking to them about the controversy that T-shirt created. One, as a news story, people were going, ‘it’s ridiculous, you can’t sell T-shirts and be a band,’ and also, would you have an offensive (to some people) message these days? 

‘The way that people interact within their community, and society as a whole, is more sophisticated now. Would they do that still? It’s your own personal billboard, isn’t it? How do you choose to use it? And are you prepared to offend people by doing it? That’s a really interesting conversation we’re going to have.’

‘A weird thing that we did find out, obviously because the boom for vintage T-shirts was huge in Europe and the States as well, was that it doesn’t hugely matter if a vintage T-shirt is a bootleg or not. It’s got to the point where the age has become as important as the originality. That carries a lot of value. Even the dodgy old T-shirts that you might wear at night in bed, or for eating curry in…just because you bought it outside Brixton Academy in 1992, doesn’t mean it’s not worth something.’ 

‘On Monday’s show we spoke with Imma Ray, Merchandising Manager for various bands, to talk about the cost of living. Buying habits, etc. That, and obviously the impact they believe the exit from Europe has had on supply chains and costs as well.’ 

Ah, yes. The B word. Brexit may be less divisive than it once was but the impacts are ongoing. In conducting his research, Everitt has heard both sides of the debate: ‘Many people believe that the opportunities presented for UK-based T-shirt manufacturers are now increased, although what we tend to be witnessing is that the wider impact of trade and moving goods around Europe, and the complications with that, is making things a lot harder and more expensive. There are two sides to it, but the latter hasn’t helped.’ 

"...being sustainable and ecologically sound tends to be the concerns of most bands and groups. They think it’s important."

A plethora of demoralising issues for our favourite industry, then. But there is hope. As was proven during the pandemic, musicians’ creativity isn’t confined to the studio. In the same way that live streams are now an accepted method of promotion, artists are getting creative in navigating these new travails. Matt Everitt has spoken to several acts who are thinking outside the box: ‘What’s interesting, in terms of some venues trying to charge more or take a bigger cut of merch, is that some bands, like The Big Moon, are taking their stalls out of the venues and transporting them to local pubs. You can buy a T-shirt after the gig and that way they’re preserving more of the money, so more of the cash goes to the band and the promotion costs of running those T-shirts. That invention is still there.’

‘Also, if you look at the way bands control the production of T-shirts, it used to be, especially at the peak of T-shirts in the late 1990s and early noughties, most production was farmed out to huge T-shirt promotion companies who could churn out vast numbers of T-shirts to enormous-sized audiences. Now, for many bands, it’s a home concern. They design it, they control the printing source, they source the local companies to make the T-shirts… it’s a more personal industry. It’s not DIY because that implies these things aren’t done to a very high standard.’ 

‘There is that idea of when artists make custom-made studios into home studios, they do T-shirts in the same way. They are, in many cases, being controlled by the artist themselves which gives that connection between artists and fans, which is all the closer because of that. That’s nice, if you’re looking for a positive element, as the cost of living is affecting everything at the moment!’

In addition, owing to a reduction in revenue from the music itself (the profits from streaming being a fraction of those from physical releases), certain acts hold their fanbases in high esteem and want to provide value for money. The days of plonking a logo on any old tat, then sitting back and counting the money are largely (hopefully) gone, as Everitt explains: ‘I do think that bands realise the power of good quality merch. I know an awful lot of bands, like The National, that have started putting out limited edition tees and merch to support their crews over the pandemic who weren’t getting paid for gigs, and they were good shirts.’

‘I think that idea of, ‘oh, let’s stick an old logo on the front of skinny T-shirt with pretty shonky production standards… happens a lot less now because people know that if you are going to invest in something…even new bands know that it’s got to be an item which has real longevity to it, which also falls in with the ecological side of things, but it’s got to be something where some love and care has been into it. If you only buy a couple of T-shirts a year now, they’d better be really good T-shirts. They’d better be really thought about and innovative. I think bands know that and are trying to do something really original and make T-shirts that of a decent quality, say something and are a quality product of fashion.’

As you’ll likely be aware, Matt Everitt is unique in the world of music journalism in having been a member of a relatively successful band himself. Menswear burned brightly but briefly at the height of Britpop (no-one can deny that Daydreamer was a classic single of the era), even if they have become something of a running joke in the preceding three decades, not least of all by their drummer. 

When your correspondent asked him what T-shirt he would be wearing, Everitt, the epitome of a good egg, gave the best possible answer: ‘I always wear the same T-shirt. Because the subtitle of T-shirt Day is ‘wear your old band T-shirt to work day’, my old band was a shonky Britpop band called Menswear, so I wear an old Menswear T-shirt from 1995 every single year. Basically, doing the same gag I’ve done 14 years running! I love it dearly though! It’s still held together well, it hasn’t fallen apart.’ 

‘It was quite common that you’d do a big merch deal around that time, because you’d get so much money from selling T-shirts, it was almost like a record deal. It was very possible at that time, but I’m just glad the T-shirt is still there and hasn’t fallen apart! At least somebody was spending the money on something correctly at the time.’

‘Last year my brother sent me a link on eBay to a Menswear T-shirt. It was going for £680 or something. I was like, ‘this is amazing, I’ve still got a couple of those. We’re quids in!’ It turned out it was just one weird person who believes it’s worth that. It’s still there! There’s loads out there for nothing! This one particular guy is flying the flag: ‘No! This is a piece of music history!”

So get digging for those old Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong T-shirts in your loft. You just never know…

6Music's T-Shirt Day goes down this friday, 4th November

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: BBC-6Musict-shirt daymatt everitt