On the cusp of a second culling I’m considering of the Tour Shirt collection, we’re looking at the shirts sold off during the first cull in 2007. A surprising number of these were of what I’d call core collection bands; bands where I bought every single track they released, as in the case of Cocteau Twins. And yet, the fact that I was willing to sell off precious tour shirts surely telegraphed the huge CD cull I’m currently in the middle of organizing. It’s 18 years later and it’s no shock that every one of my Cocteau Twins releases [save for the one with Harold Budd] are also on the chopping block. With Cocteau Twins, they were absolutely crucial to me from 1983 to about ten years later. After that, I doubt I’ve ever played a single one of their discs more than four times. Images, as ever, are from the actual eBay auctions from where I sold them off.
COCTEAU TWINS: Four Calendar Cafe 1994
The last time I saw Cocteau Twins was in Tampa at The Ritz in 1994. Their latest album, “Four Calendar Cafe” was not compelling to me. It was still Cocteau Twins, and I was still all-in on buying the tour shirts, obviously. This black one was a colorful design that was a riff on the rather uninteresting cover art, which was not by 23 Envelope any longer.
I disliked wearing this one in Florida since the heavy ink coverage on half the shirt made this one a bear to wear in the hot, sweltering Florida climate. Leading me to only wear this during the so-called winter the state barely had. That was a very practical consideration one had to have when planning your T-shirt wardrobe.
INXS: Dirty Honeymoon 1993
I had seen INXS three times. The first, on the “Kick” tour was fantastic. PiL opened, and was value for the ticket right there. But the band were as hot as they would ever be as their over-the-top commercial breakthrough took them from stardom to super stardom. For about five years, INXS could do no wrong as they were one of the most popular Rock bands on the planet and were, surprisingly, also one of the best. It doesn’t always flow like that!
Then I saw the “X” tour in Daytona Beach which was almost as strong, for an album I liked even better. When INXS were coming to Tampa in 1993, it was a foregone conclusion that I would be there, but crucially, I never bought the “Full Moon Dirty Hearts” album. Friends swore to me that I should pass it up. To this day I’ve not heard it. The show was in the worst venue in Florida, the USF Sundome. A college sports arena extremely ill-suited to music enjoyment. Every show I saw there was vexing, but it didn’t help that INXS were falling hard off of their pedestal on this album. Still, I bought the shirt. And sold if off!
DURAN DURAN: Dialate Your Mind 1993
I finally got to see Duran Duran in 1993 after being a fan for 13 years. That was the year they staged a dramatic comeback with twin top 10 singles from their strong “Wedding Album.” They also played the USF ScumDome with a highly theatrical show that kind of overpowered the music presentation, if I’m honest. It was early in the life of the album as their commercial fortunes were on the uptake after some years in the doldrums. That tour would continue for three legs and bigger and better venues would beckon.
I went a little hog wild on the tour shirts I bought. The previous year I made “collecting” Duran Duran my hobby after seemingly finishing up on Ultravox [or so I thought!] and their resurgent popularity was unexpected to me though I dove in deep and for a few years bought hundreds of DD discs. This full-wrap “photo booth” shirt with the art silk-screened on the fabric before cutting and sewing was a fantastic design that when looking at it now, makes me regret selling it off, in all candor. If you pair black ink with a metallic color [gold in this case] you can make a strong reduced palette that really pops visually.
I bought more than just T-shirts at that table. There was also a very luxe tour book, a cloisonne pin, and even a Duran Duran condom.
SIOUXSIE + THE BANSHEES: Bootleg design
I saw Siouxsie + The Banshees once. In 1987 on the “Twice Upon A Time” tour. Three years before I started buying tour shirts, so I never got a chance to buy a Siousxie + The Banshees T-shirt. Yet, when I saw this presumably bootleg Siouxsie design in an Atlanta record store, using a great Derek Ridgers photo session from 1988 with Siouxsie styled as Bastet; the Egyptian cat goddess, I, er, pounced on it.
WEBB WILDER: It Came From Nashville Reissue 1993
I first encountered Webb Wilder in a short film; my favorite short film ever! “Webb Wilder Private Eye In – The Saucer’s Reign!” I saw the first WW album a few years later but only on LP. I started buying his albums with #2 and onward on CD. Webb Wilder is a roots rocker with a sideline in comedy acting and I loved how he blurred the line between a music career and a colorful character featured in the short films of Stephen Mims.
The first time I saw Webb Wilder and The Beatnecks was a the Sapphire Supper Club and my friend and I could hardly believe we were seeing the man in the flesh. It is music that rides the razor’s edge between Country and Rock with no shortage of expertise. I went ape on the shirts on the merch table and this was the four color version of the “It Came From Nashville” artwork. That tour had the debut album finally reissued on CD which I also bought that night. Along with other shirts as well.
WEBB WILDER: Doo Dad 1993
That night I first saw Webb Wilder was technically with the “Doo Dad” album as his latest release. So I bought a few shirts for that album as well. The first was a surreal image of a gator swatting a stick man from the booklet of the CD. It had, like all Webb Wilder T-shirts, the Webb Wilder Credo on the back side. You know that band is special when they actually bother to have a credo.
The heather shirt also had one of my favorite design features: printing on the sleeve! In this case the “Doo Dad” man made of bottlecaps on the back of the CD. The garish pink lettering really stood out on the heather shirt.
MAN OR ASTROMAN: Destroy All Astromen Tour 1994
I spent a lot of the 90s seeing surf bands extensively. Next to Grunge or Techno, it was a no-brainer! Man Or AstroMan were sort of “Punk Surf” with riotous live shows bursting with lo-tech multimedia overkill! All the better to enhance their wiseguy, sample-ridden material filled to bursting with grade-Z sci-fi hoo-hah!
The first time I saw them was as the band [who had just finished their own set] were heckling Dick Dale from the audience I was also a part of in 1993 at WMNF-FM Tampa’s Tropical Heatwave Festival. I would soon near their nitro-burning surf music shortly afterward on college radio and seeing them live became a must! When I saw that they were playing at The Covered Dish in Gainesville in 1994, I drove up there from Orlando to see the show.
A group of fans and I were chatting with the band before the show. Besides where to find good vegetarian dining in Gainesville, the hot topic was of the then-current “Star Trek Generations” film that united [somehow] the Classic Trek and Next Generation cast in the same misbegotten film! They were dubious. And right. They thoughtfully recorded and released the actual concert as the “Live: Transmissions From Uranus” album so now we can all hear the results!
Live, they props onstage [tesla coil!] as well as a host of TVs playing back several lurid sci-fi movies during their set, but also a 16 mm sci-fi film unspooling behind the stage on a scrim! Their AV geek dedication to their art was second to none! They spent as much time setting up and breaking down the stage as they did playing.
Next: …Hey Man, Put A Shirt On!
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Post-Punk Monk 
That’s a fun tour in the wayback machine. that’s the same year I saw Dick Dale play in Honolulu of all places. at a special art gallery opening in a club called pinks garage.
your description of the live show for man or astroman reminds me of the one time I saw a negativeland play at the Great American music Hall in San Francisco. certainly two different bands of a similar feather.
and while I’m dropping comments I did go see eXTC last weekend in her performance that the bass player said was their penultimate show on the North American tour. it was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the music and the chatter the lead guitar and bass players had something to say between every song. their setlist was a slightly different than your experience and they played two encores with an oh so reasonable announcements that they wouldn’t go through the motions of leaving the stage and returning. told us I’ll just relax and they would play a couple more. the theater had a capacity of maybe 400 but there might have been 75 people in the building including the band and the staff. clearly it was not promoted much. a little sad for the band but I enjoyed dancing to most every song, And surprisingly encountered them in the dark as I walked to the parking lot immediately after the show and quickly thanked them for being there. great chaps! The XTC fan convention just happened this weekend, and it was fun being a voyeur to their goings-on in Swindon.
did you really buy hundreds of duran duran and discs? I was so sick of hungry like the wolf, and a few other songs that had enormous AirPlay that refused to ever try to explore their other works. but I got to say it’s fun reading about the swag you collected!
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rangster – Here’s about 100 of the DD records/discs I sold off to fund lots of travel in 2014/2015. 1993 was like a perfect storm of Durandemonium where I saw the band, they had a comeback, and I was meeting lots of hard core Durannies which fed into a vicious circle for a while. For my part I can never tire of hearing “Hungry Like The Wolf.” It’s completely evergreen to these ears. Sorry you had a “pearls before swine” experience with EXTC in your locale. Attendance was admirable in Asheville. I’d guess about 60% capacity at least. The Grey Eagle can sometimes be a “pearls before swine” scenario for many show I go to see there with embarrassingly small audience turnout. And yeah, I guess there is a though-line from Negativeland to Man Or AstroMan??
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A Duran Duran condom.
To…..Hold Back the Rain?
I’ll show myself out.
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Tim – You shouldn’t go out in the rain without your rubbers…
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Wow, were you serious when you said you’ve yet to hear “Full Moon, Dirty Hearts” to this day? I hadn’t heard it for years, but upon a quick review before this reply, I was reminded of the 3 songs that had always stood above the rest (and the production doesn’t sound too dated): “Time”, “Dust of Days” and “Freedom Deep”. The first is a full-on rocker, as is the second (and hints at INXS’ affinity for fellow Aussies, Midnight Oil), while the last is a mellow track that builds layer-by-layer. I hope allow yourself to enjoy these 3 gems at least.
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Anne Deck – Welcome to the comments! I will admit that I’m old school. As in ancient. I don’t stream. All the music I listen to (apart from the occasional promo on SoundCloud) is something I own. Primarily on CD. I can’t remember the last time I saw “Full Moon, Dirty Hearts” for sale on CD, but it might be a quarter century in the past. So deep cuts from that are pretty much beyond my grasp. I did hear “Elegantly Wasted” on release when a co-worked bring it in to play it. I recall it was still a step down from their imperial period. “Shaboo Shoobah” [did I spell that right?] through “Welcome To Wherever You Are” was a pretty sweet ride!
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After I saw the comment above by Anne Deck I thought I should check out the album, and she was right on the money. Of her choices I especially like “Days Of Rust” (I assume that was “Dust Of Days”, just misremembered), and there are a handful more songs that are worth checking out – “I’m Only Looking” is infectious pop with funky guitar and sprechgesang in the verses, the title-track seems to channel the bluesy soul Dr. Robert would put on solo releases (and sometimes Blow Monkeys albums), and “Kill The Pain” is a gentle ballad (but with full instrumentation) that brings Michael Hutchence’s excellent vocals to the fore. You might even like more than these. By all means, if you see the album for cheap, grab a copy, and post a review on the blog…
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strange_idol – If I get that and “Elegantly Wasted” there’s always that INXS Rock G.P.A. that could happen. And no, “Switch” isn’t proper INXS.
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