We are back to the seemingly endless tour shirt culling thread. Yes. I guess after not wearing t-shirts for a decade, I went a little off the rails. buying tour shirts for almost every show. Often in multiple designs if I really loved the band, or saw them a lot. Sometimes, both of those criteria were in play! We are reminiscing about them in this thread, supplanted by the actual images I posted on eBay to sell them, nearly 20 years ago.
LUSH: Spooky Tour 1992
Cocteau Twins weren’t the only 4AD band to finally play the Southeast United Stated where I lived 30+ years ago. Lush were a band that we liked during their arrival on these shores. The “Gala” compilation of their UK EPs was a must buy and I was right on the full album that followed; “Spooky.” After that I lost track.
Much of this was down to the Spring of 1993, when I stopped watching any television. With no videotapings of MTV’s “120 Minutes” I really lost all connection to whatever music was currently being pushed by the majors. But soon, I would meet my loved one and we’d be going to shows three to four times per week as that’s just how we rolled back then.
As much as looking to the music that I had missed a decade earlier re-directed my attentions, these other factors also came into play. Until the early noughts, I really had no idea what had happened to Lush. But this had been a great show. The band were great but as my friend Wendy put it afterward, “the light show was drugs!” She wasn’t kidding. The light show to accompany this performance was maybe the most stunning example of such that I’d seen at that time. It wasn’t just Varilite® porn, but a super solid example of a lighting director who really knew what they were doing.
SWING OUT SISTER: The Living Return Tour 1994
Wow! Did I love me some Swing Out Sister in the throes of the stultifying Mid-80s Malaise®! The band were at the peak of the beloved NWOBJP trend and I thought I might never see them live for a few years. Stuck in Central Florida, I entered the Night Tracks contest to win a night on the Town in NYC with Swing Out Sister in 1987…and I won…second place. What that meant was I didn’t get to meet and see the band live in NYC, but I won a new CD player.
It took a few more years, but on their actually somewhat uninspiring fourth album, they came to Atlanta and I flew into town to catch the show at the Variety Playhouse…not the so-called “Varsity Theatre” as both the t-shirt and the setlist.fm page would have you believe! It was not the first show I’d see at the Variety Playhouse; that would have been Donovan on his “Sutras” tour. Nor was it the last – Sparks in 2013.
I’d bought my tickets prior to the band booking a gig, ironically, at the Disney Pleasure Island complex on Orlando’s doorstep. But trips to Atlanta were always worth the effort. And the Variety Playhouse had was more soul than any Disney Venue. I recall that my friends Beverly and [I think] chasinvictoria drove up and I got a taxi from the airport straight to the show where I met them. The crowd waiting to enter the venue were way into it. I was not the only one there with the Japanese live CD!
The band were wonderful and I bought a pair of shirts, but one of them is not going anywhere. I await fall and winter to wear that shirt to this day. The more colorful shirt here was easy to cut free as it was not their strongest album or cover design.
DURAN DURAN: Dialate Your Mind Tour 1993-1994
Yet another Duran Duran shirt that I think I might have bought on the first show of the “Dilate Your Mind Tour” that I saw at the USF Scumdome in July of 1993. But there’s every possibility that this might have been bought at the third leg of the tour at the Orlando Arena where we got 2nd row seats in the pre-TicketBot days where it was possible to do this by being dedicated and diligent. I’m not sure that my Durannie friend Sandra didn’t buy a block of these seats for all of her friends.
Anyway, I’m pretty certain that the second Duran Duran show I saw in Jacksonville in the summer of 1994, which was a free show at a city venue [with opening act The Cranberries] did not have any merch table at all. In any case, this was a XXL shirt with a metallic gold frame on the band showing their mid-90s quartet formation with Warren Cucurullo on guitar. I know lots of Durannies whio pine for Andy Taylor, but for me, Warren was the DD guitarist. I always thought his tone complemented Nick Rhodes synths better.
COCTEAU TWINS: Four Calendar Cafe 1994
This was the second Cocteau Twins shirt I bought at the “Four Calendar Cafe” tour show that I saw in Tampa at The Ritz theater. This was a heather number with a monochrome version of the cover art that sort of worked a lot better for me than the full color images used on other shirts or the album itself. Every time I think about this I wish that I’d saved this one Cocteau Twins shirt simply because it was so beautiful. But let me testify that the ink coverage on the front made it a bear to wear in the heat!
But as Fernando sez’, “sometimes it is better to look good than to feel good, dahlings!”
CHRIS ISAAK: Speak Of The Devil Tour – 1999
I sat out Chris Isaak’s 1999 tour. He played the House Of Blues at Downtown Disney; never a must-see venue. Now when it was The Cramps, or Link Wray, we’d go! Actually, by that time I had sat out Chris Isaak’s career. In 1999, the last album I’d bought was “Forever Blue.” It took me decades to move past that point in his canon.
So how did I get the t-shirt? It was a gift from my friend Sandra. These days? I only need the first three Chris Isaak albums with James Calvin Wilsey on Guitar. The Phase Two Silvertone with Johnny Reno and Hershel Yatovitz never convinced me. Wvwn Wilsey’s swan song, “San Francisco Days” is currently on my cull pile.
BONNIE RAITT: Luck Of The Draw – 1992
Here’s a real Monsastic outlier! I never paid too much attention to Bonnie Raitt, but in 1992, she had finally gotten to a position of stardom with her not bad [Don Was produced] breakthrough album, “Nick of Time” and I thought that her consolidating follow-up, “Luck Of The Draw” was even better. But that’s not why I trucked up to Atlanta to see the gig.
The real reason was that on that tourdate, the opening act was Chris Isaak! So I bought the tickets for the Atlanta show in spite of more localized gigs in Tampa or Gainesville, sans Isaak on the bill. And then Isaak went and pulled out of the tour entirely. It would have only been my second shot at seeing him and the first show was incredible. Leaving me with Asheville Saint John Prine* as the opener. A player who frankly, does nothing for me. But …a trip to Atlanta! So I went anyway. The perils of having too much money [at the time].
* No kidding. John Prine could do no wrong in Asheville. Prine worship in this town is like nothing I’d ever seen outside of R.E.M. in ’82-’83 in Orlando.
THE WOGGLES: Third Rail 7″ – 1993
The Woggles are Garage Rock royalty out of Athens, Georgia. I first encountered them when local Garage Rockers The Hate Bombs were thrilled to be on the same bill as them at the 40 Watt Club in Athens. We drove to Athens to see the Beefstock Festival, as it was called, and The Woggles certainly made believers of us all! They had a vicious, go for the throat vibe that was seriously visceral!
We saw The Woggles about every three months after that as they hit The Circuit, usually with The Hate Bombs in some configuration. This was the only shirt of theirs I ever got, for some reason. I tended to buy their indie 7″ singles instead at the merch table. The art on this one was the Canadian “Third Rail” single sleeve art. I not that the Estrus logo appears on the back even though that single was not an Estrus release! But the two albums that followed it were on Estrus, so they probably got some promotional credit on the shirt costs from Estrus.
The last time I saw The Woggles was the one time in Asheville, where we moved to in 2001. They played the Stella Blue in 2003 and shortly afterward, lead guitarist Montague died and I never saw the band again. But they are still going strong. They’ve been linked with Little Steven’s Garage Rock Empire for a long time now.
Next: …Shirts Off Of My Back
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I’ve been clubbing in Hollywood lately for the first time in ages. Last night I broke out an old bootlegged Cocteau shirt from 1990, when Lush opened at the Wiltern. It’s like false AI; the back says “The Midnight Stroll Tour.” AFAIK, that’s not a real thing. And last year, I brought a Lush shirt from ’91 bought in Edinburgh on a river cruise in Europe, for ’70s night… since the ’90s is the furthest back my clothes go. :p
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Scot Klapman – Even a legit shirt like the Swing Out Sister can lead you astray! I think someone got Atlanta’s legendary Varsity Drive-In confused with the Variety Theater in Little Five Points. But there are some bootleg shirts yet to manifest in this thread. Mostly because I wanted to keep them! I would never sell off Bowie “Heroes,” or English Beat Girl, or The Stranglers “Raven” shirts that I came across! But there is one bootleg coming in the next installment that was fair game.
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Hmmm-the best one here is the Cocteau Twins one…really cool. Chris Isaak-love him. Only one t-shirt of his I have, but it is never being sold/given away. Did see Bonnie Raitt on one of her tours. Drove up to Phoenix from Tucson. No t-shirt. Great show…opener was some famous piano player. Oof-can’t remember. Used to love her music….amazing to me how I am continually reverting back to the 80s synth pop from college….and the blues and hard rock are no longer appealing. I do listen to some classical and jazz-Brubeck style. But OMD, Japan, Duran-Duran (early), some DM (Alan Wilder in band), Thompson Twins, etc, are so much more ‘comfortable’ to me.
Did not buy a Hooky shirt. If they had put the flower graphic from Janus on a t-shirt, would have snapped it up.
Looking forward to the next post in this series!
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Deserat – That’s because “college age music” is where you formed your persona. That’s why it may be more intrinsic to you in spite of any later dalliances. I listened to a lot of Garage Rock and cruder forms of music in the 90s and most of it is on the chopping block for me now. But also whole genres of the music that I listened to after college. I have about 150 of 1000 CDs in my Discogs store right now and I’m feeling no regrets as I continue to post and sell them. I hope to have the dollar discs [several hundred] hosted to buy here at PPM if I ever get the time to post them!
As for the Peter Hook poster you taunt me with, is this it?
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Yup! Just beautiful…..
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T-Shirt Fanatic 👕 ✅️. You’re Right, I Think From The 90s Onwards ⏩️.
No early stuff. So Duran Duran (Missed Them At Cruelworld Last Year For Tones On Tail). Last time seeing DD was 2003 with all members (Andy Taylor Included) in Vegas. Great Show 👍💯. So the early shirts I still have would be INXS (1993) In Santa Monica Airport inside a hangar. Depeche Mode Singles Tour T-Shirt, Tears For Fears Sowing The Seeds Of Love 1990 T-Shirt, & A Nitzer Ebb Maybe (No Idea What year) With The NE on front. Last time seeing Nitzer Ebb Bon gave me a thumbs 👍 👌 up pointing at my T Shirt. Super Limited unlike you and your followers. I was seeing a lot of hair bands & metal as well as always clubbing it up.
#2000s came and I ramped it up.
Last Show was Vixen (The Vocalist Only Original Member), The Smithereens with John, & Loverboy. Great performance from all 💯🤩😭👍.
Hoping this 80s gig 🙏 this weekend as I gave Ivan on his social feed(Men Without Hats) a comment (I’m in and there, he liked me back).
Still trying to get answers regarding parking since I paid ahead, no response. No body knows which parking structure these tickets are for and I called over the weekend and they didn’t know either. Eventbrite and the Organizer 🤔🤞.
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