Well, first off, welcome to my first attempt at blogging, I sure hope this works out. O.k., Mark, get a grip, it'll be fine...I mean, Brian Lew is the only person who will most likely ever see this, and he'll be cool about it...right Brian? Thanks brother.
Guess I'm going to now set the tempo of this blog, or at least the theme, for lack of a better term. I am what is called in the industry as a "shirt guy". To my friends, I am just an art geek dude, but they know how much I love music, so they suffer through my stories of "MD1's behind the shirt" and all that boring ass shirt. They also are painfully aware of my pension for groaner puns, and for this I am eternally grateful for their patience. But, guys, I hate to say it, some of that shirt works. Really. This blog will be dedicated to all (or as many as I can dig up from my archives) the shirts I've designed, bought, or have had some sort of access to, and applying at least some words to the reason I've posted that particular shirt image. It's a booze infused shirtology study, of which I will apologize in advance for. It's true, when you get older, time becomes available, and in this modern age, blogs have replaced park benches. Hopefully it won't be too painful, I suggest a cold brew now.
Anyway, as testimony to my undying metal allegiance to my metal comrade in merchandise, Brother Lew (aka Blew), I decided to start this whole blog adventure with a band that means more to us, then possibly all the cold beer in the world, that's right....Motorhead. Bless Lemmy's inebriated heart, and for all that man has done for music, and for us, goddamnit! I mean it, Lemmy is God, and I can't say it enough....the day I was allowed, permitted, graced with the bloody honor, to put a Motorhead shirt design out into the merchandise foray, I felt that if I was to die that very day, it would've been alright by me. I have completed the circle, climbed the mountain top, and had done a very good thing just knowing that I helped put a little more drinking money into the pocket of the man of whom we ALL owe an eternal debt. Lemmy, this round is on me.
I think it was when I heard the B-side of Ace of Spades "Dirty Love" and then perhaps, shortly after, the monster B-side to No Class...."Like a Nightmare", is when my life turned for the better. The course was set, Lemmy is at the wheel...ladies and gentlemen, your captain has turned off the stop drinking sign, so please return your stewardess to her upright position and get ready for whatever. Sitting in R. Birch's room while both of us were completely peaking on what found it's way into our drinks, we discussed the depth's of Motorhead's influence on us and the world at large. Sitting in front of the Keystone Berkeley trying desperately to hide the three Steinlager's I had allocated for the wait before entering the Another Perfect Day gig, and having one of the crew spot me drinking what was to be a supposed personal favorite brand (I assumed that cold beer could be considered a preferred "brand"). I handed one over and received a zerox copy of some sort of flyer in return, with the guys against a wall and a Motorhead logo being the solitary verbiage on this seemingly ineffective advertisement, I felt "connected". These are small glimpses of unimportant facts to the average reader, but I must say, they hold the weight of the world to me and what has made me into who I am today. Honestly.
Anyway, Here is my first "shirt" photo to launch my blog into hopefully successful waters...
Motorhead "Motorizer" retail tee. This was created from the artwork I designed for Motorhead's album, of the same name. It was printed for the retail debut of the record. A similar tee(s) with tour date back was/were also created, this/these will be in my following blog post, where I will undoubtedly go in to even more painful detail(s) the arriving at the Motorizer cover design(s)...and all these additions to that last sentence will become "painfully" clear.
"Yeah, who gives a shirt, dude"?
5 comments:
Word, my brutha.. To quote Lemmy: "It's been a long time.. been a long, long wait.. and you've caught your fingers in the Pearly Gates.."
Mark, are thse available on this tour? How about a history of Rock tees? Whose were 1st available? Elvis? Beatles? Stones? Who? M'head?
So when does the half shirt come out?
These are available on tour (with tour date back), and should be in retail as a front only. I will post the other shirts I designed for the tour shortly. They just had me do a couple more for the European leg....I'll put those up as well.
That's a good question. I would assume Beatles, yet the big thing with the Beatles was that they never had rights to their own merch, it was sold away in some very bad management deal early on...who knew that shirts would make money back then? I'm sure they've rectified it since, but for a while...nada!
Elvis probably didn't have shirts until late sixties, then Stones shortly after that....Beatlemania was the start of music merchandising, and I think Elvis probably had posters before shirts.
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