Is the High Street Ruining the Concert T-shirt?

There's a girl that I know who wears a Bruce Springsteen 'Born in the USA' T-Shirt, it's a nice T-Shirt, plain white, one of Annie Leibowitz' finest album covers emblazoned on the front. After noticing it quite a few times, I point at the shirt and ask 'What's your favourite track?' - I'm thinking either the titular or 'Glory Days' - but who was I kidding, I knew what she was going to say before it even came out of her mouth. 'I don't know, i've never listened to it'. A horrible, heart sinking moment, that moment when you realise that the t-shirt you once thought may have a great back story and shared great memories, is not a legendary Fruit of the Loom cut off with an iron on logo, but is in fact from...Topshop.

The shirt that really threw me though, was one of Keith Richards, a man who has been playing incredible music for three times longer than the tweens wearing his face over their chests have been alive.

'Oh shit! A t-shirt with some Ray-Ban's and a cigarette on it, how deliciously indie. Who's Keith? Fuck Knows, he was probably in the Beatles'

It'll probably get thrown into the same drawer as that one with 'Hey Ho, Let's Go' on it, probably that other one with those four chaps walking across a zebra crossing and definitely that one with the giant red tongue.

T-shirts with bands on should only be bought from a concert. I've accumilated quite the collection over the last few years. Arcade Fire from Reading 2010 is getting relentless use at the moment, but if I had been watching highlights at 1am on BBC Three and then bought the shirt online, would i have the same attachment to it? Of course not. Whenever I put it on I just get reminded of one of the most incredible live shows i've ever seen. Just like when Johnny Clearasil saw the Rolling Stones no doubt.

High Street chains are destroying the cult fashion that goes side by side with live music. If shops like Topman or New Look keep producing these clothes, what will happen to the anonymous nod in the middle of the street, when you see the same shirt on someone else? It's going to turn into the anonymous keep head up and pretend you're not wearing River Island by Kasabian.

However, (not trying to be chic) I think the hand-me-downs are passable. I have a Reading festival t-shirt from the 70’s from when my Dad was on the gate there. At least there’s a story behind it. Haven’t got a ticket? Tenner and i don’t know about it. There may be a good few decades of long-drop smell festering in the cotton somewhere, but it’s from when Reading was still the National Jazz Festival and Arthur Brown, the God of hell-fire himself was burning away on stage.

The high street chains need to stop being so vintage and go back to doing what they do best, skinny jeans and tight t-shirts. Leave the mis-shapen, un-machine-washable and undeniably cool band t-shirts to that guy in the corner with a staple gun and absolutely no change, whatsoever. The great and true concert t-shirt retailer.

E.P: Lions Are Smarter Than I Am - Pop Idle

It seems this local trio may in fact be smarter than a pack of wild cats. Here’s an EP bursting with promise and what sounds like a similarly bursting pedal board. A post-rock band with influences from Mogwai, but a sound distinctly their own. A lack of structure to the songs creates the occasional unexpected turn into distortion wonderland, but in this case, that’s not a bad thing at all. ‘Twenty one, Thirty one’ is track of the record, order in chaos defined.

Check them out on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/lionsaresmarterthaniam

The Gigs and Stuff top 5 of the year.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (Album)

Easily the most well reviewed album of the year and i’m not going to be the one to falter that. With two incredible albums behind their back, 2005 effort Funeral and Neon Bible from 2007, could this third effort be the turning point into realms of mastery, taking after Ok Computer and Born to Run and transforming a very good band, into a legendary one? Long story short, it could, and it did it in style. A record of unfaltering greatness, combining anthemic rock tracks like Month of May with the disco-tinged Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) with ease, whilst throughout, a haunting footprint of nostalgia treads through the landscape of this masterpiece.

Reading and Leeds 2010 (Festival)

Unfortunately, what this years Reading will always be remembered for is Axl Rose and his band of merry men, turning up on stage an hour late, then staging a hissy fit when the stage had to be shut down at midnight, not ‘rock and roll’ at all, he just looked like an idiot; from what i hear that is, i was watching Phoenix play a blinder in the NME tent. Saturday marked out what for a lot of people was the main event, sub-headlining, The Libertines, the likely lads back together for what was an emotional set, sharing the mic like nothing had happened and drawing a bigger crowd than headliners Arcade Fire, who needless to say i thought were incredible. This year also marked the return of Blink 182 to this side of the Atlantic, headlining the main stage on Sunday night, and although not the best band i’ve ever seen, they were exactly what you would expect them to be, funny, drunk and not taking themselves too seriously (Axl...)

Spanish Sahara - Foals (Song)

Named NME’s track of the year and mine too, this almost 7 minute epic marked a new direction for Foals, from indie-happy math rockers to second album heroes, a hurdle that so many hopefuls have fallen at. The debut track from the brilliant album Total Life Forever, begins with only a few minimal notes with Yannis Philippakis providing the wistful vocals, as the song turns into a monster of sound, building and building into an incredible musical feat. On record, the best song of the year, live, even better.

The Man Alive Ensemble: Everything Everything @ The Union Chapel (Gig)

One of the best bands to emerge from 2010, Everything Everything combined their debut album Man Alive with a 13 piece orchestra from the Royal Northern College of Music to create the strangest and most intelligent shows of the year. The setting, Union Chapel, providing a fittingly beautiful backdrop to the music on stage. With such a distinctive sound, I was unsure as to whether this collaboration of pedals and brass would work, but it just made every single song sound like it had been made for it. Now i must go back to listening to Man Alive without the RNCM orchestra at hand, but in the back of my mind i’ll know that for one cold December night it was so much more.

Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem (Video)

This year provided a host of technically incredible music videos, the body merging orgy of Klaxons Twin Flames, the product placement crammed Gaga effort Telephone and the Stylo car chase from Gorillaz, starring none other than John McClane. Unfortunately my favourite video for the year is not some James Cameron cut off, it is in fact just that simple concept of James Murphy and his bandmates getting physically tormented by a barrage of men in mouse suits, and who could want more than that? There’s no message behind it, no underlying meaning and no thought provoking message for us all to look inside ourselves and think about those worse off. It’s just a bit of fun, and personally i think that’s what music videos should all be about.

The Man Alive Ensemble: Everything Everything, Union Chapel 15/12/10

During November the Union Chapel in Islington played host to the BBC's Little Noise sessions, bringing big artists back into a small intimate venue, but on a cold December Wednesday music returned to the chapel. The combination of the most critically acclaimed bands of 2010 and a 13 piece orchestra from the Royal Northern College of Music, The Man Alive Ensemble, one of the live events of the year.

After a sell out show at the RNCM, the Union Chapel show is the culmination of months of work between the band and an orchestra made of students from RNCM, but also the finale to what has been an incredible year for Everything Everything. Since releasing their debut album 'Man Alive' in September to extremely positive reviews the band have gone from mid-way down the festival listings to one of the bands to see, with next year looking even more promising as there's a slot on the NME awards tour for them too.

Having never been to the Union Chapel before i did not know what to expect, but to be sat in pews is one of the most strange but also brilliant ways to witness a band. Christmas decor in full around the venue, the band took to the stage in formal attire before launching into lead single 'Schoolin'. With such a heavy synth based sound, and no Korg or Yamaha in sight, it is down to the orchestra to take up the mantle. With the riffs and melodies coming from strings and brass, a whole new layer is added to the sound, almost as if the band were meant to play like this. The more synth-laden tracks open the set, dropping the audience head first into the sound of of Stratocasters and strings. It is only a couple of songs into the set that the full force of the ensemble can be heard, ‘Suffragette Suffragette’ leaves guitars on the ground and three part harmonies filling up every cavern of the chapel. A series of orchestra heavy tracks follow, showcasing front man Jonathan ‘Everything’’s vocals where they had been previously disguised within the electric sounds of ‘Man Alive’.

The highlight of the night is ‘Photoshop Handsome’ one of the band’s earliest efforts. Lyrically one of the most astounding things you’ll ever hear, and with an added orchestra it makes it just about one of the best songs i’ve ever seen. It’s the song that has been most edited by the ensemble and begins with a previously unheard string introduction, beginning very minimally before turning into a crescendo of violins and cellos. A moment of silence, before the signature introduction is taken over by the brass section and gradually one of the finest live events of the season comes together and everyone watches in wonder. It’s a melee of sound, that you would never think could create such an incredible musical combination.

Even though the Man Alive ensemble show sold out, it broadcast live on iPhones, iPads and computers everywhere. Speaking with Jonathan after the show he said ‘It was strange thinking that people are watching this all the way around the world, or more likely just some people up in Scotland’, he may just be being modest but after witnessing what I believe to be one of the best live shows in a long time, it is not going to be a long time until Everything Everything are not just being watched on mobile phones, but playing live around the world too.

Rating: *****