I'm Your Biggest Fan
On Great Rock'n'roll Merch & Tis The Goddamn Season
One of my many obsessions is really great, interesting, unusual, individual band merchandise, and I have written about it over the past few years (here & here) leading up to Christmas as I love to encourage the support of musicians through purchasing their merch for your gift giving!
I believe its a very under utilised point of connection between artists and their fans - to own something really special created by an artist you love, with love, is a win win situation, don’t you think?
Its super easy and convenient now for artists to create a wide range of merch with drop shipping options but it just doesn’t have the same je ne sais quoi as something hand made, clever and/or thought up by the artist directly.
Lets look back at a couple of great examples for a moment shall we?
How bout this brilliant 1980 Grace Jones fan, created by iconic artist Richard Bernstein to celebrate the release of Warm Leatherette at Studio 54? I’m not sure if she was the first artist to crack this joke but probably, considering she did most things first.
I also love this original Yes belt buckle from 1977. Says it all!
My Highly Recommended Top Special Artist Merch List Recommendations of 2024
My girl
is a creative genius, there’s no doubt about it. She has funded album recordings with some highly personalised merch items, hand stitched and painted many unique items of clothing, both vintage and handmade, and this year has teamed up with English distillery Wicstun to present a very limited edition ‘Horizons of Love’ dark rum- a riff on her glorious dystopian utopia concept album ‘The Last Resort’ -‘a rich and flavourful spirit that is sure to transport your taste buds to the sunny shores of the Caribbean … made using only the finest ingredients and traditional distilling methods, with hints of caramel, vanilla, and oak that complement the natural sweetness of the rum and your sweet self, sunclubber!
So, get your passport, and 'Horizons Of Love' dark rum will be your escort to paradise and beyond!’
'Horizons of Love' dark rum & custom 'The Last Resort' vintage leather jacket (sold out) Fans of
may know that he loves his nunchuks, and in a powerful merch move has now created his own custom set, available for preorder now!And in a lovely summing up of his ‘This Is A Photograph’ album cycle, you can also preorder this beautiful That Was A Photograph Postcard Booklet.
Kevin Morby - nunchuks & postcard booklet Icon and
artist Nancy Sinatra is known as much for her cutting edge poptastic image and super cool style as her incredible catalogue of music, and for those ready to slam some hard cash down on the table to prove their love for Nancy, head on over to Nancy's Bootique to order Nancy Sinatra : One For Your Dreams, an Autographed Luxury Edition of 250 which comes in four colour ways.
Nancy Sinatra : One For Your Dreams in Pink If $770 USD is a little too much proof of love for your pockets, you would win any heart with this perfect classic Nancy sweatshirt.
Mary Gauthier loves Topo-Chico, a naturally carbonated sparkling mineral water from Mexico, and Mary loves bolos. She makes these Topo-Bolos as she’s working on songs, while pondering a lyric, she will busy herself with a hammer and an anvil, flattening bottlecaps. This would look as beautiful hanging on a wall as it would hanging round your neck, and will easily be the best $20 Christmas stocking stuffer you will find! Would also pair nicely with Mary’s book Saved By A Song, which is an absolute cracker - I highly recommend the audio book version so you can hear Mary narrate.
Limited edition Jim White Stick Bags would be the most amazing gift for any drummers you know, or for yourself if you are a drummer. You could of course also keep other things in there, or just frame this beauty on the wall. Less than 20 of these left worldwide, handmade by Shelagh Hannan.
Handmade limited edition Jim White Stick Bags Lael Neale’s surreal and lovely paintings have been collated into this ∞ ALL GOOD THINGS WILL COME TO PASS∞ 2025 Art calendar∞ (available in US only). You can also purchase individual artworks by Lael there.
Shana Cleveland from psych rock band La Luz has making her Famous Faces Calendar, featuring ‘moon stuff’, holidays and ‘Toothy black and white paintings of the hottttest musicians from days of yore!’, for fourteen years now and I love her art style so much. I have no doubt these will be collector’s items before too long!
Shana Cleveland's Famous Faces Calendar 2025 I’m not much of a hat wearer but this beautiful ‘Music For Applying Shimmering Eye Shadow Hat’ from harpist Mary Lattimore ticks all my boxes!
I’d be remiss not to include some of my own merch wouldn’t I … I haven’t played live much this year due to various personal reasons so I don’t have new merch, but I do still have some cool merch, like this gorgeous limited edition teatowel with design based on a photograph by the amazing Katerina Stratos is now on sale for a bargain basement $22 AUD (plus shipping)!
Lo Carmen Tour Teatowel Now I want you to tell me the best handmade/special/interesting merch you have ever seen and/or point me towards current cool merch offerings.
I hope this helps with your pesky Xmas shopping needs or just helps remind you that the place where music and merch collide can be a thing of wonder and beauty!
With love from me and my Gareth Liddiard teatowel,
Lo x
Style icon ❤️
I have some amazing Dicklord undies. I had to explain it was a band to my partner when they first went in the wash.