Stick It to Ya!

Back in the glam-slam heyday of the 1980s, it was much more appropriate to physically show support for a favorite band. Take, for instance, all those band merchandise ads in Metal Edge and Hit Parader. Flip through a old edition of either rag and you'll find a cheaply produced advertisement on every other page. Today, it doesn't seem like bands produce as much merchandise, shirts excluded.

The other day I won an Ebay auction for a very sweet pair of buttons from the promotional launch of Poison's Open Up and Say...Ah! album. I'm not sure you can tell from the picture, but these buttons are in excellent quality and definitely a glam collector's item considering the side of each is stamped with "CBS/SONY Group - Not for Sale."

I can't remember that last time I've seen a person actually wear a band button to the mall or even a show. I'm not talking about the teenagers who collect odd little buttons for their messenger bags. I'm talking die hard fans here who will destroy otherwise perfectly good clothing with a cheap button emblazoned with the words RATT! or Dokken!

I think it's high time real fans start wearing band buttons again, at least to shows. If you don't support the music you love, who will?

Comments

[aXe mAn]

I totally agree with you Allyson!
Except, I don't have any band buttons...

[aXe mAn]

....those Poison buttons are really cool!

[Metal Mark]

I have a cigar box full of band buttons. About half of them were purchased between say 84-92. I also have a seperate box filled with about 60 Roth-era Van Halen buttons.

[Chessie >^..^<]

I love buttons. Once upon a time I had a blue jean jacket covered with them--but the only 'band' ones I had were for Chicago. Since one of my jobs had an office in Illinois, my co-workers would ask me if I'd been to Chicago (the city). :P

Pride of my collection is a silver Winger pin. They were sold at the shows. I bought mine via Ebay a couple of years ago, still on it's little display card. I have to get another one to wear on my Winger Black Jean Jacket. :)


Is it just me or do we not see as many buttons? I have a TSO one from last year (it lights up!), but other than that, nada.

[Christian Graus]

Yeah - I buy buttons whenever they are for sale at shows ( I have a motley one, some iron maiden and heaven and hell ones ). I also have some Motley ones from back in the day, bought on ebay.

[bob_vinyl]

I have a whole box of old metal and punk buttons, but I don't wear many of them now. I have a denim jacket with Crass and Subhumans buttons and a have a Kills button on another coat. I doubt many of those are of interest to you. I do have a fair amount of old Motley Crue, Iron Maiden and Priest buttons and maybe a couple Ratt and Def Leppard as well from probably about 1983-84 when I lived for that stuff. Most of the stuff through the rest of the 80s was punk and speedmetal. I still get a lot of promo buttons when I order records from labels, but I don't wear them as much. Metal Mark gave me a fair number of buttons too. Ray at http://rayvanhornjr.blogspot.com had a whole jacket full of buttons back in high school. I think he still has that jacket.

[aXe mAn]

Oh yeah, I don't have any band buttons, but I do have buttons from a radio station!
I have them from KQLZ: The Pirate!
One for The Pirate Radio, and one from the Rockin' John Show! They are pretty cool, I have them around, but don't wear them much...

[Kenny Ozz]

Hell yeah, I got a bunch of them. And I bet I win... I have a TUFF button from 1989, BEFORE they got signed to Atlantic.. BEAT THAT!!!!!

[Rhodeislandrock]

I still have buttons and pins from back in the day and I still pick them up from time to time. There's an old record shop in Pawtucket called Luke's Record Exchange that still has tons of buttons. When I stop in there, I usually add a couple to the bill. Last year I bought a new denim jacket and I put some Saxon buttons on it so I still wear a couple. Back in the day, my denim jacket was covered, along with a back patch. That's what I really need, a back patch!

[Vince Neilstein]

Axl Rosenberg and I were just talking about this the other day. Band buttons seem to go in and out of fashion, just like bands. For a few years they'll be all the rage, then you won't see any, then they'll come back as a "retro" fad.