An ecstatic Michael Stipe (out of REM) proudly displays his 1997 Convention T-Shirt.
There are NO convention T-shirts left, sad to report, but a second print run can be produced when Mike Foster is in posession of sufficient orders to exceed a total of 25 shirts (his break-even point). He's a little short of that number as yet, but if anyone wants one they should get in touch at:
Mike Foster
41 Coronation Road
Basingstoke
Hants
RG21 4EZ
United KingdomThe cost per shirt is £9 plus £1 postage for people within the UK, or £4 postage for those outside the UK
The reverse of the shirt carries the following text...
This is a T SHIRT. This writing is the DESIGN on the back of the T SHIRT. The purpose of the DESIGN is to attract your ATTENTION and to encourage you to read what follows. So far the DESIGN appears to be working well as you are doing precisely what the wearer of the T SHIRT wants you to do. This is good because the WORDS that make up the DESIGN carry an important MESSAGE. The wearer would therefore like you to continue reading. However, this DESIGN is only here to keep your ATTENTION until you get to the MESSAGE; but as a free-thinking individual you know that you should STOP READING NOW! because you don't want to be taken in by a simple persuasive device such as the eye-catching DESIGN. Yet this is a DOUBLE BIND because if you stop reading you'll be doing what you're told to do, and if you read on you'll be doing what the wearer wanted all along. And the more you read on the more you're falling into the trap set for you, but now you've got this far you might as well carry on to discover the contents of the MESSAGE referred to earlier. Anyway, as you might have suspected, the essence of the MESSAGE is to inform you of the wearer's PREFERENCE for the BAND whose logo adorns the front of the T SHIRT. On the assumption that you're reading this standing behind the wearer, in a QUEUE perhaps, you probably won't have seen the front of the T SHIRT which has an interesting logo for the rather splendid group of musicians from Swindon known collectively as XTC. If you've never heard of them, or if you thought they must have split up years ago, then it really would be in your INTEREST to find out more. To do this, you might like to attract the wearer's ATTENTION in some way and ask about XTC and their MUSIC. However, if you're shy or short of time, the remainder of this writing will convey a summary of the MESSAGE. here goes. XTC are a fine band who are most definitely still together. They recently released a marvellous compilation called FOSSIL FUEL containing all of their beautifully-crafted singles, from the red-light fever of SCIENCE FRICTION to the sumptuously upholstered WRAPPED IN GREY, via the Beatley TOWERS OF LONDON, the see-hear-smell-touch-taste of SENSES WORKING OVERTIME, and the Byrdsy feel of THE MAYOR OF SIMPLETON. However, if it's true that singles collections are the desserts from all the meals without any of the spuds and meat, you'd be well advised to tuck into the vast and varied banquet laid on within XTC's ALBUMS. Nibble at the savouries of WHITE MUSIC before tackling the spicy hors d'ouvre of DRUMS AND WIRES and the fibrous roughage of BLACK SEA. Enjoy the rural flavours of ENGLISH SETTLEMENT, the high iron content of THE BIG EXPRESS, and a summer's day cooked into one cake with SKYLARKING. Don't forget to finish it all off with a psychedelic side dish of PSONIC PSUNSPOT before the fluorescent feast of ORANGES AND LEMONS, and a visit to the multi-layered yet far-from-sickly sweet trolley of NONSUCH. But you don't need to eat the lot: just dip into whichever course takes your fancy. After all, anything by XTC will nourish your record collection and keep you happy. And that is the MESSAGE. And this is the penultimate sentence of the DESIGN on the back of the T SHIRT which first caught your ATTENTION a couple of minutes ago. And the T SHIRT was made especially for the XTC Fans' Convention which took place on Saturday the 24th of May 1997.
