Band Million
bands who sell shedloads of merchandise -and the reasons why!
Branded merchandise can usually help keep bands on tour, and some have decided to make their merchandise as eye catching, gory and over the top as possible to shift the stuff -heres alook at some rock bands who’ve sold merchandise by the bucketload because of their genuis.
Cradle of Filth. The Ipswich boys and girl have always liked the hit the controversy button to give the daily mail something to scream about. the ‘Jesus is a c**t’ t-shirt is their most famous one, which has landed some of its wearers in court on public indecency charges. Also available was the ‘get thee behind me satan’ t-shirt -with the devil and a nun ‘romantically’ involved and the always popular ‘guilded c**t’ t-shirt. Loathe them or love them- they’ve proved that swearings not big, but its clever.
Iron Maiden. The early merchandise featured just the iconic maiden font, but when zombie mascot Eddie came into being, Maiden found a marketing departments dream, selling millions of maiden t-shirts. From a pair of trainers with the latest album cover to speical one-off t-shirts, Eddie will be on them to make sure you buy them.
Cannibal Corpse. Also going for shock value, but going about in another way to Cradle of filth. While cradle are content to be the ‘gobby little oik’ of metal, Cannibal corpse are the guys with the body in the car trunk on their merchandise. Though most of their merchandise features the albums cover -they are very gory, explict album covers -zombie lovin’, baby butchering, entrail eating, worm infeasted vile zombies (did CC fans get the references here) all courtesey of artist Vince Locke, with has not only shifted albums but a bloodied, gorydripping shedload of merchandise. Just dont upset them.
Afew bands with some very interesting ideas of promotional merchandise:
Kiss. Most bands would sell their grans to achieve the fortune and fame they want. Demon bass player Gene Simmons also sold her house and dentures as optional extras. Items include comics, a set of limited edition coins, checkers game and the Kiss coffin, which can also double as a fridge so its not just laying around the house.
Manowar. From the kingdom of steel comes the ‘warriors shield’, their own manowar condoms. Not as amusing, but still pretty unusual- xmas tree decorations, ear plugs and bottle openers.
HORSE The Band – A Million Exploding Suns
