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Intra-band shirt hierarchy

22 May 12 | Re: The minor rules of rock

This weekend I was lucky enough to go and see Cast, long a favourite band of mine, for the first time. As well as putting on a boss gig, they provided a textbook example of intra-band shirt hierarchy.

Here’s how Cast worked it:

• Lead singer: patterned shirt.
• Guitar player: plain black shirt.
• Bass player: polo shirt.
• Drummer: T-shirt.

Basically about as perfectly defined as you’re going to get.

Now, I know there are some people who are going to say that observing this kind of hierarchy is an undue display of ego on the part of the lead singer; but think a little deeper and you’ll see that these people - curse them! - are quite wrong. Far, far too many bands have been blighted with singers who selfishly went on in T-shirts themselves, leaving their poor old bass players and drummers shivering in vests or no tops at all.

The more you think, the more you discover. Consider how the lead singers of seven- or eight-pieces, such as Madness, often find themselves having to wear two- or three-piece suits in order to leave the necessary amount of sartorial space beneath them. And in the particular case of Madness, the saxophone player still sometimes ends up dressed as a pantomime horse; though perhaps both ends of the scale might be argued for in that instance.

Posted by CORPORAL TRIM at 21:33

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