Is gardening the new rock 'n' roll or in fact has rock 'n' roll been secretly infatuated with gardening for many years? This fantastic new t-shirt from Lion Rock Art! suggests that one of Rock’s greatest iconic bands may have been into cultivating the earth way ahead of the curve and no, this one isn't for you Deadheads out there... This one is for all you 'Who' fans hiding in your allotments or potato patches air guitar-ing with your pitch forks and drumming on the flower pots!!! However it's almost strange to think that no one has made the connection before, the hints are all there in the Who’s history, so let us dig deep and cast a botanical eye over the mysterious gardening history of the Who...
Tara was Keith Moon's family house which had a roof that peaked into five pyramids, the house had an extensive lawn and a large wood. Lawns often feature quite heavily in the many legendary stories of Keith Moon and Oliver Reed too. One of the most famous has it that Keith tried to land his helicopter on Mr Reed’s lawn, while Ollie tried to shoot him down with a fully loaded shotgun! Sometimes gardens are homes to rabbits, guinea pigs and tortoises... Keith and Ollie had a pet tortoise of which travelled everywhere with them, the tortoise was used as a way of transporting a pint glass or whiskey bottle between the two of them thus helping to slow down their drinking. Keith was a lifelong fan of The Beach Boys of which Brian Wilson ran the vegetable shop 'The Radiant Radish'.
In 1971 Roger Daltrey purchased a 17th century farm Holmhurst Manor, of which he built a fishery and was often found to be riding around in a tractor.
Pete Townshend held a solo gig back at Max Yasgur's Farm in 1998 after The Who's superb 1969 Woodstock performance, known as ‘A Day In The Garden,’ he also owns part of a National trust property in Oxfordshire and has a daughter that is a gardening columnist...
And so finally ‘The Ox’ John Entwhistle, known as the Ox for his cultivation of farm land... perhaps that is going too far, known as the Ox for his fantastic bass playing; he was the most mysterious and secretive of the group, he owned a rhenish gothic family home in the Costswolds which has 42 acres of land with formal gardens, terraces and a croquet lawn, a true 'rockers retreat’... At the end of 1969 the Who's live performances had become legendary and most had been recorded for the US market. There was a push to put together a compilation album of these recordings but Pete Townshend was having none of it and he and Bob Pridden (Sound Engineer) burnt the tapes in Townshend’s back Garden. Out of this though came the phoenix that is the incredible Live At Leeds album...
And now we have this superb t-shirt that celebrates all of this and does it just in time for Fathers’s day. Of course another bond between The Who is that they were not only out there, on the front line rockin' our socks off but they are all Dads too.
The T-shirt pays homage to the classic Brian Pike 'Who' logo and puts a great playful spin on it. Designed by Nikkie Amouyal who not only designs all of the t-shirts for Lion Rock Art but along with her cousin Cedric runs the business too, Nikkie has had an incredible career in the music industry designing for loads of iconic bands, it's great to see Her turn Her considerable creative talents towards t-shirt and merchandise design and with lots of great quirky and off kilter slogans and designs, Lion Art Rock are offering some truly superb gifts for Father’s Day and beyond...
Links to Lion Rock Art's fantastic website:
Looks great!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks Dawn, hope all is well
DeleteFantastic article Andy, you are a true Rock Journalist!
ReplyDeleteThanks you for your precious support.