I used to be in a band that practised several nights a week above a pub in Coalville. Coalville was a mining town, the clue's in the name. It was built by the National Coal Board and they had huge facilities there. There's not much coal stuff there now.
Myself, I'm from Derby, a long way from coal fields. Derby in the 70s and 80s was all about Rolls Royce and British Rail. I only really thought about mining during the strike. Miners raising funds. The Communards. The Style Council. The extra attention the police paid to lads in vans as we drove around the East Midlands going to gigs.
But perhaps that slightly distant relationship is why I was so intrigued by this range of gear from Garbstore. Intrigued enough to buy some.
Obviously you can see how they got there; workwear is everywhere, they don't just want to do US workwear so they're investigating British industrial heritage. And they end up with the NCB.
Random thoughts:
I'm old. This is more evidence. Stuff I remember is now being resold to us as heritage.
This must be odd to see if you're actually from a mining town. Those hard, hard jobs, central to the life and livelihood of your community turned into a hip, nostalgia graphic like an old chocolate logo or a forgotten baseball team. Is it somehow inappropriate? How would you feel wearing this stuff in Coalville? I guess it's fairly minor compared to the heart being ripped out of your town.
Though, of course, it's a good logo. Stark. Brutal. Appropriate. Though I'd be surprised if anyone's working on a Unit Editions, er, edition, of the graphic work of the NCB.
And, as someone with an interest in the future of energy, I like how this underlines the fact that coal is not the future. If you were making an Adam Curtis documentary about the decline of coal you'd have shots of these shirts around the beginning of the third act - as an eerie foreshadowing of the irrelevance to come.
('Cultural' irrelevance only, of course, we're still burning a hell of a lot of it, we're just making non-British people dig ours up)
Anyway.
