Rock Tease: The Golden Years of Rock T-Shirts
by Erica Easley & Ed Chalfa

Published - 2006 by HNA

I received this book as a present due to my obsession with buying rock shirts to wear everywhere I go. It’s actually really good and isn’t just another coffee table pictorial.

The authors have done their homework as they provide an introduction to explain the rock shirt culture that began mainly in the 1970’s. From there each decade (70’s, 80’s, early 90’s) all have a background on the trends of rock shirt design and the types of imagery used. Also on every page featuring a t-shirt, there is a small caption about each one. At the end there is even a section on the current boom of mass production rock shirts.

Some of my favourites are obviously the ones from the 80’s metal era but in particular a bootleg Van Halen 1980 Tour shirt, a 1983 Pyromania Def Leppard shirt, a red 1983 Motley Crue shirt and a 1989 original Dr Feelgood logo Motley shirt. Flicking through the pages its interesting to see the slight change of styles from small and tight in the 70’s/80’s up until the oversized 90’s t-shirts.

It’s a useful book to have if you want ideas for creating your own t-shirts or maybe even “borrowing” a design to give yourself a vintage logo no one else is wearing at the moment.

Dirty Rock review by 'Jonni Starr' 2007