Badge of the Week #1

 A couple of weeks ago Ombudsmen, the band that my daughter sings/shouts for had their album launch with a gig in Manchester. I thought it might be a good idea to produce some old school pin badges that they could sell/give away whatever on the night, so I bought myself a badge maker. And its great!! Here I am at 56 making button badges. Many moons ago, the badges that you wore told someone else pretty much everything they needed to know about you... your taste in music and/or your political stance especially. 

At the school I went to there were strict rules about badges, they weren't to appear on blazers, so we wore them behind the lapel. To flip someone's lapel was to reveal an array of bands. From about the age of 10 or 11 it was a bit of a treat to visit the Sunday Market in Haywards Heath where there was a stall that only sold band badges. I would spend ages peering at the offerings whilst my parents went of in search of what ever it was thet they were after. My problem was one of limited funds so I had a choice of one or two per week.

I still have them, and looking across Facebook, so do a lot of people, old punk badges are coveted items in the collection. Some are highly sought after and command a high price, others are just crap, poorly produced (yet still of significant monitary value). What I have is of little value, run of the mill S.I.S. stuff, but I always liked the idea of being able to produce my own. I still sport band badges on my jacket now, but just the one at a time these days.

The badges that I will post on here will not be for sale. Nothing on this site makes any money on the back of The Stranglers or any other band that I post about. At some point though I may give a few away I dunno.

The first one I fancied was a Celia badge. I have a very vivid memory of seeing a chap at the Reading Festival in '87 sporting a T shirt with the cover of 'You Better Believe Me' on it and I was green with envy. It is still the only 'Celia and the Mutations' T shirt I have ever seen... I am assuming that it was self printed.

I love two singles on which The Stranglers/JJ collaborated with the mysterious Celia Gollin.