Keep Calm And Put It On A T-Shirt...

In the Spring of 1939, with war against Germany all but inevitable, the British Government’s Ministry of Information commissioned a series of propaganda posters to be distributed throughout the country. ‘Keep Calm And Carry On’ was one such poster and in recent years it’s spawned thousands of parodies.

It only seemed natural that the posters would evolve into t-shirt slogans and while we can all agree that they’ve been done to death, they still do prove very popular.

Getting Shirty jumped on the bandwagon a couple of years ago and recent sales figures show the three best selling t-shirts have been ‘Keep Calm’ parodies.

Based on the British TV show Doctor Who

Who wouldn't need to keep calm when killing zombies?

Based on the British comedy The IT Crowd

Do you have any 'Keep Calm' parody ideas that you think would look great on a t-shirt? Post a comment below and you never know, it may be on a t-shirt very soon!

Duran Duran - Oxford Academy 10th September 2011

This was a practise gig for their upcoming US leg of the 'All You Need Is Now tour'. Seen them before at Wembley Arena and Earls Court, but this was a one off, being such a small venue. A lot of die-hard fans there too as it was initially available to members of the fan club only.

Go to quite a lot of gigs so used to barging my way to a good position at the front or having people barge in front of me. None of that here though. If you didn't have the right colour wristband and tried to get close to the front, you were turned away by security. Quite a good idea, mind. If I was a die-hard fan and queued all day to get my position at the front, I'd be pretty pee'd off if someone pushed in front of me.

Anyway....the music. Not being a huge fan I wasn't too familiar with the more obscure older stuff. Hold Back The Rain from their second album Rio seemed to go down very well. Their new stuff is actually pretty good. The album's produced by Mark Ronson and it sounded very good live. Simon Le Bon's David Brent style of dancing made me chuckle though.

Uploaded a few videos to my YouTube page if you're interested and Girl Panic from their latest album is below, for your enjoyment :)

Pulp - Brixton Academy 31st August 2011

Never got to see Pulp back in the day, so jumped at the chance to see them at Brixton. Mind you, it did highlight the fact that I didn't know as many Pulp tunes as I thought I did. Should have done a bit of 'revising' before going, I guess!

Gig highlights : This Is Hardcore. My favourite Pulp track which sounded awesome live. Jarvis humping the hell out of a speaker while belting out the song was a sight to behold too.

Gig lowlights : I was in a 'people annoy the hell out of me' kind of mood. Especially those people who come to gigs and talk (actually it was shouting!) to each other all the way through it! When I go to a gig I want to listen to what I've paid for, not listen to other feckin' people's conversations!

Anyhoo, video of said gig highlight below....