London

Jon, 33: The Stone Roses

Jon, 33: The Stone Roses
‘From 15-18, band T-shirts were all we wore. That was it. That, a pair of jeans, and a really awful shirt on top of it if you were going out. Back then, Radio 1 was all Simon Bates, so when you saw the Roses on “Top Of The Pops”, you wanted to nail your colours to their mast. But it was tricky because there were two distinct tribes – you were either a Guns N’Roses fan or a Stone Roses fan, and I tried to straddle both camps, so I’d wear it according to which mates I was going out with. If my mate Jonesy saw me with a GN’R T-shirt it’d be like a betrayal.’

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Dan, 25: Guns N'Roses

Dan, 25: Guns N’Roses
‘My best friend Steven Eagles bought his GN’R shirt first. His mum always let him be a bit more rock than my mum. I was 12 when they released “Use Your Illusion”, and I was vaguely aware that this was a Big Thing so I bought the cassette and played it to death, and then I got the shirt from HMV in Milton Keynes. I do remember wearing it in the kitchen at my gran’s house and her grabbing me by the shoulders, turning me round, adjusting her glasses and reading it out loud. I was such a teenage geek; I had these big glasses my mum had got me from Boots. Plus the shirt was too big, ’cos it was so uncool to buy any vaguely tight clothes.’

Toby, 30: The Cure

Toby, 30: The Cure ‘The year I bought this shirt, the song that was most played on the radio was that fucking “Techno techno” song [“No Limit”] and listening to “Boys Don’t Cry” at that time couldn’t have been more different, and that was the Camdenesque statement that I wanted to project to my peers when I was 13. It was worn with a strict ensemble of black jeans and a greyish-blue M&S cardigan. I just wanted to look like the girls I fancied with pink hair and joss sticks. I went to school in Essex, and the acme of Essex style then was a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and a Golf GTi.’

Eve, 17: Arctic Monkeys

Eve, 17: Arctic Monkeys
‘This was a present from my friend Molly; she’s two years younger than me and very cool – one of these people who just knows random bands who make it big. She got me into the Arctic Monkeys before they released “I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor”. Anyway, I’ve always looked after her, so one day and she said, “I've bought you this shirt, ’cos you’re my mummy and you’re really cool!” I wear this out, yeah, just as an everyday thing; I know it says “fuck” in small writing, but I don’t really care and my parents don’t mind at all! A word’s just a word, and that’s the way it is.’

Sydney, 52: Generation X

Sydney, 52: Generation X
‘I got this back when I was training to be an accountant in 1975. I was at the offices of a client in Gloucester Place and suddenly this wonderful looking fellow comes in with one of the coolest haircuts I’d ever seen, and he said, “Who are you?” I replied, “I’m the auditor,” and he said, “Fucking auditor!” Anyway, that was Billy Idol! It turned out that the manager of the band was my client’s son. So I got talking to Billy Idol, because they were using it as their office as well, and he gave me the T-shirt.’

Nadja, 30: The Strokes

Nadja, 30: The Strokes
‘I saw the Strokes at the Barfly in Camden in 2001 and they were amazing. There was a feeling that this was gonna be the gig, like the Sex Pistols at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, a sense of it being like: Oh my God! This band are going to go down in history. And I was so excited that something in my brain short-circuited, and so all I can remember is the atmosphere of sweat and dark and beer and just thinking: Everyone’s right! They are the second coming! I saw them a few times after that but they were never as good as that Camden show.’

Marsha, 30: Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine

Marsha, 30: Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
‘I was 14 and, though I’d always been into music, this was the first time I was part of a tribe – indie felt really underground, like a secret society, yeah! Carter were the first band I really loved in my guts, as opposed to quite liking the music or fancying them. These “30 Something” shirts were like DM shoes, in that with most of your clothes you wanted something original, but there were some shirts that you had to have. Me and my best friend wanted one for ages, so I went on a pilgrimage from south-east London all the way up to Camden to get them; I didn’t tell her I’d gone, just turned up at her house wearing it and grinning! We wore them to a show at the New Cross Venue and got them signed! It still makes me excited in my tummy to think about it now.’

Liam, 17: Cypress Hill

Liam, 17, Cypress Hill
‘I got into Cypress Hill in my early teenage years, back in my skater days when I first discovered smoking. Ha ha! They’re good background music for having the lads over and doing what we do best, which is pretty much nothing. My friend took me to Camden when I was about 13; I thought it was great. It was always touristy but it seems more like people are going there now because they think it’s cool and don’t really appreciate the history of it. You know, in “Withnail And I”, they had a flat in Camden, and all that history in terms of gig culture.’