GUNS N ROSES TOUR T SHIRTS ,1988 and 1991,THESE VINTAGE GUNS N ROSES TOUR T SHIRTS ARE RARE AND HARD TO COME BY NOW,,,,CHECK THEM OUT,,,THE HAMSTERS OF ROCK WAS A SPOOF OF VAN HALEN.S MONSTERS OF ROCK LOGO,,,THIS SHIRT WAS CUSTOM MADE AND WAS NOT MADE FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC,,,,ROLLING STONES MAGAZINE COVER OF 1988 HAD THIS SHIRT ON THE COVER,,THE RIOT T-SHIRT WAS WHEN THERE WAS A RIOT AT ONE OF THERE CONCERTS IN 1991,SO THEY MADE A CUSTOM T SHIRT FOR THE CREW AND TOURING STAFF AFTER,,,DAVEK
Here's a true story. My buddy Mike and I drew that shirt. We were artists for a company called Shine-On Shirts in San Jose. It's still there. (We put our logo on the shirt which led to problems later.) The owner was good friends with a guy who ran a production company that did pyrotechnics for Van Halen and other big acts on tour. Every time he would work a tour, we would do a staff shirt for his pyro team. Van Halen was headlining, so he was on tour with them. The Scorpions were also on that tour and were unimpressed with Van Halen. They joked that with Van Halen as headliners the tour should have been called Hamsters of Rock.
ReplyDeleteMike and I were offered backstage passes to do this shirt. I think some cocaine was involved also. Mike did the main drawing and I did the lettering and color separations. We had intended to change the VH ring on the top to read VD instead, but spaced it off for some reason. The word STIFF on the bottom is a play on STAFF, which is what was on the legitimate shirts we did.
That shirt is very rare. I think we printed 17.
The shirt on the cover of The Rolling Stone was mine. I cut the sleeves and collar off. Mike wore the shirt to the concert. We got to Candlestick, wandered around for awhile, then went backstage. We ran into John, the pyro guy, and he looked at Mike's shirt and freaked out, saying that if Bill Graham saw it "he'd be fucked". We followed him onto one of Van Halen's tour buses and he rifled through a drawer, eventually pulling out a t-shirt which he handed to Mike and told him to put it on. My guess is the Hamsters shirt remained on the bus. (So did a dump Mike took, but that's a whole other story).
GNR were not on that tour, but they were at the concert. I assume that's how Steven Adler got ahold of it.
A couple of months after the show we had a message on our answering machine (remember those?) saying our shirt was on the cover of the Rolling Stone. We ran right out and got it. I eventually lost the magazine but recently found one at Streetlight Records for a buck.
Michael Stanford- I'm a guessing this is skritch or botch, but since Gino was with me that day and knew about the bus incident, it's probably you Mr. Antanasio. How the hell are you? Last i saw you, you were on the back page of a Ranger Rick magazine . The photo was you doing topiary for Disney World, I'd recognize that profile and mug anywhere. When I saw it I remembered it was something you dreamed of doing.
DeleteWhere are you now? Love to connect.
So my family and I where just reminessing about this day and that shirt. My daughter stumbled into this link, looking to see if we could find an image.
Your story hit on every major point, but you forgot to mention the LSD, lol, partly why the incident occurred on the bus. The whole day was surreal and lasted , what seemed forever.
Hit me up brother it has been too long.
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good rock history,,didnt know how rare the t shirt was,,,thanks for the info,,,i have a michael jackson t shirt i got years ago from a pyro guy,,,the shirt says we dont burn michael with a No logo around a michael stick man with his hair on fire,,,
ReplyDeleteI actually landed one of the gnr riot shirts from a seller that didn’t know what they had. Long story short Axl’s management ended up with it I pulled it out backstage when they re visited St. Louis people was blowed away. I really wish I still had it but hey I got to live a dream out not many people can say that.
ReplyDeleteIt was Graham Wright and myself the PM on the Scorpions that came up with the idea, and Graham drew up the tour laminate spoof with a much tamer version of the Hamster. The giant 'ratster' was presumably your take on it, but a good one! We (Scorpions) used the laminate for most of the tour and there was only ever one security lady at the LA Coliseum who figured it out. She got a good laugh when we explained, and let us in anyway :) Gradually as the tour dragged on, more crew from other bands managed to persuade us to make more for them...
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