This is a cool looking Wide Awake bootleg you can hopefully snap up on the cheap. The back has the print that we all know and love, but I have no idea where that front print came about. Seem like a weird choice if you were going to reproduce a Wide Awake shirt. Hopefully the Wide Awake boys will chime in on this one.
Also, what is an “ALANS OF WIGAN”? Was it some sort of record store chain?
Alans is a record/skate/bmx store in Wigan, it is run by Alan Woods an ex sponsored/pro bmx racer in the 80’s, he also ran a little record label that you might have heard of called First Strike, they put out a record by a band called Chains Are Strong or something like that. In the 90’s he changed the type of “hardcore” he was stocking from punk to dance music. The dude is a total cheeseball, and purely in it for the money. Still, it would be interesting to read an interview with him to see what he thinks of the record label these days. He did some pretty weird stuff at times, one thing that springs to mind is a shirt with the “Alans” shop logo on the front and a top ten customers list on the back, Douglas Dalziel (Iron Monkey bass player) used to order a lot of stuff from him using his dad’s credit card so his dad’s name ended up on the back of the shirt. Like I said… …weird!!
So Wigan is in England??
Yep, near Manchester.
Yeah Alans was a fantastic shop from northern england.
I bought this off one of his many massive lists of hardcore stuff about 20 years ago..he also put out Majoirty of One and go! lp’s along with Dr and the crippens etc..
Bit concerened when clicking the photo that the ebay.com listing says “like new”, it isnt at all, the shirt is well worn and “used” as it says on the co.uk site…dont want people bidding daft thinking its something thats its not.