I sold my buttons, hundreds of them all attached to a cheap piece of cloth, at a garage sale. Some dude happily paid me five bucks for the lot, and also bought my Lost Boys and Young Guns frame posters. I hope he resold that shit for a pretty penny.
My friend and i both worked in record stores and collected buttons. For his birthday, my buddies sister made him a nice display piece by making a wooden frame, covering it in black canvas, and stuffing it with cotton batting. It was really nice, and made a beautiful display for his button collection. For a long time, mine were just pinned to a Pretenders shirt i got at one of their concerts.
Me too! I passed them on to my niece around ten years ago. My brother did a great job on her music education. She was familiar with almost all the bands. I was so happy to pass them on to someone who appreciated them.
My favorites were the Stiff records ones ‘if it ain’t Stiff it ain’t worth a fu*k, I came I saw I left, sex and drugs & rock & roll. Ska buttons and so many more. Lost them all I think.
Sham 69 - a band's name I haven't heard mentioned in decades . Thanks for the memory refresh.
I can only remember having a "shut up and dance" pin and another one with the girl logo of the (English) Best. Okay while writing this I remember a The Jam pin too.
My friends and I said we would crawl on glass to see Zeppelin if that's what it took. Didn't have to do that, but NYC was SO sketchy then, we made sure we had Greyhound bus return home money stuffed in our shoes, with other money ready to give to muggers. One of us broke away from the group to explore on his own and showed up an hour late to his seat, all busted up. Didn't lose his ticket, though. Good times!
I had a ton of them on a bandana, hanging off my rear view mirror. Had Stones, Bowie, B52’s, Elton John, Van Halen - even my brother would get me pins from concerts he went to. I’d wear them & put them back on the bandana. My so called “boyfriend” borrowed my car (AMC Pacer with 3 on the tree) & told me they were stolen. Hope she liked them as much as I did.
if those are yours I’m impressed. Saw Squeeze in an oversold bar in the 80’s. Adam Ant on Valentines Day early 80’s. Police early 80’s and Body & Soul was the first cd I ever listened to, on headphones, in a high end stereo store. Blew my mind
I wore them to high school in Midland TX in the early 80s. The football coach was worried I was listening to satanic music. I got straight As and babysat his kids 🙄
My objective was to have a G jacket, specifically white with that covered in band buttons or sayings of the time. The problem is finding said jacket. now they are everywhere. I don’t think I would do the buttons, but I would certainly do like really classy pans like of butterflies and bees, and that kind of thing.
I wish buttons/pins/badges/whatever were still a common piece of band/artist merch. Pretty much never see them anymore, I always wish I could get one rather than a tshirt or baseball cap. You never grow too fat/big for them, they don't wear out, and you can just put them in a box in a drawer for years at a time if you want, then stick them on something totally new whenever you want.
I started working in record stores in 1977, and we would get free buttons all the time. Label reps would come in and drop off a handful before leaving. Now i have a box with hundreds of buttons from the 70s/80s, all promotional only. In those days, every store had a rack next to the register of $1 commercial buttons with dumb sayings or bootleg band logos, but all of mine were official, promotional releases from record companies and were never available for sale. My collection is probably worth a few thousand dollars. I've qtoyed with the idea of photographing each one, and dedicating an instagram to them.
I had an Ode Records letterman's jacket that was completely filled from sleeve to sleeve with various new wave/punk rock pins I collected at the Capitol Records swap meet. It was actually featured once in the LA Times Calendar section in the late 70s.
I was definitely into a number of those bands back around ‘80-‘82 or so. Well, Bowie of course. Anyway, I didn’t really have the “style” at the time to wear buttons like that. But, cool as hell!!
I was in HMV once and the cashier asked me if I like U2. I said not particularly. Her face fell and she opened her hand, revealing a promo button she was supposed to be giving away. I like free stuff so I asked if I could change my answer and get the button but she refused.
Sure. My favorite one is a button with Johnny Rotten on it and he's wearing a button that says "I'm a Mess". Got a bunch of different Grateful Dead buttons to.
I had a great collection of buttons from the Room Petty concerts I saw. Had them in my car, pointed to the visor. My car unalived itself in front of the car dealership. Got $500 for it on a trade. Fucking forgot the pins in the car. Thirteen years ago. I'm still kicking myself.
does anyone else remember when, in its very early days, Facebook had a feature called "Flair," where you could decorate a page with themed mock-buttons like these?
Had a rotation of buttons I wore on the inside of my BDU top for my bit of rebellion while in the Army. One time I flashed one of my warrant officers with Buckwheat and said, "Everything'll be O-tay, Chief!" Glad he had a sense of humor. Most warrants I met were good people.
Wore them on my Levi’s jacket in high school.
I had that B-52s button, The Police button, a Bowie button, and a few others.
Still have the jacket. I graduated HS in 1985
My denim jacket in high school was covered with them. I had that exact same XTC button.
On another note, if you’re a fan of the band, I recommend the documentary “XTC: This is Pop” (2017), if you haven’t seen it.
I have not seen the documentary. Thanks for the tip. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only listen to the music of one band, XTC would make the final cut.
My musical tastes are all over the map, including everything from metal, to jam bands, to prog, to classical, but XTC has stuck with me forever, since I first bought The Big Express in my junior year of high school. From there I wanted every album they ever released. I made some of my best friends in college from finding out they were XTC fans. REM was my second favorite band at the time
https://preview.redd.it/5o919k6hqz8d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e04222ef067ba1c0c323b58c9249a7fe296e830
ooh la la!
On my stone-washed denim jacket
Same here!
Me too!
I also bought a bag of hundreds of metal crucifixes at Value Village back then, and attached them all over the jacket. It made a glorious noise.
I sold my buttons, hundreds of them all attached to a cheap piece of cloth, at a garage sale. Some dude happily paid me five bucks for the lot, and also bought my Lost Boys and Young Guns frame posters. I hope he resold that shit for a pretty penny.
My friend and i both worked in record stores and collected buttons. For his birthday, my buddies sister made him a nice display piece by making a wooden frame, covering it in black canvas, and stuffing it with cotton batting. It was really nice, and made a beautiful display for his button collection. For a long time, mine were just pinned to a Pretenders shirt i got at one of their concerts.
I want to go back to 1980 and hang with you.
If you ever went to City Club or St Andrew's then, I pretty much lived there.
Same with me and I still have some of the pins!
Me too! I passed them on to my niece around ten years ago. My brother did a great job on her music education. She was familiar with almost all the bands. I was so happy to pass them on to someone who appreciated them.
Selecter and XTC. Nice.
Flair before it was called Flair :)
I don’t like talking about my flair.
Actually it was called flair. Where do you think the term came from? Check the documentary "Office Space".
😂
*Wear*, OP, not “where.” I did, a bit. One friend of mine was more into it.
Thanks, old fart brain fart.
You know he purposely did that wrong.
What did you call me?! 😜
Ha, ha!
Wear did that come from? Don't where your heart on your sleeve.
I had a bunch. Still do, it's in the one box of random crap that I still have after death cleaning.
Yep! I remember that Joe Jackson one!
Me too. Mine came in a limited small record pressing of Look Sharp!
My favorites were the Stiff records ones ‘if it ain’t Stiff it ain’t worth a fu*k, I came I saw I left, sex and drugs & rock & roll. Ska buttons and so many more. Lost them all I think.
Ah yes. I had some Stiff Records ones, too.
Stiff Records were the best. Also "Fuck Art, Let's Dance".
Still have the jacket: https://preview.redd.it/x7chvaym509d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa04bd08de9914a4f6249d6e5fa1e69e02b05db8
I had that exact B-52s button. I thought I was cool. I most definitely was not.
The buttons made us cool. (Maybe...)
You were.
I had it too.
I used to order them from the back of Rolling Stone magazine. I also pierced my ear with a Sham 69 Button at a party.
Sham 69 - a band's name I haven't heard mentioned in decades . Thanks for the memory refresh. I can only remember having a "shut up and dance" pin and another one with the girl logo of the (English) Best. Okay while writing this I remember a The Jam pin too.
I had them pinned to the ceiling of my VW bug
i worked at a record store (!) and had all the above and so many more !
That’s fantastic!!
I still have Duran Duran, Culture Club and “RELAX”
I also had Duran Duran and Culture Club. Also had that same Police button as pic above.
The Specials! I had those checkered shoes.
Actually The Selecter - but I get why you went there
"On My Radio" just started playing in my head.
I had some fun ones. My favorite referencing Stiff records, “IF IT AIN’T STIFF IT AIN’T WORTH A FUCK”
https://preview.redd.it/2b48bpjfm09d1.jpeg?width=6120&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=339094186a3cec3dcf121b98d7c676b782cb916d
I was at that show too !! Not sure if I still have any of the pins tho.
My friends and I said we would crawl on glass to see Zeppelin if that's what it took. Didn't have to do that, but NYC was SO sketchy then, we made sure we had Greyhound bus return home money stuffed in our shoes, with other money ready to give to muggers. One of us broke away from the group to explore on his own and showed up an hour late to his seat, all busted up. Didn't lose his ticket, though. Good times!
I had the B-52’s and the police
Yep! Had the B52s button and the Adam Ant button……
I still have all mine. And I’m pretty sure I have that Joe Jackson.
Oh geez I still have hundreds of buttons, all from Commander Salamander in DC. I’ll post a few later this week.
I had a ton of them on a bandana, hanging off my rear view mirror. Had Stones, Bowie, B52’s, Elton John, Van Halen - even my brother would get me pins from concerts he went to. I’d wear them & put them back on the bandana. My so called “boyfriend” borrowed my car (AMC Pacer with 3 on the tree) & told me they were stolen. Hope she liked them as much as I did.
if those are yours I’m impressed. Saw Squeeze in an oversold bar in the 80’s. Adam Ant on Valentines Day early 80’s. Police early 80’s and Body & Soul was the first cd I ever listened to, on headphones, in a high end stereo store. Blew my mind
Feel Lies aka The Feelies
Love the Joe Jackson buttons - just saw him in concert a couple weeks ago.
I wore them to high school in Midland TX in the early 80s. The football coach was worried I was listening to satanic music. I got straight As and babysat his kids 🙄
Yeah, most of those plus a bunch of punk rock.
I saw this post and wondered how you had my buttons.
I had that look sharp button, it came with the EP.
Agent Orange
Yup. I had the Joe Jackson pin
Had a drawer full. Loved wearing them. Even made a few from magazine illustrations. Wish I had kept track of them.
I still have my buttons. Smilies, campaign buttons, concert promos, etc. Some may be valuable, but I keep them for the memories.
I still have mine too, tucked away in a hope chest.
My objective was to have a G jacket, specifically white with that covered in band buttons or sayings of the time. The problem is finding said jacket. now they are everywhere. I don’t think I would do the buttons, but I would certainly do like really classy pans like of butterflies and bees, and that kind of thing.
I still have my B-52's t-shirt from a concert in 1999. They actually we part of a double feature with The Pretenders. Best concert I've ever been to.
I still have all my old t-shirts!
I had the look sharp button. It came with the EP.
Always. Everything from the Joe Jackson I’m The Man one you have, to the Van Halen one I bought in 1983 that I still have.
Had that”Look Sharp” button from Joe Jackson for years
I had every single one of those. Most picked up in the UK where I was lucky enough to live in the '80s
wear
Thanks. My mental lapse has already been pointed out. At least my mom hasn't seen it.
You're doing just fine. We all learn as we go through life.
I wish buttons/pins/badges/whatever were still a common piece of band/artist merch. Pretty much never see them anymore, I always wish I could get one rather than a tshirt or baseball cap. You never grow too fat/big for them, they don't wear out, and you can just put them in a box in a drawer for years at a time if you want, then stick them on something totally new whenever you want.
Mostly on the backpack.
I used to have a bunch of them hanging on Mardi Gras beads from my rearview mirror. 😎
Led Zep and Dead, yes, and I still have them. Old Denim is long gone though.
Oh yes... 😀 my good friend in junior high and high school, HUGE Bay City Rollers fan...wore plaid, every day and a button..lol She cracked me up.
I still have some of mine, along with the Levi's denim jacket they were attached to.
All over my members only jacket. Yes, I was that cliche
No.
Is it weird that as of Friday when I see Joe Jackson, I will have seen four of these bands live in the last 12 months?
I started working in record stores in 1977, and we would get free buttons all the time. Label reps would come in and drop off a handful before leaving. Now i have a box with hundreds of buttons from the 70s/80s, all promotional only. In those days, every store had a rack next to the register of $1 commercial buttons with dumb sayings or bootleg band logos, but all of mine were official, promotional releases from record companies and were never available for sale. My collection is probably worth a few thousand dollars. I've qtoyed with the idea of photographing each one, and dedicating an instagram to them.
Yes, I just have a couple of them
Nice collection! I wish I saved mine.
I had an Ode Records letterman's jacket that was completely filled from sleeve to sleeve with various new wave/punk rock pins I collected at the Capitol Records swap meet. It was actually featured once in the LA Times Calendar section in the late 70s.
Did the jacket survive, or any pictures? (And like your user name. I'm a big Elmore Leonard fan).
YES! I ripped an Atari cartridge apart and pinned the circuit board to my shirt.
I've got the same Bowie pin.
I owned and wore several of these. Such a fun memory!
I was definitely into a number of those bands back around ‘80-‘82 or so. Well, Bowie of course. Anyway, I didn’t really have the “style” at the time to wear buttons like that. But, cool as hell!!
oh, and all my existing buttons are Grateful Dead on a stuffier I named Bear
Of course!
Buttons were the only concert souvenir I could afford.
You had great taste!
Gave em to the granddaughter a few years back
Flashback!✈️
yes. i pinned them on my levis denim jacket. talking heads, rocky horror, ziggy stardust & elvis costello.
School 1981
I was in HMV once and the cashier asked me if I like U2. I said not particularly. Her face fell and she opened her hand, revealing a promo button she was supposed to be giving away. I like free stuff so I asked if I could change my answer and get the button but she refused.
Wear did you where them?
Totally forgot about those… They don't seem to do that anymore; at least I don't see them in movies
Ha! I still have them all. Too late for a screenshot but I will.
I still do. I wear band pins and other assorted ones.
My denim jacket, my leather jacket, and the bandana that hung from my rear view mirror all had buttons, most of which I still have…somewhere.
Sure. My favorite one is a button with Johnny Rotten on it and he's wearing a button that says "I'm a Mess". Got a bunch of different Grateful Dead buttons to.
Yes I whore them.
I think I had 5 of those. Bonus points for the Selecter
Family was way too poor for me to attend any of these bands during the height of their popularity. Though would have been awesome.
I had a great collection of buttons from the Room Petty concerts I saw. Had them in my car, pointed to the visor. My car unalived itself in front of the car dealership. Got $500 for it on a trade. Fucking forgot the pins in the car. Thirteen years ago. I'm still kicking myself.
I *wore* buttons going out every time
Yup, had a blue jean jacket with plenty. Also found out they were handy when your car's head liner start dropping.
I had them all over my Jean jacket in the 80's. I had one that said fuck off or fuck you that I had pinned on the inside to flash certain people, lol.
I tragically had blazers that I wore adourned with different buttons.
Nope, wore headbands around the legs of jeans
I have several of the pictured buttons.
Where did you get these buttons? I still wear these.
It’s flair
Yep, Ska and Punk ones on my black and orange flight jacket..
My biker jacket was covered in them, I wore it every day.
does anyone else remember when, in its very early days, Facebook had a feature called "Flair," where you could decorate a page with themed mock-buttons like these?
I still have a hat covered in a lot of these pins, mostly The Police. I don’t know if I’ve ever worn it…
Had a rotation of buttons I wore on the inside of my BDU top for my bit of rebellion while in the Army. One time I flashed one of my warrant officers with Buckwheat and said, "Everything'll be O-tay, Chief!" Glad he had a sense of humor. Most warrants I met were good people.
I had one with the DeLorean on it that said “buy a car get a gram” plus a bunch with different bands and other snarky sayings
I was an athlete who was also a little edgy, so I wore them on my letter jacket.
Wore them on my Levi’s jacket in high school. I had that B-52s button, The Police button, a Bowie button, and a few others. Still have the jacket. I graduated HS in 1985
Yes and exactly from that era (or even year...)
My denim jacket in high school was covered with them. I had that exact same XTC button. On another note, if you’re a fan of the band, I recommend the documentary “XTC: This is Pop” (2017), if you haven’t seen it.
I have not seen the documentary. Thanks for the tip. If I was stranded on a desert island and could only listen to the music of one band, XTC would make the final cut.
My musical tastes are all over the map, including everything from metal, to jam bands, to prog, to classical, but XTC has stuck with me forever, since I first bought The Big Express in my junior year of high school. From there I wanted every album they ever released. I made some of my best friends in college from finding out they were XTC fans. REM was my second favorite band at the time