If you love music, your wardrobe is likely stuffed full of band shirts. You might have a bunch of hoodies or a cap or two as well, or maybe something even more eclectic than that. It’s a conversation starter with fellow fans, a way of announcing that you belong to a certain scene, and a way of shouting about bands you love. On top of that, it’s also a vital way of putting money in artists’ pockets at a time where making enough money is harder than ever. Put simply, it’s the lifeblood of music.
In this instalment, we’ve caught up with Kid Kapichi frontman Jack Wilson. Between the Hastings punks’ shows opening for You Me At Six on their last ever headline tour, they’re making stops in some smaller towns that are a little distance from the usual major touring circuit. “It’s something we’ve always wanted to do and this is the first time we’ve managed to actually do it,” he says from a hotel room a stone’s throw from Nottingham, where YMAS are playing Rock City.
“If you’re on a support tour there are lots of days off so we could go home or we could fill those spaces with other shows. I’m from a ‘B market’ town – everyone goes to London and Brighton, but nobody goes to Hastings. you want to see these bands, and it's not always possible for everyone to just jump on a train or drive an hour down the road. It has made our schedule crazy, because we get three days off over four weeks, but it's gonna be fun, and it's cool for us to go back to the smaller venues. We’re in big enough venues, but going back to doing 200 to 400 cap venues is going to be really fun and terrifying at the same time.”
Elsewhere, Jack gets into the political merch design that fans are buying in droves, the unusual signature he has on the first band T-shirt he bought and the thorny issue of merch cuts.
What was the first item of merch you remember buying?
“My dad took me to see the Eagles at Twickenham Stadium when I was about 10 years old. I think I got an Eagles T-shirt, which I definitely still have somewhere. Then, really weirdly, I got it signed by the Blockheads, minus Ian Dury, because he had passed away. I met the Blockheads a day later and that was the T-shirt I had. So I've got an Eagles T-shirt signed by all the Blockheads.”
What was the most recent item of merch you acquired?
“We’re always trading with other bands. That's the best bit, like, when footballers finish the game and they give each other their shirts at the end of a match, it's like that. I think the last thing we traded was some T-shirts with Dead Pony, who did some of the You Me At Six shows with us. We took some of their T-shirts, I think Ben and Eddie immediately cut the arms off and made them into vests, because that seems to be the thing they're doing at the moment.”
What was your most treasured item of band merch?
“I like getting T-shirts and stuff, but I think buying vinyl at a gig always feels quite special. Vinyl is quite a nice, special thing, a tangible thing you can hold and keep anyway, but when you buy them at a gig and you get it signed and whatnot, that's even more special. I've got a big collection of vinyl. I don't really go to any big gigs anymore, and if I do go to big gigs, I'm not buying merch. But if I'm going to see mates’ bands, I’ll always buy the merch. Vinyls are always quite treasured items, because it feels a little bit more personal or rare. You're not going to find them in an HMV, so it's quite cool.”
What’s your favourite merch design you’ve done over the years?
“I'm quite heavily involved with the merch stuff, even though I’m more of an ideas person – I’m absolutely rubbish at designing things. I've got a few ones that I love. We've got the Smash The Gaff one, which is quite funny, which is in the Stella Artois font. I don't know how we haven't been told off for that because apparently they're pretty hard on it as well. The one we've got at the moment that we've just literally created, is one of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump kissing. It’s mad because we made it and we were like, ‘We'll just sell them on the headline tours, we won't do them at the You Me At Six shows, because maybe it's not going to cross over that much. Everyone was like, ‘Where are those T-shirts?’ So we started selling them at the You Me At Six shows, and everyone's just buying those.”
You branched out into doing beer too – how did that idea come about?
“I bumped into a friend called Dylan who I went to school with, maybe a couple of years ago in a pub, and we were both drunk. He was like, ‘I'm doing this thing called Bad Boy Brewing and we should do a beer together with Kapichi. I kind of forgot that I had that conversation, and then two months later, he got back in touch. I can't take much credit for it. He did all of the legwork and everything but the Zombie Nation IPA that we did was super popular, super successful. We were stocking it in every pub in Hastings. It was amazing. At one point, it's like you couldn't go into a pub without there being Zombie Nation on there. I think branching out in any way that you can, other than T-shirts and vinyls and things, is obviously a good idea. Not everyone has the opportunity to get in there with a brewery. That was really cool. That was just a fun thing to do and I hope we get to do more of that.”
How important are merch sales for you to be able to keep going?
“It’s literally everything. I think that's why it's so important that people buy merch at shows if they can. I think people are more aware of that than ever and they understand that it is more difficult than ever to make any money [from music]. But I know when we go on tour, we'll have a budget for and we will spend every penny of that before we've even left on travel, crew, accommodation, everything that goes into it. We try to break even from that, but it means any profit has to come from merch. It’s absolutely vital at the moment.
“You know what needs to change as well? Venues need to stop taking commission on merch. That pisses me off more than anything. Wembley Arena take 26.7% of your merch revenue. We’re designing it, paying all the costs that come with getting it made, and then they just sit there and take over a quarter of it for doing nothing. I also think that they know it's outrageous as well. Loads of the venues have stopped doing it over in the US but in England, they still do. That's something that I know is talked about, but I think needs to be talked about more. I don't disagree with them taking sort of 5-10% but when they're talking like 20 - 25% it's just disgusting. I don't think they should be doing it to the level they're doing it for anyone, but I don't think they should take anything off support bands. You’re not the one taking the money from the tickets, and you're expected to give away 20- 25% of your merch revenue.”
Kid Kapichi Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun March 23 2025 - YORK Crescent
Tue March 25 2025 - LIVERPOOL Arts Club, The Loft
Fri March 28 2025 - BLACKPOOL Bootleg Social
Sun March 30 2025 - STOKE Sugarmill
Tue April 01 2025 - HOLMFIRTH Picturedrome
Thu April 03 2025 - SOUTHEND Chinnerys
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