The Chills cap

Andrew Clifford purchased this cap from a merchandise table at the Auckland Town Hall in 1990. Dunedin band, The Chills, were playing as part of their Submarine Bells tour. The logo appears on the album cover and associated singles. The Chills were arguably at their peak with a new album on an American label (Warners/Slash), a range of merchandise to go with it and the aptly named 'Heavenly Pop Hit' making it into the charts.

"I was still at high school and this was probably one of my first live gigs, with other bands that year including The Clean, Jean Paul Sartre Experience and Straitjacket Fits at the Powerstation, Headless Chickens at HMV Records, Alice Cooper(!) at the Mt Smart Supertop and the Sugarcubes at the Town Hall – a t-shirt was secured at the latter show but is now long gone.

"Flying Nun had a big year in 1990, also releasing classic albums by Straitjacket Fits, Bailter Space, The Bats, Jean Paul Sartre Experience, The Clean, The Verlaines, Chris Knox and The Skeptics, as well as the mind-blowing 'Gaskrankinstation' single from the Headless Chickens.

"I bought most of them from Truetone Records in Newmarket and wrote reviews of many for my sixth form journalism class. My teacher suggested I should try writing about a wider range of things but seemed satisfied when I saw him 10 years later and told him I was working as a music journalist."

Details

Credit: Garment loan courtesy of Andrew Clifford
Copyright: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 Licence
Garment type: Cap
Purchase location: Merchandise table, Auckland Town Hall
Date: 1990