...I still have my Stone Roses Spike Island t-shirt, bought at the event in 1990. Still fits too, though perhaps not the best choice for wearing in polite company due to some underarm issues.

Both my Manics t shirts from the late 90s still fit and are worn regulalry - although usually when doing diy or slouching around the house nowadays. The Pearl Jam one with the stick figure on the front has seen better days but still hasn't been thrown out and the Beastie Boys one with more holes in it than a Barry George prosecution case still remains at the bottom of the t-shirt drawer next to the Rage Against the Machine one that I think would look a bit stupid if I wore it now.

...that read 'I am hypocrite, whore-slut, cunt-cock, artificial piece of twentieth century motherfucking shit'.

Hugely embarrassing no matter what way you look at it. I remember being aware of it at the time. I only wore it about twice and then hid it under my bed so my Mum wouldn't see.

....that I wear to work.

It has a picture of him in his drug addled early 90's years and the words *my name's John Lee Pettimore* on it. It gives me no end of laughter when my workmates say "who the f**k is John Lee Pettimore?".

I thought about this recently when someone on here posted a picture of Adrian Chiles - an overweight man, 40-ish, his grey hair sensibly styled - wearing a new retro rock band t-shirt. It looked wrong.

On Saturday I saw a 50-ish guy in town wearing a Motorhead t-shirt stretched over his paunch and tucked into his pale blue jeans. His hair was also grey, receding and swept into a shortish pony tail. He looked bang on.

I remarried a few years back. My earlier run at that institution, and the following wilderness years had amassed me a vast collection of Ts: I couldn't go to a gig without the essential purchase for posterity, then to be worn out with pride. My favourites were a Men they Couldn't Hang, in a fetching grey, a Chumbawamba and a Cowboy Junkies, but I must have had 60 or so. Oh, and a Jerry Garcia I picked up in Orlando, his face stretched across my torso, with, I like to think, a reasonable nod to keeping pace with his changing physique echoed by my equivalent changes.That used to get many an admiring look and not a few comments, usually from grizzled old codgers,but nonetheless. On re-marriage and I was co-erced and duped into the destruction of all but 2 or 3, the insults injury added to by my daughters gleeful aid to the abetting: dignity, the older man, fashion(fashion?!)and won't have sex with you all being mentioned as part of the conspiracy.
So, next time you go to a concert, wondering who that impeccably dressed gent is, maybe a tad weary looking. (OK, so I can dream.....)

I have yet to grow up and do sport the occasional band t-shirt but I am becoming increasingly paranoid when I do (I am 37).
As to whether we can pull it of depends on the band.

If it's 'The Clash' for instance it just screams "I was there man and it was so cool and I just can't get over it". But that's ok in my book.
If it's 'My Chemical Romance' then it's not good at all unless you actually roadie for them.

But should we all be doomed to wear beige chinos and button down Ralph Lauren shirts?.
No we shouldn't

And excuse me while I give my ELO tour t-shirt a quick iron.
Well I've got to look smart haven't I?

I tend to stick to the basic black t for all my gig going requirements. Covers a multitude of sins I find.

... and as I never quite managed to work it out my t-shirts now all tend to be fairly plain.

I am 34, so the bands I saw as a young, ferocious gig goer all tended to be either heavy metal bands, grunge type bands or early nineties, Underworld style "intelligent techno" acts. I listen to very little of this anymore and so no t-shirts. Old bands before this era smack of "ironic" (completely unacceptable) and young bands afterwards smack of "oldest swinger in town" (equally unacceptable).

I think if you have managed to stay loyal to a certain look and a type of music for a long period you are well within your rights to keep wearing the t-shirts. Few people actually do that though and were I to dress up in a band's t-shirt, I will mostly end up looking like a bank manager trying to be down with the kids.

Incidently the most stunningly inappropriate t-shirt I ever owned was Metallica's "Metal Up Your Ass" t-shirt. This was a picture of a hand, clutching a knife emerging from a toilet. I was so cool when I was a teenager...

As someone who is 38 years of age, I still buy gig t-shirts and have recently taken delivery of t-shirts by Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Navicon Torture Technologies and Pig Destroyer. I wear them with pride. I listen to the music and enjoy it.I've always seen them as a badge of pride. Still do.
I am a stout, married man. I wear a shirt and tie 5 days a week. These clothes are my release.
How is it that wearing sports shirts are deemed all-ages but there's an age limit on gig shirts? I would never be seen dead in an England football shirt.
I always think of how Peel was quite happy to be seen in a Napalm Death despite (because of?) his age. Celebrate what you love. Simple as.
Most inappropriate? Several - Silverfish's "Fat as Fuck", The Dead Kennedy's " Too Drunk to Fuck", Whitehouse's "Maybe you should shut the fuck up" (yeah, I know there's a pattern here)

"Take two sizes too big sonny, you'll thank me when you're 35"

At one point I must have had over 40 band t-shirts, mostly PWEI, NAD, Wonder Stuff and James, and nearly all acquired as freebies. I got rid of all of them some time ago, mainly because they all shrunk, in some cases ending up at least three sizes smaller than when I had acquired them.

Recently though, I had a yen to wear with pride my allegiance to a band. After some deliberation I decided it would have to be either Teenage Fanclub, Yo La Tengo, The Wedding Present or Billy Bragg. I felt on fairly safe territory here as all of these are older than me so there was no danger of "dad down with the kids".

It was, unfortunately (or not, maybe), not to be. I visited websites, official and not, in my quest to buy a t-shirt only to find that, without exception, the only ones available were clearly aimed at what I should probably describe as the "normally-sized" music fan. Don't get me wrong, I'm no vast behemoth, but I am a little larger than average (6ft4, 19 stone), but can easily fit into a M&S XXL t-shirt. The sizes available from my chosen artists stopped at XL, or if they did have an XXL listed, the sizing guide showed that it would be too small.

Why should this be? There must be a market for larger sizes for the larger fan, or do the bands only want the nubile and trim to display their allegiance? This raises the question: which bands recognise the "size" of their fanbase and produce shirts accordingly? And which bands wouldn't have a hope of fitting into their own merchandise?

.....of said band or artist. This would be agood rule, prompted by ceepees wish posted above. Apropos a sepia reproduction of Deja Vu cover apart, would anyone wish to see the fizzogs of the 3 stooges, let alone Mr Young, spread across their bosom?
(OK, OK, so I broke that rule with my Garcia T, but I recall thinking that pretty damn cool. Not my fault if there was a monkey slipping over on a banana skin somewhere nearby. Must have been. Can't think of any other explanation.)

I decided to look again and I found a Billy Bragg shirt in XXL that should fit, so I've ordered it. I think one band t-shirt will be enough so Teenage Fanclub, the Weddoes and Yo La Tengo will have to survive without my torsoic (?) support.

My favourites were the 70s and 80s Stiff Records t-shirts which are defintitely not appropriate to wear when collecting the kids from school. In particular I liked:

If it ain't stiff it ain't worth a f**k
If it ain't stiff it ain't no use to no one
F**k art, let's dance!

My original Sigue Sigue Sputnik "Fuck" T-shirt from one of their first gigs, customised on the spot by the singer and one of their "Amazon" roadies with paint and some weird instantly solidifying foam rubber stuff... I only wore it "in anger" about 3 times, hence it being in such good nick when I sold it, after sadly admitting that I'd never wear it again, even if it fitted!

I'm 25 and it honestly hadn't occured to me that at some point I might be expected to stop wearing tops with bands on them.

Erm, I'll get me coat...