Written by It’s been a full quarter-century since Scottish post-rockers Mogwai launched their iconic “Blur: Are Shite” t-shirts at 1999’s T In The Park Festival in Glasgow, taking direct aim at the popular Brit-poppers.
“We decided to proclaim our dislike of one of the weakest bands on the planet by putting out these shirts,” band frontman Stuart Braithwaite told NME. “The thing about the shirt is it’s like a dictionary definition. Blur: Are Shite. It’s factual, and if there’s any legal problems about it I’ll go to court as someone who has studied music so I can prove they are shite.”
Since those halcyon days, examples of artists dissing other artists via their merchandise have been thin on the ground. So we’re delighted to learn that the Osbourne Family appear to have revived the concept and are selling an official Ozzy t-shirt that mocks former Pink Floyd man Roger Waters.
The two-sided shirt features two images. The first shows an album that bears an uncanny resemblance to Waters’ 1990 collection The Wall – Live in Berlin, obscured by “OZZY RULES” in giant letters.
The second image shows Osbourne urinating on a copy of the album, with the stream of pee adjusted to reflect the colours of the visible spectrum, presumably in tribute to the cover art of Pink Floyd’s classic album The Dark Side Of The Moon.
This feast for the eyes is augmented by lettering in the style of Gerald Scarfe – who illustrated Pink Floyd’s The Wall in 1979 – that bears the message “Another Prick In The Wall.”
The t-shirt – which is available via the Ozzy Osbourne webstore for just 48 hours – arrives three months after Waters slammed the media for their coverage of Ozzy Osbourne’s death.
Talking about the lack of mainstream press coverage afforded to former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s political activities, Waters claimed that the media would prefer to distract people by covering the likes of Taylor Swift or “Kim Kardashian’s bum”.
“Or Ozzy Osbourne, who just died, bless him,” Waters told The Independent Ink. “In whatever state he was in his whole life. We’ll never know, although he was all over the TV for hundreds of years with his idiocy and nonsense.
“The music, I have no idea. I couldn’t give a fuck. I don’t care about Black Sabbath. I never did. I have no interest in biting the heads of chickens or whatever they do. I couldn’t care less, you know.”
In response, Jack Osbourne took to Instagram to say, “Hey Roger Waters. Fuck You. How pathetic and out of touch you’ve become. The only way you seem to get attention these days is by vomiting out bullshit in the press. My father always thought you were a cunt – thanks for proving him right.”
