British Heavy metal band Cradle of Filth has attracted it’s fair share of controversy
throughout their career. Today we’re going to take a look at the worldwide controversy that
erupted over a shirt they released that rolling stone magazine dubbed and i quote
“the most controversial shirt in rock history. “
Now because this is youtube i’m not going to
show the actual shirt and chances are if you’re watching this video
you’re either already familiar with the shirt or you can use google and look it up.
The infamous t-shirt began as a joke. The band’s frontman Dani Filth would recall to
Rolling Stone “it was 1993 and we were about to go on tour with norwegian black metal band emperor.
We had a different t-shirt at the time it had a picture of my wife who was all
done up in black metal regalia and it said the black goddess rises” on it. We needed t oget a
new shirt done quickly for the tour. We’d already come up with the vestal mtubation
image and phrase but we stil needed a back print for it" he'd remember.
It was during a discussion amongst the band members about what to put on the back of
the shirt that somebody uttered the infamous phrase. ”Jesus is a expletive.” While the band
was pushing the boundaries with their t-shirts, they had to find a t-shirt shop that was willing
to print it. Every t-shirt shop in band’s hometown of hadleigh in suffolk refused to print the shirt,
They found one printing shop in another town who agreed to do it on the down low and even
gave the screens to the band as they wanted no evidence that the shirts were printed there.
It was estimated that within it’s first six years of release 25,000 of these shirts had been sold.
With so many of those shirts floating around it was only a matter of time before somebody wore
the shirt, in public, angered somebody and the media covered it and that’s exactly what happened
across the UK. You're maybe wondering. So can you be charged with wearing a shirt as offensive
Well kerrang in 1999 would actually interview a
law firm in the UK about the shirt and they would state the following
“You can be charged under obscenity legislation if a t-shirt is capable of being grossly
offensive to a certain minority or even special interest group. You can also be charged with
wearing something that’s considered to cause harassment, alarm and distress or encourage an
altercation.And that’s exactly what happened in the UK in the mid 90’s and early 2000’s.
Starting in 1996 a fan of the band named Roy Kenyon who was 29 at the time,
was arrested by police in London after wearing the shirt in the city Kenyon would be charged
with and i quote profane representation under the 1839 act and fined 150 pounds. The following year
it would be a member of Cradle of Filth who got into trouble for wearing the shirt. The band was
waiting to board a ferry terminal in Dover England to take the band to the Netherlands to play at a
music festival. Their drummer Nicholas Barker was wearing the shirt while waiting at the terminal.
The police charged him with resisting arrest and creating a public disorder.
The band would still be able to make their gig as Barker would only spend two hours with the police.
The shirt’s transgressions weren’t just limited to Europe as the same year in America,
a 24 year old record store employee named Andrew Love was arrested wearing the shirt
in Florida. He would be arrested for violating the states obscenity law but the charges would
be dropped. Of course religious groups criticized the move with the Caotholic
League of America referring to the charges as being dropped as i quote “victory for sickos”
and called out the band claiming their songs had numerous references to devil worship.
In 2001 the shirt became a political issue in Scotland as the local provost
in glasgow pushed to have the local tower records store stop selling the shirts.
The store would end up being raided by police twice and initially Tower Records initially fought
back but the media coverage would result in the store selling out of the shirts
During the band’s appearance at ozzfest in 2002 and 2003,
Sharon Osbourne banned the sale of the shirt and the members of Cradle of Filth would admit
that the decision was likely made not because of political correctness or Sharon’s own religious
convictions, but more due to the fact that it would have outsold any of Ozzy’s merchandise.
In 2007 the shirt was referenced in the show time show time program californication
when David Duchovny’s daughter claims to have wore the shirt to a concert.
In 2008 Australia would try to ban the shirt deeming it harmful to the public by
the office of the country’s chief censor. The ban didn’t stop it form popping up as in 2011
a store owner would be fined for carrying the shirt. Then in 2015 a museum in AUstralia was
granted an exemption when they were hosting an exhibit showing hundreds of t-shirts designs.
The government allowed it provided the shirt was displayed in the adult section of the exhibit.
That didn’t stop a women though from showing up to the xhibit and spray
painting over the shirt’s offensive front image. In 2019 the shirt was once again in
the news when Australian rapper iggy azalea was photographed wearing it on new years day.
So how do the members of the band feel about the shirts years after all the controversy?
Well Dani would admit to Rolling Stone “I’d have to be an idiot to think that shirt wasn’t
offensive. It’s a dangerous t-shirt to wear, full stop. Personally i wouldn’t walk around
in it know. I mean i’m 41 year old. People don’t understand there’s a time and a place for this
sort of thing. Going to a gig no problem. But some of these people are all like I don’t understand,
I was in a mall and got arrested for wearing it. It’s just poor judgement on their part
really he'd say. That does it for today's video guys. Thanks for watching. Be sure
to hit the like button and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.