JUDAS PRIEST TO THE GAP: “YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMIN’… FROM OUR ATTORNEY”
So hey remember how last month The Gap started selling the above shirt design, which is clearly and undeniably a complete rip-off of the cover of Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance? Yeah so it turns out you can’t do that, and now Judas Priest are contemplating legal action.
In a recent interview with The Quietus, Rob Halford had the following to say on the matter:
“Well, it’s very naughty of them. They shouldn’t have done that and we’re investigating that right now because that’s intellectual property rights – we were never asked, neither was our label. Having said that, pushing the legal side of it to one side, its brilliant isn’t it? To think that something 30 odd years later is still striking enough to be a fashion moment – it’s a bit like when the vodka people [Absolut Vodka] did the British Steel label.
“The thing is with artwork is that I don’t think that you can underestimate its power. Like, you’ll see somebody walking down the street with a Cannibal Corpse T-shirt on, if you say to them: ‘Oh I love that band’ they’ll go: ‘What band?’ And if you say: ‘The T-shirt’ they’ll probably say: ‘Oh, I just like it!’ And I think that’s great, because again you’re making a visual, emotional connection with people; that’s what Screaming For Vengeance is doing all these years later.”
Metal Insider notes that the shirt has since been removed from The Gap’s online store, which implies that, at the very least, they’re aware of the blunder and are concerned that Priest have a case. If I were Judas Priest, I’d probably sue The Gap anyway, and not just because I’m a litigious Jew. I mean, fuck The Gap, y’know?
On a semi-related note, does anyone else feel like it’s weird to hear a musician say he’s down with people wearing merch for bands they don’t actually listen to? I mean I get that money is money and everything but this whole business is supposed to be at lease kinda-sorta-tangentially related to, like, music, isn’t it? Or am I being too cranky again? My shrink says I do that sometimes.
-AR
