Who were the people you really loved/admired when you were 13 or so?
I was that age in 97/98 and my choices were pretty typical of the era- Kurt Cobain/Courtney Love/Trent Reznor
Kurt Cobain still seems like he was a very decent person. Courtney and Trent not so much, but then they’ve had more time to disappoint everyone with their personal failings.
Every so often I think about how lucky it was that I latched on to Nirvana, rather than say Guns ‘n’ Roses, at that age. I got a load of great music and book recommendations from reading old Nirvana interviews, and an early introduction to issues of equality.
I didn’t really get into bands for another couple of years. I used to borrow my sister’s walkman to listen to the Top 40 every Sunday; I’d pretend to my dad and my brother than I was listening to the football as I was worried they’d make me stop.
We used to get given these A3 plastic sleeves with a piece of cardboard inside for reinforcement to hold work for art and DT, and of course everyone would collage the card with pictures relating to their interests.
Schools still use them, but they either don’t allow the collages or the kids are disinclined to make them. I guess they have stuff like tumblr or pinterest to collect images now.
I also made some bad knockoff screenprinted/transfer printed NIN and Hüsker Dü merch in textiles class.
At 13 it was about 80% of the bands in any give week’s Kerrang! magazine tbh. Was just getting into that whole thing via White Zombie and Marilyn Manson. Great role models, one and all…
I’ve never really gone in for hero/idol worship, but the closest would probably have been Kurt Cobain, Loz Hardy and Nicky Wire, mebbes? This was in 1991-92, when I was 12-13.
John Barnes and Terry Pratchett meant more to me at that age.
I had a long-sleeved Nirvana shirt that was huge on me. Being an adult male sized t-shirt and me being 13.
There was a thing at my school of wearing a zip-up band hoodie instead of a coat. A large, baggy one. (I went to a girl’s school, and the hoodies fitted very few people). The no 1 choice was Korn. I had a Smashing Pumpkins one however, bought from one of those bootleg tshirt stalls that were always outside big gigs.
My early teenager years were all about bands rather than individual people - Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, the Offspring, Green Day etc. Don’t think I cared about the members at all.
I bought an REM t-shirt from one of those bootleg stalls with Michael Stipe’s face on the front. Only problem was that when I put it on I realised that the print was rather off centre and it just looked as though he was sniffing my armpit.
