Also on the Brands in Music Panel at In The City was Andrea Moore, Marketing Director of Levi’s UK. At a personal level, Andrea is passionate about music. At a business level, I believe that she has been involved in one of the most credible examples of Brands and Bands coming together over the last 10 years. So I asked her to relay the story of Levi's and the MC5 at the conference to demonstrate how a band can work with a brand to the benefit of all, including the fan… Levi’s back in 2002 was about to launch a range of limited edition Ts with Gary Grimshaw doing the designs. Gary was the man behind some of the iconic MC5 and Grateful Dead posters/album sleeves of the 60s. Well, this T with MC5 was designed, but Wayne Kramer of the MC5 heard about this and got upset that they were not consulted… Now most brands would get their lawyers on to it and go ‘oops, here’s a cheque’. Not Andrea. She talked to him and found out that Wayne really wanted to reform the MC5 (well the 3 of the 5 still with us). ‘So how can we help?’ was Andrea’s response. The outcome was the MC5 playing their first gig for over 20 years. When Wayne was first contacted, the guys were hardly on speaking terms let alone playing together. The gig was announced through the core fansites of MC5 and amongst those musicians who look up to their music. The three of them played the 100 Club in March 2003 with Lemmy, Dave Vanian, Mani and others in support. It was a special moment. I know I was there, and I have their scribbled set list as proof. After the gig, they started touring, their back catalogue was reissued and Wayne is often contacted for comment in many music mags. They are rightly more widely known than ever before. When a certain music magazine had a go at them for taking the brand $, Wayne hit back at his detractors.

When a certain music magazine had a go at them for taking the brand $, Wayne hit back with this statement:

If I declare myself to be a messenger of change, to protest what I know is wrong in the world or in myself, then actually be the person I represent myself to be, my critics seem to be compelled to needle me for not being downtrodden enough, not oppressed enough. There's a perverse thing going on here with critics and fans. It's especially peculiar to me that, when I was rotting in Federal Prison, the British music press revered me. Maybe they'd be happier if I'd never work again and be a glorious petrified legend. True to form, rather than step up to the plate this time and explore the decisions made by us, they tried to make us look bad. I would be disappointed if they didn't. It's predictable and it's cheap and it's their usual lazy journalism not backed up by any political ideology or theory one way or the other. It's about filling column inches with as little effort as possible, and they have a right to do so. It's as if we were accountable to a different standard that anyone else. If you shine a light on injustice, you can't have a nice, clean house?

This quote is still on their website, and you can read his full thoughts on the subject here.

As for the fans, there were people who travelled from Sweden, Japan and the States to that 100 Club gig, with the hope of getting in.