Workwear- Born of Frustration
( And your second last chance to enter our iPad competition )
Despite all my recent comments about my battle with John "Darth" Bond for the very soul of our Brix blog, I still love him....almost like a brother. It can be trying for our youngest brother, Stephen, to play the part of peacemaker between us, especially as he is so bad at it. But generally we muddle through. For some bizarre reason that we can't quite recall, but most likely due to financial reasons, we have developed a tradition of making music compilations on cd for each other around Christmas. My compilations are , of course, apt, relevant, cutting edge and downright funky. Darth's are usually morbid, dark and a nostalgic backwards glance to his "indie" angst ridden teenage years when he was at odds with the commercial, grown up world, ( oh, how he has changed). And Stephen's..well, let's say that they are interesting. As the youngest brother, ( in terms of age, not appearance), Stephen , although influenced by both dath and I's tastes, rebelled against our good taste and took up an unhealthy passion for rap music. Unfortunately this love of rap has not diminished over the years and can rear it's ugly head at the most inopportune moments , for instance , collecting a visiting supplier using Stephen's car and having NWA blasting out a little ditty about a certain function they'd like to engage in with the Police. Or worse yet my darling children getting a lift from "Uncle Stephen" and entering the house singing along to Eminem's "Love the Way you lie".
What brought this to mind was Stephen's most recent compilation that he gave me which featured the classic "Born of Frustration" by James, at one time destined to be the next " The Smiths" but ended up being simply James. This was an odd choice from Stephen and when pressed he said it reminded him of drunken evenings when we all lived at home together and when the evening ended and we got a taxi home , how he dreaded this song coming on the radio as he knew that Darth and I would immediately and loudly join in the intro's "woo, woo , woo, woo hoooooo !" and he would exchange a knowing and contemptuous skyward glance with the long suffering taxi man.
This classic song "Born of Frustration" in turn ,( stay with me for this part), brought to mind some of the wonderful workwear we do and it's origins. The Haix safety boots really developed because the owner, Ewald Haimerl, was also a volunteer fireman and couldn't understand why they had to wear terribly uncomfortable footwear and set about developing a range of boots for himself and his colleagues.
Similarly the grandly titled Hamilton Carhartt in 1889 saw people having to trudge about in bad clothing that was not fit for purpose and designed and manufactured his own range of tough durable work wear that still bears the Carhartt name. A lot of the Carhartt styles are almost 100 years old and are still hugely popular. And the person who revolutionised the European workwear market , Matti Viio, an electrician who got frustrated with heavy , uncomfortable work trousers and made his own with the kneepad pockets that all tradesmen now swear by, and so Snickers workwear was born.
END RAMBLING
So , winner of last week's €100 was Rory , who's nomination of John Denver's classic "Daddy don't get drunk this Christmas" would test the enthusiasm of the best of us.
This weeks questions are :
1. What is your favourite thing on the fourth largest workwear store in Monaghan's website ?
2. What song can't you help yourself singing along to ?
Cheers,
Paul
P.S. Of course this week it has to be James "Born of Frustration" - I defy anyone to play this loudly with joining in the "Woo, wwwoooo....."
