LIVE: Plastic Head gets busy with Thin Lizzy.

Rock Classics merchandise range for heritage acts leads to healthy retail profits

WITH THE LIVE SCENE BOOMING, band merchandise companies are reaping the benefits.

But it seems a band does not even have to exist nowadays to sell merch. Plastic Head Music has begun mining a rich vein of long-vanished bands for new merchandising opportunities and is launching a new brand - Rock Classics - to sell the range under.

The distribution company sells to between 500 and 600 indie retailers globally in territories from Japan to Finland, meaning it is well- placed to sell T-shirts and other product through its retail partners around the world.

Plastic Head merchandising director Chris Parkes explains, "Basically we supply to any retailer who sells metal music, so it was no problem for those retailers to take a few dozen T-shirts from us when they arrive with their CD offer. That's how the whole merch business came about."

Parkes, who studies buying trends at retail, recently hit upon an idea that is reaping dividends for the Oxfordshire-based distributor after linking up with Chris Ingham's Classic Rock magazine to launch the Powerage label.

"The aim was to promote emerging acts to readers of Classic Rock," says Parkes. "But that got me to thinking about the various heritage acts that we all grew up with and the great opportunities there are to resurrect some of that classic merchandising."