Vintage Black Sabbath T-Shirt Question

Great dialog with a reader, wondering if he had come across an original t-shirt from the Black Sabbath 1978  Never Say Die tour.

Hi,

Tug I received this shirt from a gentleman who said he purchased this shirt in 1978, is this a true vintage T?

I know most vintage are 50/50 this one is 100% cotton.

Attached are photos of shirt and tag.

Thanks, Shawn

Black Sabbath T-Shirt Photos (1978 Concert Tour)

vintage-black-sabbath-t-shirt-1978-tour vintage-black-sabbath-t-shirt-1978-tour-care-label-fantasy-brand-t-shirt

Vintage Black Sabbath T-Shirt?

heya shawn,

good to hear from you!

never heard of the brand “fantasy” before.

is there a “r n” number on the back of the label, or anywhere else on the shirt on the inside seam?

the print could be a copy to, so just because it says 78 on the print, it could be a more recent, distressed knock-off of what was sold in 78.

in fact, it could just be a vintage “fantasy” brand t-shirt imprinted with the black sabbath 78 concert tour image.

there is one thing that makes me suspect of this being an “original” — the print itself.

based on your photo, the print doesn’t look centered on the t-shirt – under the collar line. it looks slightly off-center to the left of center-collar.

if that is true, then it’s unlikely that it’s an authentic concert t-shirt, because why would a business entity (black sabbath) sell prints that aren’t centered on a t-shirt?

the coloring looks right though, based on information i found on a black sabbath website:
http://www.black-sabbath.com/discography/blacksabbath/neversaydie/

let me know if there’s an “r n” anywhere on the shirt.

tug-eyes-looking-leftI found out the RN (registered identification number) of the t-shirt from Shawn, RN 55857, and discovered it was from a now defunct business from Louisiana.

heya shawn,

ok, well that rn number is registered to some importer/wholesaler based in louisiana.

i did some googling, but can’t find any information about them anywhere, so it is possible they existed & went out of business way before people started posting things on the internet.

that tells me it’s likely an old t-shirt, but hard to know when it was printed.

folks find old vintage plain deadstock tees all the time and print on them, so anything is possible.

of course it is still possible that the guy bought that tee in 78, but whether or not it’s an original from the concert is something hard to know with any level of certainty.

Do You Know Anything About This Vintage T-Shirt?

If so, please tell me about in the comment section below.

Thanks in advance!

4 thoughts on “Vintage Black Sabbath T-Shirt Question”

  1. This looks like the one i bought in San Antonio when Van Halen opened for them
    I cant find it but the print is right and i seem to remember the tag being the same.

    Reply
  2. It’s a Authentic vintage piece fantasy brand was used a lot during the late 70s. These were cheap and very common among bootleg shirts some bands would use these to cut cost.

    I had a Sex Pistols 78 made by fantasy didn’t for worth a dam but I got it cheap. Why is it off centered? Most bands would roll into town and go to the nearest screen printing place and ask for a couple hundred to a thousand.

    Most of the time workers would have to stay over and finish this mass quota of shirts so they literally slung them anyway they could.

    Plus the seller selling this has been slinging vintage since 2003 great guy he doesn’t sell knock off stuff.

    Reply

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