IF YOU take the main motorway out of Stockholm heading north, you'll soon see a big white building on your left-hand side. In a big field just beside it, there are a series of very high telephone poles. On the top of the second pole there is one of the best-ever rock T-shirts - the Bauhaus logo one. How do I know this? I just do.

This particular item would have been bought at a time when a band's merchandising began and ended with a T-shirt. At some godawful arena show recently, I noticed that you could have dressed yourself from head to toe in the band's merchandising. There were also band duffle bags on sale (yes, very Keith Richards), but most disturbing of all were the official band torches. The only possible rock'n'roll connection with a torch is that roadies have to use them sometimes, but they would use screwdrivers much more and you don't see too many screwdrivers on sale on the "merch" stall.

I'm sticking to my guns about the Bauhaus logo T-shirt being one of the best around, but there are a few other contenders. Given that it's difficult to do this in the print medium, you should try and have a look at the Sonic Youth "Washing Machine" T. It's simple but arty at the same time - very Warholian in its design - and still viewed as being a little bit iconic.

One of the biggest-selling rock T-shirts, inexplicably so, was the Inspiral Carpets one from the early 1990s (around the time they had their hit). It featured a picture of a cow smoking a cigarette with the logo "Cool As Fuck". There's not a lot going on there, so you would have to conclude that the only reason so many were sold was because people thought they were being ever so wild and rebellious by having the word "fuck" on their T-shirt. But if you're going to use "fuck" on your T-shirt, at least make it good and do what Fatima Mansions did with their rather lovely and very catchy T-shirt logo which read "Fuck Your Showbusiness".

You still can't move in a dance tent at festivals these days for the other huge-seller: Primal Scream's Screamadelica T-shirt and its distinctive "I've danced for 58 hours straight in a club in Ibiza off my face on ecstasy" image. When this T was dominating dance music, the Nirvana one had a similar hold on rock music. This came with a choice of logos on a black background. You could either have the Parental Advisory one: "Fudge packin', Crack Smokin', Satan Worshippin' Motherfucker" or the General Audience: "Flower Sniffin', Kitty Pettin', Baby Kissin', Corporate Rock Whores".

You'll notice how many of the big sellers of the last few years seem obliged to reference The Sex Pistols in their wares. This is exemplified best by The Libertines T-shirt (which is rather good) and its modified union-jack image.

But if you're talking rock T-shirt, you're really talking metal. In Dublin, take a walk around that square in Temple Bar which is full of surly teenagers and you'll get a masterclass in metal bands both past and present.

Full figures for T-shirt sales aren't easy to obtain, but most people would agree that Iron Maiden are the kings of over-priced cotton. Back in 1990, on one eight-month tour alone, they grossed £6.5 million on T-shirt sales. Again, this has more to do with their scary cod-Satanic imagery than for any artistic design.

There's even an indie band out there who have sold more of their T-shirts than they have of their albums. In fact, the only reason they bother recording new albums is so they can manufacture an accompanying new T-shirt logo. Certainly it was only merchandising that kept so many of those diabolical nu-metal bands going for a few years.

If you want to have a look at the newest rock T-shirts on the block, go to www.teefly.com. There's some seriously good stuff there. And if anyone out there is driving northwards out of Stockholm in the near future and just happens to have a really, really long pole with them, I'd love to get my Bauhaus T-shirt back.