Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
Poster
1977 (production)
1977 (production)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This is the original artwork for a poster that was included with early pressings of the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks... album.
Due to management wranglings with the British record company Virgin, ‘Never Mind The Bollocks... Here's The Sex Pistols’ got its first release in France, via Barclay Records. To help counteract the French import it was decided to bring forward the UK release by one week, to October 28th, 1977. The band insisted that a 12th track was now added to the album, Submission. 50,000 copies of the album had already been pressed without Submission, so a one-sided 7” single was inserted with the track, along with a fold-out poster of this original artwork. The album was then immediately repressed with Submission added to the tracklisting.
The artwork is lettered with the album title and the titles of its 12 tracks: No Feelings, Bodies, New York, Liar!, Problems, EMI, Anarchy in the UK, God Save The Queen, Holidays in the Sun, 17, Submission and Pretty Vacant. Jamie Reid designed promotional material for the Sex Pistols as well as being involved with the running of the band. Instead of featuring photographs of the group, he assembled extracts of text, suggestive of a ransom note, to convey the feeling of crime and anarchy that underlay the group's appeal.
Due to management wranglings with the British record company Virgin, ‘Never Mind The Bollocks... Here's The Sex Pistols’ got its first release in France, via Barclay Records. To help counteract the French import it was decided to bring forward the UK release by one week, to October 28th, 1977. The band insisted that a 12th track was now added to the album, Submission. 50,000 copies of the album had already been pressed without Submission, so a one-sided 7” single was inserted with the track, along with a fold-out poster of this original artwork. The album was then immediately repressed with Submission added to the tracklisting.
The artwork is lettered with the album title and the titles of its 12 tracks: No Feelings, Bodies, New York, Liar!, Problems, EMI, Anarchy in the UK, God Save The Queen, Holidays in the Sun, 17, Submission and Pretty Vacant. Jamie Reid designed promotional material for the Sex Pistols as well as being involved with the running of the band. Instead of featuring photographs of the group, he assembled extracts of text, suggestive of a ransom note, to convey the feeling of crime and anarchy that underlay the group's appeal.
Object details
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| Materials and techniques | Paper collage |
| Brief description | Original artwork for a promotional poster that was an insert with early pressings of the Sex Pistols 'Never Mind The Bollocks' album. Photocollage, featuring the title of the album at top and bottom and the titles of the songs in newsprint. |
| Physical description | Collage on black background featuring ransom-note style typographic print saying 'NEVER MIND' and 'THE BOLLOCKS' at the top, 'HERE'S THE' and 'SEX PISTOLS' at the bottom. In between are defaced images with the titles of songs from the album in typographic print: New York (for the song New York); the Queen (with GOD Save THE QUEEN across her face); the Union Jack flag (ANARCHY IN THE UK); a press release from EMI (E.M.I); a pink heart with the number 17 on it (17); a fish with SUB-Mission on it; a broken frame (Pretty Vacant); a crowded beach photo (holidays in The Sun); several tower blocks (no feelings); cut-up images of naked bodies (BODIES); L I A R ! stuck on a pink background; and several copies of the word 'problems' stuck on a red torn background for problems. |
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| Production type | Artist's proof |
| Gallery label | Original artwork for a Sex Pistols promotional poster
1977
The Pistols are still seen as the definitive British punk rock band. Their ‘look’ was crucial to their notoriety and became synonymous with the punk movement worldwide. Most of the artwork in this style was created by Jamie Reid, intentionally using promotional art as an assault on the Establishment. [49 words]
Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, Virgin Records, 1977
Paper collage
Designed by Jamie Reid (born 1947) and John Vamom
Given by Jamie Reid
Museum no. S.275-2008 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This is the original artwork for a poster that was included with early pressings of the Sex Pistols' Never Mind The Bollocks... album. Due to management wranglings with the British record company Virgin, ‘Never Mind The Bollocks... Here's The Sex Pistols’ got its first release in France, via Barclay Records. To help counteract the French import it was decided to bring forward the UK release by one week, to October 28th, 1977. The band insisted that a 12th track was now added to the album, Submission. 50,000 copies of the album had already been pressed without Submission, so a one-sided 7” single was inserted with the track, along with a fold-out poster of this original artwork. The album was then immediately repressed with Submission added to the tracklisting. The artwork is lettered with the album title and the titles of its 12 tracks: No Feelings, Bodies, New York, Liar!, Problems, EMI, Anarchy in the UK, God Save The Queen, Holidays in the Sun, 17, Submission and Pretty Vacant. Jamie Reid designed promotional material for the Sex Pistols as well as being involved with the running of the band. Instead of featuring photographs of the group, he assembled extracts of text, suggestive of a ransom note, to convey the feeling of crime and anarchy that underlay the group's appeal. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.275-2008 |
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| Record created | November 3, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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