Sex Pistols | Jamie Reid — Never Mind the Bollocks, promotional poster for the release of the album on 28 October 1977

Property from the Stolper-Wilson Collection

Sex Pistols

Jamie Reid — Never Mind the Bollocks, promotional poster for the album, released on 28 October 1977

Poster (1524 x 914 mm). Printed in yellow, black, and pink; closed tears, some of which repaired with tape, slight loss to upper left margin, some creasing and spotting, instances of minor fingersoiling and toning to edges.

The title of the Sex Pistols' album was suggested by Steve Jones, who had heard this peculiarly resonant phrase many times on the streets (he has variously recalled having heard it from fans and market traders). Whilst "bollocks" is commonplace London slang for "rubbish", it of course also refers to testicles. Unsurprisingly, given that the Sex Pistols were being widely blamed for a terrifying decline in public morals, copies of the record were seized and a prosecution followed. In line with so much of the Sex Pistols' history in 1977, the legal case was more than a little absurd and its chief result was to boost sales of the record. Having busied itself with examining the etymology of the word bollocks the court eventually - and reluctantly - found the band innocent of obscenity, if guilty of "the vulgar exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature for the purchases of commercial profits". The album entered the UK charts at Number 1.

The poster’s bright fluorescent and garish colors are the result of a printing and design tour de force that acts as a frame for the bold assertion of the Sex Pistols’ identity. There is nothing more than the simple cut and paste transgressive typography of ransom lettering that directly communicated the band’s abandonment of restraint. Malcolm McLaren has said that, to this end, Reid's "style subverted the spectacle and commodification of everyday life by being bolder and more shocking."

REFERENCES:

Up They Rise pp.76