Sex Pistols | The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle promotional poster, 1980

Property from the Stolper-Wilson Collection

Sex Pistols

Maurizio Turchet and Jamie Reid — "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" promotional poster, 1980

Poster (749 x 686 mm). Primarily marginal creasing, a few short closed marginal tears, chips to two corners, upper right margin and upper left corner. [With:] Michael Moorcock. The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. London: Virgin, 1980. Tabloid newspaper format (570 x 360mm). 24 pages, folded; long closed tear at upper right repaired, a flew closed marginal tears, a few chips toning.

Promotional poster for the release of the film in Italy. Although not designed by Reid, this poster utilizes the graphic identity he had created for the band and film, and also deploys Reid's aesthetic, for instance by altering the phrase "the film that incriminates its spectators" so that it appears written over in Italian.

In addition to the poster, this lot features "The novel you just didn’t expect! The outlandish, zany, intriguing, newspaper of the book of the novel of the film of the record of the Sex Pistols." The publication by renowned genre novelist (and anarchist) Michael Moorcock, proclaims the ten lessons outlined within the film with photos and text. By using Pearce Marchbank as designer for this publication, Virgin were trying to approximate the look pioneered by Jamie Reid who had ceased working on Pistols projects in 1979. Marchbank had earlier been art director for the London Rolling Stone, Friends and Time Out at the time of its launch, as well as having been editor for Oz.