“God Save the Queen” Poster

The single that defined punk's confrontation with British state ceremony. The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" was released on Virgin Records on 27 May 1977, into the week of the Queen's Silver Jubilee — a single timed, titled and packaged as a deliberate intervention into the nation's official celebration of itself. The record was banned by the BBC, refused stock by Boots, Woolworths, W.H. Smith and most of the major British retailers, and excluded from the in-store airplay of every chain that did carry it. It reached No. 2 in the Official UK Singles Chart during Jubilee week — widely believed, in subsequent accounts, to have been suppressed from a No. 1 position the establishment was unwilling to publish.

Jamie Reid's artwork for the campaign is among the most consequential graphic statements of the twentieth century: Cecil Beaton's 1956 official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, defaced with ransom-note lettering across the eyes and mouth, the title and band name applied in the cut-up typography Reid had developed across Suburban Press and would deploy across the rest of the band's campaign. The design has been continuously cited, reproduced, parodied and reissued ever since, and remains probably the single most reproduced punk image in circulation.

PROVENANCE:

From The Mott Collection