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This work is an experiment with the glass distortion and liquefy filters. The basis I chose is the album cover version which has pink instead of the more common dayglo red for the band's letters. It's the
pink as in punk that created the rush to add the bright blue bar at left and supplied the devilish creative adrenalin to arouse the X and drop the O.
One can have it any which way but Jamie Reid's original album art has already gone down in history as one of the standards of punk visual aesthetic.
Here's the original album cover art design.
No. 29, The Virgin all-Time Album Top 1000; No. 29, Rate Your Music, The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time; No. 41, Rolling Stone, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
No. 2, Rolling Stone, The 100 Greatest Album Covers; No. 14, Music Radar, The 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time.
Design concept by Jamie Reid, phrase supplied by Steve Jones. Album produced by Chris Thomas and Bill Price. Virgin 1977.
The album was originally going to be titled God Save Sex Pistols. The album's title changed in mid-1977, based on a phrase supplied by Steve Jones. Jones said he picked up the phrase
"Never mind the bollocks" from two fans who would always say it to one another. Johnny Rotten explained its meaning as a working-class expression to "stop talking rubbish".
"Never mind the bollocks" from two fans who would always say it to one another. Johnny Rotten explained its meaning as a working-class expression to "stop talking rubbish".
In the UK, the album was subject to what (writer Clinton) Heylin described as "blatant acts of censorship exercised by media and retail outlets alike". London police visited the
city's Virgin record stores and told them they faced prosecution for indecency if they continued to display posters of the album cover in their windows. The displays were either
toned down or removed. However, on 9 November 1977 the London Evening Standard announced on its front page headline "Police Move in on Punk Disc Shops", and reported
how a Virgin Records shop manager was arrested for displaying the record after being warned to cover up the word "bollocks".
An obscenity case was heard at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 24 November. The defence presented the case as a matter of police discrimination. The arresting officer was
asked why the newspapers The Guardian and Evening Standard (which had referred to the album's name) had not been charged under the same act. When the magistrate inquired
about his line of questioning, the defence lawyer stated that a double-standard was apparently at play, and that "bollocks" was only considered obscene when it appeared on the
cover of a Sex Pistols album. The prosecutor conducted his cross-examination "as if the album itself, and not its lurid visage, was on trial for indecency.
The lawyer produced expert witnesses who were able to successfully demonstrate that the word "bollocks" was not obscene, and was actually a legitimate Old English term
originally used to refer to a priest, and which, in the context of the title, meant "nonsense". Full article
Case closed.
(A) Holidays in the Sun - Liar - No Feelings - God Save the Queen - Problems
(B) Seventeen - Anarchy in the U.K. - Bodies - Pretty Vacant - New York - E.M.I.
city's Virgin record stores and told them they faced prosecution for indecency if they continued to display posters of the album cover in their windows. The displays were either
toned down or removed. However, on 9 November 1977 the London Evening Standard announced on its front page headline "Police Move in on Punk Disc Shops", and reported
how a Virgin Records shop manager was arrested for displaying the record after being warned to cover up the word "bollocks".
An obscenity case was heard at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 24 November. The defence presented the case as a matter of police discrimination. The arresting officer was
asked why the newspapers The Guardian and Evening Standard (which had referred to the album's name) had not been charged under the same act. When the magistrate inquired
about his line of questioning, the defence lawyer stated that a double-standard was apparently at play, and that "bollocks" was only considered obscene when it appeared on the
cover of a Sex Pistols album. The prosecutor conducted his cross-examination "as if the album itself, and not its lurid visage, was on trial for indecency.
The lawyer produced expert witnesses who were able to successfully demonstrate that the word "bollocks" was not obscene, and was actually a legitimate Old English term
originally used to refer to a priest, and which, in the context of the title, meant "nonsense". Full article
Case closed.
(A) Holidays in the Sun - Liar - No Feelings - God Save the Queen - Problems
(B) Seventeen - Anarchy in the U.K. - Bodies - Pretty Vacant - New York - E.M.I.
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