How Jamie Reid's Art Came To Define The British Punk Rock Scene

May 2024 · 2 minute read

In comparison to some of Reid's later works, like 1993's "Damn Them All" featuring disfigured and torn images of British royalty (seen on Retroavangarda), Jamie Reid's early, pink-and-yellow album cover work for the Sex Pistol's 1977 "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here Comes the Sex Pistols" comes as simple. But it was just enough, at just the right time, to capture the '70s punk spirit. Reid's design is ragged, off-the-cuff, and doesn't care what you think — just like punk and its musicians. It's also utterly iconoclastic. The poster for the Sex Pistol's single "Anarchy in the U.K." featured a ripped Union Jack flag, while alternative covers for "God Save the Queen" featured Elizabeth II with swastikas for eyes and a safety pin through her lip. Such sentiments align perfectly with punk.

Iconoclasm and defiance were Reid's intentions from the get-go. As The Guardian quotes him: "Our culture is geared towards enslavement — for people to perform pre-ordained functions, particularly in the workplace. I've always tried to encourage people to think about that and to do something about it." On the heels of the 1960s anti-establishment shift, Reid found a home at the "countercultural publication" Suburban Press in the '70s, where he refined his singular "cut-and-paste" and "ransom note" style. As luck would have it, he'd already met the Sex Pistol's future manager Malcolm McLaren back in Croydon Art School. So when the Sex Pistols needed some artwork for their records, Reid was the man to call. 

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