The Sex Pistols, Anarchy In The UK poster
This is a great reproduction of the 1976 tour poster for the Anarchy in the UK tour featuring the Sex Pistols, the Damned, The Clash and Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers. The striking magenta and black concert tour poster was created to promote the ‘The Anarchy in the UK Tour’ of 1976. The tour is seen as one of the most famous tours in rock ‘n’ roll history. The line-up consisted of the now legendary fore-fathers of the punk rock scene, The Clash, The Damned and Johnny Thunder and The Heartbreakers. But it was the headliners The Sex Pistols that were the talk of the music press, the British newspapers and national television news programmes. The Pistols were THE band people wanted to see.
In 1976 the band at the tip of everyone’s tongue was the Sex Pistols, consisting of Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Paul Jones and the sneering, snarling and confrontational Johnny Rotten. The Anarchy in the UK single had just been released to a generally unsuspecting London crowd. The single was proving popular when Malcolm McClaren, the band’s manager found a spot for them on TV show Today with the host Bill Grundy. An event immortalised in music history. The foul-mouthed outbursts caused outrage and shocked the elder generation to its core, but it also turned a lot of the youth on to punk music.
Two days later the Sex Pistols, The Clash,The Damned and The Heartbreakers got ready to tour the UK. Unfortunately, the 19 date tour turned into a series of cancellations as scared local councils banned the shows from going on in all but three venues. Leeds Polytechnic, Manchester’s Electric Circus and Caerphilly’s Castle Cinema. Rearranged shows at Cleethorpes’ Winter Gardens, and Plymouth’s Woods Centre would make up the ‘full-scale’ tour.
Anarchy In The UK poster Liverpool Stadium
This Sex Pistols Anarchy In The UK Tour Poster provides the dates for the originally planned nineteen date tour. It was a generic printed poster that would be overprinted with specific date, venue and ticket retailer details in the panel at the bottom of the poster. This specific reproduction is of the show that was meant to be performed at Liverpool Stadium on Saturday 11 December 1976.
An article appeared in the Liverpool Echo on December 3rd, just a week before the show which read: City date for rock band in TV row. It continued, Sex Pistols, the Punk Rock group whose four-letter performance on television caused uproar with viewers and television authorities, will appear at the Liverpool Stadium a week tomorrow. The performance is part of their Anarchy in the UK tour.
However, four days later another article, written by Nick Skidmore, appeared in the Echo with a change of story. It read: CALL FOR BOYCOTT ON SEX PISTOLS: An outraged Liverpool councillor today called for a boycott on punk rock group Sex Pistols – who vow to sidestep a ban on their city concert.
Councillor Doreen Jones plans to demonstrate outside the club where they hope to play in a bid to dissuade youngsters from seeing the group.
“Let’s show the rest of the country Liverpool is too good for this sort of rubbish. We don’t want them here,” she said. The group – who incensed audiences by swearing on the Thames TV programme Today – heard last night their planned show at Liverpool Stadium had been cancelled. A Stadium spokesman said “The publicity they generate does not persuade me to allow them here… These Sex Pistols advocate Anarchy and we don’t want to take the risk.”
Instead the group hope to stage the concert at The Cavern club for the following night. Their manager, Malcolm McLaren said: “We aren’t going to tone down our act one little bit. There won’t be any compromises in Liverpool – that’s a promise.” Asked if this meant the concert would include obscenities, he replied: “Life includes obscenities. Our act reflects life.” The planned gig at The Cavern ne ver materialised.
In fa ct, only three of the scheduled ninteen gigs did go ahead, along with four other rearranged shows. The tour finally started at Leeds Polytechnic on 6 December, with further dates at Manchester’s Electric Circus (9 and 19 December), Caerphilly’s Castle Cinema (14 December), Cleethorpes’ Winter Gardens (20 December) and Plymouth’s Woods Centre (21 and 22 December).
How much is my Sex Pistols, Anarchy In The UK poster worth?
If you own an original copy of the Sex Pistols, Anarchy In The UK, you’re in luck. The poster is considerably rare, despite the show not being played, not that many of the posters have survived. And those that do survive are not only of interest to Sex Pistols fans, but fans of punk rock in general. Also the fact that other punk rock legends, The Clash, The Damned and Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers all feature on the Anarchy in the UK poster, makes it highly collectable. The original posters don’t come up for sale or auction very regularly. The poster is incredibly sought after and therefore rare. Original copies in good condition sell for well in excess of £3000. In fact, we have tracked down a copy that sold in 2016 through the Bonhams auction house. That one sold for a cool £4000. So they’re probably worth a lot more than that now.
There’s no argument from us, if you can find an original copy and can afford to buy it, you’re on to a winner. There’s nothing like owning an original vintage poster and they often make a great investment. Chances are in just a few years you’ll be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. Unfortunately, for most of us, an investment, even at the entry-level prices of the collectable poster isn’t even close to being a possibility. This is where our stunning high-quality reproductions come into their own. They cost a fraction of an original and look absolutely fantastic when they’re framed and hung on your living room wall.
