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If you're looking for a landmark by which to gauge how much the world has
changed during the last 40 years, take note: The album cover for the Sex
Pistols' first (and only) studio album landed them in a London courtroom on
obscenity charges.

A plain sleeve bearing eight words causing a morality stir seems downright
quaint in an era of nudist reality shows, but the presence of the word "bollocks"
was too much for a policewoman named Julie Dawn Storey. Upon spotting a
display for the album in the window of the Virgin record store in Nottingham,
England, Storey arrested the store's manager, charging him with violation of
the Indecent Advertising Act – a law dating back to 1899.

"Bollocks" carries two meanings in British English, denoting both testicles and
nonsense. Why any reasonable person would think that the album sleeve was
suggesting that listeners should "never mind the testicles" is anybody's guess,
but the case proceeded to court, anyway.

How the word ended up on the sleeve isn't entirely clear. In 100 Best Album
Covers,  written by Hipgnosis album art legends Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey
Powell, the authors cite slightly conflicting accounts from Pistols' manager
Malcolm McLaren and sleeve designer Jamie Reid.

McLaren: I was in a pub...with [guitarist] Steve Jones. We'd just signed to

Virgin, and I was feeling very anxious as they were demanding an artwork for
the album and we hadn't even come up with a title. Steve just said 'never mind
all that bollocks' and that was it -- it was perfect, it was in sync with the whole
disposable rubbish element. It was clever in that it was so simple.

Reid: We had tried many titles and sleeve formats -- God Save the Sex Pistols,
etc. -- but to no satisfaction. I was running through the options with Steve
Jones and John Varnom (the marketing director at Virgin). Unimpressed by
these suggestions, Steve said, 'Never mind the bollocks,' to which we said
'That's it!'

So never mind the bollocks about where "never mind the bollocks" originated.
The stories may vary, but they all lead back to Steve Jones.
McLaren claimed the design of the sleeve was as vacant as, well, "Pretty
Vacant."  Thorgerson and Powell quote the impresario as saying, "I wanted the
album to be seen very much as a product but to make fun of that product at
the same time." To that end, a garish color scheme likened to a package of
laundry detergent was selected, the album being "no better, no worse, just
disposable rubbish."

Unsurprisingly, Reid had a different explanation for the color scheme. The
designer spent the first half of the '70s working at Suburban Press – a "printing
and publishing collective that put out anarchist/Situationist posters and flyers"
along with a magazine entitled Suburban Press. Reid claimed that the sleeve's
color design was derived from a series of stickers that the press made in '72
reading "This Store Welcomes Shoplifters." "They were gaudy and fluorescent -
pink and yellow Day-Glo in your face," Reid said.

Sex Pistols - Holidays In The Sun

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With all of the disagreement between McLaren and Reid regarding how the
sleeve came together, one might conclude that working together was no
holiday. In fact, the two were friends dating back to Croydon Art College,
though McLaren didn't like Reid's work. That changed during the latter's time
at Suburban Press, so when it came time for the band to put together the
album's artwork, McLaren called his old mate. At the time, Reid wasn't even
making art – he was farming.

But stories of school chum harmony don't have that punk vibe, so let's get
back to the he said/he said debate about the album cover. Perhaps the biggest
contribution that the sleeve made to the punk aesthetic was the "ransom note"
lettering. Forty years on, indie punk bands still use mismatched typography in
their logos, and it all goes back to a single source – or two.

McLaren claimed his roommate, Helen Wellington Lloyd, was helping him
make flyers and "couldn't be bothered" to purchase Letraset. In the days before
editing software, Letraset's sheets of press-on letters were the go-to for
graphic designers who needed to add text to an image. Rather than run down
to the shop and buy a sheet, Lloyd simply cut letters out of the newspaper and
the ransom note look was born. "It just goes to show the best ideas are not
always consciously formed," said McLaren. "It fitted the anti-commercial
attitude of the band perfectly."
Reid foots the origin of the "blackmail punk" look back to Suburban Press,
where "we had to produce cheap (no money), fast, and effective visuals, so
collage was the dominant look; things cut out from papers and magazines --
photos and lettering -- which was the so-called 'blackmail punk' look, which
looked great."

McLaren remained adamant that Lloyd created the band's logo well prior to the
album and that Reid "had no choice but to carry it through" on the record's
sleeve.

Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen (Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex
Pistols)

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Malcolm McLaren died in 2010, so we'll never get unanimous agreement on

this cover's story; however, McLaren was well known for bending the facts to
make himself look better, so take that for what it's worth. Given the
preponderance of evidence in favor of Reid (i.e. the Suburban Press artifacts
that predate Never Mind the Bollocks) we think we should give the cover's
designer the benefit of the doubt.

And speaking of benefit of the doubt, let's get back to that "bollocks" court
case. Nottingham University's Reverend James Kingsley took the stand and
testified that "bollocks" was an Anglo-Saxon word dating to around 1,000 A.D.
that originally meant "a small ball." Kingsley noted the word's use in the Bible,
veterinary texts, and other records, and pointed out that it was used in several
place names. The former Anglican priest went on to explain that "bollocks"
was at some point slang for clergyman, and given that preachers tend to talk a
lot of nonsense, the word then came to be synonymous with speaking
nonsense.

After only 20 minutes of deliberation, chairman Douglas Betts returned a

verdict: "Much as my colleagues and I wholeheartedly deplore the vulgar
exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature for the purchases of
commercial profits by both you and your company, we must reluctantly find
you not guilty of each of the four charges."

We'll give Reid the last word: "I left the court in Nottingham to hear a
newspaperman shouting: 'BOLLOCKS NOW LEGAL!' above the noise of the
traffic."
Read More: Cover Stories: 'Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols' |
https://diffuser.fm/cover-stories-never-mind-the-bollocks-heres-the-sex-
pistols/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral