Sex Pistols to re-release God Save the Queen to mark the Queen’s jubilee

The Sex Pistols will, to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee, re-releaser the once banned punk rock anthem God Save the Queen.

Released in 1977, the anti-authoritarian song hit the stores in the same year as the Queen’s silver jubilee. The song achieved notoriety by being instantly banned by the BBC and most independent radio stations.

The song, which was included on the band’s “Never Mind the Bollocks” album, called the monarchy “a fascist regime”. Amongst the lyrics were lines like “She ain’t no human being, and there’s no future, and England’s dreaming”.

Despite being banned and the nature of the lyrics the song proved a hit, reaching number two in the singles charts. The title of the song was however blanked out from the chart listing to avoid causing offence.

Rumours did abound at the time that the charts were manipulated to keep them off the number one spot, with that distinction going to Rod Stewart.

The band was held off the top spot by Rod Stewart, but there were rumours the chart had been manipulated to prevent God Save the Queen from reaching number one.

The song created a lot of controversy with the group being dropped by their label A&M, and with their arrest by the police for promoting the record on their own jubilee boat.

At the time the band’s drummer, Paul Cook, denied the song had been released to coincide with the jubilee, saying: “We weren’t aware of it at the time. It wasn’t a contrived effort to go out and shock everyone.”

Virgin, who the band signed with after being dropped by A&M, will release 4,000 copies of the song to commemorate the Queen’s platinum jubilee. 1,977 copies of the rare A&M version will also be available.

The re-release will also come with the original artwork with the A&M edition featuring its generic company sleeve, and it will be pressed on silver and platinum vinyl. The Virgin version of the God Save the Queen single has Sex Pistols artwork designed by Jamie Reid.

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