A 1976 poster for a punk concert including the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks – £22,000 at Omega.
Headlining on July 20, 1976, were the Sex Pistols (pre-Malcolm McClaren makeover), supported by Buzzcocks (who had organised the concerts) and Slaughter and the Dogs. Together with the earlier concert held to an audience of 40 in June, this was ‘the gig that changed the world’.
Discarded souvenir
How it came to be owned by the vendor is a key part of its provenance. They attended a free concert in July 1978, also at The Lesser Free Trade Hall, with Buzzcocks performing a set to recognise the second anniversary of the Sex Pistols shows.
During the concert, then lead singer Pete Shelley held up this poster to emphasise the band (who had gone on to achieve commercial success with Ever Fallen in Love) had been there two years earlier.
Later, as the vendor was waiting to obtain signatures from members of Buzzcocks, he noticed the folded poster lying discarded on the floor. He picked it up and kept it as a souvenir.
A copy of a photograph showing Shelley holding the 2ft (61cm) poster during the 1978 concert was included in the lot offered by Omega Auctions (28% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside, on April 26.
As a super-rare survivor from the early days of the punk phenomenon, it was estimated at £5000-7000 but sold at £22,000.
In January last Omega sold an original listing poster for the Sex Pistols’ ill-fated 1976 Anarchy tour for £7000 (see ATG No 2487).
