The original poster image was done in the traditional red, white and blue of the Union Jack flag and Reid’s infamous “Old Queen” image using “blackmail lettering” to cover her eyes with the title “God Save The Queen” and her mouth with the band’s name. It was used as a poster to promote the “God Save The Queen” single, and this 1997 print features a variation on the original color scheme, giving it more of an “island” feel.

These prints were produced by Jamie Reid and Artifical in 1997 for the “20^th Anniversary of the birth of Punk Rock”, where new color combinations were introduced (or, as it was described in the original catalog that accompanied the exhibition “…reworked, updated impression(s) that stay true to the original aesthetic.”).

The second single released by the Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen” (and the promotion surrounding it) sent a shiver down the spine of “proper” people throughout the U.K. Released near the time of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebration, the song’s lyrics made it clear that the Pistols felt that much of the British working class had very little to celebrate about at the time and had “no future” under the “fascist regime” in place at the time.

On the day of the Jubilee, the band and a crew of friends, record company execs and the press took a boat down the Thames outside Westminster Palace and proceeded to play their new song at full volume. Following a brief scuffle with an unamused police force, they were promptly arrested.

Banned from airplay by the BBC, the song nonetheless hit #2 on the charts, although most music historians feel that the song was surreptitiously kept from the #1 slot by the BBC as they’d have to admit to the song’s popularity. The song was ranked #173 on the Rolling Stone Magazine list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.