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Jamie Reid (16 January 1947 – 9 August 2023)
"Radical ideas will always get appropriated. The establishment will rob everything they can,
because they lack the ability to be creative. That's why you always have to keep moving."
Although never entirely on board with his far-left politics - and rather uncomfortable with his mystical-hippie beliefs (and appearance) - the fact remains that Jamie Reid's artwork for the Sex Pistols (almost) means more to me than the records they were intended to promote.
As Malcolm rightly said, his design for the single 'God Save the Queen' in 1977, based on a Cecil Beaton photograph, was National Gallery standard [1].
I think it's also probably fair to say that, along with Winston Smith, whose graphic designs in collaboration with Jello Biafra for the Dead Kennedys were equally essential, Reid defined the punk aesthetic.
And so I was sorry to discover earlier today that the only sure method of leaving the 20th century sadly involves making a terminal exit ... RIP Jamie Reid.
Notes
[1] This now (ironically) iconic portrait of Her Majesty - as well as
several other of Reid's provocative punk designs - can be found on
Torpedo the Ark: click here.
