This article is in fact an NFT and you can buy the publishing rights to this article on Tokenblogs.
The Sex Pistols’ official non-fungible token is a reminder of the wider potential of NFTs and blockchain technology for artists and memorabilia collectors.
With the Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save The Queen’ firmly established as a cultural phenomenon, it was no surprise that the band’s marketing operation would exploit last year’s Platinum Jubilee with a new range of themed merchandise. Beyond the latest wave of 7” vinyl reissues, T-shirts and badges was a novel commemorative coin conceived in both physical and digital form.
Packaged in a smart blue velvet box, the satisfyingly chunky nickel-plated coin boasts the Sex Pistols logo on one side and Jamie Reid’s ‘God Save The Queen’ artwork on the other. As a high-tech bonus each coin came with an NFT counterpart, redeemable at the Pistol Mint website for a limited period. Minted on the Palm network, the NFTs are a slick digital depiction of the coin, configured with virtual 3D dynamic viewing.
As well as playing directly into the extensive collectors’ market in all things ‘GSTQ’, the venture has introduced NFTs to a whole new demographic — including this writer, whose grip on crypto was previously limited to a small stash of Algorand for a rainy day. As a keen collector of punk memorabilia, it is tempting to touch on the wider potential for NFTs and blockchain technology in respect of both digital and physical artistic curios.
Without even straying from the Sex Pistols theme, here are just a few areas that spring to mind:
A quirk of the NFTs for the ‘GSTQ’ coin is that they come in three “tiers of rarity”, each with different design traits, randomly assigned during minting. While there are some secondary market sales listings (eg. on Rarible) there is surely scope for owners to rent out their NFTs for a time-limited period on a renting platform. Customers could range from hardcore fans looking to compare and enjoy the different variants, to contemporary art galleries displaying NFT punk graphics while formally acknowledging and compensating owners of the originals, as appropriate.
Far removed from the Sex Pistols’ official enterprise, there’s even NFT art of an imagined ‘homemade’ cassette tape of ‘God Save The Queen’: №626 in the PixTape series. This is a collection of 10,000 randomly generated NFTs on the Solana platform, as showcased at the Solsea NFT marketplace. Again, while this one’s currently not listed for sale, it could potentially be rented.
The same renting principle could be applied to digital images of rare physical collectables: such as hard-to-find vinyl gems. For example, certain 1977 overseas 7” editions of ‘God Save The Queen’, notably South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Turkey and Thailand, are so rare that, in some cases, barely a handful of copies survive. Of course, some online images exist from archived auctions but fashioning hi-res images of the labels as NFTs would allow owners to rent digital versions to various users, including music writers, curators and auction experts. For collectors, formally renting such NFTs might be the closest they’ll ever come to ‘owning’ the original asset, while also assisting the research of specific copies that are often identifiable from the patina and markings of their labels and sleeves.
Beyond renting, such NFTs could, of course, complement the actual trading of the physical item itself, a theme expanded on in the next section.
The use of blockchain to confirm the authenticity and ownership of art is key to the concept and appeal of NFTs. While this is most applicable to new art, where an unbroken chain of ownership chain can be recorded with each transaction, the principle can be extended to vintage physical collectables. For example, still with ‘God Save The Queen’, an obvious candidate is the legendary ‘withdrawn’ A&M edition of the same Sex Pistols single (from March 1977 before the circus moved to Virgin Records). This disc is one of the UK’s most valuable 7” vinyl records, with the highest confirmed trade recently reaching £24,000.
While the precise number of surviving copies is unknown, there is the special case of the so-called ‘Golden Handshake’ copies that surfaced in 1998 when A&M’s London operation was closed down. These discs are often accompanied by a personalised letter to the estimated dozen senior A&M employees to whom they were given as a parting gift — provenance that typically secures a substantial premium at auction.
Especially in view of the vast counterfeit market for this particular single, these valuable letters could be included as NFT documentation, along with digital images of the disc itself, when authenticating and trading the physical items.
NFTs are typically understood as unique digital files of art collectables to be traded and enjoyed aesthetically.
As it happens, Sex Pistols legend John Lydon is among the early proponents of the technology, having released NFTs of his own art minted on Ethereum and sold through Rarible. The former Johnny Rotten has long been a keen artist, as shown by his impromptu “caricatures” that survive from the Seventies on the walls of the Sex Pistols’ former squat in London’s Denmark Street — now afforded Grade II listed status.
Lydon’s latest project consists of 100 NFTs created from one piece of physical art, Mr Rotten’s №1, and digitally “broken apart” to create unique variations. The full hand-painted work (with the words “Anger In NFT”) will itself eventually be auctioned along with a blockchain bundle of extras including the promo video and photos of John signing the works.
It is just a step from here to envisage the Sex Pistols Residuals operation sanctioning further NFTs related to Jamie Reid’s iconic artwork — including others with the ‘God Save The Queen’ theme. While the aforementioned 2022 coin features Reid’s Safety Pin Queen variant, it was his infamous Blind Queen graphic that graced the 1977 single sleeve and Union Jack promo poster. This imagery is an obvious NFT target given how it has become arguably the most plundered idea in art history: the masked eyes and mouth reappearing on an endless succession of tributes and parodies by artists down the decades. Already there are unofficial digital pastiches of the ‘GSTQ’ sleeve, reworked in the pixelated style associated with the Crypto Punks series that took NFT art mainstream.
Ultimately, whatever the theme, NFTs provide an exciting new avenue for artists to monetise their work. As such, the term Crypto Punk is particularly apt given how NFTs and the blockchain concept represent such a landmark in the democratisation of art since the punk revolution of the 1970s.
The same goes for the rise of NFTs in the copyrighting and marketing of music, as illustrated by Muverse, a community-based Web 3.0 NFT platform designed specifically for indie artists. When reminding us of the DIY punk roots of Muverse, the Cointelegraph press release (itself available for purchase as an NFT!) included an image of Reid’s Union Jack promo poster from the 1977 ‘GSTQ’ marketing campaign. Incidentally, an original physical example of the same poster, formerly owned by Sid Vicious, fetched a cool £44,100 at Sotheby’s, last October — again, impressive provenance ripe for documenting on blockchain.
It is ironic that almost half a century after the Sex Pistols declared “no future” (and some 15 years since the original line-up last performed live), their enduring ‘God Save The Queen’ theme is back in the spotlight embracing such cutting-edge technology.
Dominic Pedler is a freelance writer, author and collector of Sex Pistols memorabilia.
Want to use this article on your website? You can purchase the publishing rights on Tokenblogs
Links:
https://www.sexpistolsofficial.com
https://www.johnlydon.com/mr-rottens-nfts/
https://rarible.com/johnnyrotten/created
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