Jamie Reid's best-known work is possibly the one he made for the Sex Pistols. It include the portrait of Queen Cecil Beaton with a safety pin on the cover of Never Mind the Bollocks, Here the Sex Pistols. This appeared in number two in a survey by Rolling Stone magazine of the best covers of rock albums of all time. He also worked on the Sex Pistons movie, The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. Since then he has continued to collaborate in the music industry to this day.

Anarchist and influential British artist, Jamie Reid was born in 1947 in London, England. Raised in a politically active family, he studied at Croydon College in London. Studied art and met his classmate Malcolm McLaren, the future manager of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. After leaving Croydon Art College in 1970, he co-founded Suburban Press, where he developed his unique style. But several reasons Reid was forced to leave Suburban Press and the city of London to come back later and reconnect with MacLaren and consequently with the Sex Pistols.

Soon the Sex Pistols became the face of English punk rock and part of that possibly was due to Reid. His work with this group was so close that he was co-author of the song Anarchy in the U.K. The cover of that album with others finally became art and defining symbols of an era and the Sex Pistols in particular.

After the end of the Sex Pistols in 1978 and the disappearance of the British punk scene, Jamie Reid continued working as an artist, infusing his work with his political inclinations. He has worked with several artists to protest against nuclear weapons, racism and a fairer criminal justice system. For much of the 80s and 90s, he worked with the world music group Afro Celt Sound System.

Back