Rarest of Sex Pistols singles on sale for £15,000 in Birmingham record shop

IT’S a super-expensive rarity that will leave ex-punks mopping the sweat from their mohicans...

For one of the world’s rarest records has just gone on sale in Birmingham – with a whopping £15,000 price tag.

The Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen 45rpm single was released by the group in 1977 – and promptly banned

Now the original worth a small fortune.

Most of the original pressings of the song were destroyed by the A&M record label in March 1977 after the storm blew up.

EMI had already ditched the Pistols in January, and A&M then fell out with the band just days after signing them.

The controversial single was later released in May of that year by Virgin and hit No 2 in the charts, even though it was banned by the BBC.

An unplayed mint condition copy of the original A&M pressing has now been bought by Pete Bonner, owner of the Psychotron record shop in Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield.

Although he ‘only’ paid £7,500 for it, he is confident he will secure his £15,000 asking price on the open market. In 2011, Record Collector magazine said it was the most valuable record of all.

“Although most of the A&M singles were destroyed, the company’s owner kept some back to give out as presents to key people when they left,” says Mr Bonner.

“The copy I have has come from a company lawyer who kept it in a box for years.

“At first, he had agreed to sell it to me for £6,000, but after he went to the US he came back and asked for £7,500, even though he agreed it would be worth more.

“I bought it because you have to speculate to accumulate. version is

“I think it’s worth £15,000 and it can only go up in value. In a few years’ time it will be worth £25,000 because it is a really interesting record and my copy really is in mint condition.”

Some sources say only nine copies of the single survived the mass destruction of the first 20,000 copies that were pressed.

But Mr Bonner insists: “A&M kept 20 copies which were then given to executives as leaving presents. This copy came from one of the lawyers who was given it in the mid 1980s and I have a letter stating its provenance.

“There have been a couple of copies sold on eBay for about £12,000 in the last two or three years, and copies in less good condition have been advertised for up to £19,000.”

Psychotron opened in Sutton Coldfield in June 2016 but moved to Boldmere a month ago.

“I have spent a lot of money on security for the shop, but I am not keeping this single here,” said Mr Bonner.

“It will go to a collector, I know that. And I will be willing to personally deliver it to anywhere in the UK if I sell it for £15,000. When I bought it, I met the vendor in Bristol at some motorway services. I wasn’t going to trust it to the Post Office.”

As well as running Psychotron, Pete now spends £500 a week on postage sending rare records out across the UK and beyond.

He doesn’t even open his shop on Mondays and Tuesdays so that he can travel to inspect collections.

“Younger record buyers behind the revival of vinyl seem to be interested in new records, but there is still a lot of interest from collectors for older records,” he says.

“Younger people are more likely to collect records by The Who, Small Faces and other Mods rather than Elvis Presley.

“You can’t give away a lot of his records now, like the run of the mill 60s albums and film soundtracks.”

Mr Bonner’s top tip for readers is simple – and it doesn’t have to be vinyl.

“Hang on to your CDs,” he says. “Their time will come round again.

“People who grew up with CDs but couldn’t afford the discs at the time will start to buy things from their youth that they couldn’t afford.

“It’s the same with Matchbox cars and Scalextric.”

The new Psychotron shop is at 26 Boldmere Road, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield.