Rare Sex Pistols master tape is piece of punk rock history

A RARE Sex Pistols video master tape telling the story of the 1970s punk rock group is expected to sell for thousands of pounds at auction.

A copy of The Filth and the Fury, A Sex Pistol Film, believed to be a studio master tape, is due to go under the hammer in Derbyshire.

And such is the importance of the digital Betacam tape by Resolution Studio, it could sell for between £5,000 and £10,000 in Hansons’ music memorabilia auction on March 23. Claire Howell, music memorabilia consultant at Hansons, said: “This is an exceptionally rare piece of musical history celebrating an iconic group who smashed their way to fame in the mid-70s and broke the mould when it came to music, fashion, style and attitude.

“The vendor firmly believes it is a one-off master tape as it came directly from the production company, Resolution Studios. The ‘rockumentary’ was made in 2000 but it was actually released on DVD on September 24, 2007, which is why the tape coming up for auction is dated 2007.

“It deserves to do well and, for any punk who loved the Sex Pistols, it will be a fascinating watch. It’s come to us from a private client who has amassed other rare musical finds over the years. He came across it at an auction in Nottinghamshire, a couple of years ago in a music memorabilia miscellaneous lot.”

Assembled from originally unseen archive footage, rare offcuts and masses of junk-culture detail from the pre-punk 1970s, the video offering has been described as “an inspired collage which is as much social history as rockumentary”.