It's enough to make you spit. Punk memorabilia pays off

Anything to do with the Sex Pistols, and especially Sid Vicious, is good for collectors, says Sean O'Grady

"No future", the Sex Pistols used to say. If only they had known. True, Sid Vicious met an untimely death in a New York hotel bedroom in 1979, but Johnny Rotten, now known as John Lydon, is still with us a quarter of a century on, entertaining the nation on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me out of Here.

Punk memorabilia, too, seems to have more of a future than once seemed remotely possible. It may be difficult to envisage anyone having a healthy interest in used bondage trousers, but there are people out there prepared to buy good money for such, provided they have a respectable provenance, of course.

Indeed, Sarah Hodgson, associate director and head of the popular entertainment section at Christie's, says there is a "steady market" for punk material. It is a narrow one, at least as far as the great auction houses are concerned.

"They're not in the same league as the Beatles, the Stones, Jimi Hendrix or Elvis", Ms Hodgson says. "It's really just the Sex Pistols, but there is some interest in bands such as The Clash and the Ramones."

Items related to Sid Vicious are generally the most valuable, such as autographed albums or posters and, as with all pop memorabilia, the closer the item is linked to the musician the better. Having said that, Christie's did have to turn down a few personal effects of Sid's that were offered by his mother in the late 1980s on the ominous-sounding grounds that they were "too grim" for the South Kensington sale rooms. A little too personal, perhaps. Back then Sid's leather jacket, safety pins included, and some of his t-shirts went for next to nothing, in the low hundreds, in auction-speak. They would be worth a good deal more now. Where are they now?

Stills, known as "celluloids", from the Sex Pistols animated movie The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, come to auction sometimes and sell for about £500.

Given that there are about 2,000 celluloids per minute of film there is no shortage of those, and, framed, they brighten any punk fan's drawing room. Rare concert posters from the early days in 1976 go under the hammer for £3,000 to £4,000. Artwork and fashion material by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood is a special case.

For Christie's, most of punk vinyl is not worth taking on, with the exception of the famously scarce version of the God Save the Queen album that was pressed in very small numbers by A&M records before the Pistols defected. In pristine order and with its original sleeve it is worth £2,000. Time to check the record collection.

But the relatively cheapness of this historic vinyl offers an opportunity for post-punkers to build an impressive collection of music very economically. Most singles and albums by the Pistols and their peers were mass-produced and can be picked up for £5 to £20.

Should you wish to look for rarities they are out there too, and if your budget runs to it, you can lay your hands on some of the esoterica for a few hundred pounds. Alan Parker, an original punk and biographer of Sid Vicious, says the thing to look out for is the low-run pressings of 1,000 or so done on a more or less amateur basis by bands obscure even at the time.

The creative flowering that was punk is described by Mr Parker as "the last important music scene this planet ever had", and to this he credits its appeal. "One of the important features of the punk scene was that it was so antithetical to the big labels and the world of marketing and packaging, with lots of groups selling records in tiny numbers".

Material that captures that mood of that time and the nature of the punk phenomenon is sought after. The more obscure and the more obscene, in fact, the better, it would seem, and enthusiasts still get a frisson from the shock value of the music and lyrics. After all, the late 1970s were a time when you could be arrested for wearing a rude t-shirt, or "lewd and indecent conduct on Her Majesty's highways and byways", as the police deemed it.

We all remember that the BBC banned Pretty Vacant and God Save the Queen and the music charts would not even publish their titles when they topped the charts, but the Pistols were as choirboys compared to some of their contemporaries such as The Pork Dukes, whose 12-inch pink vinyl classic "Telephone Masturbator" is especially prized. Yours for £150 or so.

If you fail to find that then you might settle for "My Mother Gave me a Gun for Christmas or "Kill Your Headmaster". The Starjets, an Irish band, the Stiffs and the Not Sensibles (who had a memorable success with their 1980 single "I'm in love with Margaret Thatcher") are also worth following. But Mr Parker recommends that you avoid late-punk bands such as Discharge or Exploited, because "they are just noise". Their time is yet to come, it would seem. He also rates mispressings, such as The Jam's 1980 single "Start", the first pressings of which were actually of "You Can't Stop the Music", by the Village People.

The investment potential of punk is limited. Prices have edged up little over the past five years, a fairly static market. Auctioneers say it is bought by old punks and sold by old punks. Unlike the Beatles, say, it does not, yet, appeal strongly to a new generation. Twenty-five years ago the Daily Mail called punk rockers "the enemies of the world". They are a little more lovable now, rather wealthier, and you are as likely to find them at Sotheby's and Christie's as anywhere. Too old to pogo, but young enough to bid.

FACT FILE COLLECTING PUNK

VINYL

Records which cost £1 and £4 when they were released are now making a healthy profit. The most popular albums, such as The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, are selling on ebay (www.ebay.com ) for £35. A rare 12ins original Japanese production of The Sex Pistols' 'No One Is Innocent' is available on www.eil.com for £85. At Totem Records in London you will pay £15 for a 7ins imported single and you can pick up a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks for only £12. For more information, visit www.totemrecords.home.ip.net

ARTWORK

Jamie Reid is the artist most closely associated with punk rock. He created many of the record sleeves and posters for the Sex Pistols while working as the band's art director. Copies of the original prints are on sale, with a starting price of £400 at www.britart.com. if If you are after originals, you would be paying £1,000 to £1,500 at a Sotheby's auction.

FASHION

If your preference is for safety-pinned clothing, you can find much of the classic punk rock fashions on ebay. Vivienne Westwood and Malcom McLaren dominated the punk era with their clothing. You can buy replica pieces online at www.ebay.com for £20. If you are lucky, you may even be able to grab hold of an original Vivienne Westwood 'Sex' t-shirt for the same price. Rare pieces such as Jamie Reid-designed God Save the Queen t-shirts from 1977 cost hundreds of pounds more at Sotheby's.

FANZINES

Rough and ready fanzines printed on Xerox machines and produced with basic Letraset equipment were never meant to last. But battered copies of the original punk fanzine Sniffin Glue, edited by Danny Baker, have sold on ebay for £15. And you could pay £75 for a rare copy of the fanzine Anarchy in the UK, in excellent condition and signed by Jamie Reid.

Ria Ladniuk