Sex Pistols are set to reissue their classic single ‘God Save The Queen’ to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee next month.

The protest song was officially released by the band via Virgin in May 1977. Despite being banned by the BBC, it reached number one on the NME chart and number two on the UK’s singles chart (the track was listed as a blank on the latter to avoid causing offence).

Prior to that, however, the band had been controversially dropped by their previous label A&M, prompting the destruction of 25,000 unreleased copies of ‘God Save The Queen’. Only a handful of copies of the original A&M release remain, with one selling for £13,000 back in 2019.

Ahead of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which will be celebrated in the UK from June 2-5 to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne, the Sex Pistols will reissue both the Virgin and A&M versions of ‘God Save The Queen’ on May 27 via UMC.

1,977 7″ copies of the A&M version of the single, which features the B-side ‘No Feeling’, will be made available, while 4000 7″ copies of the Virgin-released ‘God Save The Queen’ (featuring the B-side ‘Did You No Wrong’) will go on sale.

Both versions of the single will feature their original artwork, with the A&M edition featuring its generic company sleeve and being pressed on silver/platinum vinyl. The Virgin single will feature the Jamie Reid-designed Sex Pistols artwork.

Pre-order is available now from here.

Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon recently distanced himself from the band’s compilation ‘The Original Recordings’, which is set for release later this month.

“He and his team were not involved in producing this compilation and consider it substandard compared to previous Universal releases since 2012,” a statement on the singer’s Facebook page read.