Glen Matlock’s Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File

How do you design a book for the Sex Pistols that doesn’t take on the look and feel of 1970s punk?

Glen Matlock's Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File

That was something that Andy Vella had to ask himself when designing Glen Matlock’s Pistols book, which focuses on the band’s 1996 Filthy Lucre comeback tour.

His solution – which arguably still retains something of a DIY aesthetic – revolves around a chapter organisation, begun in each case with a bank note-style graphic, which informs the look of the rest of the chapter.

Glen Matlock's Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File

Vella says, ‘My creative process is very hands-on, I don’t just sit at a computer creating digital art. I hand-drew various shapes and lines which I printed on to porcelain coated paper.

‘The prints were then distressed using wet and dry paper, to take away the strength of lines in places. They were then re-photographed and further physically distressed. In many cases they were overlayed, creating a mechanical moiré, which in many cases became the background to the pages.’

Glen Matlock's Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File
Glen Matlock’s Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File

The book is a photographic account of the tour through Matlock’s eyes, something Vella has tried to distill in the ‘scrap book cum visual memoir’.

Vella has composed montages of ephemera collected by the magpie-like Matlock and photographed them as still life.

‘I just loved the fact that here we had a world famous punk band touring the USA, South America, Japan… and like any tourist Matlock kept pamphlets and cigarette packets, even roasted chestnut bags. They are important to the narrative, so I gave them some placement,’ says Vella.

Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock

Glen Matlock’s Sex Pistols Filthy Lucre Photo File is published by Foruli Codex on 10 March, priced £20.

Start the discussionStart the discussion
  • Post a comment

Latest articles