John Lydon's Sex Pistols manuscript lyrics go up for auction

Just in time for the 47th anniversary of their only album, handwritten lyrics for Sex Pistols songs Never mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols hectare at auction.

Written by frontman John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), the lyrics are for the songs “Holidays in the Sun”, which opened the band's 1977 debut, and “Submission”, which appeared as a stand-alone single with the record and was included in later versions.

Although influential, Never mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols it was not a chart success in the US, eventually reaching No. 106 Bulletin board 200 after 12 weeks on the chart.

The lyrics are written in green and black pen on both sides of the 8 x 13 sheet, which includes the full lyrics to “Holidays in the Sun” (written as “Holiday in the Sun”) on one side, along with the opening The line, “Cheap vacations on other peoples' misery,” was added in pencil. The flip side features green lyrics for “Submission”, although Lydon had yet to add the title at the time of writing.

The sheet is presented in “good condition, with three folds and generally light handling wear” and features a signed letter of authenticity and one from music journalist Jon Savage, from whose personal collection the lyrics come.

The letter notes that the lyrics were “collected during his research England's dreamwhich is now considered the classic book on Punk Rock and that period (1975-79) in British social and political life' and that it 'was probably written when the Sex Pistols signed a publishing deal with Warner Brothers in the autumn of 1977 and is an original from the Jamie Reid collection which came into my possession in 1980'.

The lyrics themselves have been on loan to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland since 1996, where they have “featured prominently in the Museum's Punk exhibition” and have also been featured in the 2004 London Hospital Exhibition and the ' PUNK Exhibition: Sex , Seditionaries & the Sex Pistols at Manchester's Urbis building in 2005.

The auction is scheduled to close on November 21st, and although 14 bids at the time of writing saw the price reach $30,800, it is estimated to top $80,000 by the time the hammer falls.