"It is time to be brave and kindle the fires of hope for the Twenty-first Century," (Jamie Reid)

Rules, like buttons, are meant to be undone, and Jamie Reid is the original unfastener of all that's been held together and hallowed in Britain over the past thirty years. The image pirate, painter, and sloganeer remains the country's top anti-establishment Big Name Artist. Reid is infamous as the agitator who put the safety pin through the Queen's lip to visually define punk, and it's icons, the Sex Pistols. But for him it was no hip fashion statement or career move. It was a chance to get visual and philosophical ideas through to the mainstream. And that spirit's still firing on all cylinders.

Brought-up in Croydon, London, in terms of politics and creativity, Jamie had a lot to live up to. His grandfather died gun-running for the Chinese in the Boxer rebellion; his Scottish great-uncle, George Watson MacGregor-Reid was head of the Druid Order, and one of the first Labour parliamentary candidates; and his elder brother Bruce, was one of the Spies For Peace who went to live in Russia for a while in 1963.

Meanwhile, his father, the City Editor on London's Daily Sketch, who never invested a penny in his life, and his mother, a firm believer in fairies, were steeped in spiritual socialism. Their philosophical legacy inspired Jamie to dive into the protest movement at the first opportunity, which just happened to be the student movement of '68, organising an occupation of Croydon Art College together with Malcolm McLaren.

The pair teamed-up later that year to make a film about the 'History Of Oxford Street', before going their separate ways; McLaren into the fashion business, Reid into the rebellion business, where he co-founded Suburban Press in 1970. What began as a Croydon community newssheet and printing press soon developed into a political machinegun nest spraying wild agitprop graphics, printed accusations of local corruption, and Situationist slogans. It was here that Jamie developed his unique style that was later used in Punk.

Photocopiers had their colours turned-up to the max, litho reproduction found new teeth, and torn typography was honed to a fine art, as the new visuals exploded out of this graphics hothouse. Corporate logos were turned inside out, and back on themselves as 'subvertising' became Reid's artistic response to the new Shopping Age.

And the anti-consumerist snipes and capers remain as cutting edge today as they were back in 1972/3, when they were first unleashed on an unsuspecting London.....'Keep Warm This Winter - Make Trouble' ..... 'Save Petrol - Burn Cars' ..... 'This Store Welcomes Shoplifters' ..... and the classic sticker that just screamed 'Lies !'.

A few years later, McLaren would contact Reid to enlist his help in artistically interpreting the Sex Pistols. The result is now history and histrionics. Anarchy flags subverting the Union Jack ..... images of the Queen lifted from postage stamps with swastikas replacing the eyes ..... ransom note lettering .....and those safety pins which pierced the very heart of the establishment.

Even the props for the Sex Pistols' film 'The Great Rock'n'Roll swindle', were major anti-consumerist statements that have now found their time Who would argue now that Vicious Burgers, Piss Lemonade, and Rotten Bars had deeper levels of meaning than first appeared ? And that the Holidays In The Sun sleeve, with the slogan ' A Cheap Holiday In Other People's Misery' would find favour and resonance with global eco-warriors of today?

Johnny Rotten and Malcolm McLaren may say that it was all just a scam, but for Jamie and countless other ex-punks and their progenies, it was a pop cultural protest that really did shake the system. And it still is French workers on general strike in Paris recently had 'No Future' scrawled on their barricades, while New Age Travellers invading Stonehenge through the massed ranks of police carry Jamie's 'God Save The Queen' flags, which were also adopted by Australian republicans in their campaign to have the Queen Of England removed as their Head Of State. Punk, inspired by Reid's accessible, easy to copy graphics, started a Do-It-Yourself revolution which is still very much kicking, and ripping-up the rules the world over.

"I don't believe in that 'I was in the Sex Pistols thing ', because what existed, was the complete opposite of that" Jamie argues "It was the democracy of it all that mattered. I've always believed in the punk attitude and how that spread into other places. It was making things out of nothing, which we're doing now more and more".

For Reid, personally, the punk ethos has since taken two roads The first has been continuing to base himself in the protest movement the second has been to try to build positive spiritual alternatives. Every major people's protest since punk has been kick-started by Jamie's visuals, from the anti-Poll Tax to No Clause 28 to the anti- Criminal Justice campaigns. A recent flyer took Disney, McDonalds, and Coca Cola logos and relocated them between swastikas and slogans screaming 'Corporate Slavery', and 'Cultural Rape'. While yet another features an advertiser's dream family with their eyes blanked-out and the legend 'Democracy The Lie' scrawled across their pretty vacancy.

Yet there's another side to the graphics and artworks of the Sham anarchist Reid, which has seen him produce colourful collages, hangings, and serene oil painted landscapes inspired by his Celtic and Druidic roots. This challenging work has come to fruition at the end of a ten year project ( 1990-2000 ) at The Strongroom studios in London, where Reid's weird decor is inspiring top pop musicians to greater creative heights.

Silk-screened canvasses, marble, etched bronze, and slate carry Reid's imagery across the twenty room complex, characterised by a cacophony of colour and symbols based on Jamie's 'Sound Magic' theories.

It is a kind of Temple to Sound, which, now completed, is a pop cultural monument for the new millennium.

"The Strongroom's Studio One is totally inspirational to the brain" says Keith from Britain's top dance act, Prodigy, "The colours and lighting can wake you up, but can totally chill you out; it's quite strange ".

2000 has also seen the completion of 'The Magic Room' at Hotel Pelirocco, in Brighton.

Now 53 and living in Liverpool with his wife and muse Maria, his works have been feted everywhere from the ICA in London to the Pompidou Centre in Paris. An Artist with a capital 'A' whose 'Never Mind The Bollocks' sleeve was voted second best ever by Rolling Stone magazine, and an Artist who you cannot get through art school without studying. From the thrash of punk music and rattling monarchy crowns, Reid now exhibits his visuals in dance clubs and galleries on canvas, paper, CD-ROMs, CD sleeves and laser shows.

"All that I've been doing is re-adapting my work from the late 60's and early 70's into different contexts and continuing with the same themes and messages" says Jamie "They're the same messages that have been fought over for the last 2000 years, and I don't think they will ever go away or change. You have to keep re-defining them and have a go again ".

Biography by Stephen Kingston - Manchester 2000.

Justice for Jimmy Ashley