Badge (Pretty Vacant)
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
Late 1970s
During the punk and post-punk period of 1976 to 1984, it was fundamental to wear your allegiances, political or musical, on your lapel in the form of the button badge.
Better Badges, run by Joly McFie, was the small business leader in manufacture of punk buttons, of which this is an example. This badge utilises the same poster design by Jamie Reid for the release of the Pretty Vacant single, July 1977. The bus artwork, featuring the destinations 'Nowhere' and 'Boredom', is typical of Sex Pistols desire to be seen as being, and representing, angry young men with no purpose. Jamie Reid's cut-and-paste aesthetic developed from his interest in radical politics.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Physical characteristics
- Dimensions
- Diameter 5.5 cm
- Materials and techniques
- Printed paper and plastic film pressed on to metal pin back.
Technical characteristics
- Place recorded
- London
Identification
- Candidate id
- vam-O1152762
- Museum object number
- S.929-1990
- Source note
- Facts transcribed from the linked single-object source. Wider type attribution and authenticity have not been independently verified.
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type and source attribution against specialist references.