Sex Pistols Anarchy Tour poster from Norwich goes to auction

The Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK tour is famous for being the tour that many venues banned.

An original poster advertising the first show on the tour in Norwich on December 3 is up for auction with a guide price of up to £3,500.

The Norwich tour date was cancelled (Image: Omega Auctions)The band were set to play at the University of East Anglia's (UEA) students' union bar along with other punk bands The Clash, Johnny Thunder and The Heartbreakers and The Damned.

It was the Sex Pistols' first real tour but days earlier the band had shocked the nation by repeatedly swearing in a television interview on Today with Bill Grundy.

READ MORE: Do you remember when The Sex Pistols played in East Anglia?

Following an outbreak of moral panic and fearing the band's "reported attitude to violence," the UEA's vice-chancellor Frank Thistlethwaite cancelled the gig "on the grounds of protecting the safety and security of persons and property".

The decision made headlines and led to many other venues following suit, ending with only three of the scheduled gigs going ahead.

An article from the Eastern Evening News covering the cancellation of the gig (Image: Newsquest)

Omega Auctions, a music memorabilia and vinyl records auction house based in Merseyside, acquired the 50x74cm poster from a former UEA student who was on the entertainment committee at the time of the tour. 

Auction manager Dan Muscatelli-Hampson is confident the lot will meet its guide price and reckons it could even go higher. 

"When you have a cancelled tour you don't have too many surviving posters - because it never went ahead people weren't able to get them on the night," he said.

"Any tour poster from the Sex Pistols Anarchy in the UK tour is valuable and commands a pretty serious price.

"I would expect there to be significant interest."

Viewing for lot 581 is available by appointment on April 22 and the auction will take place on April 23.