A rare copy of the Sex Pistols' controversial single God Save The Queen has sold for £6,000 at auction. The never-played record is one of a handful out of 25,000 that were not destroyed by the punk band's former record company. In near mint condition, it is among the most valuable records ever pressed in Britain. This rare copy of the Sex Pistols' controversial single God Save The Queen has sold for £6,000 at auction . A&M Records ditched the rebellious punk rockers because of their bad behaviour on March 10, 1977- just six days after signing them. A series of incidents including Sid Vicious breaking a toilet bowl, cutting his foot and trailing blood all over the office and John Lydon making a death threat to a good friend of A & M's English director was enough for the company to wash their hands of them. Nearly all of the 25,000 copies of the single that had been pressed in the six days were promptly destroyed. Only nine copies with the original A & M sleeve are known to exist today and the one now being sold was saved by a former employee of the record company. The single was later released by Virgin, reaching No 2 in the charts. But its controversial lyrics and cover, featuring a defaced picture of the Queen, meant the BBC refused to play it. A&M Records ditched the rebellious punk rockers (pictured) because of their bad behaviour in 1977- just six days after signing them- and destroyed nearly all of the 25,000 copies of the single that had been pressed . An unnamed private collector bought the mint-condition record, one of only nine known copies, from Special Auction Services in Newbury, Berkshire. Alan Pritchard, SAS's music and entertainment specialist, said: 'The Sex Pistols are such a cult band and this is the most iconic withdrawn single. 'There are very few in existence as most were destroyed when the band was dropped. Just a handful were kept behind by people in the industry. 'When you get rareties like this it attracts a lot of interest from collectors, vinyl is highly sought after worldwide.' The highest recorded sale of the A & M version of God Save the Queen was £13,000 in 2006 when UK collector Marshal Peters sold a copy with its A & M card envelope.
A very rare copy of Sex Pistol's God Save the Queen has sold for £6,000 . The never-played record is one of most valuable  ever pressed in Britain . It's one of just nine in existence with the original A&M Records sleeve . Most were destroyed after the company ditched them for bad behaviour .