Filthy lucre brings the old Sex Pistol and his anti-anthem back for punk's jubilee

The closest it got to anarchy was John Lydon belching down the microphone, but the message was clear: the Queen's golden jubilee also belongs to the Sex Pistols, and they want their share of the cash.

Waving a can of his corporate sponsor's lager, Lydon, sometime iconoclast and now middle-aged chat show host, yesterday confirmed what had long been suspected – the commercial lure of revisiting the first collision between punk and royalty had proved too strong.

The Pistols singer confirmed that the band were re-releasing "God Save the Queen", their two-fingered salute to the establishment 25 years ago, and will play a concert in south London to mark their own "jubilee" this summer.

"God Save the Queen" was banned by all major radio stations in 1977, failing to reach No 1 on silver jubilee day in what many believe was a fix. A quarter of a century later, Lydon announced the Pistols were at it again – in the name of Mammon rather than rebellion.

Sporting a spiky haircut with orange and blue stripes, Lydon, 46, told a press conference at a nightclub in west London: "Money? Too right. I work hard – this is business."

The concert at Crystal Palace in July will be accompanied by the re-release of "God Save the Queen" on 27 May – 25 years to the day after its first appearance.

The re-release, by Virgin Records – featuring the original sleeve of the Queen with a safety pin through her nose – has been timed to give the record a chance of topping the charts for next month's jubilee celebrations.

Lydon, formerly known as Johnny Rotten, insisted that middle age had done nothing to calm the fury that created such classic singles as "God Save the Queen", "Pretty Vacant" and "Anarchy in the UK". He used his visit from his home in Los Angeles, where he has a chat show called Rotten TV, to try to generate a Pistols-style controversy with swipes at some of his favourite targets, including the Prince of Wales, Tony Blair and Ozzy Osbourne.

The Queen was praised for keeping her son off the throne, the Prime Minister attacked for "betraying socialism" and Osbourne described as a "dismal, tired, worn-out drug addict". And when even a friend at the press event refused an invitation for some backstage hell-raising, Lydon resorted to boasting of his longevity. He said: "I never said I would die before I get old. I intend to go on and on and on and on."