Public Image Ltd.
Encyclopedia
Public Image Ltd are an English post-punk
band formed by vocalist John Lydon
(aka Johnny Rotten), guitarist Keith Levene
and bassist Jah Wobble
, with frequent subsequent personnel changes. Lydon is the sole constant member of the band.
Lydon emerged after the break-up of the Sex Pistols
with PiL's First Issue
(1978). His new band had a more experimental sound: Wobble's "droning, slow-tempo, bass-heavy noise rock, overlaid by Lydon's distinctive, vituperative rant." Their early work is often regarded as some of the most challenging and innovative music of the post-punk era. Their 1979 album Metal Box
was ranked number 469 on Rolling Stone
magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
. The NME
described PiL as "arguably the first post-rock
group".
with Virgin Records
head Richard Branson
, in which Lydon assisted Branson in scouting
for emerging reggae
musicians. Branson also flew American band Devo
to Jamaica, aiming to install Lydon as lead singer in the band. Devo declined the offer.
Upon returning to England, Lydon approached Jah Wobble
(né John Wardle) about forming a band together. The pair had been friends since the early 1970s when they attended the same school in Hackney (both belonged to a circle of friends Lydon informally dubbed "The Gang of Johns" – John Lydon, John Wardle, John Gray, and John Simon Ritchie, a.k.a. Sid Vicious
). Lydon and Wobble had previously played some music together during the final days of the Sex Pistols. Both had similarly broad musical tastes, and were avid fans of reggae and world music
. Lydon assumed, much as he had with Sid Vicious, that Wobble would learn to play bass guitar as he went. While that had proven a fatal assumption with Vicious (Lydon cites Sid's musical inability as a prime reason for the Pistols' break-up), Wobble would prove to be a natural talent. Lydon also approached guitarist Keith Levene
, with whom he had toured in mid-1976, while Levene was a member of The Clash
. Lydon and Levene had both considered themselves outsiders even within their own bands. Jim Walker, a Canadian student newly arrived in the UK, was recruited on drums, after answering an ad placed in Melody Maker
.
PiL began rehearsing together in May 1978, although the band was still unnamed. In July 1978, Lydon officially named the band "Public Image" (the "Ltd" was not added until several months later), after the Muriel Spark
novel The Public Image
.
PiL debuted in October 1978 with "Public Image
", a song written while Lydon was still a member of the Sex Pistols. The single was well received and reached number 9 on the UK charts, and it also performed well on import in the US.
Lydon has been quoted as saying that Public Image represented his more creative side, while the Sex Pistols were his more rebellious side. He had already expressed his admiration for more experimental music when he was interviewed by Tommy Vance
on Capital Radio
while still in the Sex Pistols. The bands he had played included Can
, Third Ear Band
, Augustus Pablo
, Peter Hammill
and Peter Tosh
. Public Image were one of the first bands to successfully fuse the influences of krautrock and dub reggae.
(a.k.a. Public Image), the band spent their recording budget well before the record was completed.
The photography for the album "First Issue" was shot by Dennis Morris who also created the iconic P.I.L logo.
As a result, the final album comprised eight tracks of varying sound quality, half of which were written and recorded in a rush after the money had run out. Wobble had also beaten up producer Bill Price
's assistant engineer (Price, with John Leckie
, had secured the tight sound of the "Public Image" single), inciting Price to ban the group from their preferred Wessex Studios.
The album was considered ground-breaking on its release in December 1978. Grounded in heavy dub reggae
, Wobble's bass tone was called "impossibly deep" by contemporary reviews. Levene's sharp guitar sound, played on an aluminium Veleno
guitar, was widely imitated, most notably by The Edge
of U2
, and Geordie Walker of Killing Joke
." Lydon's vocals were more tuneless and incantatory than in the Sex Pistols, gesturing toward the avant-garde
territory of such artists as Yoko Ono
. Despite being widely criticised in the UK press for being "self indulgent" and "not rock n' roll", the first album sold well in the UK and Europe, reaching number 22 on the UK charts.
The single "Public Image" was widely seen as diatribe against Malcolm McLaren
and his perceived manipulation of Lydon during his career with the Sex Pistols. The track "Low Life" (with its accusatory lyrics of "Egomaniac traitor", "You fell in love with your ego" and "Bourgeois anarchist") has also been regarded as an attack on McLaren, although Lydon has stated that the lyrics refer to Sid Vicious
. The two-part song "Religion" refers contemptuously to Roman Catholicism; Lydon came up with the lyrics when he was part of the Sex Pistols but he claims the other members of the band were reluctant to use them. The closing track "Fodderstompf", heavily influenced by dub, comprises nearly eight minutes of a circular bass riff, played over a Lydon/Wobble double act lampooning public outrage, love songs and teenage apathy. The track culminates with the sound of a fire extinguisher being let off in the recording studio, as Lydon had lit a fire whilst in a weird trance-like state during the recording session. The first album was subsequently renamed as First Issue.
Jim Walker left the group in early 1979.
, London Bridge
. David Humphrey was their second drummer, who went on to record two tracks for Metal Box
at Manor Studios in Oxford, namely "Swan Lake" and "Albatross". "Death Disco
" (aka "Swan Lake") was released as a single in 1979 and reached #20 in the charts. The majority of the drumming on the album was provided by Richard Dudanski, PiL's drummer from April to September 1979. He was replaced by Karl Burns
(formerly and latterly of The Fall). Following sessions took place in which Martin Atkins
would show up for an 'audition' and discover himself in the middle of a recording session with the tape rolling. The recording was released on Metal Box as "Bad Baby". Atkins was PiL's drummer from 1979 to 1980 and 1982 to 1985.
Metal Box was originally released as three untitled 45-rpm
12-inch (30-cm) records packaged in a metal film canister (it was later reissued in more conventional packaging as a double LP set, Second Edition), and features the band's trademark hypnotic dub reggae
bass lines, glassy, arpeggiated
guitar, and bleak, paranoid, stream of consciousness vocals. Metal Box is starker than First Issue, more spread out and uncompromising, and scattered with bits of ambient
synthesiser. The design for Metal Box was the brainchild of Dennis Morris
, photographer and designer.
PiL had a series of contentious live shows and behind-the-scenes controversies during their first American tour in 1980. Their appearance at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was fraught with hostile exchanges between Lydon and the audience. Tensions offstage mounted as well. PiL demanded that they work only with local promoters, bucking the promotional machinery of Warner Bros. Records
, their American label. For both the Los Angeles and San Francisco appearances, PiL agreed to work with David Ferguson
and his independent CD Presents label. This business arrangement pitted the band and CD Presents in a pitched battle against San Francisco-based promoter Bill Graham
, who negotiated with concert venue owners and San Francisco government officials to deprive PiL of a concert location. Fearing public outbursts if the show was cancelled, San Francisco city officials instead opted to allow the CD Presents-sponsored event to proceed.
On 17 May the group appeared on the "staid" teenage music show American Bandstand
. This was because an influential producer for the show was insistent despite objections from nearly all the show's personnel and host Dick Clark, who referring to Lydon said, "What can I expect from this asshole?" The group was not keen on appearing either, but went on. As "Poptones" and "Careering" played, Lydon and the group broke many of the show's rules by failing to lip sync
, blowing his nose at the camera, bringing disco
-clad audience members to himself and the group, and banging a microphone in time to the music on Clark's podium. ABC
, feeling the show was a "disaster", did not want to air it, but the influential producer successfully fought for it. The show became a regular part of American Bandstand's highlight reels.
In June 1980 Lydon and Levene were interviewed on NBC's The Tomorrow Show by host Tom Snyder
. The interview was typically awkward, and ended with Snyder apologising to the audience:
1980 also saw the release of PiL's first live album, Paris au Printemps
– also the group's last album featuring Jah Wobble. On this release's album sleeve, the band's name and all of the track titles were translated into French. The album cover was a painting by John Lydon depicting himself, Keith Levene and Jeanette Lee.
. Levene had by then largely abandoned guitar in favour of synthesiser, picking up a technique that was unique, although perhaps owing a debt to Allen Ravenstine of Pere Ubu
. Atkins' propulsive marching band
-style drumming, the lack of bass and guitar, and Lydon's increasing lyrical abstraction made this LP a difficult listen for rock fans, and contemporary reviews expressed great confusion. The record consists mostly of drums, vocals, musique concrète
, and tape loops, with only gestures toward bass (played by Levene) and keyboards. Its forceful drum sound was widely copied, notably by Phil Collins
, though the drum sound was initially influenced by Collins' own work on Peter Gabriel III. The title "Flowers of Romance" was the name of a short-lived band
featuring Keith Levene and Sid Vicious in 1976 (it has also been applied to a pair of improvisional live numbers performed by the Sex Pistols). The track "Francis Massacre" was partially inspired by Lydon's incarceration in Mountjoy Prison
and the track "Hymies Him" began life as an instrumental piece intended for the score of Michael Wadleigh
's 1981 werewolf film Wolfen
.
In May 1981, PiL appeared in New York at the Ritz, playing from behind a projection screen. Lydon, Levene and Jeanette Lee were joined by a new drummer, 60-year-old jazz player Sam Ulano, who had been recruited for the gig from a bar, having apparently never heard the band before. While something reminiscent of but clearly different from PiL improvised behind the screen, PiL records were played simultaneously through the PA. Lydon taunted the audience, who expected to hear familiar material (or at least see the band), and a melée erupted in which the audience pelted the stage with bottles and pulled on a tarp spread under the band, toppling equipment. The promoters cleared the hall and cancelled the next night's show, and a local media furor ignited in New York.
, which included contributions from bass player Pete Jones. Lydon and Atkins claim that Levene stole the master tapes (fan opinion remains divided on Commercial Zone, some fans regarding it as the last album of the original PiL, and others regarding it as a mere collection of demos). Atkins stayed on through a live album (one of the first digital live albums ever recorded), Live in Tokyo (1983) – in which PiL consisted of him, Lydon, and a band of session musicians—and left in 1985, following the release of This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get
(1984). This album consists of re-recorded versions of five songs from Commercial Zone (several of which feature a horn section) and three new tracks (four songs from Commercial Zone were not re-recorded for the new album). PiL was moving towards a more commercial pop music and dance music
direction, and while many new fans found PiL, little of their original audience (or sound) remained.
A re-recorded version with harsher vocals and a brass section was included on the album This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get.
. Among the prospective recruits was Flea
, soon to be of Red Hot Chili Peppers
fame.
In 1985, Lydon recorded a song entitled "World Destruction" in collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa
's band Time Zone
and producer Bill Laswell
. PiL's 1986 album release was simply entitled Album, Compact Disc, or Cassette, depending on the format. The cover's blue typeface and spartan design parodied generic brand
s; promotional photos featured Lydon in a "generic blue" suit surrounded by generic foods and drinking generic beer. Produced by Bill Laswell (despite Lydon-fuelled faction and disunion) and with many of Laswell's usual rotating cast of musicians, it also featured guitar solos by Steve Vai
, considered by Vai himself to be some of his best work. Jonas Hellborg
, solo bassist and at the time, member of John McLaughlin
's reformed band, The Mahavishnu Orchestra
, played bass on the album. Jazz great Tony Williams and legendary Cream
drummer Ginger Baker
drummed on the album, which also featured Ryuichi Sakamoto
of the Japanese electropop group Yellow Magic Orchestra
. Controversy reared again, with claims that the album cover and title concept had been stolen from the San Francisco noise/punk band, Flipper
, contemporaries of PiL, whose album, Album
, featured a similarly unadorned sleeve. Flipper retaliated by naming their next album, Public Flipper Limited. Neil Perry gave Album a positive review in the NME
:
In the liner notes of PiL's Plastic Box compilation (1999), John Lydon remarked that:
To tour Album in 1986, Lydon recruited former Magazine
and Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist John McGeoch
, world music multi-instrumentalist (and former Damned guitarist) Lu Edmunds
, bass guitarist Allan Dias
, and former The Pop Group
and The Slits
drummer Bruce Smith. (Dias had previously played with David Lloyd
and Andrew Edge
in Uropa Lula
).
As the years went on, PiL's line-up grew steadier as the sound of the albums drifted toward dance culture and drum-oriented pop music. Edmunds left due to tinnitus
in 1988, and Smith left in 1990. McGeoch and Dias were members of PiL from 1986 until 1992, making them the group's longest-running members besides Lydon.
in 1987, and during early 1988 performed throughout the United States as part of the INXS Kick tour. Bill Laswell, who produced PiL's previous album, was at one point supposed to produce Happy?, but this idea fell through allegedly because Laswell wanted to replace the PiL line-up with his own session musicians (as had been the case with Album), a request John Lydon would not agree to. Happy? was ultimately produced by Gary Langan
and PiL. The album produced the single "Seattle" as well as the abortion
-themed single "The Body", a sequel of sorts to the similarly titled Sex Pistols song "Bodies
". In 1989, PiL toured with New Order
and The Sugarcubes
as "The Monsters of Alternative Rock", an arrangement of disparate alternative bands that predated the Lollapalooza
festival by two years. PiL's seventh studio album, 9
– so called as it was the band's ninth official album release, including the two live albums – appeared in early 1989 and featured the single "Disappointed". The album was produced by PiL, Stephen Hague
and Eric "E.T." Thorngren.
In 1990, Public Image Limited's song "The Order of Death" (from This is What You Want...This is What You Get) was prominently featured in Richard Stanley's movie Hardware. That same year saw the release of PiL's first compilation album The Greatest Hits, So Far
, which featured one new song, the environmentally themed single "Don't Ask Me". The rest of the album consisted of previously released material (remixes of several songs were used rather than original album versions. Also, the album remake of "This is Not a Love Song" was included rather than the original single version). Lydon claims that he wanted the album to be 28 tracks long; the eventual 14-track listing was a compromise with Virgin Records (who, according to Lydon, originally wanted only 8 tracks). The compilation – which boasted album-sleeve artwork by Reg Mombassa
– made #20 on the UK album charts.
PiL's last studio album to date, 1992's That What Is Not
, included a sample
from the Sex Pistols' song "God Save the Queen"
in the song "Acid Drops" (the younger Lydon's voice is heard chanting the words, "No future, no future..." in the outro). Lydon disbanded the group a year later after Virgin Records refused to pay for the tour supporting the album, and Lydon had to pay for it out of his own pocket. The band's last concert was performed on 18 September 1992 with the lineup of Lydon, McGeoch, Ted Chau (guitar, keyboards), Mike Joyce of The Smiths
(drums), and Russell Webb
(bass). Allan Dias, PiL's bassist since the spring of 1986, quit the band in the summer of 1992, some months before PiL itself went on hiatus.
, Glen Matlock
and Paul Cook
for the Sex Pistols' Filthy Lucre Tour
. Lydon released a solo album, Psycho's Path
, in 1997. 1999 saw the release of the 4-disc PiL compilation Plastic Box; it offered a more comprehensive retrospective of PiL's recorded output than the 1-disc The Greatest Hits, So Far. Plastic Box comprised a mixture of previously released and previously unreleased material spanning PiL's entire career up to that point, although no material from Commercial Zone or PiL's two live albums was included (in the compilation's liner notes, Lydon wrote that "this collection represents a comma not a full stop, I fully intend to carry on with PiL, and there will be more in the future.") PiL material also made up the vast majority of tracks on the 2005 John Lydon compilation, The Best of British £1 Notes
.
Long-running PiL guitarist John McGeoch died in 2004 at the age of 49.
in Japan in August 2011.
In November 2009 Lydon said PiL may re-enter the studio if they can raise enough money from their December tour or from a record company.
PiL went to Tel Aviv
to headline the Heineken
Music Conference 2010 Festival in August 2010. The group met with criticism for breaking the artistic boycott of Israel by some British musicians, done in protest over Israeli policies towards Palestinians. Lydon said in response, "I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi jews. If Elvis-fucking-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated."
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
band formed by vocalist John Lydon
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
(aka Johnny Rotten), guitarist Keith Levene
Keith Levene
Keith Levene is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was an early member of The Clash, but is best known as being a founding member of Public Image Limited, along with John Lydon....
and bassist Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
, with frequent subsequent personnel changes. Lydon is the sole constant member of the band.
Lydon emerged after the break-up of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
with PiL's First Issue
First Issue
First Issue is a post-punk album by Public Image Ltd released in 1978 by Virgin Records.-"Public Image":...
(1978). His new band had a more experimental sound: Wobble's "droning, slow-tempo, bass-heavy noise rock, overlaid by Lydon's distinctive, vituperative rant." Their early work is often regarded as some of the most challenging and innovative music of the post-punk era. Their 1979 album Metal Box
Metal Box
Metal Box is the second album by Public Image Ltd, released in 1979 by Virgin Records.The title refers to the album's original packaging, which consists of a metal 16mm film canister embossed with the band's logo and containing three 12" 45rpm records...
was ranked number 469 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
. The NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
described PiL as "arguably the first post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
group".
Early career
Following the Sex Pistols' break-up in 1978, Lydon spent three weeks in JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
with Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
head Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
, in which Lydon assisted Branson in scouting
A&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
for emerging reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
musicians. Branson also flew American band Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
to Jamaica, aiming to install Lydon as lead singer in the band. Devo declined the offer.
Upon returning to England, Lydon approached Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
(né John Wardle) about forming a band together. The pair had been friends since the early 1970s when they attended the same school in Hackney (both belonged to a circle of friends Lydon informally dubbed "The Gang of Johns" – John Lydon, John Wardle, John Gray, and John Simon Ritchie, a.k.a. Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
). Lydon and Wobble had previously played some music together during the final days of the Sex Pistols. Both had similarly broad musical tastes, and were avid fans of reggae and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
. Lydon assumed, much as he had with Sid Vicious, that Wobble would learn to play bass guitar as he went. While that had proven a fatal assumption with Vicious (Lydon cites Sid's musical inability as a prime reason for the Pistols' break-up), Wobble would prove to be a natural talent. Lydon also approached guitarist Keith Levene
Keith Levene
Keith Levene is an English songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He was an early member of The Clash, but is best known as being a founding member of Public Image Limited, along with John Lydon....
, with whom he had toured in mid-1976, while Levene was a member of The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
. Lydon and Levene had both considered themselves outsiders even within their own bands. Jim Walker, a Canadian student newly arrived in the UK, was recruited on drums, after answering an ad placed in Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
.
PiL began rehearsing together in May 1978, although the band was still unnamed. In July 1978, Lydon officially named the band "Public Image" (the "Ltd" was not added until several months later), after the Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...
novel The Public Image
The Public Image
The Public Image is a novel published in 1968 by Scottish author Muriel Spark and shortlisted for the Booker Prize the following year.It is set in Rome and concerns Annabel Christopher, an up-and-coming film actress. Annabel carefully cultivates her image to keep her career on course, managing to...
.
PiL debuted in October 1978 with "Public Image
Public Image (song)
"Public Image" is a song by Public Image Ltd. It reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The song was written when Lydon was in The Sex Pistols. The song addreses John Lydon's feelings of being exploited in The Sex Pistols by Malcolm McLaren and the press...
", a song written while Lydon was still a member of the Sex Pistols. The single was well received and reached number 9 on the UK charts, and it also performed well on import in the US.
Lydon has been quoted as saying that Public Image represented his more creative side, while the Sex Pistols were his more rebellious side. He had already expressed his admiration for more experimental music when he was interviewed by Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance
Tommy Vance was a British pop radio broadcaster, born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. He was one of the few music broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion hard rock and heavy metal in the early 1980s, providing the only national radio forum for both bands and fans...
on Capital Radio
Capital Radio
Capital London is a London based radio station which launched on 16 October 1973 and is owned by Global Radio. On 3 January 2011 it formed part of the nine station Capital radio network.- Pre-launch :...
while still in the Sex Pistols. The bands he had played included Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
, Third Ear Band
Third Ear Band
Third Ear Band evolved within the London alternative and free-music scene of the mid 1960s.-History:Members came from The Giant Sun Trolley and The People Band to create an improvised music drawing on Eastern raga forms, European folk, experimental and medieval influences...
, Augustus Pablo
Augustus Pablo
Horace Swaby , known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music...
, Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...
and Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh
Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh , was a Jamaican reggae musician who was a core member of the band The Wailers , and who afterward had a successful solo career as well as being a promoter of Rastafari.Peter Tosh was born in Grange Hill, Jamaica, an illegitimate child to a mother too young...
. Public Image were one of the first bands to successfully fuse the influences of krautrock and dub reggae.
First Issue (1978)
In preparing their debut album, First IssueFirst Issue
First Issue is a post-punk album by Public Image Ltd released in 1978 by Virgin Records.-"Public Image":...
(a.k.a. Public Image), the band spent their recording budget well before the record was completed.
The photography for the album "First Issue" was shot by Dennis Morris who also created the iconic P.I.L logo.
As a result, the final album comprised eight tracks of varying sound quality, half of which were written and recorded in a rush after the money had run out. Wobble had also beaten up producer Bill Price
Bill Price (record producer)
Bill Price is a producer and engineer famed for his work with The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Guns N' Roses, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Nymphs and The Waterboys....
's assistant engineer (Price, with John Leckie
John Leckie
John Leckie is a British music producer, notable for producing many high-profile albums such as The Stone Roses's debut and Radiohead's The Bends...
, had secured the tight sound of the "Public Image" single), inciting Price to ban the group from their preferred Wessex Studios.
The album was considered ground-breaking on its release in December 1978. Grounded in heavy dub reggae
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
, Wobble's bass tone was called "impossibly deep" by contemporary reviews. Levene's sharp guitar sound, played on an aluminium Veleno
Veleno (guitar)
The Veleno guitar is a highly-regarded series of aluminum guitars built by metal craftsman John Veleno. The first guitars were built in 1972. Veleno guitars are known for their unique sound quality. Public Image Ltd...
guitar, was widely imitated, most notably by The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
of U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, and Geordie Walker of Killing Joke
Killing Joke
Killing Joke are an English post-punk band formed in October 1978 in Notting Hill, London, England; other sources report the band formed in early 1979.Related news articles: Founding members Jaz Coleman and Geordie Walker have been the only constant members.A key influence on industrial rock,...
." Lydon's vocals were more tuneless and incantatory than in the Sex Pistols, gesturing toward the avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
territory of such artists as Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
. Despite being widely criticised in the UK press for being "self indulgent" and "not rock n' roll", the first album sold well in the UK and Europe, reaching number 22 on the UK charts.
The single "Public Image" was widely seen as diatribe against Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
and his perceived manipulation of Lydon during his career with the Sex Pistols. The track "Low Life" (with its accusatory lyrics of "Egomaniac traitor", "You fell in love with your ego" and "Bourgeois anarchist") has also been regarded as an attack on McLaren, although Lydon has stated that the lyrics refer to Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious
Sid Vicious was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols...
. The two-part song "Religion" refers contemptuously to Roman Catholicism; Lydon came up with the lyrics when he was part of the Sex Pistols but he claims the other members of the band were reluctant to use them. The closing track "Fodderstompf", heavily influenced by dub, comprises nearly eight minutes of a circular bass riff, played over a Lydon/Wobble double act lampooning public outrage, love songs and teenage apathy. The track culminates with the sound of a fire extinguisher being let off in the recording studio, as Lydon had lit a fire whilst in a weird trance-like state during the recording session. The first album was subsequently renamed as First Issue.
Jim Walker left the group in early 1979.
Metal Box (1979) and Paris au Printemps (1980)
PiL's second album is generally regarded as their best, as well as one of the most influential albums of the post-punk era. The departure of Jim Walker made way for a series of new drummers. Auditions were later held at Rollerball Studios in Tooley StreetTooley Street
Tooley Street is a road in South London connecting London Bridge to St Saviour's Dock; it runs past Tower Bridge on the Southwark side of the River Thames, and forms part of the A200 road. - St Olave :...
, London Bridge
London Bridge
London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...
. David Humphrey was their second drummer, who went on to record two tracks for Metal Box
Metal Box
Metal Box is the second album by Public Image Ltd, released in 1979 by Virgin Records.The title refers to the album's original packaging, which consists of a metal 16mm film canister embossed with the band's logo and containing three 12" 45rpm records...
at Manor Studios in Oxford, namely "Swan Lake" and "Albatross". "Death Disco
Death Disco
"Death Disco" is a song by Public Image Ltd. The record was released in both 7" and 12" single formats with a "1/2 mix" of the song and "Megga mix" on the 12" version...
" (aka "Swan Lake") was released as a single in 1979 and reached #20 in the charts. The majority of the drumming on the album was provided by Richard Dudanski, PiL's drummer from April to September 1979. He was replaced by Karl Burns
Karl Burns
Karl Burns is a British musician best known as drummer for The Fall, featuring in many incarnations of the band between 1977 and 1998....
(formerly and latterly of The Fall). Following sessions took place in which Martin Atkins
Martin Atkins
Martin Clive Atkins is an English drummer and session musician, best known for his work in post-punk and industrial groups including Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface, and Killing Joke...
would show up for an 'audition' and discover himself in the middle of a recording session with the tape rolling. The recording was released on Metal Box as "Bad Baby". Atkins was PiL's drummer from 1979 to 1980 and 1982 to 1985.
Metal Box was originally released as three untitled 45-rpm
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
12-inch (30-cm) records packaged in a metal film canister (it was later reissued in more conventional packaging as a double LP set, Second Edition), and features the band's trademark hypnotic dub reggae
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
bass lines, glassy, arpeggiated
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
guitar, and bleak, paranoid, stream of consciousness vocals. Metal Box is starker than First Issue, more spread out and uncompromising, and scattered with bits of ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
synthesiser. The design for Metal Box was the brainchild of Dennis Morris
Dennis Morris
Dennis Morris is a British photographer best known for his images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols.In 1979, he created the logo for the band Public Image Limited and the legendary and innovative Metal Box album packaging....
, photographer and designer.
PiL had a series of contentious live shows and behind-the-scenes controversies during their first American tour in 1980. Their appearance at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles was fraught with hostile exchanges between Lydon and the audience. Tensions offstage mounted as well. PiL demanded that they work only with local promoters, bucking the promotional machinery of Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
, their American label. For both the Los Angeles and San Francisco appearances, PiL agreed to work with David Ferguson
David Ferguson (impresario)
David Ferguson is an international outsider-culture impresario, activist, music producer and concert promoter. Over his career – most of which has been spent on the West Coast—he has worked with musical acts such as The Avengers, John Lydon David Ferguson is an international outsider-culture...
and his independent CD Presents label. This business arrangement pitted the band and CD Presents in a pitched battle against San Francisco-based promoter Bill Graham
Bill Graham (promoter)
Bill Graham was an American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death.-Early life:...
, who negotiated with concert venue owners and San Francisco government officials to deprive PiL of a concert location. Fearing public outbursts if the show was cancelled, San Francisco city officials instead opted to allow the CD Presents-sponsored event to proceed.
On 17 May the group appeared on the "staid" teenage music show American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
. This was because an influential producer for the show was insistent despite objections from nearly all the show's personnel and host Dick Clark, who referring to Lydon said, "What can I expect from this asshole?" The group was not keen on appearing either, but went on. As "Poptones" and "Careering" played, Lydon and the group broke many of the show's rules by failing to lip sync
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...
, blowing his nose at the camera, bringing disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
-clad audience members to himself and the group, and banging a microphone in time to the music on Clark's podium. ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, feeling the show was a "disaster", did not want to air it, but the influential producer successfully fought for it. The show became a regular part of American Bandstand's highlight reels.
In June 1980 Lydon and Levene were interviewed on NBC's The Tomorrow Show by host Tom Snyder
Tom Snyder
Thomas James "Tom" Snyder was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s...
. The interview was typically awkward, and ended with Snyder apologising to the audience:
"The interesting part is, is that we talked to these two gentlemen a couple of weeks ago, a pre-interview, apparently that went all just fine and it made great sense, and what I read about them this afternoon, but somehow it got a little lost in translation tonight. But that's probably my fault."Lydon re-appeared on Tom Snyder's Show in 1997, and they both apologised to each other about what happened that night. Lydon shook it off by saying "it's just entertainment", and the interview proceeded as normal.
1980 also saw the release of PiL's first live album, Paris au Printemps
Paris au Printemps
Paris au Printemps is a live album recorded by Public Image Ltd in 1980 on two consecutive dates in January in Paris, and released in November the same year. The title of the album is French for 'Paris in the Spring', with French names also given to the band itself and songs in the track listing...
– also the group's last album featuring Jah Wobble. On this release's album sleeve, the band's name and all of the track titles were translated into French. The album cover was a painting by John Lydon depicting himself, Keith Levene and Jeanette Lee.
Flowers of Romance (1981)
Jah Wobble left the band, and was not formally replaced. The resulting album was notable for its almost complete lack of bass parts. Martin Atkins, who had initially joined at the tail end of the Metal Box sessions, was re-recruited to drum on Flowers of RomanceFlowers of Romance (album)
The Flowers of Romance is the third studio album by Public Image Ltd, released in the UK in April 1981 by Virgin Records.The title of the album makes reference to The Flowers of Romance, an early punk band of which Keith Levene was a member...
. Levene had by then largely abandoned guitar in favour of synthesiser, picking up a technique that was unique, although perhaps owing a debt to Allen Ravenstine of Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu (band)
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. Despite many long-term band members, singer David Thomas is the only constant...
. Atkins' propulsive marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
-style drumming, the lack of bass and guitar, and Lydon's increasing lyrical abstraction made this LP a difficult listen for rock fans, and contemporary reviews expressed great confusion. The record consists mostly of drums, vocals, musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
, and tape loops, with only gestures toward bass (played by Levene) and keyboards. Its forceful drum sound was widely copied, notably by Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, though the drum sound was initially influenced by Collins' own work on Peter Gabriel III. The title "Flowers of Romance" was the name of a short-lived band
The Flowers of Romance (band)
The Flowers of Romance were an early punk band, formed in mid-1976 by Jo Faull and Sarah Hall. The band never played live or released any recordings, and, like London SS and Masters of the Backside, are more famed for the number of band members that later became well known, including: Sid Vicious...
featuring Keith Levene and Sid Vicious in 1976 (it has also been applied to a pair of improvisional live numbers performed by the Sex Pistols). The track "Francis Massacre" was partially inspired by Lydon's incarceration in Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison , founded as Mountjoy Gaol, nicknamed The Joy, is a medium security prison located in Phibsboro in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. It has the largest prison population in Ireland.The current prison governor is Mr...
and the track "Hymies Him" began life as an instrumental piece intended for the score of Michael Wadleigh
Michael Wadleigh
Michael Wadleigh is an American movie director and cinematographer renowned for his groundbreaking documentary of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, Woodstock....
's 1981 werewolf film Wolfen
Wolfen (film)
Wolfen is the title of a 1981 horror film starring Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Gregory Hines and Edward James Olmos based on Whitley Strieber's 1978 novel The Wolfen...
.
In May 1981, PiL appeared in New York at the Ritz, playing from behind a projection screen. Lydon, Levene and Jeanette Lee were joined by a new drummer, 60-year-old jazz player Sam Ulano, who had been recruited for the gig from a bar, having apparently never heard the band before. While something reminiscent of but clearly different from PiL improvised behind the screen, PiL records were played simultaneously through the PA. Lydon taunted the audience, who expected to hear familiar material (or at least see the band), and a melée erupted in which the audience pelted the stage with bottles and pulled on a tarp spread under the band, toppling equipment. The promoters cleared the hall and cancelled the next night's show, and a local media furor ignited in New York.
Commercial Zone (1983), Live in Tokyo (1983) and This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get (1984)
Atkins, like Levene and Lydon, was a control freak, but Levene had the disadvantage of having repeatedly fired Atkins over apparent trifles, and of being incapacitated on heroin much of the time—so when conflict arose again, Levene was the one to go. An aborted fourth album recorded in 1982 was later released by Levene as Commercial ZoneCommercial Zone
Commercial Zone is an album of studio recordings by Public Image Ltd., recorded in 1982-1983 and released in 1984 by PiL founding guitarist Keith Levene. Following his departure from the band, Levene fled with the master tapes to America, where he sold the rights for the material and had several...
, which included contributions from bass player Pete Jones. Lydon and Atkins claim that Levene stole the master tapes (fan opinion remains divided on Commercial Zone, some fans regarding it as the last album of the original PiL, and others regarding it as a mere collection of demos). Atkins stayed on through a live album (one of the first digital live albums ever recorded), Live in Tokyo (1983) – in which PiL consisted of him, Lydon, and a band of session musicians—and left in 1985, following the release of This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get
This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get
This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get is a 1984 album by Public Image Ltd. It is the band's fourth official studio album and includes the single "Bad Life," and a re-recorded version of a "This is Not a Love Song", which had been a #5 UK and international hit when released as a single in...
(1984). This album consists of re-recorded versions of five songs from Commercial Zone (several of which feature a horn section) and three new tracks (four songs from Commercial Zone were not re-recorded for the new album). PiL was moving towards a more commercial pop music and dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
direction, and while many new fans found PiL, little of their original audience (or sound) remained.
"This Is Not A Love Song" (1983)
During this interim period, the band released the single This Is Not A Love Song in 1983, the song's lyric lampooning the ire from some fans and the music press over the band's movement towards a more commercial style. The song's title was inspired by a line in the song "Her Story" (1979) by Virgin label stablemates the Flying Lizards, about bands 'selling out' their artistic principles for commercial success ("But you can still make money, by singing sweet songs of love... this is a love song"). Ironically, it gave the band their biggest international hit single, reaching #5 in the UK singles charts and #12 in the Netherlands.A re-recorded version with harsher vocals and a brass section was included on the album This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get.
Album | Compact Disc | Cassette (1986)
In 1984, Lydon started to put together a new touring band and auditioned various musicians at Perkins Palace in Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
. Among the prospective recruits was Flea
Flea (musician)
Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...
, soon to be of Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
fame.
In 1985, Lydon recorded a song entitled "World Destruction" in collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal...
's band Time Zone
Time Zone (band)
Time Zone was a electro band headed by Afrika Bambaataa. Bambaataa worked with different musicians for each Time Zone project.-History:The first Time Zone single was the 1983 electro song "The Wildstyle" which featured music from a German project called Wunderwerke. Bambaataa was introduced to...
and producer Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
. PiL's 1986 album release was simply entitled Album, Compact Disc, or Cassette, depending on the format. The cover's blue typeface and spartan design parodied generic brand
Generic brand
Generic brands of consumer products are distinguished by the absence of a brand name. It is often inaccurate to describe these products as "lacking a brand name", as they usually are branded, albeit with either the brand of the store in which they are sold or a lesser-known brand name which may...
s; promotional photos featured Lydon in a "generic blue" suit surrounded by generic foods and drinking generic beer. Produced by Bill Laswell (despite Lydon-fuelled faction and disunion) and with many of Laswell's usual rotating cast of musicians, it also featured guitar solos by Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
, considered by Vai himself to be some of his best work. Jonas Hellborg
Jonas Hellborg
Jonas Hellborg is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaganesh, Mattias IA Eklundh and Buckethead....
, solo bassist and at the time, member of John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin , also known as Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, is an English guitarist, bandleader and composer...
's reformed band, The Mahavishnu Orchestra
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion group, led by John McLaughlin, that debuted in 1971, dissolved in 1976 and reunited from 1984 to 1987.-First Mahavishnu Orchestra:...
, played bass on the album. Jazz great Tony Williams and legendary Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
drummer Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
drummed on the album, which also featured Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ryuichi Sakamoto
After working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as...
of the Japanese electropop group Yellow Magic Orchestra
Yellow Magic Orchestra
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in 1977 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band...
. Controversy reared again, with claims that the album cover and title concept had been stolen from the San Francisco noise/punk band, Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
, contemporaries of PiL, whose album, Album
Album - Generic Flipper
Album – Generic Flipper is the debut album by the San Francisco band Flipper. In November 2007, Blender magazine ranked it #86 on their list of the 100 greatest "indie rock" albums of all time. It is also referred to as Album, Album: Generic, Generic Flipper, and just Generic...
, featured a similarly unadorned sleeve. Flipper retaliated by naming their next album, Public Flipper Limited. Neil Perry gave Album a positive review in the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
:
"This is a wonderful, stunning and equally confusing record, and working on the theory that you'd never expect to hear the Lydon sneer backed by prime metal riffing, that's exactly what you get. Not everywhere, of course, as proved by the haunting "Rise". And "Ease", by the way, with its shock-horror two minutes plus guitar solo, is quite beautiful...In short, Lydon and PiL are still breaking barriers. The man has extracted the false phallus from rock's trouser front and is smashing it over our heads."
In the liner notes of PiL's Plastic Box compilation (1999), John Lydon remarked that:
"In some ways Album was almost like a solo album. I worked alone with a new bunch of people. Obviously the most important person was Bill Laswell. But it was during the recording of this album in New York that Miles DavisMiles DavisMiles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
came into the studio while I was singing, stood behind me and started playing. Later he said that I sang like he played the trumpet, which is still the best thing anyone's ever said to me. To be complimented by the likes of him was special. Funnily enough we didn't use him..."
To tour Album in 1986, Lydon recruited former Magazine
Magazine (band)
Magazine are an English post-punk group active from 1977 to 1981, then reformed in 2009. Their debut single, "Shot by Both Sides", is now acknowledged as a classic and their debut album, Real Life, is still widely admired as one of the greatest albums of all time...
and Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist John McGeoch
John McGeoch
John Alexander McGeoch, , was a Scottish guitarist who played with a number of bands of the post-punk era, including Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Visage and Public Image Ltd....
, world music multi-instrumentalist (and former Damned guitarist) Lu Edmunds
Lu Edmunds
Robert "Lu" Edmonds is an English rock and folk musician. Edmonds was educated at Ampleforth College....
, bass guitarist Allan Dias
Allan Dias
Allan Dias is an Indian football player. He is currently playing for Air India FC in the I-League in as a midfielder.-External links:* http://www.goal.com/en-india/people/india/39222/allan-dias...
, and former The Pop Group
The Pop Group
The Pop Group are a British post-punk band from Bristol, England, formed in 1978, whose dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz, funk and dub reggae. Their lyrics were often political in nature...
and The Slits
The Slits
The Slits were a British punk rock band. The quartet was formed in 1976 by members of the bands The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The members were Ari Up , who died of cancer in October 2010, and Palmolive , with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members, Kate Korus and...
drummer Bruce Smith. (Dias had previously played with David Lloyd
David Lloyd (musician)
David Lloyd is an English singer, musician, songwriter, currently living in Newcastle upon Tyne.-Biography:David Lloyd is a multi-media artist/composer/singer from South Shields in the North East of England. Lloyd moved to London in 1976, to study at Central St Martins College of Art...
and Andrew Edge
Andrew Edge
Andrew Edge is a musician from Leeds, England who has played pop music, dance, synth pop and ballads. After playing in local Leeds jazz-rock bands and Working Men's Club bands, he moved to London in the late 1970s, and joined the Thompson Twins...
in Uropa Lula
Uropa Lula
Uropa Lula was a British pop group, consisting of David Lloyd , Allan Dias , Pete Fromm , Andrew Edge , Chester Kamen , and Carol Isaacs ....
).
As the years went on, PiL's line-up grew steadier as the sound of the albums drifted toward dance culture and drum-oriented pop music. Edmunds left due to tinnitus
Tinnitus
Tinnitus |ringing]]") is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound.Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom that can result from a wide range of underlying causes: abnormally loud sounds in the ear canal for even the briefest period , ear...
in 1988, and Smith left in 1990. McGeoch and Dias were members of PiL from 1986 until 1992, making them the group's longest-running members besides Lydon.
Late career: Happy? (1987), 9 (1989), The Greatest Hits, so Far (1990) and That What is Not (1992)
PiL released the album Happy?Happy? (Public Image Limited)
Happy? was Public Image Ltd's sixth studio album, released in 1987.-Cover artwork:The cover art by Richard Evans is a homage to the style of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and an acknowledgement is made in the liner notes....
in 1987, and during early 1988 performed throughout the United States as part of the INXS Kick tour. Bill Laswell, who produced PiL's previous album, was at one point supposed to produce Happy?, but this idea fell through allegedly because Laswell wanted to replace the PiL line-up with his own session musicians (as had been the case with Album), a request John Lydon would not agree to. Happy? was ultimately produced by Gary Langan
Gary Langan
Gary Langan is an audio engineer and record producer.-Biography:In 1983, Langan co-founded the ZTT Records label with Trevor Horn, Paul Morley and Jill Sinclair...
and PiL. The album produced the single "Seattle" as well as the abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
-themed single "The Body", a sequel of sorts to the similarly titled Sex Pistols song "Bodies
Bodies (Sex Pistols song)
"Bodies" is a Sex Pistols song about abortion from the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The lyrics contain very graphic imagery about a terminated fetus and feature a great deal of profanity for the time: the third and final verse begins with a couplet in which the word...
". In 1989, PiL toured with New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
and The Sugarcubes
The Sugarcubes
The Sugarcubes were an Icelandic alternative rock band formed in 1986 and disbanded in 1992. They received critical and popular acclaim internationally.-History:...
as "The Monsters of Alternative Rock", an arrangement of disparate alternative bands that predated the Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
festival by two years. PiL's seventh studio album, 9
9 (Public Image Limited album)
-Personnel:*John Lydon: vocals*John McGeoch: guitar*Allan Dias: bass*Bruce Smith: drums-Track-by-track commentary by the band:"Happy?":*John Lydon : “'Happy?' was much more militant in its approach, kind of pissed off at the world. That was the attitude. But this one is much more happy, much more...
– so called as it was the band's ninth official album release, including the two live albums – appeared in early 1989 and featured the single "Disappointed". The album was produced by PiL, Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague
Stephen Hague is an American music producer most active with various British acts in the 1980s. He was an influential figure in the synthpop movement.-Early career:...
and Eric "E.T." Thorngren.
In 1990, Public Image Limited's song "The Order of Death" (from This is What You Want...This is What You Get) was prominently featured in Richard Stanley's movie Hardware. That same year saw the release of PiL's first compilation album The Greatest Hits, So Far
The Greatest Hits, So Far
The Greatest Hits, So Far is Public Image Ltd's greatest hits album.-About the album:This was the album that compiled all of the band's singles from 1979's "Public Image" to 1990's "Don't Ask Me", a new track released on the album and as a single that reached #22 in the UK and #2 on the US Modern...
, which featured one new song, the environmentally themed single "Don't Ask Me". The rest of the album consisted of previously released material (remixes of several songs were used rather than original album versions. Also, the album remake of "This is Not a Love Song" was included rather than the original single version). Lydon claims that he wanted the album to be 28 tracks long; the eventual 14-track listing was a compromise with Virgin Records (who, according to Lydon, originally wanted only 8 tracks). The compilation – which boasted album-sleeve artwork by Reg Mombassa
Reg Mombassa
Reg Mombassa is the pseudonym of Chris O'Doherty, a New Zealand born artist and musician. Resident in Australia, he is as well known there for his musical exploits — founder and former member of the popular Australian band Mental As Anything and member of Dog Trumpet - as he is for his art...
– made #20 on the UK album charts.
PiL's last studio album to date, 1992's That What Is Not
That What Is Not
That What Is Not was Public Image Ltd's eighth, and to date final album, released in 1992.-Track listing:# "Acid Drops"# "Luck's Up"# "Cruel"# "God"# "Covered"# "Love Hope"# "Unfairground"# "Think Tank"# "Emperor"# "Good Things"-Personnel:...
, included a sample
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
from the Sex Pistols' song "God Save the Queen"
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols song)
"God Save the Queen" is a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols. It was released as the band's second single and was featured on their only album, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. The song was released during Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977...
in the song "Acid Drops" (the younger Lydon's voice is heard chanting the words, "No future, no future..." in the outro). Lydon disbanded the group a year later after Virgin Records refused to pay for the tour supporting the album, and Lydon had to pay for it out of his own pocket. The band's last concert was performed on 18 September 1992 with the lineup of Lydon, McGeoch, Ted Chau (guitar, keyboards), Mike Joyce of The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
(drums), and Russell Webb
Russell Webb (musician)
Russell Webb is a New Wave bass guitarist who was member of bands like Slik, PVC2 , The Zones, The Skids, The Armoury Show and Public Image Ltd., and collaborated with Richard Jobson and Virginia Astley, and The Who.-Slik and PVC2:In 1977, future Ultravox and Live Aid face, guitarist and singer...
(bass). Allan Dias, PiL's bassist since the spring of 1986, quit the band in the summer of 1992, some months before PiL itself went on hiatus.
Hiatus
In 1993, Lydon worked on his memoirs, first published in 1995 as Rotten - No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, and in 1996 he regrouped with Steve JonesSteve Jones (musician)
Stephen Philip "Steve" Jones is an English rock guitarist, singer and actor, best known as guitarist and founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols.-Childhood:...
, Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock
Glen Matlock is an English bass guitarist most famous for being in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. Drummer Paul Cook has said that Matlock came up with much of the music for the band's songs and most of the lyrics, while lead singer Johnny Rotten made some adjustments...
and Paul Cook
Paul Cook
Paul Thomas Cook is an English drummer and member of the punk rock band Sex Pistols.-Early life and career:...
for the Sex Pistols' Filthy Lucre Tour
Filthy Lucre Tour
The Filthy Lucre Tour was the infamous 1996 reunion tour of the pioneering British Punk rock band Sex Pistols. The 78-date world tour lasted for almost six months....
. Lydon released a solo album, Psycho's Path
Psycho's Path
Psycho's Path is the 1997 solo album of John Lydon, released by Virgin Records. Lydon sang on all the songs and played most of the instruments, with additional guitars and keyboards supplied by Martin Lydon and Mark Saunders.-Track listing:#Grave Ride...
, in 1997. 1999 saw the release of the 4-disc PiL compilation Plastic Box; it offered a more comprehensive retrospective of PiL's recorded output than the 1-disc The Greatest Hits, So Far. Plastic Box comprised a mixture of previously released and previously unreleased material spanning PiL's entire career up to that point, although no material from Commercial Zone or PiL's two live albums was included (in the compilation's liner notes, Lydon wrote that "this collection represents a comma not a full stop, I fully intend to carry on with PiL, and there will be more in the future.") PiL material also made up the vast majority of tracks on the 2005 John Lydon compilation, The Best of British £1 Notes
The Best of British £1 Notes
The Best of British £1 Notes is a compilation album and DVD by John Lydon showing his work not only with the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd but also as a solo artist and collaborator and features "The Rabbit Song", a new song from his upcoming second solo album which is in progress...
.
Long-running PiL guitarist John McGeoch died in 2004 at the age of 49.
Reunion
In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform for five UK shows, their first live appearance in 17 years. Lydon financed the reunion using money he earned doing a UK TV commercial for Country Life butter. "The money that I earned from that has now gone completely – lock stock and barrel – into reforming PiL", said Lydon. The current PiL lineup (consisting of Lydon, earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, plus multi-instrumentalist Scott Firth) played to generally positive reviews in late 2009. The tour also spawned a live album release, ALiFE 2009. In April 2010, PiL began an extensive North American tour, including a sub-headlining appearance at the Coachella Festival. The band will play several European concerts in July 2010 and at the Summer Sonic FestivalSummer Sonic Festival
The Summer Sonic Festival is an annual two or three-days rock festival held at the same time in Osaka and Chiba. The majority of the bands playing in Osaka the first day go to Chiba the following day and vice versa....
in Japan in August 2011.
In November 2009 Lydon said PiL may re-enter the studio if they can raise enough money from their December tour or from a record company.
PiL went to Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
to headline the Heineken
Heineken
Heineken is a Dutch beer which has been brewed by Heineken International since 1873. It is available in a 4.6% alcohol variety in countries such as Ireland. It is the flagship product of the Heineken company and is made of purified water, malted barley, hops, and yeast. In 1886 H...
Music Conference 2010 Festival in August 2010. The group met with criticism for breaking the artistic boycott of Israel by some British musicians, done in protest over Israeli policies towards Palestinians. Lydon said in response, "I really resent the presumption that I'm going there to play to right-wing Nazi jews. If Elvis-fucking-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he's suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won't understand how anyone can have a problem with how they're treated."
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales thresholds) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.K. |
U.S. Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
NZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
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| 1978 | First Issue First Issue First Issue is a post-punk album by Public Image Ltd released in 1978 by Virgin Records.-"Public Image":...
|
22 | – | 18 |
British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... : Silver |
| 1979 | Metal Box Metal Box Metal Box is the second album by Public Image Ltd, released in 1979 by Virgin Records.The title refers to the album's original packaging, which consists of a metal 16mm film canister embossed with the band's logo and containing three 12" 45rpm records... Island Records Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group... , Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies... (US) |
18 | 171 | 21 | |
| 1980 | Second Edition (repackaging of Metal Box)
|
46 | – | 28 | |
| 1981 | The Flowers of Romance
|
11 | - | 33 | |
| 1984 | This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get is a 1984 album by Public Image Ltd. It is the band's fourth official studio album and includes the single "Bad Life," and a re-recorded version of a "This is Not a Love Song", which had been a #5 UK and international hit when released as a single in... |
56 | – | – | |
| 1986 | Album
|
14 | 115 | 34 | |
| 1987 | Happy?
|
40 | 169 | – | |
| 1989 | 9 9 (Public Image Ltd. album) -Personnel:*John Lydon: vocals*John McGeoch: guitar*Allan Dias: bass*Bruce Smith: drums-Track-by-track commentary by the band:"Happy?":*John Lydon : “'Happy?' was much more militant in its approach, kind of pissed off at the world. That was the attitude. But this one is much more happy, much more... |
36 | 106 | – | |
| 1992 | That What Is Not That What Is Not That What Is Not was Public Image Ltd's eighth, and to date final album, released in 1992.-Track listing:# "Acid Drops"# "Luck's Up"# "Cruel"# "God"# "Covered"# "Love Hope"# "Unfairground"# "Think Tank"# "Emperor"# "Good Things"-Personnel:... |
46 | – | – | |
Live, compilation, bootleg and other albums
- Paris au PrintempsParis au PrintempsParis au Printemps is a live album recorded by Public Image Ltd in 1980 on two consecutive dates in January in Paris, and released in November the same year. The title of the album is French for 'Paris in the Spring', with French names also given to the band itself and songs in the track listing...
(live) – 1980 UK #61 - Live in TokyoLive in Tokyo (Public Image Ltd.)Live in Tokyo is a 1983 live album released by Public Image Ltd It was released by EMI records and reached #28 on the British charts.-Track listing: # "Annalisa"# "Religion"# "Low Life"# "Solitaire"# "Flowers of Romance"...
(live) – 1983 UK #28 - Commercial ZoneCommercial ZoneCommercial Zone is an album of studio recordings by Public Image Ltd., recorded in 1982-1983 and released in 1984 by PiL founding guitarist Keith Levene. Following his departure from the band, Levene fled with the master tapes to America, where he sold the rights for the material and had several...
(bootleg) – 1983 - The Greatest Hits, So FarThe Greatest Hits, So FarThe Greatest Hits, So Far is Public Image Ltd's greatest hits album.-About the album:This was the album that compiled all of the band's singles from 1979's "Public Image" to 1990's "Don't Ask Me", a new track released on the album and as a single that reached #22 in the UK and #2 on the US Modern...
(compilation) – 1990 UK #20 - Box (box set) – 1990
- Plastic Box (box set) – 1999
- Public Image/Second Edition (two-in-one) – 2003
- AliFE (live) – 2009
- Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 2011 (live) - 2011
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.K. UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
U.S. Dance Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs... |
U.S. Alt |
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| 1978 | "Public Image Public Image (song) "Public Image" is a song by Public Image Ltd. It reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The song was written when Lydon was in The Sex Pistols. The song addreses John Lydon's feelings of being exploited in The Sex Pistols by Malcolm McLaren and the press... " |
9 | – | – | First Issue |
| 1979 | "Death Disco Death Disco "Death Disco" is a song by Public Image Ltd. The record was released in both 7" and 12" single formats with a "1/2 mix" of the song and "Megga mix" on the 12" version... " |
20 | – | – | — |
| "Memories" | 60 | – | – | Metal Box | |
| 1980 | "Careering" | – | 56 | – | |
| 1981 | "Flowers of Romance" | 24 | 51 | – | Flowers of Romance |
| 1983 | "This Is Not a Love Song" | 5 | – | – | This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get |
| 1984 | "Bad Life" | 71 | – | – | |
| 1986 | "Rise Rise (Public Image Ltd. song) "Rise" is a single released by post-punk group Public Image Ltd in 1986. It was the first single from their fifth studio album, Album.Written by John Lydon about the issue of apartheid in South Africa, which was a very prevalent issue in the 1980s... " |
11 | – | – | Album |
| "Home" | 75 | – | – | ||
| 1987 | "Seattle" | 47 | 30 | – | Happy? |
| "The Body" | 100 | – | – | ||
| 1989 | "Disappointed" | 38 | 26 | 1 | 9 |
| "Warrior" | 89 | 16 | 16 | ||
| 1990 | "Don't Ask Me" | 22 | – | 2 | The Greatest Hits, So Far |
| 1992 | "Cruel" | 49 | – | – | That What Is Not |
| "Acid Drops" | – | – | 29 | ||
External links
- Band's biography/discography
- Pete Jones website tells of his time as PiL bassist
- interview with John Lydon at SuicideGirlsSuicideGirlsSuicideGirls is a website that features softcore pornography and text profiles of goth, punk and indie-styled young women who are known as the "Suicide Girls"...
- Adrian Sherwood speaks about PIL
- Don Letts speaks about PIL
- Keith Levene on PIL