LimeWire Music Blog

It’s been 17 years since anyone’s heard a peep from U.K. post-punk giants Public Image Ltd.  Though the group’s brainchild John Lydon has claimed the band was merely on hiatus, everyone wondered whether we’d ever see the band on stage again.  It’s taken almost two decades for Lyndon to break the silence and reactivate the outfit, and yesterday he announced a handful of shows in the U.K. this December.

For those unaware, Lydon unveiled Public Image Limited only a few months after the Sex Pistols imploded on stage in the U.S. in January, 1977.  Though Lydon (then going by the Malcolm McLaren donned pseudonym Johnny Rotten) was the sneering, sarcastic poster child of the British punk movement, he became one of the forerunners of the more atmospheric, bass-driven post-punk sect, incorporating dub rhythms, angular guitar textures, and a more experimental edge throughout the late ’70s and early ’80s.  The band rotated members throughout their tenure, releasing eight studio albums and achieving several successful singles before Lyndon enacted the band’s hiatus.   Their earliest work (especially 1979’s Metal Box and 1981’s Flowers of Romance) remains highly influential to such modern acts as Massive Attack, Primal Scream, and the Manic Street Preachers.

As Public Image Limited were first unveiled near Christmas of 1978, these new shows will take place in the U.K., nearly 21 years to the date.  It’s a Christmas miracle! These shows aim to focus on the band’s earliest material, centering around Metal Box’s influential, meandering material.  Unfortunately, PiL will not feature the band’s trademark lineup, including the likes of bassist Jah Wobble and Clash-guitarist Keith Levine.  Instead, Lydon plans to assemble late-’80s contributors Lu Edmonds and Bruce Smith, rounded out by newcomer and multi-instrumentalist Scott Firth.  “We’ll see where we can go,” Lydon quipped in an exclusive interview with The Guardian.  “Some things may be quite similar. Some may not.”

The Guardian also keys into Lydon’s inspiration for reactivating the band.  Living a life plagued by the death of some of his closest friends (Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his mother inspiring the cathartic Flowers of Romance record and the single “Death Disco,” respectively), the passing of his father and his brother’s unfortunate diagnosis seems to have triggered an emotional response similar to the band’s early, harrowing tenure.  “It’s all about the emotions,” Lyndon states.  “I attack my weaknesses head-bang-fucking-on, and it’s quite painful for me at times – and it’s important.”

As for the band’s style and agenda, Lyndon, in true confrontational style, refuses to shed light on it.  “When I finally cease working, then you can make a judgment on what PiL is or isn’t,” he says. “For me, it’s an unfinished work which is set to continue for some time.”  If anything, that sounds incredibly promising.  In the interim, I’ll keep all appendages crossed in hopes that the band will make its way to the States once these first few shows have come and gone.