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Public Image Ltd

Public Image Ltd

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Public Image Ltd.: The Odd Combo

Interview by Danny Baker, New Musical Express, 16 June 1979

Danny Baker goes on the PiS with PiL ...

Public Image Limited: The Flowers Of Romance (Virgin)

Review by Jon Savage, The Face, April 1981

A typically caustic, sardonic title: the thorn in the rose. If much of the current chart has much of the grace and flow of 1966 ...

Audio interviews

Public Image Ltd. (1981)

Interview by Kris Needs, Rock's Backpages audio, 1981

John Lydon, Keith Levene and (a barely audible) Jeanette Lee on: the Flowers of Romance album; what was wrong with Wobble; Satin tour jackets; the Futurists & Steve Strange; problems with Virgin Records and more.

File format: mp3; file size: 41.2mb, interview length: 45' 01" sound quality: **

PiL (1988)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, August 1988

Live Aid? Bollocks! Mat Snow battles the airport tannoy to hear pearls of wisdom from John Lydon and band.

File format: MP3 File size: 16.1 mb<br> Interview length: 23 minute 47 seconds Sound quality: ***

John Lydon (1990)

Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, September 1990

John Lydon, eco-warrior, talks about — among many things — rap, NWA, and the Moral Majority; Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes; ex-bandmate Steve Jones; living in Los Angeles; punks becoming the new establishment; football and his beloved Arsenal; his take on fashion; liking Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour and offending Joni Mitchell; the current PiL and the band's previous members; on being involved in film... and being very rude about the Clash.

File format: mp3; file size: 104mb, interview length: 1h 48' 20" sound quality: ***

John Lydon (2015)

Interview by Paul Zollo, Rock's Backpages audio, 5 August 2015

The venerable (post)punk talks about how he writes, from the Pistols days through PiL: his influences, motivation and about specific songs.

File format: mp3; file size: 31.3mb, interview length: 34' 09" sound quality: ** (phoner)

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Singles: PiL, Cabaret Voltaire, X-Ray Spex, Chris Bell, The Cars et al

Review by Hugh Jarse, ZigZag, November 1978

PUBLIC IMAGE: 'Public Image' (Virgin) 'ELLO, A LOW-key re-emergence which grows on ya. I know everybody was expecting another anthem but here ya go, this ...

Images of Public Image

Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 4 November 1978

Donning his sardonic mask, BARRY CAIN lurches into Sloane Ranger territory (Chelsea to you) and tracks down one J. Lydon and his mate Jah Wobble; ...

Public Image Ltd.: We Only Wanted To Be Loved

Interview by Robin Banks, ZigZag, December 1978

THE ENIGMATIC Johnny Lydon. Dubbed "The Messiah of Punk" by those who only thought in clichés, he was catapulted into a situation that left him ...

Public Image Ltd.: Public Image Ltd. (Virgin)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 9 December 1978

"THE PUBLIC Image is Limited", or so claimed John Lydon in a recent interview with his customary flair for a good, splenetic quip. Well, so ...

Public Image Ltd: Public Image

Review by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978

"I don't agree with bands who make records to please audiences." (Johnny Rotten.) ...

Public Image Ltd: Public Image (Virgin)

Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 9 December 1978

AND THE BOY looked at Johnny. And he shouted: "Look, ma, the Emperor's got no clothes." ...

Public Image Ltd: Johnny's Immaculate Conception

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 23 December 1978

Putting The Nation On The PiL ...

Public Image Limited; Linton Kwesi Johnson: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Penny Reel, New Musical Express, 6 January 1979

ON THE FIRST day of Christmas bondage bretheren and neon siteren children of the Rainbow – pace Aswad – left their parents' turkey tables en ...

Public Image Ltd.: Public Image Ltd. (Virgin)

Review by Kris Needs, New York Rocker, February 1979

THE EAGERLY-ANTICIPATED debut offering by Public Image Ltd. landed like a depth charge in the mire of self-congratulatory entrenchment that unfortunately bogs down much of ...

Rotten v. McLaren: No Winner

Report by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 24 February 1979

AS JOHNNY Rotten savours his first victory in the Lydon-Glitterbest case, Public Image Ltd. prepare to record a second album with a new drummer, the ...

Public Image Ltd., Merger, the Pop Group, Linton Kwesi Johnson, John Cooper Clarke: King's Hall, Manchester

Live Review by Mick Middles, Sounds, 3 March 1979

ALL PRAISE must go to John Cooper Clarke for transforming the freezing, bored alcohol-starved Mancunians into a warmly responsive audience. ...

Public Image Ltd., The Pop Group, Merger, Linton Kwesi Johnson , John Cooper Clarke: Kings Hall, Manchester

Live Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 3 March 1979

RACE TODAY magazine/organisation, acknowledging the central importance of Manchester in the struggle of black people, launched their northern campaign with a fund raising "Creation For ...

Public Image Ltd.: Public Image (Warner Bros.)

Review by Robot A. Hull, Creem, April 1979

NEVER MIND the Sex' Pistols, here's the rotting corpse of Johnny Rotten, stinking to high heaven like some maggot brain from the Bryan Ferry School ...

Public Image Ltd.: The Factory, Manchester

Live Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 18 June 1979

A Quick One While No-One's Thinking ...

The Rise And Fall Of Malcolm McLaren Part Three: Last Tango In Paris — 'Je Ne Regrette Rien...'

Retrospective and Interview by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 30 June 1979

WHEN HE WAS LYING, HE WAS MORE INTERESTING THAN MANY MEN TELLING A STORY TRULY. ...

Joy Division, Pil et al: Futurama '79 Festival — Set The Controls For The Squalor Of Leeds

Live Review by Andy Gill, Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 15 September 1979

The World's First Science Fiction Music FestivalWords: Ian Penman and Andy Gill. Pix: Kevin Cummins ...

Public Image Ltd.: Metal Box (Virgin)*****

Review by Dave McCullough, Sounds, 24 November 1979

PiLled to the gills ...

Public Image Ltd: Metal Box (Virgin Metal 1)

Review by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, 24 November 1979

Confessions of a pop performer ...

Public Image Ltd.: The Metal Box

Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1979

FRIDAY EVENING in Chelsea and I'm looking for a house, panning the street on the odd numbers side. Nearly there and a door opens. Down ...

Lydon: Rock & Roll is Dead and He Don't Care

Interview by Kris Needs, New York Rocker, March 1980

AN HOUR of music served in a round metal tin, the twelve-inch form giving depth and punch. Once again, Public Image Ltd. have jabbed music ...

Public Image Ltd.: Metal Box (Virgin import); Sid Vicious: Sid Sings! (Virgin import)

Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, March 1980

PIL'S METAL BOX: THE TIN CAN HAS A HEART ...

Public Image Ltd.: Is there any rust in the metal box?

Interview by Wayne Robins, Newsday, 9 March 1980

The king is gone but he's not forgotten This is the story of a Johnny Rotten It's better to burn out Than it is to ...

Public Image Ltd.: Lydon The Exorcist

Report by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 29 March 1980

John Lydon's back in America, as cynical as ever. He wants to forget the memories, do away with the past and rock 'n'roll. MARK COOPER ...

Lydon In New York: The Image Goes Public

Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, May 1980

IT IS TWO O'CLOCK in the afternoon, and John Lydon has just popped his third or fourth Heineken of the day. ...

Public Image Ltd.: PiL in Hollywood

Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 24 May 1980

HUDDLED ROUND the side with a crowd of disco dancers waiting for their fifteen minutes of fame, watching a fake Doobie Brothers run through their ...

Public Image Ltd: Market Cultural Center, San Francisco

Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 24 May 1980

PUBLIC IMAGE in a cultural centre — sounds arty enough to make you wonder if they've gone over the top. ...

Public Image Limited, James "Blood" Ulmer: Palladium, New York NY

Live Review by Richard Grabel, New Musical Express, 14 June 1980

NOBODY EXPECTS Public Image Limited to sell massive amounts of vinyl to the American public. So to see the "Sold Out" sign on the Palladium ...

Public Image Ltd: Corporation Executive Report to Shareholders

Report and Interview by Chris Bohn, New Musical Express, 5 July 1980

PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED and America hardly seemed made for each other. Yet having successfully defied Britain's star caste systems and ugly myth makers, earlier this ...

PiL: Rotten's Public Image is on the Mend

Interview by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 26 September 1980

A former Sex Pistol is trying to make it as plain John Lydon. Mary Harron reports ...

Image Publique S.A.: Paris Au Printemps (Virgin)

Review by Vivien Goldman, New Musical Express, 15 November 1980

Lydon says he hates live albums. Paris Au Printemps – PAP – the best of two nights recorded in Paris this spring, is a consumer ...

The Fugitive: John Lydon at Large

Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, December 1980

IT SEEMS POETICALLY APPROPRIATE that John Lydon has chosen Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange as the film to insert into the video-cassette deck at Virgin's Townhouse ...

Company Lore and Public Disorder: The PiL Memorandum

Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 14 March 1981

WHILE ENGLAND GOES down the plughole, the firm of Lydon, Levene and Lee set up to prove that enterprise is not dead. They press boldly ...

Public Image Ltd.: Flowers of Romance (Virgin, import LP)

Review by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 30 April 1981

FLOWERS OF Romance reminds me of this old Sid Caesar joke. He introduces a jazz musician as being "...on radar, to let us know if ...

Public Image Ltd.: Flowers of Romance (Warner Bros. BSK3536); The Gang of Four: Solid Gold (Warner Bros. BSK3656)

Review by Richard Harrington, The Washington Post, 20 May 1981

Rock-Bottom Rock ...

Jab Wobble At Your Service

Interview by Chris Salewicz, The Face, September 1981

The Entertainer as Servant of the People. Chris Salewicz talked to the former Public Image bass player. ...

Working On A New Public Image

Interview by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 22 September 1982

A GUITAR is being tuned, loudly, in the studio. Keith Levene strikes a familiar chord which quickly becomes a theme. Public Image Ltd.'s theme. ...

Keith Levene: The Bitterest PiL

Interview by Julie Panebianco, Boston Rock, 11 October 1983

THE URGENT guitar playing that cuts through the rumble of 'The Public Image Theme' isn't just the sound of a guitar going through an amp. ...

The Tube: Ready... Steady... Um...

Report by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 5 November 1983

Helen FitzGerald has a nightmare... and finds herself at the first night of THE TUBE. ...

PiL: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get (Virgin)

Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, July 1984

JUST when you thought you had the bugger pinned down as a spent force, a wasted opportunist and black and white photocopy of a colourful ...

Public Image Ltd.: This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get (Virgin)

Review by Biba Kopf, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984

DEAR JOHN, the big kiss off: ...

Punk: Rogues Gallery

Overview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1986

TO PUT EVERYTHING INTO PERSPECTIVE, AS TO WHERE THE ORIGINALS FROM '76 HAVE GONE; BE IT A WAYSIDE DITCH OR A MAJOR RECORD COMPANY WATER ...

John Lydon: This Is What You Get

Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 8 February 1986

THIS IS the beginning of an interview with the John Lydon who has drunk seven cans of Red Stripe lager, after breakfasting on oysters. ...

PiL: Album

Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 8 February 1986

THE WEST Coast News Dateline 2030 AD: ...

John Lydon

Profile and Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 20 February 1986

WHAT WERE YOU doing ten years ago, huh? Kicking coke cans in the street? Working in a factory? Going to university? Putting on a blazer ...

John Lydon: Apocalypse New

Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 24 May 1986

SOMEBODY told me John Lydon liked a drink. And this was indeed a large crumb of comfort. Suddenly, it was possible to establish some common ...

Public Image Ltd.: Album

Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, June 1986

I READ THE other day where Lee Abrams, the esteemed market research expert who brought us AOR radio, said he knew "snivelling Johnny Rotten would ...

A Private Hour with John Lydon's Public Image

Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, August 1986

A SHAME YOU can't hear the belches with which John — but you can also call him Johnny Rotten — Lydon punctuates his conversation. Great ...

John Lydon: I Cry Alone

Interview by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 10 October 1987

DAY-GLO PINK mini-dreads erupt from his scalp like antennae made of candyfloss. Iceberg blue eyes stare from cigarette ash skin. A smirk. A belch of ...

PiL: Astoria, London

Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 10 October 1987

HITLER'S SEXY DAUGHTER ...

Public Image Limited: Happy? (Virgin)

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 11 February 1988

TEN YEARS ago he was burying Led Zepplin; now he's praising it. Such are the artistic swings from Johnny Rotten (ne Lydon), professional iconoclast. Not ...

PiL: Holidays in Estonia

Interview by Mat Snow, Sounds, 17 September 1988

"I LOVE MOANING. That's what I live for!" cackles John Lydon as he surveys a pickled herring with an even fishier eye. "I'm going to ...

Public Image Ltd.: 9

Review by David Sinclair, Q, June 1989

PiL's seeping chill. ...

John Lydon: …Heeere's Johnny!

Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, July 1989

IN THE BAR OF the North London rehearsal studio complex, John Lydon, wearing a typically loud shirt, a pair of unorthodox dark spectacles and the ...

Public Image Limited: Life's A Beach

Interview by Neil Perry, Select, December 1990

In Public Image Limited's 12 years at pop's outer limits — a career now highlighted on a compilation LP — John Lydon's lifestyle has become ...

Public Image Ltd: D'Ya Ken John PiL

Interview by Richard North, Siren, March 1992

John Lydon refuses to go away, even though it seems the decent thing to do. Somehow he remains a thorn in the side, an anti-hero ...

Memories of a Freezing Festival… James/PiL: Alton Towers, Staffordshire

Live Review by Betty Page, New Musical Express, 10 July 1992

IT WAS NEVER really on the cards, was it, after a perfect Glasto, all sun and good vibes. There, James were last-minute bridesmaids; this was ...

No Future? At Least Lydon Isn't Hung Up On The Past

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 22 August 1999

JOHN LYDON – once (and probably forever) known as Johnny Rotten – does not stomp around the world in a bad mood, contrary to popular ...

PiL: Three's Company…

Retrospective by David Stubbs, Uncut, January 2000

David Stubbs takes a shine to the mesmerising remorselessness of PUBLIC IMAGE LTD's post-punk Metal Box... ...

Post-Punk: Lubricate Your Living Room

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001

FORGET ABOUT THE NOSTALGIA-MONGERING AND KITSCH REVIVALISM – THE POST-PUNK PERIOD OF 1979-81 WAS AN ASTONISHINGLY FERTILE TIME FOR BRITISH MUSIC, WHEN INDIE LABELS FLOURISHED ...

Post Punk's Not Dead!: ATTACK!

Retrospective by Mark Paytress, MOJO, January 2004

The avant-garde post-'77 post-punk sound was a revolutionary amalgam of funk, punk, disco and reggae. Mark Paytress explains the battle plan. ...

Public Image Ltd.: Full Metal Jacket – Metal Box

Retrospective by Kris Needs, Fact, January 2004

With the curtain closed on the Sex Pistols pantomime, in 1978 a still-searing John Lydon teamed up with Jah Wobble and Keith Levene to form ...

Simon Reynolds: Rip It Up and Start Again – Post-Punk 1978-84 (Faber)

Book Review by Andy Beckett, London Review of Books, September 2005

IN JANUARY 1978, the Sex Pistols, then and now the most famous punk band in the world, split up. Johnny Rotten, the band's singer, most ...

PiL: Heavy Metal

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Frieze, November 2007

As a new book on Public Image Ltd shows, the influence of their 1979 album Metal Box stretches far and wide ...

PiL: The Making Of 'Public Image'

Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, October 2008

With old scores to settle, John Lydon kicked off his post-Pistols career with an explosive first single. "Some say it's dub, but we all loved ...

John Lydon: 'PiL lets me express proper emotions'

Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Observer, 6 September 2009

ON CHRISTMAS DAY 1978, almost exactly a year after the implosion of the Sex Pistols while on tour in San Francisco, the artist formerly known ...

Public Image Ltd: Academy, Birmingham

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2009

EVEN IN A YEAR overstuffed with middle-aged rockers milking cash-in comebacks, the return of Public Image Ltd feels like a genuine cultural event. ...

PiL: Metal Box/Plastic Box

Review by Mike Diver, bbc.co.uk, 3 December 2009

Landmark post-punk album remastered for its 30th anniversary. Plus, 1999 4-CD box set re-issued. ...

Public Image Ltd, O2 Academy, Birmingham****

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 16 December 2009

Difficult, honest and angry, Lydon pushes at the limits ...

John Lydon

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, March 2010

IN CALIFORNIA WE MEET a traveller from an antique land. On two scrawny legs – KFC issue – he stands. He has a shattered look. ...

Dear John: Public Image Ltd

Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, May 2010

WAY BACK in 20th Century England, a gang of four insurrectionist-minded punk motherfuckers were to be found causing such an anarchic, subversive uproar as to ...

Dennis Morris: "Suddenly we were black, not coloured"

Retrospective and Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 25 March 2012

Dennis Morris is celebrated for his iconic photographs of the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley. But few knew that in that pivotal era he was ...

Public Image Ltd: This is PiL

Review by Johnny Sharp, bbc.co.uk, 28 May 2012

Rotten returns with a curious mixture of rage and nostalgia. ...

PiL: Forum, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 August 2012

NOW THAT JOHN Lydon, né Rotten, is no longer being targeted, feared and beaten in the street as a folk devil, it's possible to see ...

Public Image Ltd's Metal Box

Retrospective by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 1 November 2016

PIL'S SECOND ALBUM, Metal Box, is a near-perfect record that reinvents and renews rock in a manner that fulfilled post-punk's promise(s) to a degree rivalled only ...

see also John Lydon

see also Sex Pistols

see also Jah Wobble

see also Keith Levene

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