Public Image Ltd on TV, Film and Video

Public Image Ltd. (PiL) are an English musical group formed in 1978 by vocalist John Lydon, guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, with frequent subsequent personnel changes.

Rising from the ashes of the pivotal punk rock group the Sex Pistols, PiL branched out to a more experimental sound, and their early work is often regarded as some of the most challenging and innovative music of the post-punk era: the NME[1] described PiL as "arguably the first post-rock group". Their later music would be somewhat more conventional, and although PiL have been inactive since 1992, Lydon (the band's only constant member) considers the group "on hiatus" rather than broken up. In September 2009, it was announced that Lydon would reform the group in December 2009. They will tour North America in 2010.[2]

History

Early career

Following the Sex Pistols' breakup in 1978, Lydon spent three weeks in Jamaica 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, with an aim to installing Lydon as lead singer in the band. Devo declined the offer.[3]

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. They 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 his musical inability as a prime reason for the Pistols' breakup), 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.[4]

PiL debuted in October 1978 with "Public Image", a song written while Lydon was still a member of Sex Pistols.[5] 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. Lydon 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.

First Issue [1978]

In preparing their debut album, First Issue, the band spent their recording budget well before the record was completed. 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 groundbreaking 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,[6] 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"[citation needed], the first album sold well in the UK and Europe, reaching number 22 on the UK charts, respectively.

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 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]

This album was an altogether more focused effort. Jim Walker had quit through general disillusionment in addition to the drugs and disorganization that were the normal condition of the band. This made way for a series of new drummers. Auditions were later held at Rollerball Studios in Tooley Street, 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 no 20 in the charts. David left following other commitments. In one case, Wobble set fire to Karl Burns (formerly and latterly of The Fall). Following sessions took place in which a star-struck young 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".[7]

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 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 synthesizer. 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.[8]

PiL also 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.

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:

"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."[9]

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 "its just entertainment", and the interview proceeded as normal.

Flowers of Romance [1981]

Jah Wobble was fired from the band because he had used one or more rhythm tracks for Metal Box on his 1980 solo album The Legend Lives On - Jah Wobble in Betrayal. He was not formally replaced, and 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 Romance. Levene had by then largely abandoned guitar in favour of synthesizer, 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 ...   More