Punk music – as a singular and identifiable movement in the UK – lasted about three minutes and thirty one seconds. After the first playing of Anarchy in the UK, pretty much everything that needed to be said had been said and the world was able to collectively move on to pastures new. What followed was far more interesting.
Of the post-Pistols fallout, iPad addict and consummate butter salesman John Lydon has had more influence than most over the direction of the musical genre which came to be known as Post-Punk.
While the Sex Pistols might be dismissed as pop-song mannequins for Malcolm McLaren’s clothing interests, Public Image Ltd offered an altogether seedier, salacious, sinister and seductive sound.
Limited Public Image
The band is seen by many as the musical vehicle of the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten. But that would be to dismiss the contributions of the rotating cast of players who move in and out of the line-up.
Whether it is the roving bubble of bass supplied by Jah Wobble or the pallid punch of Keith Levene’s guitars, Public Image Ltd were almost predicated on pushing a wider range of styles than Lydon’s former group had ever even imagined.
While the Sex Pistols burned out on a series of powerful three chord pop identikit singles, PiL would bear a greater similarity to later post punk groups such as A Certain Ratio or The Durutti Column than genre stalwarts such as the Ramones or the Buzzcocks.
Before the band’s first album had even been recorded, Jah Wobble had assaulted an assistant sound engineer and the recording budget had been spent on non-studio related adventuring. As such, several tracks on the debut album – First Issue – are notorious for their varying sound quality.
With the band content to push boundaries and adhere to anything other than the standard song formula, passages of the album pass by without acknowledgement of choruses, melodies or anything other than a merited disdain for the listener.
Treating the audience with the contempt they deserved, Lydon levelled attacks at any previous perceived slight; his vicious lyrics lashing out at former colleagues, religion, government and anything else he could lay his eyes on.
The album is rightly regarded as a classic. U2 would pilfer the guitar sound and make a career out of softening the tone for a mass audience’s ears. Wobble’s “impossibly deep” bass tone would extend the influence of Jamaican dub into white English pop and rock.
Even the sound of John Lydon’s half-hearted arson attempt makes it on to the record, quickly followed by the squirt of studio fire extinguishers rushing to deal with the fire.
This Is Not A Love Song
In all, the band would record nine albums. Their most recent, 2012’s This Is PiL, received favourable reviews. It demonstrated that, despite the revolving line up of musicians, the growing celebrity apathy of the lead singer and the new face of popular punk, the band still had the capacity to produce confrontational, abrasive and engrossing music.
Now, shorn of many of the original band members, Public Image Ltd are bringing their music to a London stage. Taking a break from recording their latest long player, PiL will appear onstage at the Indigo at the O2 Arena for a special one off show. As the only show that the group will play this year, the 13th December provides a special opportunity for those growing weary of the Christmas spirit.
Punk may well have died almost as soon as it arrived, but Public Image Ltd are evidence that while the original corpse may have festered a bit, the spirit, attitude and bitterness of the players can ply a malleable, enduring and contemporary existence in a post-punk world.
For tickets, head over to the O2 arena website.
