EPB-E01-S3 EPB-E01-S3 6 www.thisisbristol.co.uk Thursday, July 15, 2010 Thursday, July 15, 2010 www.thisisbristol.co.uk 7 Music

STEVE HARNELL crosses swords with John Lydon to talk about the upcoming visit of the reactivated Public Image Ltd, and why Green Day will never be on the iconic punk figurehead’s Above, the final Sex Pistols live show at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in January 1978; right, joining John Lydon in the new line-up of Christmas card list Public Image Ltd are Lu Edmonds, Bruce Smith and Scott Firth ver get the feeling my friends. The label would say: ‘we work through this emotional trauma. wear some tight black jeans and a Lydon’s never been too far away “I don’t think it is. I didn’t write reunions over the past you’ve been cheated?” can’t sell that. These people are “Yes, that’s true, and here I am being studded belt. Weeeee.’ Well it’s not from controversy over the last 30 God Save The Queen because I decade-and-a-half, Lydon hopes that E all unknowns.’ If they just had a little asked about Malcolm McLaren by punk. It’s manufactured and years. He’s been criticised for wanted to destroy England. Quite the he can produce fresh songs for PiL asks Johnny Rotten at trust in me then they would have other people. It’s dreadful. They just contrived.” appearing on I’m A Celebrity Get Me opposite. It was to get rid of that over the next year. the end of the Sex Pistols’ found they were onto an earner! want to talk about a manager from With many of the rock dinosaurs Out of Here – “I did it for charity! idiotic regime that was just living off “With the Pistols, it was a John’s ready to “Initially, Richard Branson wanted the past as if my real life is of no still stalking the planet –Rick Bloody hell, boo hiss, what a its laurels and daydreaming about a celebration of my ancestry, of my gig at the Winterland me to take some time off and reform interest. Wakeman and Jon Anderson from sell-out!” he protests in mock false empire. That had to go, but that heritage. And there’s nothing wrong Ballroom in San Francisco. with [Sex Pistols’ bandmates] Steve “I had serious trouble with my dad Yes are a questionable highlight of exasperation. “Tell that to the didn’t mean you gave up being with that. It’s a joyous event. That’s It’s January 14, 1978, and the Jones and Paul Cook in a group over the years. But my God, I lost my the forthcoming gig season in Bristol orphanages and the animals that British. what gave me my start and I’m singer has seen the seminal punk called The Professionals. It was best friend. So much was left –does Lydon ever think that punk needed care and attention.” “While I’m still paying tax for extremely grateful for that. band and totemic figures of awful. It would have been two steps uncleared. failed as a concept? He’s also taken some stick for those people I’ve got every right to “Once I get out of PiL mode then I disenfranchised youth fall apart at backwards for me at that time. “I leave myself open to having the “No, good luck to them. It’s more appearing in Country Life butter comment. It’s called freedom of might be able to go back and write the seams during a notorious and “I’d done the first PiL album and p*ss taken, but I wish people would Mick Jagger pretending to be 18 that adverts. Lydon’s keen to point out speech.” new songs for the Pistols. But it’sa fractious US tour. was well on the way to getting Metal see the other side of me.. p*sses me off. He still can’t sing, he though that he’s used the money to It’s clear that reactivating PiL has different frame of mind and Thanks in no small part to the go Public again Box together and realised that the “If anybody wants to know can’t dance and he can hardly write a put PiL back on the road. given John a whole new lease of life. approach. Both are right but they are behind-the-scenes plotting of label just wasn’t grasping what I was anything about me then listen to the song,” he chuckles. “It’s not good “It worked out that way. They gave “I love it. In the 30 years that I’ve from different angles. It’s very hard manager Malcolm McLaren, the band doing.” PiL songs. Plus, with the Pistols I was enough. If it was, then it would be me an opportunity to mess about been around this is probably the to explain, but it’s all emotional. had become little more than a freak PiL’s most influential release was straight off the street when I went irrelevant what age he was. The with the scripts and had respect for most enjoyable it’s ever been on “When I come to grips with it, you show. They never played live again name of John Lydon and recruited “But that will only come after I’ve After forming PiL in 1978, Lydon the aforementioned Metal Box, a into songwriting. I think I did rather Stones show themselves up and have me. They believed that I could pull it stage. I’m still nervous as hell before shall hear the rewards, or the horror, after Rotten’s departure and the final old school friend Jah Wobble to form sorted out a record company for us. faced huge criticism for diverting ghostly collection of experimental well actually! What do people want? I become conceited. They think that off and I did. We made some highly I go on but feel absolutely wonderful of it all. It’s an internal problem that nail in the coffin for the Pistols was a new experimental outfit, Public When I look at the current labels, from the uncomplicated rock’n’roll of sounds and freeform song structures. came fully loaded to the mad hatter’s the imagery and the pop machine are entertaining commercials. And it’sa when I’m there. I have to resolve. It’s not that I can’t the death of bassist Sid Vicious little Image Ltd. their complete lack of empathy with the Pistols. “Yes, it was all about throwing tea party!” more important than the content. British product. Frankly, it’s the most “Singing-wise this is probably the write, but I don’t know how to pick more than a year later. A one-time member of The Clash, us is underwhelming to say the “I never wanted to be different for clichés away,” Lydon explains. Another word that keeps cropping “Punk hasn’t failed for me. I’m still anarchic thing you could think of. best I’ve ever been. There’s no up the pieces from where I left off Despite his disenchantment with Keith Levene, joined as guitarist least.” “However, sometimes I do like to go up in the live reviews of the new PiL here because of it. I can’t help the What’s wrong with promoting British alcohol involved, apart from my with the Pistols. But there’s been rock’n’roll, Rotten wasted little time while Jim Walker took over PiL are considered one of the most back to the pop format –Ilove to shows is ‘challenging’. weak hearts and never wanted to in products?” brandy throat wash. I have a bucket, some faces removed from the band’s in making his next move. Within drumming duties. influential bands of the post-punk write a good pop song because pop “Well it’s only challenging if you the first place. I never wanted to raise Despite being a long-time resident otherwise it would be a slop-fest. It’s history now which might make it a punk flag and say ‘stand behind weeks of leaving the Pistols, Johnny Over the next 14 years, Public era, but record companies still seem does cover areas in the emotional don’t know anything about yourself of California, Lydon claims he’s lost the best throat gargle you can get. easier for me. this, we’ll make loads of money’. It “I can’t just go off and write a song Rotten had reverted back to his birth Image Ltd (or PiL for short) released reluctant to put their hands in their ranges that are quite valid. But I or the world of music. If you’re none of his Britishness and is a firm “I still have problems from the was never like that. then present it to them with a ‘here a string of influential albums pockets and sign them up once more. There are far too don’t like being limited to it. expecting it to be like some believer in hanging on to your roots. illnesses I had from childhood like “I come from absolute poverty and you go boys’. That would just be too including the seminal Metal Box, “Well, ‘influential’is a very serious ‘ “I won’t pander to public taste. I fabulously current indie band then “I’m not running around saying the meningitis. I get sinus infections. reconvening in various new line-ups word in our case,” explains John. many people out want something that lasts. My body you’re going to be disappointed. I’ll no doubt end up there. I’m When I sing, an awful lot of phlegm rude. borderline most days of the week. But ‘look at me! I’m British, wahey!’ The “I have played Pistols songs in the as members came and went. Lydon “We’ve sold enough albums to and mind is the Sex Pistols but my We’re way ahead of that nonsense. fact of the matter is though that I’m and snot comes up and I have to clear has remained the only constant. warrant further copies to be there who are only heart and soul is PiL. “We’re ahead of clique-ism and I don’t want easy hand-outs or it out of my system. middle of PiL sets because I’m proud molly-coddling.” more British than half of the sods of it. There’s no mockery in there at But with PiL left in mothballs available in stores but there seems to “I call myself a folk musician fashion statements. It’s a special there at the moment, which is quite “People never believed me about since 1992, John made the surprise be some kind of negative influence about taking money nowadays for want of a better term. event. You shouldn’t expect us to the spitting back in the Seventies – all. For me, it’s all part and parcel of sad. I see people throwing away their me, therefore absolutely to be shared. announcement last year that the going on. With PiL I always said that we had no sound like the record either. The culture and thinking that it’s witty they would just say I was a filthy band would reform for live shows. “There always has been. There was out of your wallet. category. Don’t even bother trying to studio versions are just an indication foul-mouthed punk. “It’s absurd for people to and intellectual. It’s not. decompartmentalise me. Do that to Critically acclaimed gigs followed a kind of resentment against us right put one on us.” of future possibilities.” “If you’re so deeply ashamed of “The Daily Mirror led the charge on that type of nonsense and people me when I’m 80 –I’ve got 30 years left in London and the US. Now Lydon from the start because Public Image Green Day are a But it’s hardly Woody Guthrie or If the Pistols came with their own where you come from then you have wanted to believe it. Whether I spat yet at least.” has announced a new UK tour which Ltd wasn’t like the Sex Pistols. Pete Seeger, though, is it, John...? McLaren-generated manifesto, was no future. You have to realise that it’s or not who cares –just ask yourself, Public Image Ltd play the O2 hits the O2 Academy Bristol on “So we had to battle against classic example of “Well, I don’t know about those PiL purely a musical proposition? not all there to be mocked. Your past, did the song mean anything?” Academy Bristol, on Tuesday, July Tuesday, July 20. everything. But you know, this is me names but it really is. I’m writing “A lot of the early punk ideology your parents –don’t mock it. Accept Although no new material has 20. Tickets are priced £25 adv and Speaking from his Californian –Ismile in the face of adversity. that. That is from the heart about things I know was about telling it like it is. All of it. Painful though it may be.” surfaced from the Sex Pistols available by ringing 0844 847 2000. home, John is on great form and What else can you do? I’m not one for about. The thoughts are genuine, that is still there with PiL. It’s a sentiment that you’d be buoyed up by the positive reaction to self-pity. I’ve faced life-challenging completely there are no fake emotions here. The “I have a serious sense of values surprised to hear from the 19-year-old the new tour. illnesses. I’m a fighter. situations I am describing are real which I won’t compromise and that incarnation of John Lydon. “We’ve done extremely well so I’m “I am one for writing damn good manufactured and an and therefore that’s folk music. It’s gets me into all kinds of serious very pleased because an awful lot songs though and I love doing what timeless. trouble with record labels and of effort has gone into it,” he I’m doing. Nothing will stop that. insult to anything I “There’s a great element of lawyers etc. If I’m smirked at for that tells me. “It’s all been without “The things I do in PiL have accident with songwriting but then that’s too bad. any record company support – definitely influenced the wonderful first initiated actually accidents only happen to the “I want to make a difference in the we’re independently world of music. That’s all well and skilled. I learnt my art. I even tried world. And a good one at that. There financed, that is, by me. good. Everyone acknowledges that, John Lydon singing lessons but I soon had are far too many people out there It’s a definite struggle except the record labels. And oddly enough of that. Three lessons in and I who are only about taking money out to make ends meet, but enough, they’ve signed many of the realised that the teachers were of your wallet. Green Day are a it’s worth it. It’s bands that wouldn’t really exist the sake of it. It isn’t about that. But I actually holding me back. classic example of that. That is enjoyable and nobody goes home without PiL. I suppose it’s a case of found some restrictions in the Sex “I sing in my own style because completely manufactured and an unhappy. first come, last served! Pistols. It was probably mostly to do I’m singing about my life. Therefore insult to anything I first initiated. “Through working with “You can’t imagine the difficulties with our personality traits. Some of that’s the perfect voice. “It offends me deeply that so many the promoters, we’ve that PiL faced on every single album. the subject matter that I wanted to “A nyone that thinks differently is tens of thousands of people go to managed to fit in some more The label would raise new barriers deal with certainly couldn’t be done talking sh*t to me. their shows and buy their records. shows in England at about and new nonsenses. It became in the usual verse/chorus/verse “It’s unfortunate that we had to be It’s a mockery. A completely half the price it was in ridiculous. Even the first PiL album format,” he adds. different. I’m not a deliberate rebel unoriginal mockery. December. The idea is that was held back. It was a big incident “A lthough the Sex Pistols for no bloody good reason. “I had to earn the wings to run we’ll get ourselves into a at the time. They have done their absolutely broke that tradition it was “What was that great lyric by Tom around in my punk clobber. I touring mode as a band utmost to be stupid. still too limiting. There were certain Petty ‘a rebel without a clue’. I hate remember being chased around the again. That’s very, very “A nd then later on I had to read in things that really require cacophony Tom Petty but I loved the coining of streets and beaten up. Mobs would hard to do because of the the music papers that new songs and distortion musically, and the idea that phrase.” turn on you. You had to really fight finances. We’re working hard weren’t as good as on Metal Box. of doing that with them was The reunion shows of PiL have for your existence. at it and hopefully by the end of People are talking sh*t when they impossible so I had to create PiL. I been prompted by the death of “It’s wrong for anyone to just take the year we’ll be in the position of talk to me like that. Songs like Rise set that up with great difficulties Lydon’s father. The frontman feels it off a clothes peg and go ‘there you being able to record new material. and Disappointed are really good.” from the label. I then flooded it with that singing the songs will help him are, that’s punk. I’ll mess up my hair, The Sex Pistols in 1977 with an EMI poster after leaving the record company