Putting The Fast In Belfast 7 (Stiff Little Fingers, Public Image Limited, Sham 69)

 

Seeing that today is St Patrick's Day here's the craic from Belfast from back in the summer. Stiff Little Fingers hosting the 'Putting The Fast In Belfast' punk all-dayer, an event that has become an annual fixture in the city. This billing was interesting, what with PiL and Sham 69 sharing the stage. As I remember there was bad blood some years ago between Johnny and Jimmy, to the extent that they made some tabloid column inches after a couple of punches were thrown in London back in 2005. 6 Music reported the incident.... why didn't The Proclaimers wade in one asks?!

'Punk punch-up!

Handbags at dawn between Jimmy Pursey and John Lydon.

24 Aug 05 - Punk legends John Lydon and Jimmy Pursey came to blows outside the US embassy as they queued for visas.

There has been bad blood between the pair since the Seventies - and things came to a head this week as they waited outside the embassy at 0730.

Former Sex Pistol Lydon ignored Pursey's offer to shake hands and threw coffee over him, while the Sham 69 singer responded by kicking his punk rival. Bizarrely, The Proclaimers were also there and witnessed the whole thing before armed policemen intervened to calm the situation.

Pursey was waiting for a visa so he could travel to New York for a benefit gig in aid of the CBGBs club. He told 6 Music the scrap was like being back at school.

He said: "It would be like standing in the dinner queue with someone that you don't really get on with when you're at school. Suddenly, it just turned into him and his mate throwing coffee at me, then it just went from bad to worse with the armed guards luckily interpersing the whole thing. One of them, thank God, know knew who we both were."

He continued: "It's not every day you get a guy with a submachine gun round your head telling you he's a Sham 69 fan."

Lydon meanwhile dismissed Pursey's claims.

He told The Sun: "All the usual low-rent and lies. He's not fit to be in the same sentence as me. What do you expect from a low-rent fake mockney two-bob runt?"

Jody Thompson.'

The Sun

I assume that the lack of punk love stems from the Sham Pistols thing from back in 1979.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-0izU4rBMBn

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-WFwsIpTLGu

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-NNQAN7ORjC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-ssJAJN95vq

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-lbz7ReXNBD

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-S7p7rBAruk

Thanks to the Historical Field Recording Unit.

Public Image Limited O2 Academy Bristol 28th September 2023

 

Okay, like him or loathe him, John Lydon's name is pretty much as synonymous with the term 'post-punk'  as it is with 'punk'. We can argue into the middle of next week whether Lydon was responsible for punk and/or post punk but whichever side of the fence that you sit on it is undeniable that the bands that he was in, the Pistols and PiL, were a huge driving force behind these two musical ideas. Between them, Lydon, Wobble and Levine laid down something of a road map in 'Metal Box' that set the direction of British independent music for several years of the 1980s.

Like many bands Public Image Limited have suffered their trials and tribulations and there have been less than great albums released over the years. But when on form, the band have shone. This was repeated to a certain extent (at least in my opinion) with 'This Is PiL' when a version of the band (essentially the 'Album' era formation minus John McGeogh) reformed, buttered by the proceeds from some TV advertising that Lydon had been involved with.

Thanks to Chatts!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-uCG6rivUBD

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-9STu4HDEw9

20 From '87 (6) Public Image Limited Universal Amphitheatre Los Angeles 3rd December 1987

 

PiL's 1986 'Album' gets all of the plaudits, deservedly so, it is a great album. Its 1987 follow up, 'Happy?' as I recall did not get such a warm critical reception. As someone who was seeing PiL at the time I quite liked it. Listening to it now it does suffer from the blight of 1980's production and there is a degree of fret wanking in there too, but I stand by my original opinion of the album. In truth I also think that there was the fact that the 18 year old me was still rather in awe of Mr Lydon at that time.

In 2024 there is no doubt that he has become something of a marmite character, nevetheless, there is no denying that he has a talent having changed the face of music not once but twice. For me the contentious point seems to be his reluctance to recognise the fact that other musicians were also part of that musical transformation, be they a Pistol or a member of Public Image Limited. Any interpretration of of the music in which he has had an involvement, whether that relates to the recent gigs by Cook, Jones and Matlock or the Metal Box In Dub work of Wobble and Levine, seems guaranteed to get Johnny a-skwarking! Shame really.

Many thanks to the original Dime/101Guitars uploader.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ol6UxrOC2z

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-b2Wy05ZA9L

01. Save Me
02. Rise
03. Seattle
04. Four Enclosed Walls
05. F.F.F.
06. Low Life
07. Open And Revolving
08. Home
09. Rules And Regulations
10. Bags
11. Hard Times
12. World Destruction
13. Angry
14. The Body
15. Public Image
16. Tie Me To The Length Of That
17. This Is Not A Love Song
18. Religion

Johnny Rotten Inked

 

'There's unlimited supply

And there is no reason why

I tell you it was all a frame

They only did it 'cos of fame

Who?....'

Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols)

Linoprint 20cm x 15cm

Black ink on cream card.

Ok, in recent years Mr Lydon may have become something of a marmite character but there can be no denying that between '76 and '80 he and his fellow musicians in his two bands produced some ground breaking stuff that inspired millions.

PiL The Rainbow London 26th December 1978

40 years ago today and the second UK appearance (the previous being the night before at The Rainbow) for this angry young man's second outfit.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-rqNSKB4ce4

Public Image Limited Glasgow Barrowlands 14th May 1986

Having this week taken delivery of the rather special 'Album' Super Deluxe box set I was minded of this gig. The new box set contains a now official recording of the band at the Brixton Academy. This was an extremely ill-tempered gig which happened to be the first time that I saw PiL.

In my view Public Image Limited were at a second career peak at the time of this album and tour. The music was challenging and inventive, but the real difference came with his new band (essentially the band he has reformed PiL with now, less John McGeogh). Unlike the lackluster collection of session musicians that Lydon pulled together for the 1983 dates, the PiL of 1986 were cohesive and vibrant.

On the one hand Lydon was happy to deliver 'Pretty Vacant' to those that wanted it, whilst on the other he baffled the audience with inclusion of Kashmir by none other than...... Led Zepplin!

Here is an edited version of the Barrowlands gig (originally broadcast on Radio Clyde I believe).

Thanks to the sharer.

MP3 (as received): https://we.tl/Bsfxmch1co

01. Kashmir

02. FFF

03. Annalisa

04. Fishing

05. Poptones

06. Pretty Vacant

07. Home

08. Banging The Door

09. Flowers Of Romance

10. Bags

11. Tie Me To The Length Of That

12. Round

10 From '87 (6) Public Image Limited The Astoria London, 28th September 1987

I had completely forgotten about this show and the fact that I was there! (it's my ticket stub on the artwork). Looking back I always had it in my head that I saw 'early' PiL, as in pre-reformation, three times but it would appear to be four times. Three of those gigs were very memorable (Brixton Academy 1986, Kilburn National 1987 and a car crash of a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1989). Maybe it was the venue, I never liked The Astoria, in contrast to the Academy and The National, and I wasn't particularly saddened when it was demolished to make way for the new cross-rail construction. Take a look at the set though and I would say that it should have been a good gig. Promoting the 'Happy?' album at the time, the set admittedly doesn't lay much emphasis on the late '70's and early '80's PiL, but nevertheless it features the best of 'Album' with a few surprises in there as well including Lydon's influential collaboration with Afrika Bambata 'World Destruction' and 'Holidays in the Sun' (who would have thought back in 1987 that the actual Pistols would play again!).

The sound quality on this one is quite good as well.

FLAC: http://we.tl/WEsJApxJ0O

Artwork: http://we.tl/BeIWvVtGDE

1. Save Me
2. Rise
3. Seattle
4. Allah
5. FFF
6. Open & Revolving
7. Low Life
8. Home
9. Rules & Regulations (cut)
10. (continued)
11. Hard Times
12. Fat Chance Hotel
13. World Destruction
14. Angry
15. The Body
16. Round
17. Public Image
18. Holidays In The Sun
19. This Is Not A Love Song (cut)
20. (continued)
21. Religion