John Lydon is a culturally important figure. You may hate him but he is important. I like him. The Sex Pistols were important for music and for society. It's true. You may wish that it wasn't true but it is.
This was the second time that I have see Lydon live. I last saw him with the Sex Pistols during their 1996 reunion tour at the SECC in Glasgow. That was a great show. I'm lucky that I was there.
Public Image Limited was eagerly anticipated. I managed to listen to most of their back catalogue on spotify at work before the gig. I was psyched. PIL are musically better than the Pistols. It is unlikely that bands like Massive Attack, Orbital, Nine Inch Nails, LCD Soundsystem or the Rapture would exist without PIL. They made rock music and punk different.
Growing up in East Kilbride was good for music. I was able to hear most of PILs' albums when I was about 12 by borrowing them from the public library. There was a good second hand record stall in the Village where I bought a 3 inch CD single of 'this is not a love song' and a cassette single of 'world destruction'. Music was available and beautiful.
I loved the PIL logo. I used to draw it on my bag, desks, school books and clothing beside the Black Flag bars, the Minor Threat sheep and the Dead Kennedys DK logo.
The gig wasn't sold out. It slowly filled up with balding 50 year old men who probably hadn't been to a gig in years. I bought a PIL logo tour t-shirt and we found a decent vantage point. The support band, Fangs, were fairly good.
Standing beside me was a 50 year old Polish man who told me that he had waited 30 years to see Johnny Rotten. The Polish man now lives in Crieff and he was at the gig with his daughter and her drunken boyfriend. He told me that he started to listen to the Pistols on smuggled bootleg tapes as a young man. The music of the Pistols changed his world. He learnt English so he could understand the lyrics and then the lyrics made him understand that there was hope that there might be a life outside the Communist state. Johnny Rotten meant a lot to him.
We talked about my recent visit to Poland and my intentions to go back there some time. He hadn't heard much Pil music and I assured him that while Sex Pistols songs were unlikely the show would be excellent. He would go home a happy man.
My predictions were correct.
Public Image was the opening number. The sound was slightly dodgy initially but it was quickly fixed. We got a set that lasted for more than two hours and included Careering, Poptones, Death Disco, This is not a Love Song, Rise, Warrior and Religion. We even got Open Up.
The band was tight and for most of the show the sound was perfect. A lot of people were surprised at the good quality of Lydons singing. Lydon was of course the centre of the show and one of the best frontmen that you will ever see. He was funny and charming and honest.
The Polish guy was happy at the end of the show now that his 30 year wait was over. I was fairly chuffed myself. This was a great show and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I hope they play again. I hope the music of Pil gets the recognition it deserves.
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