John Lydon on marking 40 years of PiL
plains Lydon. “We want to feed off the energy of these live shows, and we may even put new songs in the set to see how they go down and how they sound.
“Youalwaysknowifasongdon’tworkif theaudiencearestoodtherestraightfaced – you can’t kid an audience.
“We’ve not done this before, so it’ll be interesting.
“There is nothing worse than being sat around doing nothing in a hotel room on tour. Playing live gets the brain working, so we’ll be tapping into that.
“We’ll not put any songs out on the net or on MP3 on the fly though – I’m a vinyl man – MP3 is like a postcard instead of the full-blown film.
“We don’t have a record company, we areindependentnowanditisgreat,itgives us control and a new lease of life creatively – corporate labels are stifling,” declares Lydon.
PiL’s 40th will be marked though with the release of a career-spanning box set and a documentary of the band, both titledThePublicImageisRotten,tocoincide with the dates this summer.
He said: “There is all sorts of stuff in it. We have six hours of footage from all through years and lots of unreleased stuff that no one has ever heard before. “It’s been a bit of work putting it together.
“There will always be problems with copyright and so on, but it’s not just me, but all who have been in PiL over theyears,whoIthinkofallmy friends – no matter what they say behind your back,” snorts Lydon about former members who have included musicians as diverse as bass guru Jah Wobble, guitar slinger Steve Vai and Cream drummer Ginger Baker.
Public Image Limited play the Academy in Newcastle on Tuesday, June 12, and Hardwick Live in County Durham on the weekend of August 18-19. See www.pilofficial.com for ticket links.