256 pages
Softback
Published 2004
IMP (Independent Music Press)
ISBN 0-9539942-7-9
John Lydon: Sex Pistols, PIL, & Anti-Celebrity:
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated...?"
By the time Johnny Rotten uttered these immortal words onstage in San Francisco in 1978 the Sex Pistol's short career had came to a chaotic and messy demise. But their work was already done,. their impact on modern culture immesurable.
While his band-mates either descended in parody or, in the case of Sid Vicious, a heroin overdose at the age of twenty-one, sardonic frontman John Lydon nee Rotten emerged from the centre of the storm credibility intact.
Overcoming a life-threatening bout of spiral meningitis as a child (which left him with his infamous piercing stare) and rising from humble London-Irish beginnings to iconic status by the age of twenty-one, the emancipated Rotten had always been the driving force in punk's finest and went on to conduct an equally as challenging career that has ensured his status as a thorn in the side of the establishment and a true English eccentric. Over the quarter century that followed he moved easily from anti-monarchist punk frontman to reconstructed pop star real to estate mogul to ever-controversial TV star - and always on his terms.
After a short stint talent spotting reggae acts in the Jamaica for Virgin Records after the Pistols demise, Lydon - his former moniker now a resigned to the dustbin of pop culture - formed Public Image Limited (PiL) with former Clash guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble and drummer Jim Walker as an outlet for his eclectic musical taste experimental - Captains Beefheart, reggae and dub, and exotic sounds from Asia and the Middle East. Despite their music being bass-heavy, discordant and experimental - a sound soon to be described as 'post punk' - topped with Lydon's inimitable ranting voice, PIL quickly scored their first top hit with 'Public Image' upon its release in October 1978.
Over the next five years Public Image Limited scored a series of furthers successes, including the seminal 'Metal Box' album and in 1983, another chart single 'This Is Not A Love Song'. As members left, PIL became a vehicle for Lydon as he moved into a more dance-orientated direction, notching up more chart success throughout the decade. In the mid-80's Lydon also represented the Sex Pistols in a lengthy court battle with former manager/adversary Malcolm McLaren - and won.
As the 80's turned into the 90's PIL released a greatest hits album, followed in 1993 by Lydon's memoirs 'Rotten : No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs' which inspired Rolling Stone to call Lydon a "pavement philosopher whose Dickensian roots blossom with Joycean colour". In the same year Lydon provided vocals for Leftfield's massive dance hit 'Open Up'. By the time the Sex Pistols reformed for a series of shows in 1996, Lydon was arguably the most famous British ex-pat, happily married and living in the elite Venice Beach, California and investing money in property. The Sex Pistols reformation divided punk fans but nevertheless was a massive commercial success, spawning live albums and introducing the band to a new generation.
"'Nice' is the worst insult you could ever pay anybody. It means you are utterly without threat, without values. Nice is a cup of tea." - John Lydon
After hosting short-lived cable show Rotten TV, in January 2004 Lydon was a contestant on ITV's jungle adventure show 'I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here', controversially walking out of the show before completion - but only after being the first person to say the word 'cunt' live on British television. Lydon won viewers with his searing honesty and informed bullshit-free outlook; not for the first time in his career did he represent the dissent and disgust of more cerebral factions of the nation. And not for the first time was he subject of unprecedented tabloid coverage. Lydon's recent successes has cemented his status as a national treasure, a genuine rock 'n' roll legend and a lone nihilistic voice screaming into a cultural vacuum.
Says Ben: "He's the daddy. My second earliest memory involved seeing Rotten on TV, possibly as part of news footage cocerning Sid Vicious' death, in which case I would have been three. I was playing with my lego and the man with the wicked stare scared me. They both did. The Sex Pistols changed everything, and for that we can all be all grateful. 'Never Mind The Bollocks' should be compulsary in schools. I tried applying a set of pliable punk priciples in the writing of this book, and I haven't yet been sued by the famously sue-happpy Johnny L. A success then, I think!"