45 Years of Public Image Limited: Timeline 1978 – 2023
Step into the intriguing world of Public Image Limited, a band with a 45-year timeline that has left an indelible mark on the music scene. While their name is familiar to many, their journey remains shrouded in mystery. Join us as we delve deep into the fascinating story of a band everyone's heard of but knows almost nothing about.
1978: The beginning of PiL. Less than a year after the Sex Pistols split, John Lydon found himself back in the studio with PiL claiming: “We’re not a band we’re a business.” The new band includes Keith Levene on guitar, Jah Wobble on bass and Jim Walker on drums. PiL is a far more experimental outlet for Lydon and their debut album ‘First Issue’ is released in December.
1979: The band’s second album ‘Metal Box’ is released, pushing their sound to the avant-garde. Today it’s considered one of the most important albums of post-punk.
1980: PiL release their first live LP ‘Paris au Printemps’ which ends up being their last album to feature Jah Wobble. All song titles on the album sleeve are translated into French alongside artwork painted by Lydon.
1981: ‘The Flowers of Romance’ LP is released, named after Sid Vicious’ first band. Within the band, in fighting bubbles up and Jah Wobble leaves ahead of the recording. The album has a noticeable lack of bass parts but is praised for its drum sound and Lydon’s expressive lyrics.
1982: PiL begin recording a fourth album which is aborted. Levene later releases the recordings as ‘Commercial Zone’ in 1984.
1983: PiL release one of the first digital live albums ever recorded, ‘Live In Tokyo’ whilst ‘This is Not a Love Song’ becomes their biggest hit single, reaching No. 5 in the UK singles chart.
1984: Levene leaves the band due to drug addiction. Fourth album ‘This Is What You Want… This Is What You Get’ is released with the band’s sound morphing into a Lydon solo project.
1985: Atkins leaves and the band is down to John Lydon alongside session musicians.
1986: ‘Rise’ reaches 11 in the UK chart and to tour, Lydon brings in guitarist John McGreoch (Souxsie and the Banshees), world music multi-instrumentalist and former Damned guitarist Lu Edmunds, bassist Allan Dias and former drummer of The Pop Group and The Slits, Bruce Smith.
1987: ‘Happy?’ LP is released. Lydon summarises the album: “It captures a doom, death and destruction feel about it, very crunchy, tanks rolling, very military in its approach.”
1988: PiL hit the road for the ‘Kick’ Tour, in support of INXS in the USA.
1989: PiL tour with New Order and The Sugarcubes under the secret name ‘The Monsters of Alternative Rock’. They release ‘9’, their seventh studio album and ninth release including their two live albums.
1990: John Lydon acts in Richard Stanley’s movie ‘Hardware’ and the soundtrack heavily features PiL’s song ‘The Order of Death’, from the album ‘This is What You Want…This is What You Get’.
The band also release the album ‘Greatest Hits…So Far’ featuring one new song, about the environment called ‘Don’t Ask Me’.
1992: After 14 years, 10 album releases, tours and line-up changes, the band decide to call it a day. They release one final record, ‘That What Is Not’.
1996: John Lydon reforms with the Sex Pistols and play a concert in Finsbury Park.
2009: After a 17 year hiatus, PiL get back together and hit the road for a UK tour. The new lineup features Lu Edmonds on guitar, Bruce Smith on drums and Scott Firth on bass and keyboards.
2012: The band release ‘This is PiL’, their first studio album in 20 years. This is the first album they’ve released on their own label ‘PiL Official’, all previous releases were on Virgin Records.
2015: PiL release another LP, ‘What The World Needs Now’. Lyrics like: “What the world needs now is another fuck off!” take the public by surprise, rekindling Lydon’s Sex Pistols fury and drawing added attention to the band.
2016: The band tour the UK, selling out shows across the country.
2017: PiL take a break from touring and release the documentary ‘The Public Image is Rotten’. John Lydon also releases a collection of his lyrics ‘Mr Rotten’s Songbook’ which proves to be very popular with fans. Lydon is denied entry for the Eurovision song contest as Ireland’s entry.
2018: PiL celebrated their 40th year with a huge anniversary tour across the UK, Europe and Japan called ‘The Public Image is Rotten’. ‘The Public Image is Rotten’ career spanning box set and documentary set for release.
2019: John Lydon announced a mammouth UK Q&A tour with over 50+ dates set for Autumn 2020. It was postponed due to the pandemic.
2020: John Lydon published his limited edition book ‘I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right‘. PiL documentary ‘The Public Image is Rotten‘ was released via streaming.
2021: John Lydon finally got to take on his ‘I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right‘ Q&A tour accomplishing 50+ dates without losing his voice!
2022: Guitarist and founding member of both PIL and The Clash, Keith Levene sadly died on 11th November 2022. At the time of his death he was working on a history of PiL with the writer Adam Hammond. John Lydon released a statement distancing himself from any ‘Sex Pistols activity wishing to cash in on the death of the Queen’. PiL made an appearance at the Cruel World Festival in California and began playing live for the first time since the pandemic on a UK / European tour.
2023: Sadly John Lydon lost his dearly loved wife Nora Forster to Alzheimers at 80 years old after a 44 year marriage. PIL announced a 38 date UK and European Tour for September to October 2023. The band also released a single ‘Hawaii’ hoping to support Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest but sadly there were knocked out in an early round.
