John Lydon has vowed never
to play in London again because of the behaviour of certain members
of the audience at Brixton Academy on the final night of the PiL tour.
He also intends to limit his appearences elsewhere in Briton.
Lydon was infuriated throughout
the tour by a minority of 'fans' who insisted on gobbing and throwing
missles at the stage. In Stoke, he was hit by a bottle. And in Sheffeld,
someone threw a billiard ball which fortunately missed it's target.
In Brixton last Tuesday,
PiL left the stage during the final number 'Public Image', when certain
persons ignored Lydons request that they stop gobbing. The punters at
the front began to battle with bouncers, and the PA stacks looked perilously
close to toppling over until the band reappeared to defuse the situation.
Lydon announced onstage that he would not play in London again. He hasn't
changed his mind since.
PiL manager Keith Burton
said this week: 'There was the usual two per cent of gobbers at the
front of the hall who just didn't stop hitting John all night. During
the last song of the set, he got gobbed at in the face for about the
forth or fifth time that evening. He told the band to stop playing and
walked off stage. His trousers were completely covered in gob, and his
jacket.
The trouble makers seemed
more interested in having a fight with the bouncers - and they didn't
seem too fussed about who they hit, either. Rather than just let them
have a fight, the group realised the best thing to do was to go back
onstage. Things seemed to calm down, but then during 'Rise', somebody
got up onstage and took a swing at John. The real shame of it was that
98 per cent of the audience had been really enjoying themselves, and
they didn't realise why John had walked off. At the time, he said he
wouldn't play in London again and at the moment he means it. He's very
pissed off.'
'The way the band feel is
that 10 years ago, gobbing at people wasn't a big deal. But gobbing
now means that you can kill people. Last week in Edinburgh, a kid who
was stopped for shoplifting was going to be charged with attempted murder
for threatening to gob in the mouth of the person who had stopped him,
because he had AIDS. So gobbing has taken a new perspective now - whatever
prompted people to do it 10 years ago doesn't exist now. It doesn't
happen to PiL in Europe or America. It only happens in Britain, and
it's only done by two per cent. The kids who are still dressed as punks,
they remind me of Teddy Boys. You see those twerps walking around with
drapes who think it's still the 50's. Punks are the same, like dinosaurs.'
PiL are recording an album
late this year. |