I have a few scraps of
info that might fill gaps in your PiL gig list... I was not a Sex Pistols
fan when they hit the scene. I was 19 years old and too mature for that
"punk" stuff. (Years later I bought 'Bollocks' and I give
it its due now as a very cool record.) But I have always been into the
"avant-garde" and so in 1981 when I heard the just-released
'Flowers of Romance' played in its entirety on a local underground station,
I decided I had to check out what this Rotten/Lydon character was up
to. So I bought 'Flowers', loved it from the first; then I think it
was 'First Issue' next, followed by 'Second Edition', then every album
as they came out after that. Like a lot of PiL people (I think), I see
the first three studio records as the masterpieces, and the later ones,
especially '9' and 'That What is Not', as a bit of a drop-off. Then
again, 'Warrior', 'God', and 'Love Hope' are truly magnificent slabs
of sound, and show that PiL did not exactly go out with a whimper.
But anyway, about the gigs.....
Since I discovered PiL late, I missed them in their prime. I saw them
four times - in 1984, 1986, 1987 & 1989. The 1984 gig was in Boston,
Mass., it was cited in your gig list without the exact date or the name
of the venue. So I can fill that gap. It was on November 7th, a Wednesday
night, and the show was at a nightclub called the Metro, which changed
names and management repeatedly over the years. I have no idea what
it's called now, or even if it's still a club. It was on Lansdowne Street
in Boston, a street boasting a variety of bars and music venues, and
located just next to Fenway Park, where our beloved Boston Red Sox manage
to somehow avoid winning the World Series year after year.
Not wishing to make the trek
alone that November evening, I had a hard time finding someone who'd
go down to the city on a weeknight, but eventually got in touch with
a friend of a friend, a somewhat younger kid who pointed out to me that
certain songs they played that night were from the Pistols' repertoire.
I am kicking myself now because I think I threw away the notebook where
I had written down the song list from that concert. But looking at the
fan review you have posted for the Nov. 2nd, 1984 gig at the Beacon
Theatre in New York, I'd say it was an almost identical set. They started
out by playing The Order of Death from the record, then the live performance
ensued. They played at least two Pistols songs - 'Anarchy' & 'Bodies'
- and I may be faulty in memory, but I believe they played 'Holidays
in the Sun' as well. I was not a Pistols fan in those days, so those
songs didn't make the impression on me that the PiL originals did.
Of course, 'This is What
you Want...' had just come out and they played most if not all of that.
I guess I'm an odd duck on this point - I really thought that record
was great, just a notch below their previous lofty vicissitudes. (The
only drawback being the remake of ' This is Not a Love Song' just no
match for the Commercial Zone cut.) So I thoroughly enjoyed the concert.
Though I realise the '84 band was not on a level with the Levene/Wobble
lineup, this performance still stood miles beyond anything else I knew
at the time. The greatness of the songs themselves overcame any shortcomings
of the band. The music hit me in the gut - ominous and entrancing -
and I wished it would never end.
Other impressions from that
night... Well, the Metro was a fairly small club, so there was a feeling
of being closeup to the band, even where I was standing, which was on
steps toward the back. I stayed there because I had no desire to get
in the middle of the countless idiots upfront who spent the night trying
to knock each other over in the spirit of "free expression"
or whatever slamdancing was supposed to be. (I was very close to the
bar, too.) And oh, yes, there was spit. Again, not being hip to the
punk scene, I didn't know people were going to do that, but somewhere
in the midst of the show, looking at JL with splotches of unknown substance
all over his face, I finally figured out he was the target of a steady
stream of morons forcing their way to the edge of the stage and clearing
their throats in his direction. I also have never forgotten his oversized
striped pyjamas, which lent an air of the absurd.
I saw PiL next in June 1986
at the Orepheum Theatre in Boston. This was the 'Album' tour. Then again
at the Orpheum Nov. 1987, on the 'Happy?' tour. I remember both these
Orpheum shows as good, solid heavy rock concerts, thoroughly enjoyable
and Lydon an enthralling presence from beginning to end. At one of these
shows, he did a version of '4 Enclosed Walls' in which he sang "Mo-ney...."
instead of "A-llah..."
The last time I saw PiL was
July 10th, 1989, at Great Woods in Mansfield (which is in Massachusetts,
an hour or so south of Boston). This is an outdoor amphitheatre, and
PiL was on a bill with some other "alt-rock" bands of which
I recall nothing. Actually, I just went in and saw PiL and left when
they finished - I didn't care to see any of the other bands at all...
The current record was '9', and I remember being impressed by their
rendition of 'Disappointed' that night.
So those are my PiL concert memories, I'm glad if I could add a few
clarifying touches to the gig list...
Mark Pestana
Westford, Massachusetts, USA |