Los Angeles, Olympic Auditorium, USA,
May 4th 1980

Notes:
The show was originally set for April 17, but postponed due to problems between the promoters and the tour agents. The Olympic Auditorium was normally known for sporting events, but the request to play there came straight from PiL, and their original wish to play "unusual venues".

Support acts include Los Plugz, who later changed their name to Los Lobos, and had an international hit with 'La Bamba'!

Gig Review

I was a lucky fan who got to see PiL at their 1980 show at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. This auditorium was a site that usually housed "Roller Derby" (a distinctly American "fake" sport) and "Professional Wrestling" (even worse and just as "fake"). It was an unusual location to say the least but was perfect for this very stupid and unruly crowd of "later-day punks" mostly punk wanna-be's. If I'm not mistaken, and early version of Los Lobos opened the show, but don't quote me on that! Whoever they were, they were soundly "trounced" by this crowd! Poor guys (almost as bad as when I saw "Live", the band, open up for PiL in London at the Town and Country Club... who are these idiot promoters anyway???).

I don't remember the set list too much (quite awhile ago, y'know) but they did do awesome versions of "Careering" and "Religion" among others. John and band were in rare form (John threatening to send his cleaning bill to the city of Los Angeles for all the gogs of spit he endured (and was clearly pissed about) as was Jah Wobble who proclaimed "you're just trying to be like the English!", which the crowd was only they were a couple years behind the Brits, as usual! The highlight of the show was when Lydon pulled a young boy out of the audience to sing "Theme" (dressed in his best "kiddie punk"...he could not have been more than 13 years old) and held the words that Lydon had scrawled on a sheet of paper) while the kid sang the song!!!!! Pure spectacle!

Lydon also made a remark early on "good evening and we are so happy to bore you to death" (this quote just told to me by a friend who was there with me...but I don't remember that one). I also saw PiL in Boston but don't remember which year... I need to look at my ticket stubbs and also I believe in Providence somewhere near the end of the 80s (I lived in Providence at the time) and Lydon played with his "back to the audience" at one of those shows! Anyway, that's all I can recall for now.

Mario

Additonal Info…

There were actually three opening acts that night. There were the Kipper Kids, a performance art duo of two men (one of whom later married Bette Midler), who appeared naked and did little more than throw paint over one another.

Then there was a Mexican mariachi band, who played with traditional acoustic mariachi instruments. As I understand it, these are the fellows who later became Los Lobos. They were not received warmly by the crowd and were almost completely covered in saliva by the time they left the stage. I can't really recall which of the above acts played first.

Los Lobos should not be confused with The Plugz (aka Los Plugz), who were the last band to play before PiL. The Plugz were an LA punk trio from the late '70