New York, Staten Island, Paramount Theatre,
March 26th 1983

Gig Review

Fodderstompf.com: Mission Of Burma, who supported PiL at this show, had been forced to break up due to tinnitus problems. This would be their last gig (although later reformed). Via Karsten Roekens, singer and guitarist Roger Miller was kind enough to donate Fodderstompf a little piece about this particular evening...

Note: In 2007 additional information on these events surfaced on the dimeadozen.org website. Please also read our note at the bottom of the page…

"OK... here's my story about that night... I actually wasn't very interested in playing with PiL, because it was obvious the peak of the band was over. However, it was set up, so we did it. We got there, and there were sandwiches in the dressing room - thinking it was "food", we started eating (shit, we were hungry). Their manager (?) bitched us out for this - apparently it was only for "the headliner". We were already amused, I think (we made brutal fun of The Psychedelic Furs a year or so earlier in Sacramento, California: they were eating at a table, ignoring us completely, so we "paraded" around the table making fun of them. I was completely amused by that one - they had no idea how to deal with it!).

This was the time period when Mr. Lydon was claiming that they were their own management, they had everything under control to skip "the bullshit" - something like that. So... we "hit the stage" (this was our final show and there were a lot of fans down from Boston as well as NYC) and huh, would you believe it? - the PA was not turned on! Their "management" kept it off. Our manager had to finally go and convince their "people" that we had to have the PA on! So our first three or four songs were just monitors and amp sounds from the stage - I'm sure it was quite thin and quiet (on stage we of course were not aware of this...).

However, I was certainly aware of the big thug parading back and forth in front of the stage with a bullwhip over his shoulder! I mean, shit - he was in front of us, between us and the audience. Finally, after the second or third song I put my guitar down, went up to him and told him that if he didn't leave we'd stop playing. And he left, so we finished our set (with a working PA system!). Now, if this was ANY example of PiL's massive "we're in control", I considered it to be shit. Most of the rest of the night I was at the side of the stage giving them the finger... The night did get blurry after a while though... Well, I hope that's amusing enough. I actually have a soft spot in my brain for Mr. Lydon and his boys, so I don't feel animosity at this point. However, that is how it went that night."

Roger Miller
Mission Of Burma
December 30th 2001

Fodderstompf.com: In 2007 additional information on these events surfaced on the dimeadozen.org website. Apparently a disgruntled Mission of Burma fan sabotaged the soundboard before PiL went on stage; resulting in them having no monitors for the first few songs.

This is what the website states:
"as soon as Burma finished their set, I went over to the soundboard and disconnected all of the speaker cords, monitor cords, mike cords--the only thing that I didn't do was unplug the board. As I wanted to surprise the PIL soundman when he came out. So, think of that as you listen to this and you'll understand why the sound just keeps improving all night. And why Johnny kept complaining about no monitors…"

Fodderstompf asked PiL soundman Bob Miller to confirm this; to which he replied:
"Glad I wasn't at that gig… If is was that would not have happened… Guaranteed !"

Thanks to Glynn & Tim Bucknall