John Lydon launched Public Image Ltd. after the Sex Pistols disintegrated, establishing a fluid musical vehicle through which the caustic vocalist and songwriter pursued his visions without restraint. Across distinct phases of the group’s history, officially shortened to PiL, the sound ranged from low-end-heavy post-punk force on 1978’s Public Image: First Issue, through an inventive blend of Krautrock and dub on 1979’s Metal Box, to robust and precisely delivered alternative rock on 1986’s Album and sleek yet jagged dance-oriented pop on 1989’s 9, among numerous other stylistic waypoints. Although personnel and sonic direction changed repeatedly, Lydon’s caustic vocal delivery—laden with fury, anguish, and occasional biting humor—supplied a consistent thread linking the band’s varied incarnations, while his strongest collaborators matched the intensity of his commanding presence with equally compelling music. Lydon reactivated PiL for live performances in 2009, and the subsequent reunion releases This Is PiL (2012), What the World Needs Now (2015), and End of World (2023) contained some of his most compelling material since the 1980s.
The Sex Pistols concluded their final American concert on January 14, 1978, shortly after issuing Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, and the band dissolved three days afterward. Lydon first journeyed to Jamaica, where he and Virgin Records chief Richard Branson evaluated local reggae artists, before returning to London. He soon contacted an acquaintance, Jah Wobble (real name John Wardle), to discuss forming a fresh ensemble. In May 1978, singer Lydon and bassist Wobble enlisted former Clash guitarist Keith Levene along with drummer Jim Walker, and the quartet commenced rehearsals. Two months later Lydon christened the project Public Image, appending Ltd. several weeks afterward. Virgin Records promptly signed the new outfit, issuing their debut single “Public Image” in October 1978. The track achieved commercial success, and the following December the band unveiled their first full-length effort, Public Image: First Issue. Although the album sold steadily in England and circulated well in America as an import, it stayed unavailable domestically until its 2013 release. In characteristically contrarian style, the group delivered their inaugural concert on Christmas Day 1978.
PiL underwent its initial personnel shift when Jim Walker departed, prompting Richard Dudanski—previously a member of the 101’ers alongside Joe Strummer—to assume drumming duties. Later that year the band issued the single “Death Disco,” a reflection on Lydon’s mourning after his mother’s passing. In November 1979 PiL delivered their sophomore album, the expansive Metal Box, comprising three 12-inch discs cut at 45 rpm and housed inside a metal film canister. Dudanski exited during the recording sessions, after which Martin Atkins took over on drums. Critics praised Metal Box, yet the elaborate packaging proved costly; when Warner Bros. issued the album in the United States in July 1980, it appeared under the title Second Edition as a standard two-LP set in a cardboard jacket. The American edition preceded PiL’s first U.S. tour, during which Lydon frequently exchanged verbal jabs with spectators requesting Sex Pistols material. The itinerary also featured an appearance on American Bandstand, where Lydon lightheartedly declined to lip-sync to “Poptones.” In 1980 the band additionally released Paris au Printemps, a live recording made in France intended chiefly to counter widely circulated European bootlegs.
By the completion of PiL’s third studio album, the austere 1981 release The Flowers of Romance, both Jah Wobble and Martin Atkins had left, while visual artist Jeannette Lee joined the lineup. In May 1981 PiL performed a one-time engagement at New York’s Ritz, opting for an especially avant-garde presentation that placed a screen across the stage; video imagery was projected onto it while only the musicians’ silhouettes remained visible. The audience reacted negatively, sparking a riot that became a focal point of music-press coverage on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1982 the band toured North America with a refreshed configuration that again featured Martin Atkins on drums and introduced bassist Pete Jones.
Work began on PiL’s fourth studio album, yet mounting creative divergences between Lydon and Keith Levene—exacerbated by Levene’s struggles with substance dependency—culminated in Levene’s exit and his removal of the session tapes. Levene subsequently issued his own version of the intended album as the self-released Commercial Zone, while Lydon restarted the project entirely. In 1983, with Levene and Pete Jones no longer involved, Lydon and Atkins assembled an ensemble of relatively unknown New Jersey musicians for a Japanese tour; two concerts were captured digitally, and selections appeared on that year’s Live in Tokyo. PiL released the single “This Is Not a Love Song” in September 1983, which reached the U.K. Top Five. The track later surfaced on the 1984 album This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get, whose track listing was largely shaped by Lydon’s reinterpretations of the songs Levene had issued on Commercial Zone.
A subsequent PiL lineup—comprising Atkins, guitarist Mark Schulz, and keyboardist Jebin Bruni—toured globally behind This Is What You Want..., during which Lydon composed fresh material on the road. He ultimately discarded this configuration when preparing the group’s fifth studio album. Producer Bill Laswell assembled an eclectic roster of players for the sessions, including Steve Vai, Ginger Baker, Tony Williams, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Bernie Worrell. Issued in early 1986, Album (titled Compact Disc on the CD edition and Cassette on the tape version) achieved commercial success in Britain, climbing to number 14 on the album chart while the single “Rise” reached number 11 on the singles chart; the record also performed respectably in the United States. Lydon assembled a new touring unit featuring guitarist John McGeoch (ex-Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees), bassist Allan Dias, guitarist and keyboardist Lu Edmonds (formerly of the Damned and the Mekons), and drummer Bruce Smith (previously with the Pop Group). Although Laswell expressed interest in further collaboration, Lydon chose to continue with the current lineup for 1987’s Happy?, which spawned the singles “Seattle” and “The Body.” The band maintained an extensive touring schedule across North America, the U.K., Europe, and South America, yet Lu Edmonds departed at the close of 1988 due to health concerns. Retaining McGeoch, Dias, and Smith, Lydon recorded 1989’s 9, its title reflecting its position as the band’s ninth album overall. PiL joined the North American “Monsters of Alternative Rock” package tour alongside New Order and the Sugarcubes.
In 1990 PiL issued the compilation The Greatest Hits So Far, containing thirteen selections from the catalog plus the new track “Don’t Ask Me,” which itself became a hit, peaking at number 22 on the U.K. singles chart. Bruce Smith had already exited, so Lydon, McGeoch, and Dias enlisted additional session musicians to complete That What Is Not, released in February 1992. The group participated in MTV’s 120 Minutes Live package tour across North America, sharing bills with Big Audio Dynamite II (featuring former Clash guitarist Mick Jones, marking the first onstage reunion with Lydon since the Sex Pistols’ troubled 1976 “Anarchy” tour), Live, and Blind Melon. Following further touring throughout Europe, the U.K., and South America, Dias left the fold, prompting Lydon to announce the dissolution of Public Image Ltd. in 1993 so he could focus on a solo career. A four-disc career retrospective, Plastic Box, appeared in 1999.
After releasing a solo album, publishing his autobiography, staging multiple Sex Pistols reunion tours, and participating in various television projects, Lydon reconvened PiL in 2009 for a U.K. tour financed in part by earnings from a British butter commercial. The revived lineup included returning members Lu Edmonds and Bruce Smith together with bassist Scott Firth. The initial British dates proved successful, leading to the 2010 release of the live album Alife 2009 drawn from one performance as the group extended its itinerary into the United States and Europe. Their 2011 appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival was likewise documented and issued as a live recording. The band returned to the studio for the 2012 album This Is PiL and concentrated on live work throughout 2013. What the World Needs Now... followed in 2015, marking the second studio album from the reunited PiL and the first occasion the post-reformation lineup completed consecutive studio releases. In 2017 the documentary The Public Image Is Rotten, chronicling the band’s lengthy and intricate history, screened at international festivals; a corresponding five-CD and two-DVD box set titled The Public Image Is Rotten: Songs from the Heart arrived in 2018. Lydon revisited his catalog once more with the 2017 publication of Mr. Rotten’s Songbook, a volume compiling his original lyrics.
Lydon competed on the sixth season of the musical game show The Masked Singer in 2021, performing as The Jester before being eliminated after delivering “School’s Out” by his former idol Alice Cooper. Virgin issued the archival live recording Concert: Live at Brixton Academy 27.5.86 from the tour supporting Album in January 2022. In 2023 PiL unveiled the unexpectedly gentle single “Hawaii,” a love song Lydon composed for his wife, Nora Foster, who passed away following a prolonged illness that April. To promote the track, Lydon entered it in that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, though it failed to advance past the qualifiers. “Hawaii” also appeared on End of World, the third studio album recorded by the reconstituted PiL lineup of Lydon, Edmonds, Firth, and Smith.
