As you may,or may not have noticed,I
have been conspicuous by my absence of late. This is largely due to
me and my daughter being the victims of a near death car smash on a
French auto-route approaching Normandie. Landing on its roof my car
spun upside down,with your author still belted and bleeding in the
drivers seat. Miraculously,my daughter escaped almost unharmed
through the window,as did my unsecured Dog! Alas, I only suffered,a
collapsed lung,three broken ribs, one smashed into three bits,a
broken collar bone, broken nose,two black eyes, eight stitches
worth of gashed forehead and brow,and various minor cuts and bruises.
I write this Morphine fueled nonsense from some French Hospital in
Abbeville,where I can't seem to get out of until my Lung is fully
recovered .I'm chewing my arms off in between bouts of 'Stockholm
Syndrome'.It's very much like being kidnapped. And the best bit is,my
daughter is not covered insurance wise and its only costing me
800euro's a day to stay here.
The cops(who kindly refer to me as the
'Victim') have recovered most of my stuff,and brought it to
me,including my lap-top,so I can alleviate the crushing boredom by
writing something for Die or DIY?
The theme has to be vaguely French,but
most French music is either profoundly Naff or pretentious beyond
normal decency. What better excuse is there to listen to my favourite
pop group than this?:
“Public Image Limited,Live at Le
Stadium,Paris 22/12/1978”
(Avec 'Johnny Rotten',it says on
the ticket,and it cost 30 Francs,also know as three quid in proper
money,bonne affaire!)
This may have been their second or
third live show, and one could only imagine the proportions of
estrangement achieved by the crowd splitting squeals of “Theme”.The
definitive anti-pop manifesto,and best ever opening album track ever
made? You can feel the relief when the vaguely 'Punky' Low-life
follows it in the set list to stop some of the attendees from
running for the metro.
Although this is an audience
recording,its surprisingly listenable,with all instruments and voice
sitting equally in the mix,along with some amusing French banter from
the audience also features the only time they played “Problems”;a
cover version apparently?
This stuff is not so much Do It
yourself music,it's Do What You Like music,and something that has no
real equivalents,remaining totally unique up to today and beyond.
Track Listing:
1 – Theme
(12:21)
2 – Low life
(4:51)
3 – Annalisa
(9:07)
4 – Sod in
Heaven (4:59)
5 – Public Image
(3:59)
6 – Belsen Was A
Gas. (4:21)
7 – Attack
(3:25)
8 –
Problems(4:00)
9 – Public Image
(Encore) (3:02)
10- Annalisa
(Encore) (7:41)
