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)
43 comments:
Hope you get out of the hospital soon!!! Glad you all survived!!! Thanks always for the top notch posts!!!
Seems like a good time to give you a long overdue "thank-you" for your incredible site. Not only have you introduced me to amazing music but the "internet subversion" list and "Good Blogs R Us" are invaluable resources in their own right. Apologies for my ingratitude until now. One day I hope to have thanked all my bookmarks.
BTW, glad to know most of your daughter, dog, one lung and most of your ribs remain intact. My condolences regarding your car and your sanity.
Yes, I had wondered what had happened to you. You seem to be in good spirits despite all. Haven't lost your sense of humor (although you might before that hospital stay is over with and the bill hits you).
You've posted some really interesting and worthwhile stuff and I thank you for it. Get well soon.
Jeff R (Woodworth, Louisiana USA)
Cheers all, I have now been released.Walking round a small french town in ripped,blood stained clothing, looking like uncle fester, reminded me of my youth. But at least my insurance paid for myfirst class rail ticket back to the sun side of France.
You can check some crash related pictures at my facebook site:
https://www.facebook.com/jonny.zchivago
DON't LAUGH!.....I can't til my ribs are set!
Heal, good sir, heal. And if ever there was a soundtrack to drug-fueled, dazed semi-consciousness, early PiL is it. Many thanks.
Yeow! Get well soon. I've got a new CD, by the way.
get well soon please
I'm so glad to hear that you guys are all ok Jonny!
God bless, get well soon.
glad yall are survivors of this spill. git whell
and
please email mnordile at gmail, i would like to send you some weird music
All the best to you and a speedy recovery!
Get well soon! Love your blog.
Get well soon, man, thanks first for your sense of humour, and secondly for the music,
Bloody hell - bit of a shocker to reAd wiv me breakfast. So glad you (and your daughter and the dog) survived to blog another day. The interwebs would be a much duller place sans Jonny Z x
Deeply touched all. Especially like references to 'a sense of humour'.This all too often goes straight over some peoples heads, missing the point completely,and getting offended? the Interweb is a far duller place than it used to be, as creative writing seems to be under the cosh of fear.
I am recovering well,sitting in the sun reading John 'drumbo' French's book on Captain Beefheart. Good medicine.
Get well quickly and thanks for thre excellent site.
Could have done worse in the pit at some of the performances you've posted (Bill's feeble attempt at humor)-glad you're recovering and your daughter is OK!--Bill
There's not enough "Jonny Zchivagos" in this world, glad you are still with us. Must have been terrifying, please get well soon.
Shit. Sounds scary.
Take care, get well.
Holy shit, glad you're on the mend and your daughter was ok! Cheers for posting some early live PiL, which I haven't heard before (I think when it comes to live PiL, I've pretty much only heard the one that ends in a riot, when they played behind a curtain... can't be bothered looking it up).
French music that's not naff or overly pretentious... hmmm... I like a bit of Heldon on their more industrial side, and I do like the Besombes-Rizet double album... other than that my knowledge is a bit sketchy.
All the best for full & swift recovery. Many thanks for all the music you share, and the writeups which are just as enjoyable!
That's scary and as many others here, I'm glad that everybody is ok. Get well, man and thanks a lot for making me discover these musical gems.
Glad to hear you're OK.
Holy shit! And here I was getting ready to post some smart-assed comment wondering if you had been so deeply moved by your last post (Todd - With Love...) that it had left you stunned to silence, Glad I waited and I'm so sorry to learn what really happened. So now all I can think to say is I'm glad to hear everyone else was unharmed and that frankly, given the injuries you sustained, you're still alive! No doubt healing's going to take a lot of time. Well, that's all that matters now. If posting stuff helps with the boredom, then know you have a captive audience! Hope you make it back home soon.
As someone had all ready noted there are not enough people like you in the world today. Best of luck with all of the medical costs (I deeply sympathize) and I am glad that you will be all right someday. Keep on keepin on.
what crap news! sorry to hear. heal up, get well. and thanks for the PiL Jonny.
Good god!
Glad you're still kicking, so to speak.
Holy crap, was wondering about the long layoff, thats not like you. Quite relieved you and family are ok. Drumbo's book, eh? Come to L.A., i'll give you a tour. The guy who owns the Trout Mask house is cool about visitors dropping by.
Thanks for this as well, always on the lookout for early PiL related goodies.
Holy crap. Be well!
-Xtm
Good to have you back Mr. DIY
All the best for a speedy recovery. Thanks so much for all the work you put into this. jg nyc
Come to L.A.?.....Trout Mask House?.....Tour of?.......i'm a coming.Just waiting for my insurance pay out,and then you're lumbered with me.
Cheers, Mr fab.
I thought that YOu were Mr DIY Philip?......and again Thanks for all the well wishers,the last few weeks have resurrected some faith in the basic kindness of people......don't worry, i'll be back to my usual bitter self in a few weeks.
Get well, man. Love your blog.
Shit, just read this. Get well soon! So glad to read your daughter and the dog were ok. Hope your bits are all back to full working order 'toot sweet'.
Wishing you a speedy recovery, and thanks for an always entertaining and enlightening blog.
Only just read your post - I've been off megalithing in deepest Wiltshire for a couple of weeks - hope you're dealing nicely & that you still have that lovely morphine on tap? All the vee vee best. :)
Glad you're on the mend sir. Hope you get back to full strength soon. Btw, I Love your blog. It's amazing! Thank you SO much for posting all this wonderful music!! Take care :)
Good to see you back sir.
Jesus, I was scrolling down the blog in a half-awake state and saw the PiL post and the 38 comments and thought you must have posted an unreleased PiL album to garner that many comments! Anyway, sorry for the delayed response, I thought you had gone on a well deserved extended hiatus after the Todd post and would be back in a month or two.
On one level it feels synthetic and false to say I was deeply shocked and concerned upon reading about your near-fatal car accident as we are complete strangers to each other in the traditional sense, but the raw emotional reaction to the news was the same as if it was a friend and their family I had read about.
There are too few good people left in the blogging world and you really are one of the good guys. Your humour, commentary and of course, excellent music taste would be terribly missed as the number of genuinely moving comments above show.
PS> Hope you are in line for some serious compensation as 800 Euros a day charge is beyond belief.
All the best to you, your family and unscathed mutt!
Many thanks for your touching words mate! This accident very nearly fucked everything up. I'm still a bit dodgy in the brain,doing things I had no idea I did! Apparently its a symptom of concussion;so forgive me if i start writing something even more shite than i normally do....its the concussion.....i think?. My lung now works again after two op's,so i'll probably live on. My mutt has now overcome his car phobia,and is his old self again.
The comments from all you lot has more than compensated for all this,again i am humbled,and despite my usual cynicism, I have encountered nothing but the positive side of the human character ever since that shit day.Even the bloke who nearly killed me is ok, as he frantically tried to get me out of the wreck......apparently,as i can't remember. Don'y worry I ain't turning hippy!I'll be back
Very glad to hear you're on the mend!
Jesus man,
Just caught up with that news, so glad you and daughter and dog are all ok!
Regards/
Thanks Exile.....can i call you Exile?....all scars healed now, except the mental ones....which of course NEVER HEAL!
The fucker who did it faces justice in feb 2016.
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