A cover of Anarchy in the UK from the John Lydon-fronted Public Image Ltd is still splitting fans to this day.
Lydon would perform the song originally with the Sex Pistols, but he covered it years later when fronting his other band, Public Image Ltd. A performance on Live on The Tube in 1983 saw the group perform a collection of songs, and a cover of the Sex Pistols classic. Public Image Ltd performed This is Not a Love Song and The Flowers of Romance, with a cover of Anarchy in the UK sandwiched between the two. The performance has since been uploaded to YouTube, where viewers remain puzzled by the show. Lydon would suggest a bout of flu was keeping him from the usually lofty heights of performance, but some viewers were unforgiving and suggested the whole band were out of form.
One person wrote: “John actually found this band in a Holiday Inn where they were doing cabaret and asked them if they wanted to tour as PIL as all of the previous members had either left or been kicked from the band.”
Another added: “This must count as a real low point for PIL, Lydon backed by a load of session men.” A third shared: “I gave away my ticket to see these in Newcastle after watching this garbage. A tribute band would have done better.”
Not everyone was negative about the performance, though, with This is Not a Love Song singled out for praise. One person wrote: “If they had released a version of Not a Love Song that sounded more like this, it would have been an improvement… I think the session musicians are not bad, but not keen on Atkins’ drumming here.”
Another added: “Watched it back in 1987, loved it.” A third shared: “He has a great voice can sing so high and not in tune but so good unique voice sings better than most with a great style he is an articulate guy and very intelligent who needs a system bullshit way to educate people when you can learn yourself reading and writing and even doing an open uni degree but john is a clever guy self taught in many ways he is an intellectual guy who proves doing things your own way in life can still succeed.”
Others believe there’s an easy fix for the performance if Lydon is to be believed and was indeed under the weather. One person wrote: “Still fascinating even if John is under the weather. WHY didn’t the engineer put some gated reverb on those toms for the last song?? Would’ve been a great help.”
Another added: “Love how John played anarchy for the crowd, even though later on in life he brushed aside post punks like me, here you see the real side of him, giving the punks their own show for a few minutes.”
You can watch Public Image Ltd perform the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK below.
