I wish I could give a firsthand account of Public Image Limited's fabled “riot show“ at The Ritz in 1981, but unfortunately – I wasn’t there. In fact, I wouldn’t have the pleasure of witnessing Public Image Ltd. on a stage until seeing them in 1986 at the Palladium on the tour supporting the Bill Laswell produced Album. That was indeed a great show (featuring an inexplicable instrumental cover of Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and a surprise airing of “Pretty Vacant”), but it wasn’t destined for the history books.
PiL also played the late, lamented Great Gildersleeve’s on the Bowery (which I wrote about here), but I wasn’t at that not-quite-as-infamous show either. After that Palladium gig, I’d go onto see the band a couple more times – notably at Jones Beach (alongside New Order and the Sugarcubes) and finally at the New Ritz, whilst John Lydon was pushing the comparatively staid That What Is Not album. Both of those gigs were also perfectly fine, but again, quite a lengthy beer-bottle-toss from the stuff of legend.
No, the fabled Ritz riot is the one that people still find themselves talking about all these years later, rife with accounts of an agitated, unruly audience hellbent on revenge. Hard to fathom now. Nowadays, John Lydon seems like a cuddly elder statesman compared to the snarling agitpropagandizer of that era.
Now that I think of it, while I’ve seen hundreds of shows by frowny, violence-friendly punk bands and chaos-courting metal outfits, I think the most unruly I’ve ever seen a crowd become was at a concert by – of all bands – The Wonder Stuff at the Marquee on West 21st street circa 1991. After two lengthy opening sets by Too Much Joy and Pylon (the latter due to a scheduling conflict), the `Stuff came onstage well behind schedule, copped some major attitude and only played two or three songs before vocalist Miles Hunt smarmily announced into the mic, “Buh-bye, New York, that’s all you get,” arguably taking a page from his forebears in PiL. The band left the stage. Miles’ brother Russ Hunt, the band’s roadie, stepped up to the mic and barked, “Congratulations, New York, you fucked it!” With that, a spinning beer bottle came whizzing out of the crowd towards the stage, striking the drum riser and shattering just inches from Russ’ head, prompting him to exit with stage with great stealth. House lights went up and I believe the cops were even called.
So, yeah, I was at that gig, but no one really discusses the Wonder Stuff in any great capacity these days. Though filled with vitriol, it is not in the same league as the PiL riot show at the Ritz.
In any case, if you want a thorough breakdown of what went transpired that evening in that storied room on East 11th Street, check out Dangerous Minds’ relatively recent rumination on the event (complete with a first-hand account).
So, yeah – it’s basically all ancient history. 32 years later, The Ritz is now Webster Hall and Lydon’s fronting a new incarnation of PiL, albeit still without the guitar arsenal of his former foil Keith Levene.
So why I am bothering to discuss any of this bullshit now? Well, earlier today, the mighty Keith Levene himself tweeted (and put up on Facebook) an audio clip from that fabled evening, which prompted the following snippy exchange between Levene and Ted Parsons, former drummer from SWANS, Prong and – briefly – Killing Joke. It's always nice to see two people you admire exchange views.
Anyway, for the rest of us who weren’t there, here it is…
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