Rotten on the Stoop

WFMU’s Facebook page put up an interesting image today, that being the one above by one Michael Angelo Alago, captioned thusly….

PiL outside the Ritz the day of the '81 riot.

I’ve written about the Public Image Riot before (most recently here). I wasn’t at that show, nor at their equally celebrated turn at Great Gildersleeves (which I wrote about here). Nope, I wouldn’t see Public Image Ltd. onstage until sometime in `86, when they played the Palladium. By this point, Keith Levene was well out of the band, his part taken by John McGeough and Lu Edmonds (the former sadly now deceased and the latter back in the band, having also served in the ranks of the Damned, the Mekons and Spizzenergi).

In any case, in looking at this shot, I tried to figure out where, exactly, Johnny "Rotten" Lydon and company are pictured sitting. I’m guessing it’s 117, just steps to the west. That's Keith in the hat, John with the inexplicable epaulets, Jeanette Lee standing, and possibly John's wife Nora (mother of the Slits' Ari Up) sitting next to him. 

Compare and contrast and see what ya think. The door is different, but the window moldings to the left match up, no?

One final thought about that Palladium show in `86. The band's first song (without Johnny onstage) was an instrumental romp through Zeppelin's "Kashmir," oddly enough. Here's a clip I found of them playing it in Geneva on that same tour.

Weird, no? 

Comments

[Bob Egan]

Spot on!