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Metal Box: Stories from John Lydon's Public Image Ltd
PiL took the power encapsulated in the Sex Pistols and allowed it to express more complex music. It was only Lydon who progressed, who moved forward. Forget Grundy and Malcolm’s grandiose claims. John came again. In different clothes. That were just as beautiful’ Tony H. Wilson
Metal Box features riots, axe attacks, addiction, sonic terrorism, all-out confrontation and the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten.
John ‘Rotten’ Lydon – Jubilee ‘Public Enemy No. 1' – quit the Sex Pistols at the height of their fame and formed Public Image Limited, the ultimate cult band, as anarchic as the Pistols but with truly groundbreaking music that lived up to punk’s Year Zero rhetoric. From the druggy haze of Lydon’s Gunter Grove flat, amid endless police raids, PiL harnessed their disparate personnel to somehow produce three albums – First Edition, Metal Box and Flowers of Romance – as original as any ever issued.
The group’s corporate styling and innovatory sound were unique: dub-sonic bass overlaid with haunting guitars and Lydon’s banshee-wailing, combining elements of punk, reggae and dance. Lydon’s attitude led to riots at gigs and more tabloid outrage, as well as hits, multiple albums and some remarkably durable music. Drawing on new interviews with PiL boys Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, Martin Atkins and Jim Walker, as well as pivotal figures Don Letts and Dennis Morris, Metal Box is the first time the insiders have told the true and torrid tale of Lydon’s long, strange trip.
Praise for Metal Box:
'PiL’s avant-garde eclecticism was f*cking amazing’ - Alan McGee
‘We were four total maniacs making extreme music’ - Jim Walker, PiL
‘A more than decent addition to the Lydon pantheon. A proper warts’n’all biography’ – Guitar and Bass Magazine, February 2008
‘Band members Jah Wobble, Keith Levene and original PiL drummer Jim Walker tell their tale with panache’ – Classic Rock Magazine, October 2007
‘Lively and sharp’ – Mojo Magazine, April 2008
'One of the best music books to be produced for a very long time’ – The Irish Post, 17 November 2007
‘Strongman’s account of the ‘good years’ is rich in new data’ – Simon Reynolds, Frieze Magazine, Nov-Dec 2007
Phil Strongman is a film-maker and the acclaimed author of books Cocaine, a novel, John Lennon: Life,Times and Assassination and Pretty Vacant: A Punk History.
Metal Box features riots, axe attacks, addiction, sonic terrorism, all-out confrontation and the artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten.
John ‘Rotten’ Lydon – Jubilee ‘Public Enemy No. 1' – quit the Sex Pistols at the height of their fame and formed Public Image Limited, the ultimate cult band, as anarchic as the Pistols but with truly groundbreaking music that lived up to punk’s Year Zero rhetoric. From the druggy haze of Lydon’s Gunter Grove flat, amid endless police raids, PiL harnessed their disparate personnel to somehow produce three albums – First Edition, Metal Box and Flowers of Romance – as original as any ever issued.
The group’s corporate styling and innovatory sound were unique: dub-sonic bass overlaid with haunting guitars and Lydon’s banshee-wailing, combining elements of punk, reggae and dance. Lydon’s attitude led to riots at gigs and more tabloid outrage, as well as hits, multiple albums and some remarkably durable music. Drawing on new interviews with PiL boys Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, Martin Atkins and Jim Walker, as well as pivotal figures Don Letts and Dennis Morris, Metal Box is the first time the insiders have told the true and torrid tale of Lydon’s long, strange trip.
Praise for Metal Box:
'PiL’s avant-garde eclecticism was f*cking amazing’ - Alan McGee
‘We were four total maniacs making extreme music’ - Jim Walker, PiL
‘A more than decent addition to the Lydon pantheon. A proper warts’n’all biography’ – Guitar and Bass Magazine, February 2008
‘Band members Jah Wobble, Keith Levene and original PiL drummer Jim Walker tell their tale with panache’ – Classic Rock Magazine, October 2007
‘Lively and sharp’ – Mojo Magazine, April 2008
'One of the best music books to be produced for a very long time’ – The Irish Post, 17 November 2007
‘Strongman’s account of the ‘good years’ is rich in new data’ – Simon Reynolds, Frieze Magazine, Nov-Dec 2007
Phil Strongman is a film-maker and the acclaimed author of books Cocaine, a novel, John Lennon: Life,Times and Assassination and Pretty Vacant: A Punk History.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 6, 2008
Reading about a band I like and finding out someone I respect is actually a prick (and not just being one) was eye opening. If you are a fan of PIL pick this book up. If you are a fan of and admire John Lydon, I wouldn't.
January 18, 2024
Post Punk PIL all the stories.
Excellent, interesting, well written extensive analysis of a major post punk band .
The stories behind the songs,the arguments the gigs.
An extremely well researched book with huge catalogue of tracks from all the band members.
Excellent, interesting, well written extensive analysis of a major post punk band .
The stories behind the songs,the arguments the gigs.
An extremely well researched book with huge catalogue of tracks from all the band members.
April 30, 2025
Nothing totally remarkable, but a fun read nonetheless. I think maybe the biggest disappointment, at least to me, was that very little time was focused on the recording of Metal Box/Second Edition in favor of First Issue and Flowers Of Romance. But, whatever, check it out if you are a fan.
April 29, 2013
A slender readable summary of one of my favorite bands, with lots of quotes from key members Keith Levine, Martin Atkins, Jim Walker and Jah Wobble, as well as many of Lydon's closest associates from those early days during The Sex Pistols and beyond. The accounts of Lydon's first home in Gunter Grove are particularly fascinating, recounting your garden variety rock-star excesses, albeit the characters involved were much more intelligent than your Motley Crue ilk. The book gets a little thin by the end, but overall, a very enjoyable book if you love Mr. Rotten, as you get to know him in all his brilliance and arrogance through the eyes of those that were closest to him. Probably more accurate without his own revisionist tendencies mucking up the works.
March 13, 2012
Cursory.
February 5, 2021
Sound read
Page Turner from the pistols to the end of pil written with an outsiders view and with no bias enjoy
Page Turner from the pistols to the end of pil written with an outsiders view and with no bias enjoy
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews