I chose not to go skiing Sunday because a snow storm was moving through along with a cold front bringing arctic air down our way. Mostly an upslope storm with little snow predicted for the mountains. Little snow, very cold temperatures, traffic on the highway convinced me to stay home. I was bored Saturday night so I wanted a little music.
Only one show with a cigar outside late at night. Public Image Limited at the Reading Music Festival on August 28, 1992, two days before the amazing performance by Nirvana. No competition, PIL could not touch Nirvana. John Lydon spent much of his time on stage trying to get the crowd to show a little enthusiasm. This was supposedly PiL's last UK gig until 2009. The band over-ran their allocated time slot and reportedly were heavily fined.
One person described the performance as such:
"I remember being a bit bored watching PiL. He seemed to be living in the shadows of his past glories. In reflection I regret not being more enthusiastic about this set, but youth was on my side and I wanted to listen to some floppy fringed indie rubbish instead."
But then again he was down on Nirvana as well.
http://www.stewart-nash.co.uk/2010/08/reading-festival-1992-was-it-really-that-good/
Another review of that day:
PiL were playing on Friday, the first day of the festival, third top of the bill, before The Charlatans and The Blunderstuff (which I thought was a disgrace), but after PJ Harvey. I made my way to the front of "the field" while PJ Harvey were still playing so I would get a good space. I managed to get right down at the front, I can't understand these people who go to big gigs and stand at the back. After PJ Harvey finished, I stood and listened to John Peel (the MC) playing obscure indie dirge and watched the roadies setting up.
I noticed that PiL were the only band, apart from the headliners, who had brought backdrops, but more importantly I noticed that the camera crew who had been taping all the bands had disappeared, which was fucking typical! Checking out the crowd I noticed it was a pretty good mixture of old and young. There were also quite a few PiL T-shirts about, and I remember wondering just how many other people had come just to see PiL, there seemed to be quite a lot.
Eventually the records stopped, and the band arrived to big cheers. Even the sight of the backdrops had me excited so by this time I was really up for it. For those who don't know PiL 1992 were; (the newly cropped) John McGeoch - Guitar / (new boy) Russell Webb - Bass (who had replaced Alan Dias a couple of weeks before the gig) / Ted Chau - Guitar & Keyboards / Mike Joyce - Drums. I thought they'd start with 'Love Song' like they had on the tour, but instead they went into a powerful version of Led Zepplin's 'Kasmir' (oh, the irony!), which they hadn't played since the 1986 tour, and as much as I hate to admit it I actually quite like the PiL version!
More here: http://www.fodderstompf.com/GIG%20LIST/reading92.html
No comments:
Post a Comment