WHAT A TEMPER!: PIL POPPING CRISSIE MEETS A BARONESS

Managed to get through another week of what is proving to be unsatisfying work. October is here and the only positive thing to look forward to is a new ski season. The hut trips are lining up and the plan is to make the journey up the hill as often as possible, assuming we get decent snow. A busy day at the office on Friday kept me from visiting Jack Jensen to see his new art work celebrating Day of the Death month. But I did purchase a nice pastel from Scotty Mitchell in Boulder, Utah, another artist I have a long standing relationship with. All these people using their creative energy to make art, I mostly massage words to feed a bureaucracy.

One show for Friday night, PiL - 1983 - Toad's Place, New Haven, Connecticut on April 4, 1980, a very good audience recording. Another example of where it's just as much fun listening to the comments from the audience as it is from Johnny. As is customary in these early shows, "Alright, lets clear things up down in front here. I ain't no fuckin spittoon. Don't gob at me." This is the last PiL gig with guitarist Keith Levene or bassist Pete Jones.

FandF: Why did you leave PiL, were you offered the cabaret tour in Japan and Europe?

Pete: Here is the transcript from my website, it sums up what went on at the end...

The infighting and squabbling had reached a peak. Lydon and Levene were drifting further and further apart and Atkins was trying to manipulate himself the best power position possible. Management had been rumbled...

The money was being syphoned off and the greasy coked up slimeball and his equally spaced out girlfriend that had ripped us off went low and hid back under a rock. Larry White, who had taken over behind Keith's back. One of these occasions was over a Sushi dinner (in San Francisco I seem to remember) but I didn't much care for the food or the bullshit, both were highly unpalatable, so I settled for the warm Saki instead, by the jug load. The small talk and manoeuvring was pathetic but I didn't care, the Saki won, and I honked up raw fish all over the sidewalk and staggered back to my hotel. This was pretty much the pattern for my last few weeks with PiL, and quite frankly I was getting pissed with the whole affair. Talk had turned to organising a Japanese tour, which was one place I had always wanted to visit. I knew that the earning potential from the land of the rising buck was huge and I believed we could take a large slice of it. We discussed who would form the entourage to travel but for some reason it didn't include my girlfriend. She was expected to stay behind in New York on her own. Now I wouldn't have minded so much if John wasn't going to take soppy Nora or if Keith wasn't going to drag the new Jewish princess of a wife along but they were. Petty in the extreme, it was at Keith's insistence that she wasn't going, and Atkins was meekly quiet when I put up my defence.

The bubble was about to well and truly burst. A short time later back in New York nothing had changed, I was still shacked up with the roadie and there was a lot of confusion. What really mattered to me at that time was a decent pint of ale. I couldn't get it out of my mind. I had been drinking piss for 8 months and now all I wanted was a decent pint in a decent pub. That was it. I went and bought two tickets back to London there and then, leaving the next day. At the time I intended to return after a short break in London, but deep down I knew that I wouldn't be back. After my phone call to Lydon I knew for certain that I wouldn't be back. I called him at the loft and Atkins answered the phone. He had moved into the loft, smart move, get close to John... I told Atkins my plans and he relayed the message to John in disbelief. I heard John screaming in the background, his parting words being "bollocks!!"....

I never spoke to John again. A weight had suddenly lifted from my shoulders, the clouds parted and I felt happier than I had been for weeks. I went out and bought some recording equipment to take home (It was a lot cheaper than buying it in London) and went to pack my bags. Next morning as the plane touched down in London, the grey early morning Heathrow gloom didn't look all that welcoming, and by the time I got home I was shagged. It didn't take long to readjust and the glorious pint of ale that I had craved tasted oh so sweet. The family were pleased to see me and it was real good to talk to sane people again. The crazy days had ended just as suddenly as they had begun, I had tasted the sweet nectar of fame and success, chewed for a while then had to spit it out again, for it tasted awful......In fact it was Rotten, well and truly rotten.

Read it all here:
http://www.fodderstompf.com/INTERVIEWS/pete.html

Download it here, thanks to Pilhead!
http://www.filefactory.com/file/2ikgc5837kzp/n/3._Toad_s_Place,_New_Haven,_Conneticut_04.04.83.rar

Saturday night started off with Baroness who I saw here in Denver in early May of this year (http://whatatemper.blogspot.com/2012/05/metal-rattles-head.html). I started off the evening by reloading that show and powering it up on the truck stereo. This brought back memories of that evening as well as the first time I saw them at the Coachella Music Festival in Indio, California on April 16, 2010, the first day of the three day festival. I was pumped up that day, having just spent the last several days skiing on Mount Whitney, knowing that Vampire Weekend and the Bunnymen would be performing that night. This is when I first saw both Baroness and PiL, a day I remember fondly, even after having snuck in a half liter of tequila that I consumed all day long. This was before I was recording shows, so no bootleg of their performance on one of the side stages at the festival. I got a front row spot to watch it all. I was surprised to see the band members set up their own equipment before the show and then take it down afterwards, just like they did at the Denver show. I was blown away by the experience and I vowed to do my best to see them again. That may be a while again considering that a couple weeks ago their tour bus rolled off a highway overpass on a rainy night in the UK, the remainder of their 2012 tour promoting their new studio album cancelled.

The Pretenders closed out Saturday night, their May 3, 1980 show at the New York Palladium, an excellent soundboard recording of the bands original lineup, including Pete Farndon on bass and James Honeyman Scott on guitar.

"Carefully combining punk, new wave, power pop and guitar-driven rock, The Pretenders were able to dominate both Top 40 and FM AOR charts numerous times during their most commercially successful years from 1978 to 1984. This performance was recorded on the band's debut U.S. tour at a show where Hynde met and later fell in love with Kinks leader, Ray Davies (they were together for three years and had one daughter). Captured at New York's Palladium Theater, this show was recorded for the King Biscuit Flower Hour, and would be one of the vehicles that helped establish the band as one of the hottest new bands to emerge from the U.K."