In a recent interview with Uncut, Public Image Ltd frontman John Lydon spoke about the band’s upcoming album ‘End Of World,’, his love for glam rock and how he infused the genre into his new album.
However, when the topic drifted to glam and punk rock’s origins, the singer was quick to slam the ‘American’ glam and punk scene, as he praised British culture by saying:
“I love a bit of glam rock. It’s a thoroughly British invention. There’s all this nonsense about how punk rock came from New York; it’s all f*cking bollocks. I came from a very strong culture, one that didn’t need America to teach us how to be punks.”
He continued by slamming ‘American’ punk rockers:
“The American punk scene was a bunch of tw*ts in tight trousers, reading Rimbaud poetry from the depths of New York. We didn’t need America. We had exciting things in our youth that had nothing to do with America.”
John then discussed punk’s origins and listed some of the U.K. artists that were a part of the ‘glam’ scene and their tracks. He said:
“Punk was coming out of glam. Slade, Sweet, T Rex, Bowie, Showaddywaddy, Mud. ‘I love your Tiger Feet.’ – ‘The Do That’ is very much of that glam scenario.”
Regarding piL’s new album in eight years, it is dedicated to Lydon’s late wife, Nora Forster, who passed away at the age of 80. The band has already released a few of the tracks, including, ‘Penge,’ ‘Car Chase’ and ‘Hawaii.’ They also announced an accompanying UK tour for later in the year. In the meantime, you can listen to the tracks below.
You can read John Lydon’s interview with Uncut here.
