Public Image Limited “Live in Tokyo” 1983/1986 reissue. Today, January 31st, is the birthday of PiL’s John Lydon (b. 1956). Lydon formed PiL in 1978 after the implosion of the Sex Pistols. PiL was similarly fraught with intraband tension and had a revolving door of members. After losing guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Pete Jones in ‘82, Lydon reformed PiL and toured Japan during the summer of ‘83. Live in Tokyo, originally released as a 2-EP set at 45 rpm, made it to #28 on the UK charts and is thought to be the first digitally recorded live album, the sound of which Allmusic calls “phenomenal, capturing…crisp, rich tones.” However, Allmusic offers a fairly scathing review of the concert album’s content, saying, “the performances…were resoundingly faceless and bland…Particularly appalling is Lydon’s call-and-response shtick with the crowd and the souls versions of the once haunting ‘Death Disco’ and ‘Flowers of Romance.’” That said, I think “Religion” is very strong, “Bad Life” is almost ass-shaking and I really love “(This is Not a) Love Song” despite the “shtick” with the audience.

We have Live in Tokyo on CD as well as vinyl. But it is a complete mis-pressing. The CD cover and the CD itself have all of the Live in Tokyo artwork, track listing, etc. but when you pop in the CD, out comes the jazz sounds of John Coltrane (who also has a similarly titled album Live in Japan but I’m not sure that is what appears on our CD).