Live Review: PiL in London

Meet the band – Jesus Christ on guitar, “flown in from Luton airport”; The Archangel Gabriel on drums and Beelzebub himself, “Der Teufel”, on bass. So who’s on vocals you ask. It could only be one; the all-seeing, all-knowing one – by turns benign and benevolent, then capriciously scornful and merciless. That’s right, it’s John Lydon.

But tonight he’s in soft-hearted mood. “My voice is a bit burnt out," he tells the crowd, "but you’ll pull me through.” It feels churlish to point out it's not like he was ever his generation's answer to Frank Sinatra in the first place. What a voice, though! He contorts it into a bizarre array of tones and timbres – at one point sounding disconcertingly like Gollum rasping through a vocoder.

Still, nothing will stop the sermon – issued from on high. The subjects are Authority figures, Institutionalism and organised religion. All despised. Lydon cuts an evangelical figure as he declaims from the pulpit, occasionally turning the pages of the Bible set in front of him. It was most likely a book of lyrics, but same difference.

The portly hoarse-man of the apocalypse leads the band through a potted history of PiL’s back-pages. Being that seven songs are taken from new album What The World Needs Now, audience attention slumps occasionally, but lifts again for old favourites ‘Rise’ and ‘This Is Not a Love Song’.

Proceedings culminate with ‘Shoom’ where Lydon, in vintage form, gets all sweary as he suggests, “What the world needs now is another…FUCK OFF!”. The crowd shout along in seeming agreement. Amen!