John Lydon - Best Of British (DVD)

...Me Out Of Here' here's John Lydon!

After tasting a bit of renewed public attention (and a new solo LP in the works) it was perhaps high time that sometime Mr Rotten did the smart thing and capitalise on it.

And so we have 'Best Of British £1 Notes', which is also available on CD (and special edition 2CD with 12" mixes). These packages document Lydon's career from the The Sex Pistols, to PiL (Public Image Limited) ...
...from 1996) and show how John Lydon developed from Britain's premier punk into something a little more dangerous in early PiL to a comfortable pop/dance artist in the late 80's to to early 90's.

There's probably no need to talk about the Pistols stuff as you're sure to have seen the videos millions of times. They show four guys with attitude belting out some dirty basic rock 'n' roll with no other eye candy to detract attention. And ... more

Nevermind 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here' here's John Lydon!

After tasting a bit of renewed public attention (and a new solo LP in the works) it was perhaps high time that sometime Mr Rotten did the smart thing and capitalise on it.

And so we have 'Best Of British £1 Notes', which is also available on CD (and special edition 2CD with 12" mixes). These packages document Lydon's career from the The Sex Pistols, to PiL (Public Image Limited) to his solo career.

The reason why I plumped for the DVD version is that despite the remastering of the tracks, most of the PiL tracks - which produce the bulk of the content - can be found on 1990's 'Greatest Hits...So Far' album. All this package does is bundle in some post '90 PiL (confined to 2 releases from their last record) and solo work at the end, with 2 Pistols tracks preceeding it all.

Since I own a number of Lydon records I thought it interesting to check out the videos as I've not seen very many.

The videos play chronologically from 1976 to 1997 (to 2002, if you include reuinion Pistols gig extras from 1996) and show how John Lydon developed from Britain's premier punk into something a little more dangerous in early PiL to a comfortable pop/dance artist in the late 80's to to early 90's.

There's probably no need to talk about the Pistols stuff as you're sure to have seen the videos millions of times. They show four guys with attitude belting out some dirty basic rock 'n' roll with no other eye candy to detract attention. And of course this was the time before proper music video.

Early PiL isn't that much different, but where the Pistols had a very outward arrogance, early PiL is a little more introverted but perhaps much more dangerous and twisted. 'Public Image' is fairly faithful as a transitional Pistols-PiL song, whereas the spooky 'Death Disco' (with the band members hidden by dark shadows) documents PiL at their peak.

Early 80's PiL, significantly from '83 was a bit of a chuckle video wise. '(This Is Not A) Love Song' is a different version to the album and the video sports John Lydon prancing about somewhere in the US, partly in the back of a car. Not very spectacular.

'Bad Life' shows a video style very at home with early 80's pop; very dated.

It's perhaps from '85's 'World Destruction' (a collaboration with Afrika Bambaataa) that shows some real pinache. Musically it's an interesting pairing and an interesting song, and the video is a very playful one. It wouldn't be out of date if it were to be remade today.

The best quality videos, and perhaps the least embarassing of the 80's are from '86. The chart topping 'Rise' features Lydon in a video that tells a kind of a story; beautifully shot. 'Home' again (like all videos) features Lydon ranting in a room, interspersed with images of war toys.

'Seattle' is a fairly standard video with emphasis on Lydon, but 'The Body (Uncensored - though I don't notice anything racy?)' bolts a sense of humour to the now happy and colourful PiL. It begins with Lydon being wheeled in on a hospital bed wearing a surgeon's uniform and wielding saws!

The video for 'Warrior (different mix to the PiL hits CD)' perhaps goes far too close to 80's LA Rock video styles, in my opinion. All the colours are too bright and the attire of the band reminds me of the kind of things I look back and cringe on as a kid.

'Dissapointed' has a beautifully simple video for the beautiful song. It's a shame, that like many of the songs, it's been edited down, so it doesn't feature the soaring end.
Lydon and co. are dressed in colourful surf gear while a digital series of PiL logos and 9 album cover wash out and stretch.

A return to humour is on 'Don't Ask Me'. The caption version of the video features here and is beautifully shot and good looking. It's theme is about eco-awareness but the video seems to be a kind of dig at pestering by MI5 during his time in England, post Pistols.

'Cruel' and 'Covered' are from PiL's last album, and frankly they show why it's best it 'paused' there as the videos are uninspiring and the songs themselves seem like they tried to compete with the onslaught of Grunge but failed.

'Open Up' is a collaboration with Leftfield. A black and white vid with Lydon predating Prodigy's Keith Flint in mad dancing and dangerous poses. "Burn Hollywood Burn!" is the chorus to this dance hit.

Lydon's last video to date is for 'Sun', a solo experimental pop track with a Viz comic strip styled video.

The video extras are culled from The Sex Pistols with brilliant versions of 'Pretty Vacant' (to compensate for the fact that the original video isn't there) from Finsbury Park '96 and Bodies from the Phoenix Festival that year.
The Silver Machine cover from Crystal Palace 2002 is a strange addition. Not only cos it's not part of Lydon's catalogue but the sound quality is quite terrible; a little too much distortion to enjoy it more than once.

The audio extras are different mixes of PiL's Death Disco and Albatross (2 mixes). The differences are fairly minute in two of them but serve as interesting detail to PiL fans. A discography caps the DVD; it simply features album art and release dates.

The back of the DVD contains the line 'I Do Not Copy, Steal Or Imitate, But You Are More Than Welcome To Procreate', just before the copyright details. I wonder if this a snide kind of OK for 'different' distribution, considering EMI have only put this for sale in the UK and Europe.

Lydon's love affair with EMI is well documented!

The artwork, by John Lydon, is a wonderful mix of illustration by hand with dashings of bright computer colour.

Though the videos and tracks vary in quality, it's without doubt that John Lydon indeed has been quite a presence on popular British music, and this body of work proves that there was more to him than the Pistols. God Save The King! Long may he reign. 

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