PIL

YouTube strikes again: watch video of the very great Public Image Ltd. performing Poptones and Careering (two of their greatest songs, from Metal Box) on Dick Clark's American Bandstand circa 1980. Clark later famously referred to the episode as the worst moment in the show's history.


See John "Johnny Rotten" Lydon turn the farcical mandatory lip-syncing appearance into something resembling a situationist action, or a riot; see him literally dragging people out of the audience and onto the stage; see the New Wave robot-dance guy; see drummer Martin Atkins resolutely ignore the carnage and pull off brilliant live drum embellishment on Careering; see Lydon playing Atkins' drums with his wireless mic, before handing it to an audience member and encouraging her to sing for him; etc. etc. Hell, it's a treat to just see Keith Levene and Jah Wobble on the stage at the same time.

Favourite comment (from the comments section):

So Clark thought PIL was the worst moment in the show's history? I'd say it was one of the best! Dick Clark was too old to understand what was going on there. I always hated that about AB. Their moronic lip-sync policy. They could have had an incredible library of brilliant live performances, instead of square-looking phony performances. Lydon turned this into a slap in the face to that policy, and brewed up his own live performance in the process. Lydon is sharp as a blade.