29 July 2025 (gig)
01 August 2025
He's been the angriest of young men, a reality TV star and a Eurovision Song Contest hopeful.
But John Lydon as a cantankerous, whisky-swilling Scottish laird? That's the role onlookers might have been forgiven for thinking the one-time screen actor was playing as his band opened the annual Summer Sessions in Glasgow's West End.
From the moment the punk legend sauntered on stage bedecked in a designer tartan waistcoat, pantaloons and a sporran, uttering the comedically confrontational greeting, "Good evening, Edinburgh!", it was hard to take your eyes off his compelling presence.
Nowadays pushing 70 and cutting a portly but still agile figure, Lydon pulled out the first of his famous death stares during the growling set opener Home, its chorus of "Better days will never be" feeling like a mantra of defiance set against today's global political shitshow.
Around him, guitarist Lu Edmonds, bassist Scott Firth and new drummer Mark Roberts created an enervating maelstrom of sound, with the latter taking on the duties previously carried out by the long-serving Bruce Smith with a startling dynamism.
After directing a "You should be in Oasis" jibe at some offending individual down the front, Lydon fixed on hip-hop mode for a superbly executed World Destruction.
As darkness started to fall, the soaring This Is Not A Love Song segued into a beguiling Poptones, with the singer throwing in an inevitable mention of "the karaoke Sex Pistols" – perhaps surprisingly his only reference on the night to the latest touring version of his former band – prompting lusty cheers from some sections of his audience and more awkward glances from others.
The set took an otherworldly turn as the four-piece unleashed a mesmerising Flowers Of Romance, underlining the versatile creativity that's been at PiL's heart since the band was formed by the erstwhile Johnny Rotten along with the late Keith Levene, Jah Wobble and Jim Walker back in May 1978.
Relishing a drink from his bottle of Scotch and another from his water supply, Laird Lydon dropped in a short rant about how "this is our land" and how no politician can take it away.
It meant nothing and everything at the same time, the leafy and thankfully rain-free setting carrying his message on a gentle breeze that ushered in a surprisingly moving rendition of the 1989 single Warrior, with its anti-corporate attitude and green imagery.
"I'm bringing you Anglo-Saxon, and it's mostly from the influence of a Paddy," the London-born firebrand explained as he introduced the expletive-laden Shoom, in reference to his "belligerent" Irish father.
It certainly ramped up the audience participation levels in time for Lydon's signature tune Public Image and, after a brief fag break, the electro marvel that is Open Up.
The delirious masses screamed out "Anger is an energy" in response to their hero's loaded "What is anger?" as Rise took the notion of call and response to places Freddie Mercury would likely have had nightmares about.
And that's the beauty of PiL – you can say what you like about Lydon's often contradictory views, but musically they go out on a limb. Their epic closing medley of Annalisa, Attack and Chant was a tribal freakout that served to ritually cast aside everything that had gone before.
Was it catharsis? Perhaps. I for one felt like my head had just exploded.
Picture credit: shotbyagunnphotography.com.
