Needle Time

  Public Image Limited - Happy? [208 605 GER 1987 24-Bit FLAC] It's John Lydon's 66th birthday today, so to celebrate, here is a brand new rip of the Happy? album from 1987. Quite a few have asked for this ....and it is a significant upgrade on my old November 2018 rip. John Lydon and his ever rotating band of musicians stick the Public Image Limited name on what is essentially a polished eighties rock album. If it wasn't for the spiky ginger one's gritty and discordant monotone, Happy? could well be an album by any of a string of eighties hair-rock bands, however none of that lot had the late John McGeoch rocking out with the riffs. Is this really a PIL album, it is a zillion miles from Metal Box , after all those rifts and splits, my jury is out - however it is an entertaining listen and it does sound great when cranked up really loud, especially with all that McGeoch guitar which saves the record from eighties polished mediocrity. I am indebted to long time blog fo...

  Public Image Limited - Second Edition [2WX 3288 USA 1979 2LP Promo 24-Bit FLAC] I've ripped my copy of Metal Box a few times over the years, however this edition came my way recently and just had to be ripped! I've always found the mastering on Metal Box to be a little shrill, and often wondered how the album would sound when mastered as a 33rpm long player. The band's American label, Island Records (via Warners) declined the opportunity to expensively mirror Virgin's triple 45rpm tin edition and instead sent the reels to Sterling Sound Inc in New Jersey for mastering and then to the highly regarded Capitol Records Pressing plant in Los Angeles. Virgin Records adopted this format and title for subsequent UK versions of the album from around February 1980 onwards. Here are the results, my recent acquisition is a 1979 original pressing - complete with the gold embossed promo stamp as shown. I couldn't resist the opportunity to create a 176.4kHz archive. Turn this...

  Public Image Limited - Seattle [VS 988-12 UK 1987 24-Bit FLAC] More rebel pop-rocking from Johnny and the boys, Bill Laswell had moved on therefore former Art Of Noiser Gary Langan assumed production duties. Seattle was the lead single from Happy -era PiL who also featured the late guitar journeyman John McGeoch. A1 Seattle B1 The Suit B2 Selfish Rubbish

  Public Image Limited - Home [VS 855-12 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC] Time now for your weekly dose of PIL. The mid-eighties PiL was basically John Lydon, keyboardist Jebin Bruni & guitarist Mark Schulz with Bill Laswell becoming the non-performing  member, with the difficult task of arranging and producing the accompaniments  to Lydon's lyrical rants. Laswell also recruited Steve Vai, Ginger Baker and Ryuichi Sakamoto (quite a line-up!) for the sessions. The resulting album, Album was fairly well received, bolstered by the powerful Rise single. Home was the other single, which didn't quite achieve the chart-hit success of its predecessor.  A1 Home (Version From 'Album') B1 Round B2 Home (Single Version)

  Public Image Limited - Rise [12" VS 841-12 UK 1986 24-Bit FLAC] Time for some more Public Image Limited - there will be no more Foo ....ever!. This time from those difficult mid-eighties when John Lydon effectively became a solo artist surrounded by session musicians, also becoming heavily reliant on Bill Laswell to hold everything together, so much so that Laswell was frequently given song writing credits. PIL were to release some of Johnny's best and his worst during this period. Rise was my favourite and I have re-ripped the twelve inch from penguinflight's archive. This is a bloody loud record, I've checked very carefully that nothing is clipped - but it will always be one of the best singles to be played loud. Headphone listeners be aware. A1 Rise B1 Rise (Instrumental)

  Public Image Limited - Commercial Zone  (Limited Edition) [XYZ-007 USA 1984 24-Bit FLAC] Some of you have already guessed this album was coming. I last ripped Commercial Zone on the old Debut Carbon/2M Blue combination in January 2017, after my recent rip of the Japanese pressing on Flowers Of Romance , it was the obvious follow-up. Here is a brand new rip of the album Johnny didn't want you to hear, but Keith did! Viewed by many as the last true PIL album, Commercial Zone was funded & released by  Keith Levene on his split from the band. The review of the album in Melody Maker upon release sums it up perfectly and is copied below.... THIS is not a bootleg, this is the real alternative to that other record, a private view of the Public Image, a strictly import-only insight into the way they were. This record sets the record straight from the Keith Levene point of view, a collection of original PiL ephemera which puts the tin lid on Levene's involvement in the band...

  Public Image Limited - The Flowers Of Romance [YX-7291-AX JPN 1982 24-Bit FLAC] Described by Keith Levene, at the time, as the least commercial album ever handed over to a major record label. I suppose Virgin Records were known for being fairly adventurous.  The Flowers Of Romance was recorded after Jah Wobble departed with Martin Atkins on drums and John Lydon taking on the somewhat limited bass parts.  This album is not an easy listen to say the least. You would assume from subsequent Lydon & Leven interviews that this was a deliberate act of blatant uncommercialism - they certainly set out to make a difficult album following the critical acclaim of Metal Box . One of the most remarkable tracks is  Hymie's Him with it's orchestral almost film soundtrack qualities - this track surely had an influence on neo-classical industrial acts such as In The Nursery. Banging On The Door reflects more upon the bands earlier work with brooding bass over thumping rhythms...

  Public Image Limited - Public Image (First Issue) [V2114 UK 1978 24-Bit FLAC] Butter wouldn't melt .....John Rotten Lydon in a business suit, well groomed without the red hair dye and not a safety pin in sight. The album which allegedly ended punk, welcome to a new world of post-Pistols, post-punk. The attitude never changed, the musicians were just better. In a modern day world, the title track would have opened the album but Johnny wanted us to know that things were now different. Here is a new rip from my original UK pressing, you know what you need to do now..... A1 Theme A2 Religion I A3 Religion II A4 Annalisa B1 Public Image B2 Low Life B3 Attack B4 Fodderstompf

  Public Image Limited - Metal Box [3LP METAL 1 UK 1979 24-Bit FLAC] One of my very first high resolution rips from quite a few years back (February 2012 to be precise), cleaned up, re-sampled and re-posted for those who may have missed it.. I'll leave the words to Simon Reynolds, who reviewed this album in his book Rip It Up And Start Again some 25 years after this metal tin hit record store shelves.... ...Martin Atkins, who went on to become PiL's longest-enduring drummer, was recruited when the second album Metal Box was virtually finished. He received a summons to the studio in the form of an inconsiderate 3 a.m. phone call. 'When I got to Townhouse Studios (where the band was recording), someone says, "There's the drum kit, make something up"', Atkins recalls. 'Wobble and I wrote Bad Baby off the top of our heads - what you hear on Metal Box is literally that first five minutes of us playing together for the first time'. As you might imagin...

Jah Wobble ‎- The Legend Lives On... Jah Wobble In Betrayal [V 2158 UK 1980 24-Bit FLAC] Post-PIL Wobble's debut long player ripped from an original UK vinyl copy to high resolution FLAC. At the time other members of Public Image were quick to call foul as they accused Wobble of using parts of Metal Box across Betrayal .  I'm not sure how that works considering Wobble wrote the bass parts for Metal Box ? Perhaps it was Wobble mimicking John Lydon's vocal style on T.V. which upset the rotten one? A1 Betrayal A2 Beat The Drum A3 Blueberry Hill A4 Not Another B1 T.V. (Tales From Outer Space) B2 Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life B3 Dan McArthur B4 Pineapple

Public Image Limited - Happy? [208 605 GER 1987 24-Bit FLAC] John Lydon and his ever rotating band of session  musicians stick the Public Image Limited name on what is essentially a polished eighties rock album. If it wasn't for the spiky ginger one's gritty and discordant monotone, Happy? could well be an album by any of a string of one-hit eighties bands. Vitamin Z ...anybody? I am not saying that this is a poor album, I'm just not disguising the fact that this really isn't PIL ...nor is it really a PIL album  ...however it does sound great when cranked up really loud, especially the riffs on The Body . John was to take a short sabbatical and return a few years later with a pop album, produced by Hooky's "mate" Stephen Hague. I am indebted to long time blog follower penguinflight for donating his German pressing of this album, ripped for you all in 24-bits of FLAC. A1 Seattle A2 Rules And Regulations A3 The Body A4 Save...

Public Image Limited - Commercial Zone Limited Edition [XYZ-007 USA 1984 24-Bit FLAC] Viewed by many as the last true PIL album, Commercial Zone was released by the departing Keith Levene on his split from the band. The review of the album in Melody Maker upon release sums it up perfectly and is copied below.... THIS is not a bootleg, this is the real alternative to that other record, a private view of the Public Image, a strictly import-only insight into the way they were. This record sets the record straight from the Keith Levene point of view, a collection of original PiL ephemera which puts the tin lid on Levene's involvement in the band up to the acrimonious parting of the ways last summer. Five of the eight tracks on This Is What You Want ... appear here in embryonic form, accompanied by one or two Levene works and a couple of apparently unreleased Lydon/Atkins/Levene efforts. Of the exclusives, Bad Night (no relation to Bad Life) is the most intriguing item, L...