After guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Pete Jones left Public Image Limited due to major concerns about the direction John Lydon wanted to take the band, Lydon and drummer Martin Atkins reformed the group with members of a New Jersey outfit, Westside Frankie and the Inglewood Jerks, who knew the Sex Pistols' catalog by heart. The band toured Japan in the summer of 1983, and were offered the chance to record two shows on rare Japanese digital recording equipment while in Tokyo. Atkins would later say the resulting album was released not because of the quality of the show itself, but because of the opportunity to record a live album digitally. Comprising of material from throughout the group's history, Live in Tokyo was originally released as two 12" 45's, in keeping with the style of the earlier Metal Box. However, unlike that seminal album, the performances by this version of Public Image Limited were resoundingly faceless and bland. Even Lydon seems unable to muster up any enthusiasm for the material, which is stripped of any of the qualities that made it so revolutionary in the first place. Gone is any semblance of Jah Wobble's deep bass, Levene's brash guitars, or even Lydon's apocalyptic screaming. Instead it is all replaced by bland competence. Particularly appalling is Lydon's call-and-response shtick with the crowd and the soulless versions of the once haunting "Death Disco" and "Flowers of Romance." Only one track, "Religion," comes across as adding something to the original version, with a new organ introduction and an astonishingly biting performance from Lydon. Ironically enough, because the group recorded with such sophisticated equipment, the sound is phenomenal, capturing a mediocre band in crisp, rich tones.
© Geoff Orens /TiVo