Too often, Public Image Limited is thought of merely as the group Johnny Rotten formed after leaving the Sex Pistols. Nearly as often, that group is thought of as John Lydon—reverting to his given name—and whomever else is around. The truth is that while PiL has seen many members come and go throughout its two runs (1978–1992 and 2009 to the present), multi-instrumentalist Lu Edmonds has been a prominent fixture of the group for more than 20 of those years. PiL comes to the Rio Theatre Sept. 5.
When he first joined in 1986, Edmonds brought a spectacularly varied pedigree to PiL. Under the alias Uncle Patrel Mustapha bin Mustapha, he co-founded and played a Turkish instrument called a saz in the world music group 3 Mustaphas 3. On guitar, he was a member of first-wave punk heroes the Damned when they recorded, released and toured in support of their second album, 1977’s Music for Pleasure. Shortly before joining Public Image Limited, Edmonds was working with singer Kirsty MacColl and playing bass with music-art collective the Mekons and the Waterboys.
“I was having a very interesting time being very diverse,” he explains. “Because I’m very curious. I easily get bored, and then … I say ‘yes’ to things.” So when Edmonds was approached with an offer to join the group fronted by John Lydon, his response was simple. “Yeah, all right; let’s try that. I like PiL; [they’re] very amusing. Why not earn some money and go around the world?”
Edmonds joined in time to tour in support of PiL’s acclaimed—if generically titled—1986 release, variously known depending on physical format as Album, Cassette or Compact Disc. That album featured a jaw-dropping and incongruous lineup of session players including drummers Ginger Baker, formerly of Cream, and jazz great Tony Williams; guitar wizards Steve Vai and Nicky Skopelitis; keyboardists Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic and Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra; and more.
For the tour, it was the job of multi-instrumentalist Edmonds to help bring the complexity and visceral power of those sessions to the stage. Today he laughs at the notion.
“First off, no one can imitate Steve Vai,” he retorts, adding that Lydon would have no use for a guitarist who did—or even tried. “What we tried to do is to play the song,” he emphasizes, “and make it our own.”
On that tour, Edmonds found ways of playing totally different chords than the ones Skopelitis or Vai had played on the record. Then as now, he says, “We get to do what we want. And if we want to reinterpret a song, John is very happy. All he wants is for people to play music together. That’s all; that’s the brief.”
An argument can be made that the music PiL makes today is more accessible than the sounds found on First Issue (1978), 1979’s Metal Box or The Flowers of Romance from 1981. Edmonds agrees, first citing the obvious fact that other than Lydon, the personnel is completely different. But there’s more to it.
“Someone who’s 22 and—to be brutally frank—out of their heads on Class A drugs is going to do something completely different than someone like me, who’s pushing 70,” he says.
Edmonds is no fan of a certain kind of nostalgia.
“People fetishize the moments of darkest adolescent despair and weirdness when a band starts playing: ‘Oh, he died’ or ‘He committed suicide.’ This is all part of rock and roll legend,” he says.
None of that for today’s PiL.
“We’re not fetishizing that,” Edmonds says. “John has been pretty clear all along that his interest in life is living. He does not condone—and does not appreciate—what happened to all those people he knew. For example, Sid Vicious: that was really unnecessary.”
The deep groove and hypnotic, otherworldly beats of PiL music coexist with the band’s muscular sonic character. And that music is the result of a collaborative process. Edmonds explains that PiL has recently completed sessions for the band’s next album.
“We went to Arda Recorders, a great studio in Porto, Portugal,” he says. “And we just made stuff up on the spot, really.”
For the new music, Edmonds drew upon his experience—“78 years ago,” he jokes—playing with free and avant-garde musicians in London. And he notes that vocalist Lydon takes a similarly free approach.
“He does his first take, and it’s great; he just reacts, and he’s totally there.”
Edmonds says that the new album—as yet untitled and projected for release in 2027—“will be a lot looser and reflect forward. We’re just making the music we can without editing ourselves.”
And he notes that the recorded versions of new tunes will be mere blueprints for what the group delivers onstage.
“You can use a lot of technology or have a lot of people onstage, but that’s cumbersome, unwieldy and expensive,” he insists. Moreover, it wouldn’t be the PiL way.
“When we play songs from the new record, we’ll just get the idea and try to make it sound good,” Edmonds says.
He predicts that the arrangements will evolve as the tour rolls on. And as ever, PiL’s performance will be informed by how the audience reacts; they’d best be involved if they want Public Image Limited at its peak.
“If they’re grumpy and want to be at home watching Game of Thrones, they’re not going to hear it,” he warns. “But if they’re listening and going, ‘Okay, what’s going on here?’ then we react, and then everyone reacts together.”
And when that happens, it’s truly special.
“Especially toward the end of our set, we start going places we don’t normally go,” Edmonds says. “It can be quite extreme; we throw all our toys out the pram.”
Public Image Limited, 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. $54. riotheatre.com.
