John Lydon interviewed by Stinky Jim

There's a great interview done by NZ's Stinky Jim with John Lydon over on The Listener's website, read the long version here. Well worth a read. Short version in the latest Listener, plus Jah Wobble on his and fellow ex-PiL member Keith Levene’s Metal Box in Dub concerts. Lydon also touches on that in his interview. Here's Lydon talking abut the new PiL album...

SJ: The rustic charms of the Cotswolds seems an unlikely location for recording a PiL album.

Lydon: It is, isn’t it? It’s actually financially based, I must tell ya. It was the cheapest one we could find. It’s actually a barn owned by Stevie Winwood, in the middle of sheep country… oh hello, New Zealand lamb. And you know it worked out to be perfect because the engineer there – a bloke called Jim, actually – was great. He understood everything I’ve been saying about music for ages, that we’ve all been saying… if you just set the microphones up right and let us get on with it, let us rehearse, jam and record, you’ll get a good record and you don’t need an elaborate, over the top studio for that. Most of the songs are recorded in a live format.

at the end of the interview, Lydon quizzes Jim on some local culture...

Lydon: Why on Air New Zealand do they play all that New Zealand reggae?

SJ: Oh, it’s awful, isn’t it?

Lydon: Aaaaaagh, what is that about? It’s so pony copy!

SJ: We’ve got a name for it here, which is BBQ reggae, as that is all it’s really good for, and it sums up the absence of any militancy or edge. It’s really, really, really grim. 

Lydon: They call it dub, it’s not even dub; they call it “Dub Reggae Party from New Zealand’s Finest”! Do you know, I’ve got a name for it – Dobbins. As in Dobbin the Donkey.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the AirNZ show Lydon is referring to is High Noon Tea, a version of my KiwiFM radio show which still plays on Air NZ's inflight audio. Hehe.