January 27th, 1999

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been extremely busy lately. However, I've updated the main page to include links to up-to-date info on "Rotten Television" and "Plastic Box". There is release date news, so check it out.

I've added one (yes, one) picture to the images section. This was a special request from Annalisa (sorry for the delay). Hope you enjoy it!



January 6th, 1999

Happy New Year! With that, comes the cleaning of the board - which has been done. Now for a small bit of news...

In the new issue of "Guitar World", there's a blurb about how Julien Temple is planning to premiere the new Sex Pistols documentary in January at the Sundance Film Festival.

-Thanks to Turd

And it looks like "Rotten Television" won't air on VH1 until March, according to several sources.



December 3rd, 1998

Plastic Box, a PiL compilation set to be released by Virgin, will be available in February of 1999. Here's some more info from someone who helped with the project:

Its nothing too exciting, just all the singles, B-sides, some 12" mixes like Memories and Death Disco, a selection of album tracks (which disappointingly concentrate on the early album - I did try!), plus Pied Piper & Criminal, and lastly, the complete 1979 and 1992 Radio 1 sessions.

The booklet (32 pages) will feature a huge interview with John, some photos and some PiL memorabilia (The Can, 9 promo puzzle, Public Image promo poster and some other bits and bobs).

There was a quote from Lydon that should have gone with the VH1 Fashion Awards picture in the last Rolling Stone magazine that I posted. It read:

The ever-rebellin' Lydon was suitably bratty: "I have nothing to say to Rolling Stone. It's as geriatric as the band it was named for."

Ouch! Happy Holidays everyone!



November 23rd, 1998

Here's the picture from the new Rolling Stone:



A friend of mine said he watched the Chef Aid special Saturday night and it was the one with John narrating.



November 20th, 1998

I don't know what happened. All that was on last night was an Upright Citizens episode. This afternoon, comedycentral.com says that there's another similarly titled show on Saturday at 10pm. But, tvguide.com still lists no such episode. Either it's being shown in certain areas, or Comedy Central's very wrong. Anyone have more info on this?

The new issue of Rolling Stone has a picture of John and Nora from the VH1 Fashion Awards on page 27. The picture will be available on this site in a couple of days.

-Thanks to Jenni H.

As you've probably read on the message board, Virgin will be releasing a 64 track PiL box set in January titled 'Plastic Box'. It will include a 32 page booklet and some previously (officially) unreleased material. Probably nothing new to the true PiL fan, but still a must-have.

Again, if you've been following the message board, there's a single available here of something called 'Love Song (1998 REMIX)'. It states John Lydon/Public Image Ltd. as the artist, but what it is, etc. is still unkown until world-famous Richard or myself get it. More info on that as it develops!



November 18th, 1998

Comedy Central will be re-airing the Chef Aid special narrated by John Lydon tonight. Get your VCR's ready!!

Chef: Behind the Menu (30mm) Wednesday, Nov 18 10:30PM

Interviews with the stars from the upcoming South Park CD.

-Thanks to Jenni H. and Kinski



November 8th, 1998

I wrote VH1 regarding the dates for the upcoming Lydon show. This was their response:

Thanks for your note. VH1 is developing a new series called Johnny Rotten. We expect it to premiere in early 1999. We have received some great feedback from fans of John Lydon regarding this series and I welcome you to write back to me in late December for an update on premiere dates and the time slot. Thanks for watching VH1.



November 2nd, 1998

Well... After flying John all the way to New York, VH1 decided only to include about 3 seconds of him in the audience during the ending credits at the VH1 Fashion Awards last week. The images section has the 5 screen captures I made. Also included is a pic from the LA Times Calendar Live web site of John arriving at the awards show. (Note: That picture is Copyright 1998 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved. Photo by Kastle.)

I'll be putting up a bunch of pics that are included in an obscure compilation CD called 'Volume 3' by Volume in London. It includes about 18 songs by misc bands including 'Criminal' by PiL, each band has a detailed bio with pages of pics.

Lastly, the New York Post mentioned this last week about the new VH1 show:

NY POST...By DON KAPLAN
PUNK-rock legend Johnny Rotten is screaming back into the spotlight.

This time, instead of the Sex Pistols, he will be packing a new weekly half-hour TV magazine show for VH1.

In the show, Rotten (aka John Lydon) plans to provide his own take on music and culture and is gunning to deconstruct pop-culture icons along the way.

I'm very impressed that VH1 is risking its existence by ordering this program, says Eric Gardner, Lydon's manager and a co-executive producer of the new show. Think of it as the anti-Christ of magazine shows.

We may bundle up one of Marilyn Monroe's dresses and send it in a barrel over Niagara Falls, he says. Or we may take an original Gone With the Wind movie poster, put in the back of a pick-up truck and send it over a cliff into the ocean.

For the pilot - which is not planned to air - Lydon created a huge beach bonfire and burned priceless Sex Pistols memorabilia.

He's showing that even he practices what he preaches, Gardner says.

VH1 declined yesterday to make Lydon available for an interview.

We don't want to let the wildman loose until we hit the air, says VH1's vice president of program planning Rob Barnett, who along with Gardner is an executive producer of Rotten Television.

Paradoxically, VH1 bills itself as the mellower music channel to sister-channel MTV, but Lydon is known as one of the all-time bad boys of Punk Rock.

I can't think of anyone I'd rather have introducing the new Celine Dion video, Barnett says.

The new show will feature guests, recurring segments and editorials from Lydon on pop-culture.

In the pilot, Lydon interviewed Talk Radio star Jon Lovitz at a sushi restaurant, and then stuck Lovitz with the $325 bill.

And although Lydon may rant like Dennis Miller, cross boundaries like Howard Stern, or comment critically on society like Michael Moore (Roger & Me), his won't cross over into bad taste, Gardner and Barnett say .

"John's very shrewd, Gardner says. He's not going to do anything that would take this national forum away from him.

After the Sex Pistols broke up in 1978, Lydon formed the band Public Image Limited (PIL), which technically still exists, although it hasn't made a record in more than five years.

Lydon's most recent foray onto cable was to narrate the recent South Park special, The Making of Chef-Aid, on Comedy Central.



October 19th, 1998

Yes, folks - that was John Lydon who narrated last night's "South Park - The Making of Chef Aid" on Comedy Central. I didn't get to see it myself, but I did find a RealVideo file of the entire show on a South Park site. It was fun to hear John throughout telling the story of Chef and to finally see his name at the head of the ending credits, 'hosted by John Lydon'. If there is a demand, I will put up a few sound bites. Or, if anyone hears about it airing again, please e-mail me.



October 12th, 1998

I've just received word that the VH1 show has been approved! It will be on before the end of the year. Congratulations John!!



October 5th, 1998

The message board is back up... sort of. It's temporarily being housed at johnnyrotten.com - MANY thanks to Cara for her generosity until I can get the board working on this server. Have fun!



September 22nd, 1998

Regarding yesterday's news, please take a moment to e-mail VH1 and let them know that you and others are very excited about the show and want it to get approved. With any luck, they may just listen to us!



September 21st, 1998

I have just received the following info from an anonymous source regarding the "Rotten Television" pilot:

The locations were Venice Beach, the Venice Beach boardwalk, a sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, Dockweiler Beach and a soundstage in Hollywood. The script was primarily written by George Gimarc, who had worked with John previously on the Rotten Day radio series and Rob Barnett of VH1 who created the show.

Some of the segments include "Rotten Tales" (Celine Dion's legal problem - sued by a Canadian business man, she and her husband/manager skipping two court dates etc.; M. Bolton plagiarizing the Isley Brother's "Love is A Wonderful Thing"), Rotten Video (two videos interspersed with John's comments - Rolling Stones "Love Is Strong" (negative commentary) and Tom Waits, "I Don't Want to Grow Up" (positive comments), the "dreaded celebrity interview" with Jon Lovitz and Cleanse the Century in which John declares his anti-nostalgia, anti-icon stance in front of a bonfire on the beach at night. The idea is that in future shows he will burn memorabilia and scorch pop icons, taking victim suggestions from viewers.

In this pilot to, in his own words, show that he is fair-minded, he begins with the Sex Pistols. This is a segment that is guaranteed to make Pistols collectors scream and weep - ten copies of a single that was never released, all tossed in the fire. (Each copy had been worth about $3,000 - I can only guess at how much more valuable each remaining copy became as the ones before it were burned - that last copy must have been worth a fortune!) A copy of Bollocks that had already been autographed by the rest of the band, signed on camera by John and then tossed in the flames. Two shirts that he wore on tour with the Pistols and an original UK tour poster. But perhaps the real kicker: the original note Sid Vicious wrote to his mum before he did himself in. ("We had a death pact. I have to keep my half of the bargain. Please bury me in my leather jacket and motorcycle boots", etc. )

The bummer is that this pilot was never intended to air. It was shot for presentation to the VH1 executives (John had encouraged viewers to send comments to Sykessucks@vh1.com - John Sykes is the president of VH1 - but the address does not exist, and that bit didn't make it into the show.) in the hopes that the show would get picked up. It is, however, being shown to focus groups now. If it does get picked up, it is possible that large chunks of this pilot would be incorporated into the first one that airs - but some of it is probably unairable, mainly due to rights and clearances. Since the show wasn't going to air, they pulled clips from anywhere they felt like - movies, TV shows, whatever - with no regard for whether or not they were things that could likely get cleared, since clearing them didn't matter.

If the description of the show sounds interesting, it probably wouldn't hurt to let VH1 know that you want to see it and maybe sway their decision regarding whether or not they pick up the show.

Finally, two PiL songs were used - "Rise" and "Rules and Regulations".



September 16th, 1998

A good amount of info on the "Rotten Television" pilot surfaced today. SonicNet's news section has a detailed report from Eric Gardner (Lydon's manager) about the scenes and content of the proposed new VH1 show. If you can't locate it on their site, I've put together my own version. It's located here.

This may or may not be of interest to some...

If anyone is familiar with a band called Scrawl, they have a new album out titled "Nature Film" which features a cover of PiL's very own "Public Image". It's supposed to be a "more wounded and less snotty" version according to Brett Milano of Stereo Review.



September 14th, 1998

I've finally added the video clips from June's "Fantasy Football" show (3 total!), plus screen captures from the show. (Better late than never!).

Also, I'm still working to get the message board back up soon, for those that have been writing me about it.



September 12th, 1998

More info on the beach shots... According to Mr. Gimarc,

"They were taken on 8/12 near Muscle Beach in Santa Monica. They're from the goofy opening of the show which is sort of like a 'That Girl' / 'Lavern & Shirley' sort of thing. It's totally unrepresentative of the rest of the show and has JR doing all sorts of things, including dueting with a mime!

"Tests in LA on Wednesday went well. The show has been approved by VH1 but we don't have a start date yet."

-Thanks again to George Gimarc

Also, per his request, the beach photos are now available on this site. Click the thumbnails below. I've also added some other Lydon pics (unrelated to the beach shots) on the images section.





September 11th, 1998

The first photos from the Venice Beach "Rotten Television" shoot can be found at author and talk show host George Gimarc's web site (*link removed - see above news). Nice outfit, John.

-Thanks to George Gimarc



September 10th, 1998

I've just learned that at least part of the filming for the "Rotten Television" pilot was shot on the beach in Venice, California. One report is that several fans approached Lydon, who was very pleasant and allowed a few photos and some conversation. I'm working on getting a date for this as well as news of a second related report at the same shooting location.

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