John McGeoch

A musical interlude:

A couple of years ago I posted some pictures I took of John McGeoch, back in 1978 when he was playing in Howard Devoto’s Magazine, in a Facebook thread reminiscing on Devoto and Magazine.

(Photos taken at The Nashville Rooms, a regular London pub-rock bar in the days of punk, that later became The Three Kings. I seem to recall that Lemmy and Phil were in there that night, playing the gaming machine.)

Anyway, John died young – aged 48 in 2004 – but in his time played in and impressed several important bands including Siouxsie and Visage (both of whom I also saw, the latter with John) and more significantly here, Public Image Limited (PiL) who I follow to this day. He was the link between Keith Levine (original) and Lou Edmonds (to this day) in the PiL sound.

This post is really an excuse to link to (a) this 6 part audio documentary, and (b) below some footage from a festival gig in Estonia in 1988. Despite the intrusive Estonian talking heads / interviews, and the tinny sound, great to see both John and Lou (with Johnny, Bruce and that must be Alan Dias on the bass?) performing The Public Image, Home and Rise.

And the reason for posting? There is a new biography of John McGeoch.
“The Light Pours Out of Me” (2022) by Rory Sullivan-Burke.

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