Description
Photographer: Tom Sheehan
PIL, John Lydon London, 1981
I first met Lydon when I was shooting his brother Jimmy Lydon, who had this punk group with Jock McDonald called 4″ Be 2″, and they were posing with Bananarama outside of Wormwood Scrubs prison, for some reason that has since been lost in the mists of time.
This photograph was taken around the [PiL album] Flowers of Romance period, in his flat near Maida Vale. I did some shots in his hallway and said, “John, just throw yourself behind this candelabra.” He was like, “You’re too fucking late, Sheehan, Anton [Corbijn]’s already got that shot.” And I was like, “Well, I ain’t fucking seen it… so just do it.” Strangely enough, he did, and I rattled off a few frames.
John’ll strike a pose, perhaps, but you’ve got to be quick to get it. Normally if you try to direct people like that you’re fucked. They won’t do it. They’ll just walk off. I was over in New York in 1981 and we went out for a drink. After hitting a few Irish bars for some Guinness, we ended up in Studio 54. It was a Monday night and quite empty. Coming back from the loo, I couldn’t resist doing my Uncle Harry from Sheffield’s nob dance, but yeah… I went out for a drink with Lydon and ended up dancing at Studio 54. Later on we spent the rest of the night on the roof of his building watching the clouds roll up the Hudson. Just drinking and talking absolute rubbish.
Open Edition, signed by the photographer
Available editions:
