I WONDER what a venom spitting, establishment bashing Johnny Rotten would have made of the prospect of a 40th anniversary tour back at the height of the foundation shaking explosion of the Sex Pistols back in 1977?

The Pistols may have flickered very brightly and ever so briefly but they certainly left their mark. Johnny Rotten morphed back into plain old John Lydon and quietly went about reconstructing a musical career with Public Image Limited that has now reached it`s 40th birthday.

For an hour and a half Lydon plundered material from right across the PiL catalogue opening with Warrior from 9, their final offering of the '80's before heading back into the '70's with Memories and forward to The One from their latest album, What The World Needs Now.

The hypnotic, brooding bass line of Scott Firth laid the foundations for Lydon`s biting attack on the modern world during Corporate. Death Disco's up-tempo dance beat belied the agony of Lydon`s lyrics and his anguish at the loss of his mother was etched in every word.

Musically PiL cover so much ground, whether it's the tribal rhythms of Flowers of Romance or the Funky vibe of I`m Not Satisfied or the T-Rex like feel to The One, no one can accuse them to sticking to a rigid formula.

With the home stretch bringing in the big hitters, This Is Not A Love Song, a real stomper to get the dance floor moving and Rise sounding big and imposing, there was no way PiL could fail.

Public Image was arguably the closest Lydon got to the sound of the Pistols all evening before closing with the Leftfield collaboration, Open Up which morphed into an X-rated Shoom.

Mick Burgess