RIP Keith Levene (Public Image)

[editor]

Another great passes away

 

[Spandex]

Obviously his name is very much linked with PiL, but his name has kept popping up on music I love over the years, especially On-U Sound stuff. Here's some awesome tracks he played on:

Dub Syndicate - Wellie


Vivien Goldman - Laundrette


and more recently, Hollie Cook - Stay Alive


RIP. Thank you for the music.

 

[stethoscope]

RIP.

 

[planetgeli]

Ah fuck. Brilliant guitarist.

RIP

 

[The39thStep]

Very unique guitar sound imo . Loved his guitar on this

 

[Dr. Furface]

Very sad news. It's been a bad week. RIP Keith.

 

[BCBlues]

Very prominent in early Clash days, great musician. RIP

 

[petee]

Obviously his name is very much linked with PiL, but his name has kept popping up on music I love over the years, especially On-U Sound stuff. Here's some awesome tracks he played on:

Dub Syndicate - Wellie


Vivien Goldman - Laundrette


and more recently, Hollie Cook - Stay Alive


RIP. Thank you for the music.

i'd never heard that Hollie Cook track, very nice!

 

[Wilf]

RIP.

One of those weird timing things, where I'd got into thinking about him for the first time in years this week, not knowing he was ill. I heard a PIL track on Spotify and his jangly guitar which got me remembering his biography and how he was in the clash... then on to youtube interviews and some clips of him playing with Jah Wobble in the last few years. He had enough of a 'name' to have had more fame and money (post PIL) - as well as being a very good guitarist. Got the impression he just wasn't that keen on fame.

 

[Pickman's model]

I thought this sort of thing had ended after the 2016 cull

rip keith levene

 

[Wilf]

Very prominent in early Clash days, great musician. RIP

That's a really interesting listen, the band (not surprisingly) shaping up to what would become The Clash, at least of the first album. But Levene's guitar offering something quite different, something like Wire and the more jagged post punk bands. In the comments somebody says both Jones and Levene's guitar work gets 'dumbed down; into that first album, which is a good call, even if Levene isn't on that album. Must have happened with quite a few bands who were formed pre 1976/7 and went on to become 'punk', with all the chuggy downstrokes.

 

[BCBlues]

That's a really interesting listen, the band (not surprisingly) shaping up to what would become The Clash, at least of the first album. But Levene's guitar offering something quite different, something like Wire and the more jagged post punk bands. In the comments somebody says both Jones and Levene's guitar work gets 'dumbed down; into that first album, which is a good call, even if Levene isn't on that album. Must have happened with quite a few bands who were formed pre 1976/7 and went on to become 'punk', with all the chuggy downstrokes.

Yeah I think a fair few from the Pub Rock scene found Punk to be a great outlet. I'm thinking of Eddie and the Hot Rods straight away.

 

[cesare]

Cheers Keith

I always think of him as being young.

 

[danny la rouge]

That’s shocked me. Very sad.

 

[cesare]

That’s shocked me. Very sad.

Aye. Another that’s contemporaneous to our life timelines.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

U2's the Edge owed him alot.

 

[danny la rouge]

I did too. In one of my bands I basically just used to steal his licks. I’m not even joking.

 

[killer b]

The clip on this is incredible

 

[Wilf]

The clip on this is incredible

In this one - starts about 1:45 - he puts me in mind of the great Viny Reilly.


Particularly:

 

[petee]

wiki tells me that

at fifteen he worked as a roadie for Yes

 

[Lurdan]

Sad news.

Very prominent in early Clash days, great musician. RIP

First time I saw them it was that five-piece line up. They were terrible

 

[The39thStep]

Another, fairly recent, excellent collaboration with Mark Stewart

 

[Wilf]

wiki tells me that

at fifteen he worked as a roadie for Yes

Yeah, I read yesterday he'd grown up a prog fan. Takes me back to the point about 'punk guitarists' coming to punk with earlier musical influences. It's a truism that a reaction against the excesses of prog was one of the influences on punk. In fact I remember a Yes show quoted at the time with all the money spent on lightshows and even Rick Wakeman wearing a cape. More generally, prog's 28 minute solos and arranging music into 'suites' saw punk opting for a minimalism and 3 minute songs. But having said all that, you can see something of Steve Howe's possible influence on Levene, in that his playing was quite 'angular' at times. For example, if you flick through this:

 

[Sir Belchalot]

Poptones is similar to their Starship Trooper.

 

[Wilf]

Poptones is similar to their Starship Trooper.

Bloody hell, just listened to that, it's uncanny. PIL as a Yes tribute act, wonder if Lydon ever knew?

 

[belboid]

PIL session on Gideon Coe tonight as a tribute (along with an old Hawkwind live show for Nik T)

BBC Radio 6 Music - Gideon Coe, In tribute to the late Keith Levene & Nik Turner, PIL in session and Hawkwind in concert.

In tribute to the late Keith Levene & Nik Turner, PIL in session and Hawkwind in concert.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[RainbowTown]

Metal Box remains one of the most incendiary, brilliant albums I've ever heard. RIP to a truly great guitarist.

 

[Orang Utan]

Jah Wobble on Keith Levene:

 

[The39thStep]

Jah Wobble on Keith Levene:

He , Jah Wobble, is/was living in Bramhall in Stockport belive it or not

 

[ska invita]

The clip on this is incredible

the interview after is even better
4.12 onwards