Review and pictures by Stuart Craig

Yesterday in Amsterdam saw the Dutch team doing a tour of the canals before appearing at a stage on Museum Plein, so the whole city was a sea of Orange. I think the real celebration however took place after Open Up closed off an absolutely superb show from PIL.  Having never had the opportunity to see PIL in the 80's and only Sex Pistols in the reunion gigs, I was interested as to what would be on offer as John Lydon remains for me the best front man I have seen. Would there be any Johnny Rotten on show?

PIL did not disappoint, their sound was full and excellent, more so than they are on recordings and for me PIL comes together as a live experience. This gig was by no means a sell out with the two upper tiers of the Paradiso closed,  but the crowd was healthy enough but not packed below. Dutch crowds are notoriously bad, they lack the atmosphere and involvement of British crowds, but for a Dutch crowd I thought they were actually okay and they were moving about, especially towards the end. John however didn't think so, and commented on the fact to get them moving a bit more. The only other artists I have seen complain to Dutch crowds are Paul Weller and Henry Rollins. I wish there were more.

The set was to me the same as has been documented for the US shows, a surprising two hours worth of PIL. So was there any glimpses of Johnny Rotten? On the most part no, he was John Lydon, vocally and visually, commanding his band, his songs; but now and again when John would stop singing you could see moments of the Rotten stare as he scanned the crowd. He did commiserate the Dutch over the World Cup final with "Look at England" continuing with "fuck Rooney, fuck John Terry, fuck those millionaires".