Public Image Ltd have revealed their 11th album, End of World, will be out on August 11. The project marks the band’s first full-length release in eight years. To support the album, PiL will also kick off a 38-date tour in the U.K. and Europe in September and October of 2023.
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The news comes just days after singer John Lydon’s wife of nearly 45 years, Nora Forster, died on April 5 from Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 80. Earlier in 2023, PiL, consisting of Lydon, along with Lu Edmonds, Scott Firth and Bruce Smith, released a new song, “Hawaii,” which was written for Forster. Representing Ireland, the band performed it at the 67th Annual Eurovision Song Competition on February 3.
Their first new music since PiL’s 10th album, What the World Needs Now, in 2015, “Hawaii” is a love letter to Lydon’s late wife, who was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018. Forster, the mother of The Slits singer Ari Up (Ariane Forster), who also died in 2010 at the age of 48 from breast cancer, met Lydon after she started working in music promotion prior to the explosion of punk in London during the mid-1970s.
Lydon and Forster were married in 1979, following the demise of The Sex Pistols, and one year after he formed PiL.
A deeply personal track for Lydon, “Hawaii” is a heartfelt reflection of the couple’s life together and punctuated by a trip they once took together in lyrics Some begin again / We’re here / You and me … Remember me / I remember you / Hawaii.
“It is dedicated to everyone going through tough times on the journey of life, with the person they care for the most,” said Lydon of the song in an earlier statement. “It’s also a message of hope that ultimately love conquers all.”
PiL’s new single “Penge” is the polar opposite of “Hawaii” and a song Lydon described as “something of a medieval Viking epic.” Listen to “Penge” below.
The band initially started working on End of World around their 40th-anniversary tour in 2018 and reconvened after the pandemic to finish off the 13 tracks. “There was just this massive explosion of ideas,” revealed Lydon in a statement.
He added, “Nora loved the album. She wouldn’t have wanted us to postpone it or change any of our plans.”
End of World Track Listing
1. “Penge”
2. “End Of The World”
3. “Car Chase”
4. “Being Stupid Again”
5. “Walls”
6. “Pretty Awful”
7. “Strange”
8. “Down On The Clown”
9. “Dirty Murky Delight”
10. “The Do That”
11. “L F C F”
12. “North West Passage”
13. “Hawaii”
Photo: Andres Poveda Photography / Courtesy of Prime Group
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