John Lydon to bring Public Image Ltd back to Roadmender as part of 23-date tour

Billed as the This Is Not The Last Tour, PiL will head to Northampton on Thursday, June 31 and tickets are available from Friday, November 15, at 10am.

PiL’s tour dates for 2025 come after Lydon thought the band might not tour again.

His lifelong friend and manager, John Rambo Stevens passed away suddenly following the last PiL tour in December 2023, soon after the death of Lydon’s wife, Nora, in April 2023.

Lydon thought that might be the end of his touring days.

However, he was overwhelmed by the love and support of fans when he undertook a spoken word tour of the UK in spring this year.

He said: “I thought that might be it. After losing Nora, and Rambo, I couldn’t see a way through.

“I’d already committed to the spoken word tour, this spring and I never let anyone down – I always stick to my word – so I had to do those dates.

“The thing is, people were so overwhelmingly positive and they asked me to tour PiL again.

“With so many people asking and with the band meaning so much to them, I couldn’t just stay on my sofa and not tour – tempting though that obviously is.”

After fronting the Sex Pistols, John Lydon formed post-punk originators Public Image Ltd (PiL).

Widely regarded as one of the most innovative bands of all time, their music and vision earned them five UK Top 20 Singles and five UK Top 20 Albums.

With a shifting line-up and unique sound – fusing rock, dance, folk, pop and dub – Lydon guided the band from their debut album First Issue in 1978 through to 1992’s That What Is Not, before a 17 year hiatus.

Lydon reactivated PiL in 2009, touring extensively and releasing three critically acclaimed albums, This is PiL which was released in 2012, What The World Needs Now… which followed in 2015 and their most recent album, End of World which was released in 2023.

Tickets are available via www.theroadmender.com and www.pilofficial.com.