Pete Jones: musician, survivor, and man about town (I presume). Pete plays bass for the mighty Department S and is also the ex-bass player for two other long-time favorites – Public Image Ltd. and Cowboys International. You know, now that I look at the names of those bands together it strikes me they could be part of the same corporate conglomerate…but I digress. Pete’s Twitter feed @jabberjab recently alerted astute followers (ahem) to his series of what he calls “Johnny Tales” about his time in the aforementioned PiL.
The stories are posted on the Department S website and describe interesting snippets of his career and the “glamour” of the rock-n-roll lifestyle. But mostly, they recount his history with PiL and, specifically, with one Mr. Lydon. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t end well (as it never seems to with Johnny). Regardless, Pete demonstrates resilience and a great sense of humor.
Although only tangentially related, I discovered another site through @jabberjab that might give you a chuckle or two. Wilf Turnbull and Derek Philpott are (apparently) retired gentlemen from Bournemouth. They have set up a website where they have posted numerous letters they have sent to a wide range of musicians and the responses they have received. The letters generally ask questions or challenge the artists based on their song titles or lyrics which are taken, inevitably, too literally by these pensioners.
All the letters sent by Messrs. Turnbull and Philpott can be by turns corny, clever, challenging and digressive, but they all have tongue planted firmly in cheek. The responses they have posted generally play along and are quite funny as well. And at worst, I guess this whole project keeps a couple senior citizens off the street and out of trouble.
One of the responses, on behalf of PiL, is a great letter from none other than our friend Pete Jones (remember him from a couple paragraphs ago?). He responds “on behalf of the 45 or so employees of the corporation (41 of whom sadly have been made redundant over the years).” It’s more good stuff from Mr. Jones.