The Flowers of Romance

Last year, as I listened to this album, I would be in the supermarket, the drums insistent in my earphones as I wandered past the bare shelves; I would be making lunch for my children with it playing in the background; I would listen while we did crafts, making cardboard puppets of our friends or drawing pictures of the party we planned to have when all of this was over; it was there pulsing in the back of my mind during our daily walks around the park; I would tap out its rhythms while I watched the news late into the night; it was there throbbing in my mind as I struggled to sleep.

I wrote about Public Image Ltd's The Flowers of Romance for The Quietus, on the occasion of the record turning 40 years old. 

I spoke to John Lydon, Martin Atkins and Nick Launay about its context, recording and  legacy.

You can read their reminiscences alongside my general wittering on the topic of its resonance in our terrible Covid-age on The Quietus here.