'Beijing's beautiful' for king of punks

[Photo by Wang Wei/provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The singer's presence in Beijing was the only message that needed to be heard. You could tell he was just as excited as his fans were about being here.

You could feel and see his enthusiasm while he was onstage, the first night of the band's Asian and Australian tour.

"For me, tonight in Beijing was beautiful. I never expected a reaction so friendly and open and accessible to what is strange music, even in the West."

After the show the singer spoke on a variety topics ranging from the Internet, England's monarchy and the true definition of punk.

"I love to perform live," he says. "I do not perform on the Internet. It's a line I used in a song called Rise years ago. I used the expression, 'the written word is a lie.' Well, now the modern update is 'the Internet is a lie.'"

"The state of the music industry is much worse (than climate issues) because there's so much dishonesty in it. And people making music, they don't believe in it, they just do it to make money and be famous."

Always a voice for the working class in his own country he says: "The institution of monarchy is crippling society. It is a financial burden that could be better spent on the poor. And as soon as you can turn Buckingham Palace into the Forbidden City … yippie!"

He also explains the true definition of punk.

"Punk means love. This is the most important message that has been sadly lost over the years." And when asked if punk is dead he replies: "There are people that do wrong using the format, but I'm still here. And I am king of the punks and nobody can contradict that, and if you disagree with me then you are not punk."

He wrapped things up by saying, "Life will always present you with problems. If anybody said life is easy, they've never heard a PiL record because I tell it like it is."

And after Saturday's show, for those who weren't convinced of this beforehand, they were once the show ended.

The band was off to Shanghai on Sunday, and will hit Japan and Australia after that.

lance@chinadaily.com.cn

Fan Zhen contributed to this story.