Staying at the Iroquois hotel in midtown Manhattan was no barrel of laughs, but it was cheap.
     I had stayed there on previous occasions when I had been to the states with Brian Brain. Then, we would all sleep in one large "suite" to keep the costs down but it also meant that you lived in each others pockets all the time and inevitably the fights would break out. But now I was with PiL I had my own room, and things were looking up. Rehearsals got under way, which consisted of a quick run through of  the old PiL stuff once or twice, and perhaps three plays of the new songs. I had learnt all the PiL stuff prior to  flying over in about 2 days. The wobble bass lines weren't exactly the most demanding of parts to play. So, very soon we were ready to gig. The last PiL outing had been the Ritz debacle, and some people were very wary of what we would do at a live show. We had planned to create a "Commercial Zone" at all the gigs with warning signs that you were about to enter at the venue entrances. We did this for the first show in New York but then the idea sort of lost itself in Keith's mind somewhere, as did a lot of the creative ideas. So, Tuesday 28th September 1982 was the date for the first show in months at Roseland  and John was keen for it to go well. There was no doubt that the rhythm section of Atkins and I were as tight as could be, we had after all been playing together as drum and bass for a long while. Keith was free as ever to launch his acid guitar over the top, and John did what the fuck he wanted with the vocals. As nearly all the songs had no structure or set length it didn't matter, the menacing mood was all that counted, the rest was pure theatre. Showtime, the audience was anticipating something special, most of  New York's finest liggers were there along with the low life hacks who were ready to slate the band. We had decided on only one thing for the show, that was it would open with "Public Image". We were all nervous before curtain up, there were plenty of stimulants going round for courage. I always played straight so I could at least keep things together, I much preferred to get wrecked after the show. The place was heaving, and the eager punk impressionists were squeezed tight up against the stage front barriers, patrolled by the obligatory security muscle heads. As I  launched into the first 2 double beat bars of "Public Image" the crowd roared in recognition and surged stagewards, pandemonium broke out as the front rows collapsed on top of the  wooden barrier, Keiths guitar slashed across the bottom heavy backbeat, and Johns charismatic wail soared out across the hall. PiL were back with a vengeance and the relief on Johns face as he looked round and grinned was plain to see, the band were earning again.

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