Public Image Ltd

When the Sex Pistols finally imploded amid controversy, acrimony and law suits, John Lydon (formerly known as Johnny Rotten) created Public Image Limited - partly with the vision of experimenting beyond the normal band parameters into film and video, and partly as a limited company that prevented Malcolm McLaren getting control of future royalties; "PiL is not a rock and roll band, PiL is a business", sneered Lydon. The facade soon slipped, though, as the new band mixed punk, dub, reggae and industrial noise into one of music's most groundbreaking and influential forces. Taking on the Catholic Church and raging about Malcolm McLaren, Lydon was as uncompromising and antagonistic as ever on debut album First Issue (1978), but it was on classic second album Metal Box (1979) that he really started to open up, writing emotionally about his mother on preceding single Death Disco. The band infiltrated the mainstream with the Number 5 single This Is Not A Love Song and the glorious pop of Rise, and went on to release nine studio albums before their split in 1992. However, helped by funds raised by Lydon appearing in commercials for Country Life butter, the band reformed in 2009 with the line-up now featuring its 39th different member.