John Lydon designs new Public Image Ltd logo ahead of 2025 tour
John Lydon has designed a new Public Image Ltd (PiL) logo ahead of their upcoming UK and Ireland headline tour.
The original logo for the band, fronted by the former Sex Pistols vocalist, has become an iconic symbol in post-punk music. Featuring the acronym ‘PiL’, the distinctive design mimics an aspirin pill, with the “i” meant to depict the line where the pill breaks.
Now, a new logo, which celebrates “a new beginning” for the band, reimagines the original design in a diamond shape with a more jagged font.
It will be featured on merchandise for their upcoming tour and will run alongside the existing logo, rather than replacing it, with Lydon specifying on X/Twitter: “The new logo is NOT a replacement, it’s an addition. They will work in conjunction. This is PiL.”
Check it out below.
To celebrate a new beginning for PiL, John has designed a new logo, to run in conjunction with the existing logo. The new logo will be used on a selection of the 2025 tour merchandise.
Some exclusive designs are available NOW on the PiL webstore. https://t.co/ockt1YxYKL pic.twitter.com/NQvitWActh— Public Image Ltd (@pilofficial) May 1, 2025
The PiL webstore has some exclusive designs with the new logo, as well as classic logos designs.
The new logo is NOT a replacement, it's an addition. They will work in conjunction. This is PiL. https://t.co/mLXYWkQyBo pic.twitter.com/2SVIr0EbS6— John Lydon Official (@lydonofficial) May 2, 2025
It comes amid a legal battle between Lydon and photographer and designer Dennis Morris over the logo.
Lydon claims that he came up with the idea for the logo in the shape of a pill, and asked Morris to use his design tools to finish off the image. But Morris claims he alone suggested using the acronym and the pill design, before sketching out the logo, with its lower-case ‘i’, on a notepad.
It comes after Lydon signed a deal with the major streetwear brand Supreme in 2022 to produce a run of clothing featuring the logo on t-shirts, shirts, jackets and caps. But lawyers for Morris allegedly sent the singer a letter insisting the image was not his to sell.
The case will return to court for trial at a later date.
PiL will hit the road on May 22 to embark on their 23-date ‘This Is Not The Last Tour’ trek in May. This includes shows in Bristol, Newcastle, Dublin, Cardiff, Oxford, Sheffield, Northampton, Holmfirth, Coventry and Cork.
PiL – This is Not The Last Tour 2025 – Not long now! Selling fast, several shows already sold out, others very close.https://t.co/Syymd3156w pic.twitter.com/aekbpNpb46
— John Lydon Official (@lydonofficial) April 27, 2025
Tickets are on sale now, and you can buy yours here. See a full list of dates and venues below.
PiL’s ‘This Is Not The Last Tour’ 2025 UK and Ireland dates are:
MAY
22 – O2 Academy, Bristol
23 – Stone Valley Festival South, Ware
24 – O2 Academy, Bournemouth
29 – Birdwell, Barnsley
30 – Boiler Shop, Newcastle
31 – Epic Studios, Norwich
JUNE
12 – 3Olympia, Dublin
13 – Dolan’s Warehouse, Limerick
14 – Depot, Cardiff
26 – White Rock, Hastings
27 – Stone Valley Festival Midlands, Newark
28 – O2 Academy, Oxford
JULY
03 – O2 Academy, Leicester
04 – Engine Shed, Lincoln
05 – Guildhall, Portsmouth
30 – Leadmill, Sheffield
31 – Roadmender, Northampton
AUGUST
01 – Picturedrome, Holmfirth
07 – Rebellion Festival, Blackpool
08 – Stone Valley Festival North, Durham
09 – Empire, Coventry
15 – City Hall, Cork
16 – Putting The Fast In Belfast, Belfast
Lydon will then head out on another UK and Ireland spoken word tour next autumn.
The band last performed in the UK in September 2023 before embarking on a run of European dates the following month. Those shows came in support of PiL’s 11th and most recent studio album, last year’s ‘End Of World’.
Lydon later said that he thought the group may not tour together again. This came after his lifelong friend and manager, John Rambo Stevens, died suddenly following the last PiL tour, in December 2023. Lydon’s wife, Nora, also passed away that April.
In other news, Lydon recently poignantly opened up about how the upcoming Public Image Ltd tour and working on new “raucous” music is helping him navigate bereavement. “Sadness is an energy,” he said, in echoes of PiL’s iconic 1986 track ‘Rise’ (which stated that ‘Anger is an energy’). “It can either be applied or you can let it eat you alive. The second option is not very interesting to me.”
Lydon also took part in NME’s infamous career-spanning Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells? quiz, where he recalled spurning the opportunity to collaborate with Daft Punk, Kate Bush’s “horrified” reaction to a track he wrote for her, as well as why he finds Taylor Swift “incredibly dull” and ‘doesn’t like Lady Gaga as a person’.
The post John Lydon designs new Public Image Ltd logo ahead of 2025 tour appeared first on NME.
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