Public Image: First Issue is the debut studio album by the English rock band Public Image Ltd, released on 8 December 1978 by record label Virgin. It reached number 22 in the UK Album Charts. Despite its modest commercial success, it was met with largely negative feedback critically, but received acclaim in retrospective reviews and is now considered one of the pioneering records in the development of post-punk. It received Silver certification in the UK.
"Public Image", the debut single, was recorded first. Recording started on a Monday in mid-July 1978 (most probably 10 or 17 July) at Advision Studios with engineer John Leckie and assistant engineer Kenneth Vaughan Thomas. For mixing and overdubs, the band then went into Wessex Studios with engineer Bill Price and assistant engineer Jeremy Green.
On Saturday, 22 July 1978, the music press reported that the band had been in the recording studio; the following week, Virgin Records announced that PiL's debut single would be released on 8 September 1978.
The entire first side of the record was recorded in the autumn of 1978 at Townhouse Studios and The Manor Studio with engineer Mick Glossop.
The last three songs on the second side were recorded at Gooseberry Sound Studios, a cheap reggae studio used because the band had run out of money, with engineer Mark Lusardi and assistant engineer Jon Caffery. Lydon knew the studio from the recording of Sex Pistols demos in January 1977.
By late September 1978, the recording of the album was finished. The band had briefly considered including an alternative version of "Public Image" with different lyrics on the album, a plan that was finally rejected.
In November or December 1978, Wobble and Levene returned to Gooseberry Sound Studios to record a 12-inch EP, Steel Leg V. the Electric Dread, with guest vocalists Vince Bracken and Don Letts.
On 9 February 1979, Warner Bros. Recording Studios in North Hollywood manufactured a test pressing of the album for PiL's American label, Warner Bros. Records. The album's sound was considered too non-commercial for an American release, and PiL were asked to re-record parts of it. Although the band recorded new versions of some tracks between March and May 1979, the album was never released in the USA. However, in 1980 Warner Bros. released the song "Public Image" on the compilation album Troublemakers, the only album track released in the USA until the 2013 release of the entire album.
The re-recorded version of "Fodderstompf" was released under the title "Megga Mix" as the B-side of the "Death Disco" 12" single (29 June 1979). The track was later included on the PiL compilations Plastic Box (1999) and Metal Box: Super Deluxe Edition (2016); to date, it is the only track from the February 1979 First Issue re-recording sessions to be officially released.
On 18 June 2013, the UK version of the album was finally officially released in the US via Light in the Attic Records. In 2025, the band announced that the 1979 US mix would finally be publicly released for Record Store Day of that year, featuring alternate artwork.. It peaked at number 29 on the Billboard US Indie Store Album Sales chart.
In 1979, NME reported that a court in Malta had halted sales of the album because the lyrics of "Religion" offended public morals and decency.
Upon its release, Public Image: First Issue received a 2- (out of 5) star review in Sounds. Reviewer Pete Silverton said that the single is the "Only wholly worthwhile track on the album." He dubbed the rest of the songs as "morbid directionless sounds with Rotten's poetry running just behind it." Nick Kent of NME was similarly negative, quipping that "unfortunately the 'image', public or otherwise, is a good deal less limited than many of the more practical factors involved in this venture."
However, the album is now considered a groundbreaking post-punk classic. AllMusic critic Uncle Dave Lewis stated that the record "helped set the pace" for the post-punk genre, adding that it was "among a select few 1978 albums that had something lasting to say about the future of rock music." Pitchforks Stuart Berman wrote, "First Issue's industrial-strength stompers anticipate the scabrous art-punk of the Jesus Lizard and Slint, while Levene's guitar curlicues on 'Public Image' are the stuff Daydream Nations are made of." Public Image: First Issue is, along with Metal Box, included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
On 12 April 2025, the aborted 1979 US mix of the album officially got a release in the form of a limited Record Store Day vinyl pressing.