I recently spoke with Jah Wobble, bassist, composer, and tireless pursuer of all things true. Born John Wardle in Stepney, East London, he got his name from a drunk Sid Vicious who couldn’t quite say it.
In 1978, he wrote the bassline that became “Public Image,” and his dub-heavy playing anchored PiL’s first two albums, including Metal Box. He left in 1980 and never stopped moving. He went on to work with Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can, The Edge, Brian Eno, and Bill Laswell, and with his band Invaders of the Heart, he had a top 40 hit with Sinéad O’Connor on “Visions of You,” from the Mercury-nominated Rising Above Bedlam.
We talk about all these things as they relate to his world and life views. Jah is a deeply grounded and spiritual human and approaches all he does from a perspective of music as art and gateway to higher realms. This is a long listen grounded in this point of view.
His newest record is Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles’ Psychedelic Songbook with Tian Qiyi, out now. On November 13, Dimple Discs reissues The Usual Suspects, the long unavailable 2CD set first released in 2017. It has 23 tracks cut live in the studio at The Smokehouse in East London, revisiting PiL, Invaders of the Heart, and his solo catalogue.
There are also covers of the Midnight Cowboy and Get Carter themes and Dawn Penn’s “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)” with Aurora Dawn. Wobble said the band behind it made a 35 year old dream come true: groovy, dubby, and never standing still.
Catch Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart live this fall in the UK and Belgium: Frome, The Tunnels (Oct 21), Bristol, The Fleece (Oct 22), Reading, Face Bar (Oct 23), London, Bush Hall (Nov 7), Hasselt, Club AFF (Nov 25), Bruges, Cactus Muziekcentrum (Nov 26), and Oudenaarde, Harmonie (Nov 27).
Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer, and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu which is a New York based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.
