It’s
hard to keep up with Jah Wobble, the artist formerly known as John Wardle, who revolutionised
bass playing on the first two albums by Public Image Limited. Since then, apart
from a stint working on London Underground in the mid-1980s, Wobble pretty much
hasn’t stopped, releasing a phenomenally prolific array of albums that take in
a dazzlingly diverse set of styles.
On the
back of Wobble’s current tour with the latest edition of his Invaders from the
Heart ensemble, who play dates in Edinburgh and Glasgow this weekend, the now
61-year-old east Londoner is about to release two very different albums. The
first, Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse, is a collaboration with Killing Joke bassist
turned producer, Youth. The second, Ocean Blue Waves, was recorded with the Invaders
from the Heart.
Wobble
has also just released the tellingly named single, A Very British Coup, with a
post-punk supergroup featuring his former comrades in PiL, guitarist Keith
Levene and drummer Richard Dudanski, plus Pop Group vocalist Mark Stewart and the
ubiquitous Youth at the helm. Then there are the forthcoming live dates playing
with The Orb, and his love of painting, with many of his canvases of high rises
seen in several exhibitions.
Wobble
isn’t interested in talking about any of that, however. Back in his London
manor for a few days away from his Stockport home, he would much rather natter
on about Tuned In, the project he’s been doing with Merton Council for the last
year. A couple of days a week, Wobble leads a series of sessions at local
libraries, where older people from the neighbourhood can learn an instrument
and exercise while meeting new people.
“My
idea,” says Wobble, “was to get lots of lonely people sitting up in their tower
blocks, who are really socially isolated, and get them out doing something. The
punk generation are getting older now, and I just thought, if I want to do some
good before I go – not that I’m intending going anywhere just yet – but to do
something good – not like some nineteenth century philanthropist – then I
should do it now.
“Basically,
you look at your life, and you ask yourself, have I been selfish, and in the
game I’m in you can get very self-centred, and the more self-centred you are,
the worse it gets, where on the other hand, the more concerned for others you
are, the better you feel.”
Wobble has been working with Merton’s head of
library services, Anthony Hopkins – “Not that one, although I did meet the
other one once.”
This Anthony
Hopkins was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to libraries, so Wobble
is in good company.
“He’s a
good South London lad,” he says. “I go down on a Monday, and go in and jam with
them all. And I love libraries. I got sacked from a job in the library when I
was fifteen for doing yoga and talking to the customers. A lot of old Jewish
guys used to come in and argue, and I loved it. They’d get stuck in, and have
completely diametrical views, and then go away again as friends. There were the
Tankies as well, who were supporters of Stalin. But after thirty-three years
without a drink, if I’m in a library now, all I want to do is read. These
places are important. It’s all about people.”
This
last phrase could apply to everything Wobble has done, from his early stint with
PiL on the band’s First Edition and Metal Box albums, through collaborations
with a who’s who of avant-rock luminaries. These include early forays with bass
player Holger Czukay and drummer Jaki Leibzeit, both of German iconoclasts Can,
through to working with numerous world music luminaries as well as the likes of
American bassist Bill Laswell and ambient pianist Harold Budd.
Much of
this is touched on in Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Life, Mayhem, Wobble’s
free-wheeling autobiography published in 2009. The book also takes in his early
life growing up in Stepney, his battle with the bottle and eventual acceptance
of himself en route to happiness with his musician wife Zi Lan Liao and what he
calls his current purple creative patch.
Audiences
got a hint of Wobble’s state of bliss when he brought the Invaders of the Heart
to Edinburgh’s Bongo Club a couple of years ago for what was in part a greatest
hits set of sorts. This drew from material from his time with PiL and 1990s
world music hits with Sinead O’Connor mixed and matched with new material and a
couple of film soundtrack covers.
This approach
was previewed on Wobble’s 2017 The Usual Suspects album. Live, it is
emboldened
even more by Wobble’s quasi music hall mix of patter and shaggy dog stories. This
time out promises something similar, but with material from Ocean Blue Waves
and the tellingly named Acid Punk Dub Apocalypse woven in. The latter record
features appearances from dancehall star Hollie Cook, Alex Paterson of The Orb
and writer and doyen of post-punk London Vivien Goldman, as well as younger
artists including Rhiannon, Lara Smiles and Aurora Dawn. All of which sums up
Wobble’s restlessness as much as his current blessed state.
“I’m a
guy who likes to mooch about,” he says. “I’m a moocher, but you’ve got to be
sensible. These days for me it’s a bit of meditation, a bit of pilates, a bit
of yoga, and that’s it. There’s some mad crazy stuff going on in the world just
now, and you have to carry on through all that and not be taken in by some of
the stuff that’s being said. Every night I’ve got to do my best and give a good
show, and you’ve got to be generous. It’s important to be like that and give
something back.”
Jah
Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart appear at La Belle Angele, Edinburgh
tomorrow, and The Garage G2 - The Attic, Glasgow, tomorrow. Acid Punk Dub
Apocalypse by Youth Meets Jah Wobble is released on Youth Sounds/Cadiz Music on
February 28. Ocean Blue Waves by Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart is
released on March 27.
The Herald, February 6th 2020
ends
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