RGG November 2015 - p.13
r
gg
since
1995
The man born John Wardle began his musical
journey when he met Sex Pistols’ John Lydon
and Sid Vicious at Kingsway College, London,
in 1973. John was not only nicknamed ‘Jah
Wobble’ by Vicious after a drunken night out but
Vicious also loaned him his first bass guitar and,
following the Pistols’ split in 1978, Lydon asked
Jah Wobble to join his new band Public Image
Limited (aka PiL). They immediately scored a
Top Ten hit with their debut single “Public
Image”, and Wardle’s distinctive ‘low end’ bass
was identified as the backbone of PiL’s
pioneering sound, The Times later commenting
that there is a “hypnotic power in his playing, a
thudding, visceral bassline that dictates the way
everybody else will play”. After PiL’s second
album, 'Metal Box', Wardle became disillusioned
by politics within the band and their reluctance
to play live. He eventually split from PiL
mid-1980 and embarked on a prolific solo
career, his passion for Eastern and World music
also inspiring a number of collaborations
including Baaba Maal, Bjork, Primal Scream,
Brian Eno, Sinead O’Connor, Julianne Regan,
Dolores O’Riordan, Holgat Czukay (Can), The
Edge and Chaka Demus & Pliers.
In 1986, after a long battle with alcohol, Wardle
unexpectedly walked away from the music
scene to work for London Transport, but
eventually returned with a revitalized line-up of
his band Invaders Of The Heart. By the 1990s,
Wardle finally achieved public acceptance,
including chart success and a Mercury Music
Prize nomination for the album Rising Above
Bedlam (Island Records). However, after
releasing the top 40 album, Take Me To God and
Heaven And Earth (also on Island Records),
Wardle returned to making more experimental
records. In 1997, he started up his own
independent record label, 30 Hertz Records, a
set-up which has so far resulted in well over 30
albums. In 2004, he signed to legendary reggae
label Trojan Records, resulting in the best-selling
box set, I Could Have Been A Contender, and
two studio albums, Mu and Heart And Soul. In
2011, Wobble signed with Cherry Red Records
for two collaborative albums – Psychic Life with
Julie Campbell (aka LoneLady) and Ying And
Yang with his old PiL bandmate Keith Levene.
In May 2015, Jah Wobble celebrated this
illustrious, 36-year career in music with an
ambitious 6-CD box set entitled ReDux. It’s a
multi-faceted project, disc 6 comprises a brand
new album of exclusive cover versions, which
will also appear on a limited vinyl LP, and each
of the other discs is themed, concentrating on
Wobble’s explorations into Dub/World music,
Ambient/Spoken word and Jazz, with another
disc given over to his pioneering and eclectic
post-punk work, during and after his tenure with
Public Image Limited. Plus there’s a brand new
single in there, coupling ‘Merry Go Round’ with
‘Let’s Go Psycho’, issued in April (with a video
for ‘Merry Go Round’ in the pipeline).
Wardle is now a dedicated family man with a
documented interest in spirituality - he received
a BA in Music and Philosophy in 2001 - and,
until 2009, he wrote regular book reviews for the
Independent On Sunday, since then writing
book reviews for The Times newspaper. He has
also published a best-selling autobiography,
Memoirs Of A Geezer, made yet more records -
including Japanese Dub and a Jah Wobble and
the Modern Jazz Ensemble album and
published Odds&Sods&Epilogues, a book of
poetry set to music that contains a CD.
ReDux complements JW’s earlier triple-disc
compendium, the best-selling I Could Have
Been A Contender, by offering twice as much
music as its predecessor without significant
duplication, while also catching up on over a
decade’s worth of music issued since the
release of …Contender on Trojan Records back
in 2003. That’s 93 tracks in total featuring such
heavy friends on guest vocals as Sinead
O’Connor, Julianne Regan, Ronnie Drew (The
Dubliners), Dolores O’Riorden, Julie Campbell
(LoneLady), Natacha Atlas and Chaka Demus
& Pliers. ReDux will be annotated by Wobble,
who will be supporting its unveiling with a major
UK
tour.
Catch the Jah Wobble live at The Robin 2 on
12th Nov. Tickets available from Robin Box
office: 01902 401211 or
