JAH WOBBLE & THE INVADERS OF THE HEART – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 10.02.19
Thankfully tonight we grabbed the last parking space located a short distance away from The Con Club in Lewes High Street, as we were running a tad late. We need not had worried as on our walk to the venue we were passed by this tall imposing character wearing a long white mac. “OMG it’s actually John Wardle“ I hushed to my bemused colleague! At that moment in time he was perplexed as to who this mystery person is. On entering the venue I spoke to this slightly flustered character who was himself running a tad late. It was indeed the one and only Jah Wobble! John Wardle being his real name of course!
Despite the flyer stating to the contrary, there was no support act this evening and so we lucky punters were treated to a full two hour set from Mr Bass Dub himself!
He was joined on stage by his trio of younger chaps, namely Marc, Chungy and George who are Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart.
Over the past three decades or so, Jah Wobble has ploughed his own furrow as a prolific solo artist, as well as becoming a well-respected session musician, with a genuine passion for Eastern and Global music. He has worked with a diverse range of musicians, including Baaba Maal, Björk, Primal Scream, Brian Eno, Sinead O’Connor, Dolores O’Riordan, and Chaka Demus and Pliers.
Stepney born East Londoner Jah Wobble began his musical journey when he met John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) and John Simon Ritchie (aka Sid Vicious) at London’s Kingsway College in 1973. It was Vicious who not only nicknamed John ‘Jah Wobble’ after a drunken binge, but also loaned him his first bass guitar.
John Lydon asked Jah Wobble to join Public Image Limited (aka PiL) in spring 1978 and thus with guitarist Keith Levene, and drummer Jim Walker, the trailblazing band was born.
Wobble’s distinctive ‘low end’ bass became the backbone of PiL’s pioneering sound on their first two albums ‘Public Image’ aka ‘First Issue’ and its follow-up, the exploratory yet sinister soundscapes of ‘Metal Box’.
Wobble became disillusioned by politics within the band and their reluctance to play live. By 1984, both Levene and Wobble had departed and the group and Wobble embarked on a prolific solo career.
Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart released their debut album ‘Without Judgement’ in 1989 and received a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 1991 for the ‘Rising Above Bedlam’ album, which contained the legendary album opener ‘Visions Of You’ with Sinéad O’Connor on vocals. After the acclaimed ‘Take Me To God’ album in 1994, which featured the now sadly departed vocal talents of Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries on the single ‘The Sun Does Rise’, The Invaders of The Heart split. Jah Wobble then launched his own 30 Hertz record label which has subsequently released around 30 albums.
In 2015, Cherry Red Records released ‘Redux’, a six-CD box set that spans nearly four decades of Wobble’s music. In 2017 Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart released ‘The Usual Suspects’ on 3m Music and this evenings gig would see a vast majority of material culled from ‘The Usual Suspects’ album, as they are up-to-date reworkings of arguably the standout moments from Wobble’s long established career.
A tad after 9pm and the four guys took to the stage. It’s here that I must confess that my knowledge of Jah Wobble’s output is patchy at best. I have the PiL (Public Image Ltd) albums that he plays bass on and I am familiar with a few of his ‘hits’, but I was blissfully ignorant of a number of his songs performed tonight. For me personally some were awesome and some were less so.
The opener was a freestyle jazz dub stylee track which I found a tad over indulgent, the second track was his naughty vocal rendition of the 1969 ska classic ‘Liquidator’ made famous by the Harry J. All Stars. It was very clear that Mr Wobble is actually a very funny and likeable character as we all enjoyed his copious amounts of East London banter during the set. This was one of the highlights of the evening – the fact that he made it lighthearted and it had a chilled vibe. At one stage he reminded me of Charlie Chaplin with the way he was moving about on the stage.
At times I felt as though the gig was a bit of a jam session as I was unfamiliar with a number of tunes, but there’s no denying it that he is a world class bass player! He also has a go at the drums and cowbells too.
My colleague got very excited when the opening bars of ‘The Chain’ came blurting out. Not heard it? I bet you have! It’s better known as the ‘Top Gear’ theme and was originally on some obscure album by Fleetwood Mac in 1977 called ‘Rumours’. The album’s only sold a mere 40 million copies worldwide!
Jah Wobble was plucking away at his bass and the trio were impressively following his lead whilst they played the keyboards, guitar and drums. Then suddenly the vibe for me was ramped up a notch or twelve when the hypnotic swirling notes of the classic ‘Visions Of You’ hit my eardrums. This was a slightly down-tempo version that included the taped female vocals of I would guess Holly Macve, as she appears on the reworked version found on the ‘The Usual Suspects’ album. This was followed by ‘Becoming More Like God’ which also features Holly Macve on the recorded version. This one reminded me a tad of David Bowie’s ‘Fame’.
