JAH WOBBLE WITH DOROTHY MAX PRIOR – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 23.3.24
Stepney born East Londoner Jah Wobble (real name John Wardle) 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 band was born. Wobble’s distinctive ‘low end’ bass became the backbone of PiL’s pioneering sound on the first two PiL 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’s career speaks for itself, spanning over 40 year’s he’s played on countless albums, with performers such as PIL’s John Lydon, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, U2’s The Edge, Sinead O’Conner, Primal Scream, Bjork, The Orb, The Cranberries Dolores O’Riordan and many more, as well as a regular on the hit TV show ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’.
His own band Invaders Of The Heart have been an ongoing project involving many great session players and incorporated many styles all with one commonality, Jah’s skilful bass playing, love of music and his smooth charisma.
Having thus far crammed so much into his life Wobble decided to publish his memoirs in a book titled ‘Jah Wobble Dark Luminosity Memoirs Of A Geezer’, an expanded edition of this dropped on 7th March and so the great man himself is today in conversation with fellow musician and book publisher Dorothy Max Prior at Resident in Kensington Gardens, Brighton.
The details of this event touches on a few things listed above and reads thus:
“Written in his own unmistakable voice and with a new afterword by the author, this is the frank and fascinating memoir by arguably the greatest bass player of his generation. Beginning with an east end childhood in a London barely recovered from the war, he takes us on a journey through the beginnings of punk and post-punk as a founding member of Public Image Limited, an illustrious forty-year solo career which has seen collaborations musical greats such as U2, Brian Eno and Can and a Mercury Music Prize nomination through to the present day still playing to sell out audiences. Along the way we hear how Wobble navigated chronic alcoholism and marital breakdown and has emerged as a national treasure. If you ever wondered how got his name, the answer is here: his teenage pal Sid Vicious gave it to him when he drunkenly slurred Wobble’s real name, John Wardle”.
It’s certain that if she was still with us, my partner Jordan Mooney would have been in attendance today on account of knowing both Wobble and Dorothy (known as ‘Max’) for many decades. In fact Jordan also had a book launch here in Resident for her ‘Defying Gravity Jordan’s Story’ when it was published as well as having another in conversation up at The Prince Albert, where we are incidentally off to next in order to see Panic Shack performing live.
And so at 6:12pm Wobble and ‘Max’ came out into the store and totally transfixed the audience non stop for 58 minutes until 7:10pm, after which Wobble was signing copies of his book. None the word “transfixed” above, as I too was totally taken in to what Wobble had to say and took virtually no notes. But I guess if you want to know about Wobble, purchasing the book is the way to go.
He began by stating that his granddad Jack was a street lighter man in London and that job had run in the family. He said that he got his eye in when he went clay pigeon shooting, but jokingly spurned golf despite playing it and getting a half dozen hole in ones. Regarding his music, he sees himself as a chef and he uses different ingredients to suit the style of music of that moment. “It’s fusion cooking that’s always shifting” he stated. Wobble is clearly an intellectual man but is equally at home using “big words” as well as “swear words”. He is a man that says it as it is and I suspect folk know where they stand with him. He could arguably appear intimidating due to his stature and geezerness, but I suspect deep down, he is a man that is very proud of his family and his achievements. He is such a wit too, but funnily enough the thing that brought me to stitches was the sound of snoring coming from immediately behind me. I thought how on earth has someone managed to drop off whilst all this jovial information is being thrown at it. I inquisitively turned around and joyfully discovered that the snoring was courtesy of Doris the Pug!
Wobble’s book is on sale at Resident – find your copy HERE.
Max’s book has sold out from Resident, but can be purchased HERE.
You can catch Jah Wobble & Invaders Of The Heart performing live at Lewes Con Club on Saturday 13th April 2024 courtesy of promoters Love Thy Neighbour. Tickets for this gig can be purchased HERE.
