Jah Wobble

John Joseph Wardle (known by the stage name Jah Wobble; born 11 August 1958) is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; he left the band after two albums.

Following his departure from PiL, he developed a solo career. In 2012, he reunited with fellow PiL guitarist Keith Levene for Metal Box in Dub and the album Yin & Yang. Since 2013, he has been one of the featured pundits on Sunday morning's The Virtual Jukebox segment of BBC Radio 5 Live's Up All Night with Dotun Adebayo. His autobiography, Memoirs of a Geezer, was published in 2009.

Early life Wardle was born on 11 August 1958 in Stepney, East London. His father, Harry Eugene Wardle, worked as a postman , while his mother, Kathleen Bridget ( Fitzgibbon), was a school and County Hall secretary. Wobble grew up with his family in Whitechapel's Clichy Estate in London's East End. He is a long-time friend of John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), whom he had met in the 1970s at London's Kingsway College. The two formed half of the group of friends known as "The Four Johns", along with John Gray and John Simon Ritchie (Sid Vicious). Jah Wobble adopted his stage name after a drunken Sid Vicious mumbled Wardle's name, which he kept, noting that "people would never forget it."

Musical career In his early life and career, by his own admission, Wardle was given to occasional bouts of aggression, exacerbated by heavy drinking and drug use. As a result, he ended up living in a squat with John Gray in West London, while Lydon formed The Sex Pistols. With admittedly large "builder's hands", he had experimented with the guitar, but found playing bass a more connected and whole body experience, influenced in part by admiring Bob Marley's and The Wailers bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett on stage in 1975.

Public Image Ltd (PiL) Following the Sex Pistols' break-up, Lydon approached Wobble about forming a band. Both had similarly broad musical tastes, and were avid fans of reggae and world music. The band began rehearsing together in May 1978; in July Lydon named the band Public Image (PiL) (the "Ltd" was added several months later), after the Muriel Spark novel The Public Image. Wobble's bass playing drew heavily on dub, which has remained an important feature of his music. Prior to the break up of the Sex Pistols, Wobble and Lydon had experimented musically during which time he wrote a simple repetitive bassline In October 1978 "Public Image" was released as PiL's first single and reached number 9 on the UK charts and making an impact internationally. Wobble has stated that the first PiL album was recorded so quickly due in part to the bassist's altercations with a sound engineer and men at a nearby pub. which was released in 1979. He grew increasingly frustrated by the lacklustre creative atmosphere in the band, which he felt stifled his artistic ambitions and PiL's creative potential. Besides differences in artistic vision, further conflicts were brought on in part by heavy drug and alcohol abuse in the band. The Human Condition toured the UK, Europe, and US in 1981, and made two cassette-only releases of their live shows (Live at the Collegiate Theatre and Live in Europe). The post-PiL years saw Wobble also collaborating with Can members Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit on Czukay's solo projects (notably On the Way to the Peak of Normal and Rome Remains Rome) and Full Circle (released in 1984).

Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart was formed in 1982. The original line-up was Ollie Marland (who went on to become Tina Turner's musical director) on keys, Annie Whitehead on trombone, Neville Murray on percussion and a musician named only as Cliff, on drums. By 1983 Lee Partis was the drummer. Trumpeter Harry Beckett and pedal steel player B. J. Cole regularly performed with the group.

By 1985 Jah Wobble's heavy drinking and drunken brawls were having an effect on his life. Halfway through the recording of the album Psalms (October 1986), Wobble stopped drinking. From then through to the present day he has remained 'clean and sober'.

He then did a variety of day jobs, whilst continuing to perform and record his music in what spare time he had. These jobs included a long stretch with the London Underground.

By 1987, due to the repeated prompting of his friend and former bandmate, percussionist Neville Murray, Wobble reformed The Invaders of the Heart. Armed with a live recording of a concert he had made with a new line-up of musicians during a European tour in 1988, Wobble travelled to New York City's New Music Seminar in 1989 to get back into the music industry. Wobble was able to secure an eleventh-hour record deal with a small European record label. The live album, Without Judgement, was recorded in the Netherlands and was released in November 1989. He also performed at the 2008 Rhythm Festival.

Jah Wobble and the Chinese Dub Orchestra won the Cross-Cultural Collaboration category, for their album Chinese Dub, in the inaugural Songlines Music Awards, announced on 1 May 2009, which were the new world music awards organised by the UK based magazine, Songlines.

In September 2009, John Lydon reformed PiL for a series of concerts in late 2009. Despite Lydon's invitation to join, Jah Wobble did not feature in the line-up, since he considered the wages offered insufficient and disagreed with the choice of venues.

At an impromptu appearance at the Musicport Festival in Bridlington Spa on 24 October 2010, where they were joined by vocalist "Johnny Rotter" of the Sex Pistols Experience, Wobble renewed his association with former PiL guitarist Keith Levene.

In 2011, Wobble collaborated with Julie Campbell, alias Warp Records artist LoneLady in a project called Psychic Life. The debut album, Psychic Life, was inspired by disco, post-punk and psychogeography, and released by Cherry Red Records on 14 November 2011. Keith Levene contributed to three tracks on the album. A digital-only EP, Psychic Life, fronted by the song "Tightrope", was released in October 2011.

In early 2012, after some planned Japan gigs were cancelled because of visa problems, Wobble and Levene played various UK clubs as Metal Box in Dub. The visa issues were resolved and they played Fuji Rock festival in July 2012. This was followed by the release of a four-song, eponymous EP. An album entitled Yin & Yang was released in November 2012.

Wobble has also collaborated with the British ambient group Marconi Union, the results of which were released as an album called Anomic on 30 Hertz records in June 2013. In October 2013, 30 Hertz Records released Odds & Sods & Epilogues, an illustrated book/CD of Jah Wobble's poetry.

In 2015, Cherry Red Records released Redux, a six-CD box set that spans nearly four decades of Wobble's music. It includes new tracks Merry Go Round and Let's Go Psycho. In May 2015, Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart embarked on an extensive six-month UK tour. They recorded the album The Usual Suspects which was released on 3m Music in 2017. A series of gigs in England from January to May 2017 was announced.

Other activities Jah Wobble studied part-time for four years at Birkbeck, University of London, graduating in 2000 with an upper second-class honours degree in the humanities.

His autobiography, entitled Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Life, Mayhem (Serpent's Tail books, London), was released in September 2009. It was well received by critics. He also writes occasional book reviews for The Independent.

Personal life Wobble has four children, including music producer and bassist with the Loose Articles, Natalie Wardle, from his first marriage, Hayley Angel Holt, writer, director and actress and two sons with his second wife, the Chinese-born guzheng player and harpist Zilan Liao. Wobble was brought up a Roman Catholic but later converted to Mahayana Buddhism.

List of collaborators Jah Wobble past and present collaborators (listed alphabetically)

Discography + List of studio albums, with selected chart positions, sales figures and certifications Title Album details Peak chart positionsUK AUS The Legend Lives On... Jah Wobble in "Betrayal"Released: 1980 Label: Virgin V.I.E.P.Released: 1980 Label: Virgin Jah Wobble's Bedroom AlbumReleased: 1983 Label: Lago Records TradewindsReleased: 1986 Label: Lago Records PsalmsReleased: 1987 Label: Wob Records Without JudgementReleased: 1990 Rising Above BedlamReleased: 1991 Label: Oval 121 Take Me to GodReleased: 1994 Label: Island 13 160 Spinner (with Brian Eno)Released: 1995 Label: All Saints 71 Heaven and EarthReleased: 1995 Label: Island Records The Inspiration of William BlakeReleased: 1996 Label: All Saints Records, 30 Hertz Records RequiemReleased: 1997 Label: 30 Hertz Records The Light ProgrammeReleased: 1998 Label: 30 Hertz Records Umbra SumusReleased: 1998 Label: 30 Hertz Records Deep SpaceReleased: 1999 Label: 30 Hertz Records FlyReleased: 2002 Label: 30 Hertz Records The Sound of Jah WobbleReleased: 2002 Label: Digital Vision FureurReleased: 2003 Label: EastWest Notes: Soundtrack Elevator Music Volume 1AReleased: 2004 Label: 30 Hertz Records MuReleased: 2005 Label: Trojan Records Alpha-One-ThreeReleased: 2006 Label: 30 Hertz Records Heart and SoulReleased: 2007 Label: Trojan Records Car Ad MusicReleased: 2009 Label: 30 Hertz Records Welcome to My WorldReleased: 2010 Label: 30 Hertz Records 7Released: 2011 Label: Dub the WorldReleased: 2012 Label: Ded Good Music Odds & Sods & Epilogues: Illustrated Book of Poetry with CDReleased: 2013 Label: 30 Hertz Records Access All AreasReleased: 2015 Label: Edsel Records Cover VersionsReleased: 2015 Label: 30 Hertz Records, Cherry Red Records The Butterfly EffectReleased: 2018 Label: Jah Wobble Records Dream WorldReleased: 2018 Label: Jah Wobble Records Nocturne in the City (Ambient Jazz Grooves)Released: 2020 Label: Jah Wobble Records End of Lockdown DubReleased: 2020 Label: Jah Wobble Records Metal Box - Rebuilt in DubReleased: 2021 Label: Cleopatra Guanyin Released: 2021 Label: Jah Wobble Records Dark Luminosity: The 21st Century Collection Released: 2023 Label: 30 Hertz Records The Bus Routes of South LondonReleased: 2023 Label: Jah Wobble Records Thames SymphonyReleased: 2023 Label: Jah Wobble Records A Brief History of NowReleased: 2023 Label: Cleopatra

Live and compilation albums

30 Hertz: A Collection of Diverse Works from a Creative Genius (2000) Largely Live in Hartlepool & Manchester (with Deep Space) (2001) The Early Years (2001) Solaris: Live in Concert (2002) Live in Leuven (with Jaki Liebezeit & Philip Jeck) (2004) I Could Have Been a Contender (2004) Redux Anthology 1978 - 2015 (2015) Dark Luminosity (2023)

Singles and EPs Year Title Peak chart positions Album UK 1978 "Dreadlock Don't Deal in Wedlock" — — — N/A "Steel Leg v. the Electric Dread" (with Don Letts, Keith Levene & Vince Bracken) — — — EP only 1979 "Dan MacArthur" — — — The Legend Lives On... Jah Wobble in "Betrayal" 1980 "Betrayal" — — — "V.I.E.P. featuring Blueberry Hill" — — — 1981 "How Much Are They?" — — — Full Circle (with Jaki Liebezeit & Holger Czukay) 1982 "Fading" — — — Bedroom Album "A Long, Long Way" — — — 1983 "Invaders of the Heart" — — — "Body Music Mokili" (with Ben Mandelson) — — — N/A 1984 "Voodoo" (with Ollie Marland & Polly Eltes) — — — 1985 "Love Mystery" — — — Neon Moon (with Ollie Marland) "Blow Out" — — — N/A 1986 "Between Two Frequencies" (with Brett Wickens) — — — 1987 "Island Paradise" — — — Psalms 1989 "The Unspoken Word" (as Invaders of the Heart) — — — Fuse II – World Dance Music (Various Artists) 1990 "Bomba" — — — Rising Above Bedlam (as Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart) 1991 "Erzulie" — — — 1992 "Visions of You" (featuring Sinéad O'Connor) 35 94 10 "Ungodly Kingdom" — — — 1994 "Becoming More Like God" (featuring Anneli Drecker) 36 190 — Take Me to God (as Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart) "The Sun Does Rise" (featuring Dolores O'Riordan) 41 — 22 "Amor" 76 — — 1997 "Magical Thought" — — — The Light Programme 1998 "I Offer You Everything" — — — Umbra Sumus "Mount Zion" — — — 2009 "Get Carter" — — — N/A 2012 "Mississippi" — — — Yin and Yang (with Keith Levene) 2014 "Watch How You Walk" — — — Inspiration (with PJ Higgins) "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released.

Footnotes