Born John Wardle, Jah Wobble began playing bass at 18 for the band
Public Image Limited in 1978 at the bequest of
John Lydon, who had just left
The Sex Pistols. His first
bass guitar had been lent to him by
Sid Vicious only a few months prior to his joining of PiL. His experimentations on PiL's
Metal Box (called Second Edition in the US) were regarded as some of the finest examples of musical experimentation of the era, belying traditional punk sensibilities. His
basslines are continually described as "towering".
It is hypothesized that Jah's name came from:
A. A corruption of John Wardle imposed by John Lydon's slurred, often drunken speech.
B. The word
Jah, meaning
God in
Jamaican English coupled with a description of his bass playing style, "wobbly"
After leaving PiL in 1980, Wobble battled
alcoholism, and eventually ended up working as a
janitor on the
London Underground.
He has worked with
The Cranberries on their song: "The Sun Does Rise", and his basslines appear on
The Orb's album
U.F.Orb. He has worked with
Can members
Holger Czukay and
Jaki Liebezeit, ambient composer
Bill Laswell, and of course, Master Of Sound,
Brian Eno.
Wobble has released a number of solo albums featuring
ambient,
fusion,
world, and
dub stylings, often bridging genres with gleeful abandon.
He has also founded his own record label,
30 Hertz Records, featuring a number of his solo releases, and with his band,
Invaders Of The Heart.
Most recently, he has been playing bass with
Martin Atkins'
The Damage Manual.
Brief Discography:
- (1997) Jah Wobble Presents: The Light Programme
- (1997) Requiem
- (1998) Umbra Sumus
- (1998) The Celtic Poets
- (1999) Deep Space
- (2000) Full Moon over the Shopping Mall
- (2000) Molam Dub
- (2000) Beach Fervor Space