Jah Wobble and the Invaders of the Heart

The Half Moon, 93 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, London
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Event has ended
This event ended on Saturday 10th of October 2015
Admission
Advance: £16
Door: £18
Venue Information
The Half Moon
Lower Richmond Road, SW15 1EU
Nearest Tube/Rail Stations
Putney 0.44 miles

Bass player, singer, composer, poet, and one-time London Tube driver, over a 36-year career in music John Wardle AKA Jah Wobble has carved a reputation as "a true maverick" (The Guardian).

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.

Tags: Music

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