The Musician Who Inspired Jah Wobble to Play Bass

(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)

Jah Wobble is the stage name of John Wardle, the bassist best known for his work with John Lydon on the early Public Image Ltd albums. His humorous pseudonym was given to him by his childhood friend Sid Vicious, who mispronounced Wardle’s name while under the influence of various substances. Finding it memorable, Wardle adopted Jah Wobble as his professional moniker, and the rest is history.

In the early 1970s, Wobble was part of a group of friends called The Four Johns, which also included Lydon and Sid Vicious, whose real name was John Simon Ritchie. They were a group of mischievous kids, two of whom would later go on to create the anarchist punk scene in the UK. Early on, Lydon and Ritchie became fascinated by contemporary music from bands like Roxy Music, David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Wobble’s fascination with music took a little longer to emerge.

Talk to Far In 2022, Wobble recalled the first time he became interested in music and fell in love with the instrument he would later learn. He identified his first defining moment as going to see “Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett with the Wailers at the Lyceum in 1975.” Noting that the Wailers’ style was far removed from his associative punk realm, he added: “It was the sonic end of things that really hooked me at first, particularly with blue beat music, or ska.”

Despite the differences between punk and reggae styles, Wobble identified with Barrett’s heavier bass work, which he had never heard before. “It was a feeling, you know? It was amazing,” he commented. “The bass was getting a little heavier than on other contemporary records. I didn’t even express it much at the time, but it appealed to me.”

Although Wobble was drawn to Barrett’s bass grooves, which overlapped Bob Marley’s guitar and vocals, he had not yet decided to pursue a career in music. “I didn’t go out there thinking, ‘I’m going to play bass,’ because punk hadn’t really happened yet, but I was just fascinated by bass players,” he noted.

At the time Wobble saw the Wailers play in London, Lydon was forming the Sex Pistols with guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook. At the time, Vicious and Wobble had not yet learned to play bass. The latter was living in a squat with the fourth John, John Gray, and was struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.

However, after the Sex Pistols’ rise to success with Don’t pay attention to bullshitWobble became more actively interested in music, especially when Vicious replaced Matlock on bass. Thanks to Barrett and his “builder’s hands,” Wobble took up the bass. “It’s only got four strings, you don’t play chords as such, and when I tried to play guitar in the past I thought, ‘Ooh, that’s horrible,'” Wobble explained. Holding up his hands, he said, “I’ve got big hands and big fingers. They’re yellow fingers, not from nicotine anymore, but from biryani… I’ve got biryani fingers now!”

When the Sex Pistols broke up in 1968, Wobble was finally starting to shine. As Lydon searched for a new band to satisfy his thirst for exploring a more textured and artistically innovative post-punk sound, he called upon an old friend. The duo shared a taste for dub, reggae and world music. Wobble’s most memorable contributions were in the innovative rhythms of PiL’s 1979 masterpiece album. Metal box.

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