Gig review: Jah Wobble & The Invaders of the Heart at The Parish, Huddersfield
The one-time PiL bass player is in fine form with a potent three-piece iteration of his long-standing band.
“We will trod our way doggedly, sometimes joylessly through the Jah Wobble canon,” the legendary bassist born as John Wardle in East London in 1958 states during the early stages of tonight’s generously portioned 100-minute performance (part of Independent Venue Week) to an enthusiastic near-capacity crowd at Huddersfield’s premier music venue.
Wobble must be joking. There is certainly a significant degree to doggedness (especially with regards to avoiding staleness-inducing pigeonholing) to the 67-year-old four-string virtuoso’s sprawling musical odyssey, but the most appropriate adjective to describe tonight’s triumphant, career-spanning set is joyful.
The fact that Wobble appears to be chronically incapable of taking himself too seriously helps maintain optimum levels of mirth. Between (and occasionally during) songs, the musician turns into a bass-wielding, effortlessly hilarious stand-up comedian.
Wobble’s praise for the current, remarkably potent three-piece iteration of his long-standing band The Invaders of the Heart (tonight’s a hometown show for Huddersfield-based guitarist Martin Chung and drummer Marc Layton-Bennett, whilst keyboardist George King hails from just over the hills in Oldham – ‘the intelligent, sophisticated part of the Pennines’, according to Wobble) is clearly genuine (and entirely deserved), but it’s also a neat bridge for self-deprecating asides: “They haven’t realised yet that I’m holding them back,” Wobble deadpans.
Wobble is probably still most readily associated with his crucial role on the first two, seminal Public Image Ltd album, dub-friendly selections from which pepper tonight’s show, with Wobble (possibly accidentally) unleashing an uncanny John Lydon impression as the sound man tests out reverb levels in preparation for a spirited sprint through Public Image.
But there is so much more to Wobble’s oeuvre. From an opening slow-burning dub extemporisation that turns into an intense musical exchange which ventures near to the highwire showing-off of jazz fusion, tonight’s proceedings display an impressive musical curiosity ranging from angular abstraction to the warm pulse of Jamaican music, with nods towards the freedom of jazz, occasional whiff of what could reasonably be described as pop and a sprinkling of global sounds, which Wobble took on board long before looking to the Middle and Far East for inspiration became the commonly done thing.
It’s not immediately obvious how, say, a powerful take on 1991’s near-hit Visions of You (essentially a razor-sharp, anthemic pop tune built around the kind of dense and deep dub bass that would most likely have impressed even the most jadedly demanding of Kingston’s record producers during reggae’s 70s reign, with the initially seated Wobble now jogging on the spot as band members take solo slots) can cohere in the same set as more or less faithful takes on melodica maestro Augustus Pablo’s meditative evergreen Java and, less expectedly, theme to Midnight Cowboy. Wobble’s ribcage-rattling, tirelessly pulsating bass and the three-piece band’s effortless versatility connect the dots with impressive ease.