· Jah Wobble's sitting room is dominated by
crates for his musical equipment and family
photographs.The work house - The Guardian Space
Raj Persaud visits musician Jah Wobble, whose Bethnal Green house is filled with friends, work and just enough possessions. Photograph by Anthony 0liver
· Jah Wobble's sitting room is dominated by
crates for his musical equipment and family
photographs.
Jah Wobble seemed to have been able to play the bass guitar from the time he first picked one up (when Sid Vicious lent him one). Only few months later, in 1978, he achieved fame with Public Image Ltd, accompanying John Lydon (formerly Johnny Rotten, of the most famous punk band of all, The Sex Pistols).
I ask him to confirm that playing the bass came easy for him from the very start. "Yeah, I wish chatting girls up would come as easy." I remind him that he is now a married man, but another member of his band who's in the house house asks, mischievously: "Isn't that why people join a band, so they can get laid?" "It's why some people get married," he replies.
But Wobble rapidly tired of Public Image Ltd, leaving them in 1980. "The problem is that I've never really pursued money. It's driven record companies mad, and a lot of musicians have left me because I keep turning down projects which I think are boring. When I was in PIL I remember flying to the States and being met at the airport by a stretch limo limo taking us to The Waldorf. While I was sitting in the back, I thought to myself:: "I'm glad I've done this and got it out of the way, because it's really shit.' "
This attitude helps explain his strong feelings about Bethnal Green, where he lies, which is rapidly becoming trendy. "I still lose the East End - I was born in Stepney -and have lived here all my life, bit I'm told now Bethnal Green has become an 'artists' areas. It's likes cancer spreading." I'm surprised being a musician he doesn't like the idea of being surrounded by artists. but he says " would rather be around real life, because that inspires the art. It's still quite a vibrant area, even though we've got all these artists everywhere and we've all got pretend we're in Manhattan now with all the loft conversions sweeping this way'"
He lives in a semi-detached "Brookside" house, as he describes it, built in the early Eighties with around ten other musicians constantly coming in and and out, They have all just returned from playing a live session for Greater London Radio, and boxes of their unpacked equipment dominate the living room. lie likes a house that is humming and full of people and activity - "a working house".
His home is covered with religious artefacts from a variety of traditions. There are Catholic pictures, fat, laughing Buddha's and Taoist figures. "Because Christianity messed everyone up so much you're not allowed to say you're religious today, instead you have to say you're 'spiritual'. In fact even those who say they're not religious today are really, they just worship a different god - they deify money. That's why I don't have a lot of possessions here. If you have possessions, eventually they possess you." I point out his enormous TV. It cost him over £3,000, and he explains that it's particularly good for football, though he thinks his friends have begun to "take the piss a bit" -20 of them will come over to watch the football, but as Wobble gave up alcohol ten years ago, they abandon him for the pub as soon as the final whistle goes. But Wobble doesn't believe being spiritual means you can't also have fun. In fact he is suspicious of those who link spirituality with solemnity.
One of the very very few pictures on the walls is an old album cover. "I don't like lots of pictures because you just get tired of them. I'm not somebody on this lifestyle this lifestyle kick who thinks [in a mincing falsetto]: 'I've got to leave just the right number of things in my house. I'll have a bit of Conran and then because its trendy I'll get a few ethnic bits and scatter them around.'"
He explains why the interior walls are light blue - "There is a is a depth to it, it suggests the sky, but it's not too cold, it's a nice neutral ambience. I hate all this Eighties bollocks about having a white room. It's like being in a hospital or an asylum or something."
He thinks the main problem with people's living spaces is that we never seem to know when we have enough, which explains our current problems with addictions, to both substances and possession. He, at least, has learnt to be content with enough.
Jah Wobble's latest album, Umbra Sumus", is released this month. He also performs on June 26 as part of of Islington International Festival. Details: 0171 - 288 6700 Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital.