Live at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 18th October 2024
Tonight’s show was billed as “Metal Box In Dub”. Alongside John Lydon, Keith Levene and Martin Atkins, Jah Wobble (aka John Wardle) fused Krautrock, post-punk and heavy dub-influenced bass lines. All very young at the time, it was a work of instinctual creation and was massively influential. On the other hand, after buying it for my birthday, my Mum’s comment on hearing some of it was; “oh well, so long as you like it”.
This was the best set I’ve seen Jah Wobble play in a few years. Not because of the material, though that did make a lot of older folk very happy; it’s what what the band did with it. The arrangements didn’t tweak or play with the originals – they reinvented them, using them as a template to build a new shape upon. John seemed comfortable with a theme to the evening and I remembered recent years had seen a drift to similar sets, whereas evening had previously been devoted to new ideas from album collaborations, mostly with different world musics. That focus gives him something to play off instead of the tyranny of freedom.
John’s original bass lines were the work of a young man who had realized that playing simple lines with solidity and conviction was the way to go and now, many years on those bass lines are still strong, even if he has made the odd change as he goes. What he has done is to play to the strengths of his normal touring band by arranging the music to suit their aptitudes and those abilities make for a more rock orientated approach than his usual dubbier, jazzier sound.
Tonight has plenty of jazzy sounds thanks to George King on keyboards using the Fender Rhodes sound plenty and Martin Chung’s jazz influenced guitar. Ever present is Marc Layton-Bennett, a stalwart of John’s bands, able to turn on a dime and a suitable foil for Wobble’s many bantz and jokes. Thanks go to John Klein (Siouxsie and the Banshees) for the pushing and inspiration that brought John back to Metal Box. Where that might have seemed a sad direction to head, he has helped to make it a celebration and remaking. Tonight the contribution of his post-punk thin-string playing adds an enormous amount to the band. Tonight they have two guitars and can share parts and enrich things in ways the sparse original never could.
It’s a few years since John got rid of his Magnum Ovation bass that was so symbolic of his heavy sound I can see now why he might have had to do that as he tells us of his herniated discs and he plays sat as well as stood, managing the pain.
Wobble doesn’t play straight with his set and teases his band for our amusement – telling his drummer that he can’t play anything simple or recounting an argument where the Oldham-based keyboardist said people from Yorkshire have six fingers. Perhaps that’s what inspires him to read a speech from Richard III before Poptones. Or is that comparing Lydon’s lyrics to Shakespeare?
Equally, the music isn’t straight and Fodderstompf goes fast, goes slow, heads into deep jazz space and the simple bass line draws John to his feet with the groove. ‘Socialist’ goes double speed. Elsewhere, from ‘Radio 4’, the band head off into the movie theme from ‘Midnight Cowboy’. There’s no effort to stick just to Metal Box songs and that’s why, with songs still left on Jon Klein’s setlist, I’m amazed to hear things draw to a close. Two hours have flashed by as the band have stretched, changed, indulged and massaged a dozen tunes.
If this is what happens when Wobble has a hanger for his ideas to create an evening’s set, then I’ve got to say “give me more”. Not more of the same – more of whatever inspires the man and fires him up to set this band in motion on stage.
Previous Vanguard live coverage:
See our interview here:
an album review here:
another album review here:
or yet another album review here;