Ahead of the release next month of his new studio album, ‘Ocean Blue Waves’, Jah Wobble and his backing band that are the Invaders Of The Heart played an intimate show at the famous jazz venue, doing some of their old and new material as well as a few PiL covers. The band consists of Martin Chung (guitar), George King (keyboards) and Martin Layton-Bennett (drums).
They began on ‘Ocean Blue Waves’ from the upcoming release, Wobble dressed in a white suit. He then did vocals for another new track, ‘Safe Passage’, before regressing back to ‘Metal Box’ with ‘Socialist’; its fast paced drum and bass beats transforming into the serenity of ‘Seven’.
Much of the setlist was familiar such as the band’s covers of Harry J All Star’s ‘The Liquidator’ (followed by a dub deconstructed version), roots reggaist Augustus Pablo’s ‘Java’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ (Chung’s frenzied and often over-the-top guitar fretwork). Wobble also included his 1981 collaboration with Can’s Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit, ‘How Much Are They?’ before performing more PiL tracks in the way of ‘Public Image’ (plus dub version) and ‘Poptones’.
23/01/20: Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart @ Jazz Cafe, London.
Photos © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.
© Ayisha Khan.