Amongst the nationwide touring of his ‘Metal Box Rebuilt in Dub’ album this year, former PiL bassist Jah Wobble has also been performing standard Invaders of the Heart sets also following the release of his solo studio album, ‘Last Exit’, this year. The band began on ‘Becoming More Like God’ and after a quick exorcism of their drummer, Marc Layton-Bennett, Wobble moved into ‘Socialist’, played with a fast tempo and Martin Chung’s raw guitar chords and high pitched solos.
Set list staple ‘Liquidator’, with its multi-instrumentals, featured an interval where Wobble deconstructed the band to establish the ‘animal kingdom’ with his humourous banter, seeing varied drum rhythms and experimental keyboards, and his own adding of the lyrics “Fuck off you cunt!”. Following the band’s more oriental version of ‘Public Image Ltd’, Wobble read an extended spoken word introduction for ‘Poptones’, which later in the song exploded into a burst of an uplifting spectrum of colour of instrumental harmony.
Wobble’s sons, John Tian Qi Wardle and Charlie Tian Yi Wardle, then came on stage to perform on the Chinese stringed instrument, the Erhu, and drums respectively; the band performed ‘Java’ with the boys’ sirenic interlude of the Erhu and a minimalistic drum solo. They also played ‘Careering’, with electronic distorted guitar pedal effects as well as the two tracks from Wobble and his son’s band Tian Qiyi’s recently released album, ‘Red Mist’; the title track opened on the rattlesnake shakes of the maracas and ancient whinings of the Erhu and had a grungy feel played with slow jazz drums and Tian Qi on vocals. They also did the album single, ‘Incantation’, which saw Tian Qi wildly manipulating the Erhu on the pedal. Invaders of the Heart closed their two-and-a-half hour set with the inclusion of ‘Visions of You’, which was originally a collaboration with the late Sinead O’Connor.
04/11/23: Jah Wobble + The Invaders of the Heart @ The Forge, London.
Photos © Peter McDonnell Photography.
© Ayisha Khan.