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	Jah Wobble
	An interview recorded by Pete Bell at the Compass Club, Whitby, on Friday 26th March 2004
	PB: Okay, John, it's so nice of you to talk to us..... JW: No problem, my pleasure. PB: ..... Straight after a gig. JW: That's the time to do it, because then, maybe, you might just remember something! (laughs) PB: How do you feel about the performance tonight? JW: I enjoyed it, yeah. I always enjoy the shows. I don't fuck about. I'm always trying to focus and be honest, try and give something, and never just go through the motions. You might have a few ideas rehearsed, but you're always waiting for the muse to come, for the gods to come ... music is a force that comes through you. All you have to do ....You try and be awake, to be mindful to it. PB: Every time. It's the first gig isn't it, in a sense, .... you're promoting this particular album aren't you? JW: Yeah, but it all moves, one thing segues into another. So this has already gone past the album, it's more organic. It's a little bit like a cross between the folk thing and the 'Deep Space' thing, in a way. Because with the 'Deep Space' thing, we were using a lot of folk modes anyway. So in a way, everything's just a starting point for the next one. PB: Were there any highlights for you, from where you were sitting tonight? JW: The drum n' bass thing, that was real outstanding. There was a groove in seven, and right towards the end of the drum 'n' bass I called the guitarist up, and he played well on it. And Jean-Pierre. That group was a supergroup. And there was a five-beat thing at the start of the bass and drum thing that I got into, like a fast five-four thing. And, in the set, we did that Blacksmiths song and there was a dub version, and, for the last half of the dub version .... that's actually when the set took off. They were a little bit timid, for the first four. A bit timid ... but I'd rather that, because at least it gives you somewhere to go, rather than coming on and being too full of themselves. So it was a nice .... a little bit of a quiet start, a bit timid, but that's when it took off. PB: You're talking about the musicians? JW: Yeah, yeah. PB: Or the audience? JW: Musicians. (Laughs) Well the audience .... now anyway .... audiences take a song or two to settle down. Unless you come out and do the great big one. And I always like to glide it up. But the audiences are chattering away. I've noticed that's a big thing in the last fifteen or twenty years. And I wouldn't want it to get like those jazz clubs, where it's, "Shh! We're watching the band!" PB: And taking notes. JW: That's a bit much. But, you think with people ... you know .... do you know what I mean? "Hello!" Let's really be present to one another? Do you know what I mean? Let's be a bit present to this. They're good punters, and they warm up, and then you win them. Normally when you really start grooving, people can't resist it. Play it and they'll go with it. PB: And they did. JW: If it's a strong lead they'll go for it. PB: A great start for this club, The Compass Club. JW: Smashing, yeah. Nice people. If I go somewhere, treated nicely, nice room, some nice food ... I've had a big pie and chips and all that today .... I'm happy, and if people are okay and they're not giving you an hard .... they're trying to do their best, it sets the conditions. You want to try hard for 'em. PB: They make it easy for you to play at your best. (Yeah) Can you tell us a bit about the band that you've got at present? JW: Yeah. Mark the drummer - I've been playing with since ''98 or '99 kind of time, and he's Evan Parker's regular ... one of Evan's main drummers, Evan Parker. PB: Is he? JW: Yeah. He plays with Parker. He knows a few of the musicians I know, like Harry Beckett, who I've played with for a long time. I wanted to bring a drummer back, because up to that point ... I've been playing with Jaki Leibezeit a lot, but I can't afford to keep bringing those kind of people, flying them in, for shows, just for club dates. So I had to get another band in. I've been running a big band, with Columbians, Algerians and Jamaicans and that, and what I wanted to do was stop flying people in, and have all the grief with the immigration and all that anyway. And I knew I wanted to do clubs. I wanted to take a break from all the pressure. Like when you've got a major record company deal, and they want you to churn out the same kind of albums, and you've got to have success at a high level, everyone's putting the fear on you. And actually I'm a musician, artist ..... it might sound a bit pretentious. That means I've got the right to go and play at little clubs with a funny little band and develop - because I need to develop as a musician. PB: It's nice to see a drummer using beaters. JW: Exactly. All these kind of - yeah, you've got to develop new ideas and try new things. So that was the idea with 'Deep Space'. And Jean-Pierre Rasle, we've been together since '96. He came to do a session for me, and then ...... so he's been doing a lot of different sessions for me. PB: And you're still horrendously hard on the man. JW: Oh yeah, I am. Yeah. I really give him a hard time. Really, because he deserves it. Because whenever I'm nice, then he really annoys me, so I've got to keep him focussed. Because he's playing terrific. He's playing really well. He's a very nice man, but he's like Mr McGoo. He forgets things, not sure where he is, it's like a little cartoon feller. I look at him on stage, it's like, "What do you think? Play!".... You know, "Play!" I mean he's a good geezer, he's a nice man, and it's a bit tongue in cheek as well. PB: 'Course it is. I'm saying that a bit tongue in cheek too.... JW: Yeah, yeah. He's a very nice man. And Chris, I met him at Futurama in Leeds when he was about fourteen. I can remember it, yeah, he was a punter who got backstage. I gave him a beer. Whenever I'd see him coming, I'd always ... I probably shouldn't, he was probably too young to drink, but ... I beered him up .... I did the same with Primal Scream. Which was a very good thing to do, because then they gave me a load of dough to play on their records. A result! It pays to be good! (Laughs). Then I moved up north ... I live outside Stockport. I moved up north five years ago. And I teamed up with Chris, met him at Band on the Wall after one of our shows, started easing him in doing a few little sessions, a couple of little gigs, and now he's playing on quite a lot of my stuff. He's really come from the bottom. He's come from the bottom. They all understand the modal thing. He's got a system where he has his guitar tuned to different modes, which interests me greatly, because you get this fugue kind of thing ... it's not rocket science .... (laughs) .... making great music. Do you know what I mean? And so he's really good, he's got this acoustic thing now .... he's really developing as a player. PB: And Liz out front? First gig for her tonight, I guess. JW: Liz, yeah. Well we come up ... we'd had a chat when we played at The Studio, I'd had a couple of chats with her, and I wanted to do a folk thing for a while. I like The Studio. I like the scene there at Hartlepool. So I wanted a singer, and I said, "You sing, don't you? I've heard people tell me you sing. You seem a reasonable person, so let's give it a go." And that's how that happened there, so we made the album. And then it was a case of, let's go out and tour that album. But that's just..... everything's just a starting point for the next thing. PB: You've brought us on to the next question - why did you choose to record in the North-East? JW: I like the vibe there, at Hartlepool. I like the British working class sort of thing. I'm out of the East End. It's all ch... where I come from - it ain't there any more. Stepney, it's just not there in the way that it was. Things change. Stepney's not gone up market actually, where I'm from. It's still, you know, just all council flats and typical inner city stuff. It's like the inner city thing all over the country. So it's not a question so much of north and south of England and all that, it's more ...poor people and people with dough. And I like to be honest, if I can, and I got out. I'm getting too old to be dealing with the crack problem and things, as simple as that. I'm getting too old. And I think that if I can avoid dealing with that on a daily basis, then that's lovely. I haven't got to put up with that vibe you get. You've got drugs, hard drugs being used in the street, all the crap that goes with it. But yeah, we've gone up there, to Hartlepool, a couple of times, and I just like it. It's genuine. Genuine people doing ...... rather than some clubs. You get some of the arts centres where they're very ... you get there ... I'll tell you, I've had it with places we've sold out. We went and did a show (in art centre X) a few years ago. It was just one of these nights, a wet Wednesday. And you get there, you find to your surprise you've sold out, you politely ask just for food, because you've driven a long way ....... "Woah! Erm, erm! Don't know about that.It's not ready yet!" (laughs). And you just think, you know ... it's like a big problem. And I'm not coming on like, "Where's my fresh strawberries?" And then they've got the hump with you. It's just not nice. And nobody even says thanks. You do get a bit of that. It's rough with the smooth. I'd probably rather have that than the right dodgy clubs in the seventies where promoters would run away with your money. I'd rather get me money and not have that I suppose. But there are some very nice places where people are good, and that (the Studio) was one of them. It was very welcoming. And I was talking to Liz because I knew she'd sung and all that, and I just kind of suspected with some of the material that I wanted to do, just an intuitive thing, that the Studio would be a good place to do it. And I like the North-East. I'm not just saying that. One of my best mates, he lives in London nowadays, he's from up there, Teesside. He runs Pressure Sounds, reggae label, yeah. A big Boro fan. Oh right, there you go, you're Boro fans (laughs). I got a text off of him - "I'm so proud ...", you know the other week.... when you won the Cup. Yeah, but I'm a Spurs fan. I was there, I was there, when Tarricco hit the post, I was ready, I was ready, I was in the traps, at the top of the exit - "You Argentinian tosser ...!" and off we went. Treacle, we call him. Tosser! (laughs). But's that football. you know what I mean? We done a few things years ago. I mean, now Arsenal's winning everything, who cares? It's horrible. They're a different class, different class. PB: Yeah, but we're the same level, aren't we. JW: Yeah. Spurs are on the way back, they're on the way. They're starting to get a nice balance. I still go. I was at Old Trafford last week, I just go, I still go. So anyway, he's one of my mates, and I always like the thing in the North-East. Always have. It's one of my favourite places to play. The people are warm. And Glasgow, I like Glasgow. PB: It's similar. Ports. JW: This is it, Liverpool - just the port thing. I mean, the East End's all docks and lightermen ...... all that lark.
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