Jah Wobble - Memoirs of a Geezer: The Autobiography

Within the first paragraph of this look-back over a particularly distinctive life and musical career, John Wardle has been born in Stepney, E1. And within the first page-and-a-half, his mum has had their house exorcised (but not a ‘full-on pukka exorcism’, mind) like most people sort out ‘an insurance policy’. Behind every fact there is a story and with every story comes another sharp comment that springs off the page the same way a good pub raconteur ambushes you with words.

The story of his pseudonym is one of the least interesting; it’s the one everyone knows, about a drunken Sid Vicious mispronouncing his real name. Yet he looks back upon early meetings with his fellow Irish-rooted Londoner John Lydon and their subsequent work in PiL, his collaborations with the likes of Can and Sinead O’Connor, time spent as a jobbing bassist in the 90s and his sometime alcohol problems with a diarist’s attention to curious detail.

(Serpent’s Tail)