‘The Usual Suspects’ featured new recordings of some of Wobble’s finest solo work to that date, as well as songs by his experimental world music and post-punk ensemble Invaders of the Heart and original post-punk icons Public Image Limited (PiL), with whom he first made his name in the late 1970s. Drawn from a genre-busting catalogue that spanned almost forty years to that point, the 23 tracks were recorded at The Smokehouse studios in East London.
Replicating Wobble’s stunning live sound in the studio, album highlights include surprising cover versions of the classic film themes to ‘Midnight Cowboy’ and ‘Get Carter’, as well as Dawn Penn’s ‘You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)’ featuring vocalist Aurora Dawn, plus a new take on ‘Visions Of You’, which originally featured Sinéad O’Connor and appeared on the Invaders of the Heart album ‘Rising Above Bedlam’ that was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 1992. The album opens with a cover of PiL’s debut single, ‘Public Image’ Bandcamp audio, and ends with live recordings of the classic rocksteady standard ‘Liquidator’ and ‘Poptones’, which originally appeared on PiL’s seminal second album, ‘Metal Box’.
Recording personnel: Jah Wobble (bass, vocals, percussion), Marc Layton-Bennett (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Martin Chung (guitars), George King (keyboards, backing vocals), Steve Rigby (programming, backing vocals), Sean Corby (trumpet, flugelhorn), Aurora Dawn (vocals) and Holly Macve (vocals).
2xCD album reissue
out 13th November 2026
Bandcamp digital – available now
(Dimple Discs)
includes
PUBLIC IMAGE
Bandcamp audio
Wobble commented upon the album’s original release that “this band has been a delight to play with. Similar to my first early ’80s version of the Invaders, they can all really play, plus all genre bases (no pun intended) are covered. It’s a big deal to me, because it’s like a 35 year old dream has finally been realised. This is how I heard The Invaders of the Heart sound all those years ago. A classy fusion of genres. Groovy, dubby but always changing and developing. Never standing still.”
UK & BELGIUM | TOUR
3rd October STOURBRIDGE Katie Fitzgerald’s
16th October TODMORDEN Unitarian Church
21st October FROME The Tunnels
22nd October BRISTOL The Fleece
23rd October READING Face Bar
7th November LONDON Bush Hall
25th November HASSELT Club AFF
26th November BRUGES Cactus Muziekcentrum
27th November OUDENAARDE Harmonie Oudenaarde
tickets
Jah Wobble (born John Wardle) is a renowned bass guitarist and vocalist from East London. He was the original bassist in Public Image Limited (PiL) in the late 1970s, but left the band in late 1980, a year after the release of the band’s second album, the iconic ‘Metal Box’.
He had begun developing a solo career before leaving PiL, formed Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart in 1982, while the early ‘80s also saw him collaborate with Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can, The Edge of U2 and producer François Kevorkian. He has since worked with Ginger Baker, Björk, Brian Eno, Baaba Maal, Massive Attack, Sinéad O’Connor, Pharoah Sanders, LoneLady and his wife Zi Lan Liao (a Chinese guzheng player and harpist). He also reunited with PiL guitarist Keith Levene in 2012 to record the album ‘Yin & Yang’ and perform a series of ‘Metal Box In Dub’ shows.
Wobble’s recent album releases include ‘Dub, Vol 1’ (2025) and ‘Automated Paradise’ (2026), a collaboration with former Siouxsie & The Banshees guitarist Jon Klein, both released via Dimple Discs. His current album ‘Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles Psychedelic Songbook’ was made with his sons, who record as Tian Qiyi, and was released in August 2026 by Cherry Red.
Wobble’s well received autobiography, ‘Memoirs of a Geezer: Music, Life, Mayhem’, was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2009 and reissued in expanded form as ‘Dark Luminosity’ by Faber & Faber in 2024.
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