How many guys do you know are three years shy of 60, in better physical shape now than they were in their thirties and have the balls to go on tour during a pandemic?
Welcome to the world of Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein – legendary Misfits guitar beater, devout vegan and one of the most no-bullshit guys in music. While some acts are still reluctant to return to the road, Doyle and his eponymous solo band are currently blazing through the east coast of America and have upcoming dates planned in Spain and London. In addition to keeping his entrepreneurial ball in the air via his own lines of hot sauce and protein powder, Doyle will soon jump in the music equipment game with the official launch of his new company, Von Frankenstein Monster Gear. That’s a helluva lot of plates to spin, but such a hefty work ethic is nothing new for a blue-collar guy from Jersey who was already recording and gigging with The Misfits by the time he was 16.
Anyone who ventures into a Doyle show in 2022 will witness someone who has kept healthy – and stayed built like a brick shithouse – in the age of COVID-19. A vegan for years, he passed his lockdown-imposed time off the road by maintaining his daily workout routine and strict no-animal diet.
“I haven’t been sick since – fuck, man – 2017.”
Although Doyle is always ready to pummel audiences from the stage, fans shouldn’t expect to chat with him after the gig this time around. Meet-and-greets – a long-running staple of Doyle tours despite the guitarist’s outspoken discomfort with the practice – are now off the table in favor of social distancing.
“I like it better, honestly. I do them after the show, and now I don’t have to. That’s so great!”
When not hitting the stage or his weights, Doyle (joined in his band by singer Alex Story, bassist Brandon “Izzy” Strate and drummer Wade Murff) is prepping his first music since 2017’s Doyle II: As We Die. Twenty-five new songs are currently in the works, but the listening public will have to put up or shut up if they want to hear them.
“I think we’re going to do a Patreon and just put out singles,” he reveals. “We’ll do an album after we put out like maybe 10 [songs], and put two more on and put it out, but you’re not going to get our stuff [unless] you buy it on Patreon. I’ve had enough of this streaming bullshit. We don’t make any money with streaming – like, nothing.”
At a time when fewer music sales means less gas in the tank to make the next gig, Doyle sees crowdsourcing platforms as the way to go.
“[Patreon] is a good idea because, number one, you’re gonna get paid for it. Number two, you can just keep touring while you’re putting the singles out because you have a new song out, you know? And if you don’t join the Patreon, you don’t fucking hear it. So, there you go.”
When Doyle rolls into Poughkeepsie, NY this Saturday to play at The Chance on a bill pairing him with the fantastic Wednesday 13, it will be his latest performance at a venue that has a more significant place in Misfits lore than some may realize. On the night of October 30, 1995, Doyle joined his brother, bassist Jerry Only, there for the first onstage appearance of The Misfits since 1983. The historic moment occurred during an encore of a Type O Negative show and also served as the official introduction of then-new Misfits singer Michale Graves. The surprise performance was incredible (as were the backstage antics that followed – read my recollections here) and kickstarted the second phase of Doyle’s career. Nearly 27 years later, the man’s coming back to the joint to show the rest of us how it’s done.
Forty years after the release of The Misfits’ Walk Among Us, Doyle is still charging ahead with enough musical and physical muscle to stay at the top of his game. Few people can say they’ve survived the music industry for 42 years and have gone from playing Punk dives to headlining Madison Square Garden. In Doyle’s mind, success comes down to never giving up on what he was meant to do.
“It’s just a drive; you never feel like you’ve made it yet. You keep going and going and going. It’s fun.”
Surely, I'm not the only one who's noticed that the growing sense of dread currently felt in certain parts of the world coincides with the release of new Killing Joke music.
Although Killing Joke has been far from prolific in the 30-plus years since its first comeback via 1990’s Extremities, Dirt And Various Repressed Emotions, the band always seems to reappear just as the world takes another bleak turn towards oblivion. Extremities landed mere months into the Gulf War, while 2003’s eponymous album – released after a seven-year hiatus for the group – arrived during the early months of the Iraq War.
Killing Joke is always a cathartic and life-affirming experience. This writer will never forget seeing the band live in Boston less than a week after the Marathon bombings. “We want to be part of your healing!” announced singer Jaz Coleman from the stage during the most blistering Killing Joke set I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty confident that everyone in the club felt the band’s notorious “white heat” that evening. In a city still suffering the aftermath of unfathomable loss, Killing Joke was there – right on time as always – to be a beacon of light amidst the madness.
Now, at a time when people are struggling to exist amidst everything from economic decline to an invisible mass killer, the band’s original quartet – Coleman, guitarist Geordie Walker, bassist Martin “Youth” Glover and drummer Big Paul Ferguson – gift us with its first new music in seven years.
When Killing Joke last appeared on record with 2015’s absolutely molten Pylon, the decades-old band effortlessly shattered any notion that time had diminished its notorious fire. Now, 43 years after the outfit's debut EP, that same unmistakable Killing Joke rage is felt on Lord Of Chaos, a four-song release featuring two new studio tracks and two remixes of past material (and once again packaged in evocative artwork courtesy of longtime collaborator Mike Coles).
At his angriest and most incendiary, Coleman can be a venomous monster at the mic – an unhinged, face-painted opera phantom spewing proclamations of doom with a throaty growl. While he delivers plenty of pre-apocalyptic bile this time around, his greatest moments on the EP come when he showcases the softer feel he first mastered on 1985’s Night Time and 1986’s Brighter Than A Thousand Suns. Musically speaking, the title track finds Killing Joke continuing the overall sonic direction of Pylon – certainly one of the heaviest albums in the band’s discography in spots – while embracing touches of the band’s more melodic moments. (Think Night Time’s “Darkness Before Dawn” meets “Corporate Elect” off 2012’s MMXII.)
This duality is also felt on the EP’s strongest moment, “Total.” Everyone (particularly Geordie, forever Killing Joke not-so-secret weapon) is firing on all cylinders, resulting in the finest four and a half minutes Killing Joke has put on disc since the original lineup reformed in 2008.
The word “remix” often indicates a groan-inducing mixed bag for me. In my long (and, to be honest, often reluctant) experience with the medium, results have ranged from awe-inspiring when the task of reimagining another artist’s song is placed in the right hands (the work of Justin Broadrick and Jim Thirlwell immediately comes to mind) to dead-weight filler when clearly dumped on a release to drag out its runtime. (Let’s think back to most remix EPs released by major Alt-Industrial acts in the ’90s, slap ourselves awake and swiftly move on, shall we?) The dancey “Motorcade Mix” of the Pylon track “Big Buzz” won’t set the world on fire but is fine enough (mainly because the original track’s melody is go damn great), while Youth wraps up the Lord Of Chaos EP with a seven minute-plus Dub interpretation of the Pylon number “Delete.” Look, Youth is Youth – a lovely chap and a master at what he does – and this track is certainly Youth-y. That said, Dub mixes have never really been my bag despite my deep respect for the man’s many talents in this and many other departments. (I probably just need to take in the tune over a good spliff!)
Al Jourgensen of Ministry once joked that his band always makes its best music whenever a Republican is the leader of the free world. Killing Joke always generates its most striking sounds of exorcism and healing whenever mankind descends into darkness. Considering that conflict and struggle are forever intertwined with the human experience, don’t expect these lads to stop showing us a way forward any time soon.
Photographer Unknown. Please email gaustenbooks@gmail.com if you are the photographer.
My early morning was rattled by the news that we’ve lost Taylor Hawkins at 50. It was a very sad and heavy thing to read before my first cup of coffee. He was more than an extraordinary drummer; he was a good dude.
Back in the early 2000s, I lived in Tarzana, CA at an apartment off Reseda Blvd. There was a record store right down the street on Ventura. Naturally, I’d walk over there many times a week and chat with the guy behind the counter. Taylor – a blonde ball of frenetic energy who’d bring the atmosphere up a notch or 20 just by blowing through the door – was another regular. He was one of my kind – a diehard music geek who knew the magic of hanging out at a record store. You could probably imagine the kind of sprawling conversations that took place. Never once did he bring up the fact that he happened to be a member of one of the biggest bands in the world.
One day, he came in and played a rough recording of a side project he was doing. (If I recall correctly, it was nameless at the time.) It fucking rocked! I told him I really liked it and that the groove and production reminded me a lot of early Sabbath. His eyes lit up. He got that I got it. It was one of those awesome moments that music nerds share. That was the last time I saw him before I moved back east.
I’ve never been much of a Foo Fighters fan, but I’m sure as hell a Taylor fan. Yeah, his band fills stadiums, but he was just a regular guy who loved music. He was one of us. Even if you don’t like his main gig, I promise you that you would have loved him.
I never did follow up to see if that recording he played in the store that day ever became anything. Today, I’m going to hunt through Taylor’s discography (via online sources instead of store shelves, sadly) and see if I can find it. I’ll know it when I hear it. If my journey is successful, then you can bet I’ll spend my day grooving to it like a motherfucker. Just like any music geek does when they find their treasure – and just like I knew Taylor did whenever he found something cool at that record store in Tarzana way back when.
I can’t think of a better way for me to honor him today.
With the bands that comprised the original Punk/Post-Punk era now firmly entrenched in middle age (or beyond), those acts still pushing to make a go of it in the present tense often trade on – and succumb to – the public’s notion that “original” automatically means “authentic.” There are scores of bands out there attempting to add a few more years to their careers by blowing the dust off their back catalogs and hitting clubs and festivals without a single new note to be heard. Sure, such activities tug at nostalgic heartstrings and help keep the bills paid, but it’s more than a bit disheartening to witness once creative and forward-thinking entities rely so heavily on past glories to keep the train rolling.
Late Gang of Four guitarist/co-founder Andy Gill was keenly aware of this fact. When original singer Jon King jumped ship following 2011’s Content, Gill kept the band – already beleaguered by decades’ worth of breakups, reunions and personnel disruptions – going for several more years as its sole original member. While his output during this era wasn’t always perfect, his steely resolve to keep Gang of Four alive and churching out new sounds for nearly a decade past the group's reasonably expected expiration date was admirable. (It also yielded downright extraordinary results at times; check out “The Dying Rays” – one of Gill’s greatest songwriting victories – off 2015’s What Happens Next.)
Of course, the marketplace is rarely kind to a veteran act – especially one comprised almost entirely of unfamiliar faces – that is determined to make new music. When Gill’s incarnation of Gang of Four played Boston in 2016, they served as second fiddle on a “co-headlining” bill with The Faint – and didn’t even appear on the marquee outside the venue. The harsh reality that late-period Gang of Four never truly captured the public’s imagination was made even sadder when considering that the band absolutely fucking smoked that night. It was only upon Gill’s death in February 2020 that the masses truly embraced the fact that he had remained a thriving creative force right until the very end. Stripping away the original band's long-running internal squabbles (which, in truth, are nobody’s damn business except theirs anyway) and taking sonic integrity alone into account, there’s no question that Gill earned his place as the keeper of the Gang of Four ethos during the years he ran the show.
This brings us to 2022 and the band called Gang of Four that is currently on tour and played last Sunday at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville, MA. King is back at the mic, and the drum stool is again occupied by original timekeeper Hugo Burnham. Veteran bassist Sara Lee, who played on 1982’s Songs Of The Free (my all-time favorite Gang of Four record, for what that’s worth) and 1983’s Hard, is back as well. David Pajo, best known for his time with late ’80s/early ’90s cult heroes Slint, is on guitar. That is quite an impressive assemblage of musicians, but does it measure up to the Gang of Four legacy?
Well, yes and no.
First of all, without Gill, nothing presented under the name “Gang of Four” would ever feel complete. But since the band has no choice in that matter, what any of us could ever hope for is something that preserves the man’s spirit and contributions. That’s exactly what the sold-out crowd in Somerville got from Pajo, who stepped into Gill’s formidable shoes and delivered the second-best option any Gang of Four fan could experience. An incredibly innovative player in his own right (check out his Bandcamp for a slew of treasures), Pajo brought honor and respectability to his role, perfectly reproducing Gill’s sonic presence while incorporating enough of his own stylings to add something fresh to the proceedings. (I’d like to think that Gill – never one to stay in one creative space for too long – would have viewed the injection of Pajo’s musical ingenuity into the Gang of Four sound with an approving nod.) Additional kudos to the guy for not aping Gill’s signature stage moves – a wince-inducing trait that is far too common among replacement performers. (I’m looking at you, Paul Rodgers.)
Here’s a sentence that I would never type lightly: David Pajo is the guitarist for Gang of Four.
Fucking stellar.
While fully acknowledging the logistical constraints the band surely faced in light of a pandemic and the general demands of prepping for a tour (including figuring out the merch; more on that later), I must say that the lack of any new material in the band’s set was a letdown. Sure, the band’s recent 77-81 box set has duly earned a Grammy nomination and everybody loves the old stuff, but this band deserves better than to exist as a mere nostalgia act – especially with a powerhouse like Pajo in tow. Gill would have undoubtedly given us something fresh to digest had he been able to bring Gang of Four to the stage in the here and now, and his unwavering devotion to such progress is sorely missed. Say what you will about the group’s songs post-King, but they at least existed.
This current band will never truly be Gang of Four until it has something new to offer.
That said, the Somerville gig was magnificent. Forty-five years after the band’s formation, Gang of Four delivered a performance that shook off the shackles of tragic loss and internal fractures and celebrated the true magic of its classic material. The sixtysomething King was in brilliant form, practically sweating out his full body weight while thrusting himself around the stage as the team of Burnham and Lee expertly anchored his menace. In addition to playing the requisite material off 1979’s Entertainment! and 1981’s Solid Gold, the band showcased a few tunes off Songs Of The Free (including a pristine rendition of “Call Me Up”), brought out “Capital (It Fails Us Now)” off 1982’s Another Day/Another Dollar during the encore and even gave a nod to their ‘90s discography via the inclusion of “I Parade Myself” off 1995’s underrated Shrinkwrapped. Best of all, the band members clearly enjoyed themselves. (Smiles? On stage at a Gang of Four show??!! Why the hell not???!!!)
The coolest highlight? The proud look on Burnham’s face as his daughter, Ts, sang backing vocals at various points throughout the set in a “Black Lives Matter”- emblazoned outfit.
I’ve written about Gang of Four more than any other band in my career; this music means the world to me. As an eternal member of Team Andy, I offer these words directly to the current band:
Thank you so very much for doing this tour. It’s so lovely to experience these songs again in a live setting when I thought that possibility had been lost forever. This music matters so much. You’ve made the absolute right choice with Pajo. Please keep this going and write some new shit! My best wishes to you all. And as always, my deepest fondness and respect for your fallen musical partner.
Bonus Fun Fact: A few months back, I suggested to Hugo that Gang of Four should sell band-branded condoms "for our top left pockets." (Some of you will get that reference, surely). Well, not only did they use my idea, but Hugo hooked me up before the gig. I told him the band needs to hire me full time for the next tour!
Note: The following review was originally written in October 2021 during Cradle of Filth’s "Lustmord and Tourgasm" Tour for another website. After some logistical/technical issues and delays, it appears here for the first time anywhere.
When this writer entered the Paradise Rock Club in Boston on an early October night, two things quickly met my eyes: A seemingly endless line to a merch table selling black apparel and an aesthetically pristine Goth girl being led around by a leash held by her male companion. These were welcome sights for three reasons: 1. Goth ladies are lovely, especially on a Saturday night this time of year, 2. Brisk swag sales indicate a rebounding tour industry and 3. The incomparable Cradle of Filth has returned to America.
As COVID-19 continues its grip on Beantown and beyond, a live Cradle of Filth show in 2021 provides both escapism and an inspiring statement on the power of resilience. In regard to the latter, this ever-evolving crew of English extreme Metallers has been at it in one form or another for 30 years now. When I interviewed then-guitarist Paul Allender way back in 2000 shortly after the release of the band’s fourth album, Midian, the group had already reached legendary status for taking the typically abrasive sounds of Black Metal to more musically precise – and often heavily symphonic – levels. More than two decades later, leader Dani Filth and his revolving door of bandmates (including newest recruit Anabelle Iratni on keyboards and vocals) are underground scene survivors who still deliver the absolute best of the genre they revolutionized with 1994’s The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, 1996’s Dusk…and Her Embrace and other seminal releases.
Marek "Ashok" Smerda of Cradle of Filth
As for escapism…well, with a current tour setlist including song titles like “Desire in Violent Overture” and “The Twisted Nails of Faith,” it’s safe to say that attending a Cradle of Filth gig means taking a journey into a fantastical world that is utterly perfect for the Halloween season. Drawing from various high points in its lengthy career (and boasting the added attraction of playing its 1998 album Cruelty and the Beast from start to finish), the group delivered a pummeling performance that spotlighted undisputed classics (“Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids,” “From the Cradle to Enslave”) while introducing enthralling new tracks (“Crawling King Chaos,” the incredible “Necromantic Fantasies”) off its latest (and best-in-years) album, Existence Is Futile. The expert onstage musicianship reached near-Prog levels at various points (especially during an impressive interpretation of Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name”), while each of the band’s six members provided a lesson on what it means to actually perform on stage. (Full marks to guitarist Marek “Ashok” Smerda for frequently acknowledging and engaging with audience members from his side of the stage throughout the show.) Whether growling from the pits of Hell or spewing spine-shivering shrieks, Dani’s voice – always an integral part of the Cradle of Filth experience – has not diminished one iota over the years. Unlike most decades-old acts, this band has only become more powerful with age.
Daniel Firth of Cradle of Filth
Although the ghoulish makeup and macabre imagery may entice audiences through the door, it’s the extraordinary musicianship anchoring the madness that truly matters. Cradle of Filth’s greatest attribute has always been its exceptionally crafted compositions. The rest is just the black icing on the cake.
Alexis Mincolla of 3Teeth
Direct support came from Los Angeles-based Industrial act 3Teeth, whose strobe-heavy, potentially seizure-inducing set showcased captivating sounds strong enough to please both older scene veterans who remember when classic Wax Trax! releases were fresh in stores and newer-school fans who first embraced the genre via Rammstein. Looking like a cross between My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult’s Groovie Mann and Tool’s Maynard James Keenan (and sounding like it – with a touch of Rob Zombie thrown in), frontman and former Boston resident Alexis Mincolla engaged his hometown crowd through an onstage persona steeped in dark menace. (Mincolla’s antics paid off, as the crowd’s between-song chats of “TEETH! TEETH!” were often as loud as the band’s music.) How to sum up the band’s image and vibe? 3Teeth is the kind of ensemble you’d spot playing in an underground S&M club in a ’90s-era horror film. That said, the group achieves the rare feat of clearly charting its own creative course while still offering something familiar. Yes, this crew’s music and image give more than a passing nod to the past, but everything it offers an audience is undeniably 3Teeth. Fantastic stuff.
Lauren Hart and of Max Karon of Once Human
Helmed by former Machine Head/Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader and fronted by stunning singer Lauren Hart, Once Human kickstarted the evening with an all-too-brief barrage of savage female-driven Metal. (Think Crisis or the heavier moments from latter day Arch Enemy.) Based on this writer’s repeated listens to an advance copy of their forthcoming third album, Scar Weaver (out February 11), this current tour could end up being the final time anyone will need to hit a venue super early to catch Once Human live. It is not hyperbole to say that Scar Weaverwill be a Metal genre game-changer in 2022. I’m talking a Beneath The Remains-level third album breakthrough here. You read it here first, folks.
Today is the 42nd anniversary of Metal Box, the second album by Public Image Limited (PiL) and easily one of the most innovative albums ever created by humans. Don’t believe me? Well, consider the fact that one of the most mind-blowing releases of 2021 is a reimagined version of the damn thing...
Released last Friday by Cleopatra Records, Metal Box - Rebuilt in Dub is the latest album by original PiL bassist and veteran sonic alchemist Jah Wobble, who has reworked and re-recorded eight of the original album’s 12 tracks (plus two earlier PiL numbers) with help from former Siouxsie and the Banshees/Specimen guitarist Jon Klein (who, along with Wobble, also contributes drums). Of course, recording a new version of Metal Box in 2021 is a bit like repainting the Mona Lisa – and a surprising move from a man who didn’t have a shred of interest in revisiting PiL material just a few years ago.
“I wouldn’t have touched it with a barge pole,” he says of the not-too-distant past. “I would have been sniffy – offended – if anyone had dared to say I should go back and do PiL stuff.”
That all started to change about a decade ago when he slowly began adding PiL tracks here and there (and often in drastically reworked fashion) to the repertoire for his long-running solo band, Invaders of the Heart. Then came the extraordinary 2017 Invaders of the Heart album The Usual Suspects, which ended up featuring three PiL covers. (Anyone reading this must check out the album’s mesmerizing version of 1978’s “Fodderstompf” at least once in their lifetime.) Along the way, he gradually retooled some of the arrangements for the Metal Box-era PiL tracks he brought back to the stage.
The idea to go full bore into a (nearly) complete re-do of Metal Box was not a response to Wobble’s renewed interest in PiL, but rather an idea pitched to him by Matt Green at Cleopatra. Wobble’s relationship with the label began via his appearance on last year’s all-star Pink Floyd tribute album, Still Wish You Were Here. (Here’s something you probably couldn’t have imagined: The album’s rendition of “Have a Cigar” features Wobble alongside former Damned drummer Rat Scabies, former Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens, former Yes/Moody Blues keyboardist Patrick Moraz and – get this – Dream Theatre’s James LaBrie!) Much to the eventual joy – and, let’s face it, utter fucking shock – of PiL fans the world over, Wobble jumped at the chance to actually give Metal Box another go.
“I think [Matt] was surprised, because I think he thought I would say, ‘I don’t know; I need to think about it.’ I said yes because I already had an idea of what I would do with that.”
What Wobble did was create a fresh-sounding album that honors Metal Box’s magic while incorporating new levels of esoteric flare. Interestingly, four songs from the original album (“Bad Baby,” “No Birds,” “Chant” and “Radio 4”) are absent from Metal Box - Rebuilt in Dub in favor of including a double-shot of new versions of “Public Image” and “Fodderstompf” off 1978’s First Issue. While bypassing 25 percent of the album may be a head-scratcher to some, Wobble believes this decision brought a sense of cohesion to his latest endeavor.
“I just thought what I got there was a nice balance. That was the balance as a kind of thematic record […] I thought I was going to miss [the other tracks], but as I worked with it, I thought, ‘This is feeling right’ - the tempos and the fills and everything. I altered some of the tempos, and some of the keys are different from the originals. They segway into one other nicely.”
Metal Box - Rebuilt In Dub features guest appearances by Invaders of the Heart member George King and his wife, Katy, who adds violin. Keiko Yamazaki provides backing vocals on "Fodderstompf." Klein’s work on the album grew out of his heavy participation as a tutor with Tuned In, Wobble’s community music project based in the London Borough of Merton.
“We’ve been doing that in South London for the last few years. It was my idea to get older people who were maybe socially isolated to play music again. Well, it’s turned out to be a really successful venture; we get women, young women and men come. It’s a very wide range of people – some people who maybe got homeless issues through to people living in the nicer, leafier parts of South London who want to come and play. It’s like a club, really. Jon’s a fantastic guitarist, and we really work well together. We’ve worked on a couple of things together, and he’s become a good friend of mine. As lockdown progressed, we couldn’t continue with Tuned In because of COVID. So, Jon and I started doing it on Zoom with people. Not everybody had the wherewithal to sign up for Zoom and do it that way, but we did it and made lots of recordings.”
When Klein received Wobble’s offer to come on board for Metal Box - Rebuilt in Dub, the guitarist’s response was swift and enthusiastic.
“Jon was heavily involved. I would send him stuff back and forth for the guitar parts. He put some of the drums down as well. It was really the two of us in tandem.”
Perhaps the greatest thing about Metal Box - Rebuilt in Dub is that the drums on it absolutely kill – a massive feat when considering the talents of those who played on the original album. In addition to Wobble keeping the beat on “Careering” and “The Suit,” Metal Box featured drumming by Richard Dudanski (The 101ers) and David Humphrey (Sparks/Mike Oldfield/Reflex). Then-PiL guitarist Keith Levene even jumped behind the kit for “Poptones” and "Radio 4." This revolving door of percussionists in the studio was finally closed with the arrival of future Pigface/Killing Joke/Ministry skin basher (and longtime music industry entrepreneur/onstage spitting enthusiast) Martin Atkins, who joined the fray in time to perform on the track “Bad Baby” and become as “permanent” a PiL member as anyone not named John Lydon could ever hope to be. Wobble is quick to speak highly of Atkins’ impact on the group.
“It was such a fractious kind of band; it was so mad that you’d just feel that somebody wasn’t going to fit in. We needed a drummer for the American tour as much as for the last track or two of that album. So, he come along. I wanted somebody steady. It’s so hard to find good drummers, I think. He had a great hi-hat, and he was very influenced with Disco. That got him the gig. His timing was good; he’s a good drummer. The first drummer in the band, Jim Walker, was very, very good. He was really the band drummer. No one [else] fitted in up to the point Martin came in, to be honest. It’s not knocking any of them. There was a guy, Dave Humphrey, who was a nice guy, but he was quite straight. Very good drummer; he played on ‘Death Disco,’ I think – a couple of tracks. But it was such a mad group at times; it was difficult for someone who’s very straight […] A lot of drummers tend to be quite straight; there aren’t a lot of bullshitty grey areas in the way you’ll find with guitarists – sorry, I’m joking! Martin was a nice guy. Thank God he was there; otherwise, I would have been triple lonely on that last tour [I did with PiL]. He was a guy I could have a beer or breakfast with.”
While PiL sporadically exists to this day (albeit in a vastly different form), it is fair to say that many of the group’s die-hard followers cite First Issue and Metal Box – and the original Lydon/Levene/Wobble incarnation – as the peak of the band’s career. (Of course, many fans would argue that 1986’s Bill Laswell-produced Album is also pretty goddamn sensational – something that Wobble readily acknowledges as well). PiL’s late-’70s era represents a rare – and often volatile – combination of personalities operating under unconventional circumstances. In Wobble’s mind, the original trio’s odd creative existence is precisely why the band ultimately translated so well to vinyl at the time.
“We didn’t have a manager. Can you imagine? We were quite aggressive towards the record company at times, like, ‘Get the fuck away! We’re gonna do what we’re gonna do.’ I was a fledgling player who was allowed to bring my fledgling talent to the fore. That wouldn’t have happened in many bands; I would have been ordered to play root notes of the guitarist’s chords. So, that was fantastic. It was very kind of off the wall. You’ve got these three weird individuals floating around London at the time. Somehow, these three oddballs then go into a studio without too much supervision. There was a producer there to start with, but we had no real respect […] It’s funny; I fancied the job with the bass, and I had an idea of how sounds could be mixed somehow. It was a confidence there that one wouldn’t normally have with other areas. I think things happen where there’s a coming together of a number of factors. Somehow, those factors are allowed to come together in a very organic way.
“Art historians always say that music follows the visual arts; it lags about 30-40 years behind, generally,” he adds. “I think we very much had the sensibility of the hedonistic, crazy fucking Abstract Expressionists of the ’50s.”
Now, 42 years after Metal Box, the world is still largely catching up to what Jah Wobble and the rest of PiL created so long ago. And at 63, he remains fully immersed in the world of sound and its endless possibilities.
“I find such solace in the music, and the music really inspires me as the nearest fucking emanation of that supreme consciousness – call it what the fuck you will. By always staying with that, you’re closer to the source and you're likely to be true to yourself.”
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
