Today’s studio blog is about Southern Studios.
https://willyoumeetmeonclareisland.wordpress.com/2022/05/13/the-studios-of-london-southern-studio/
A garage in Wood Green, a punk collective, a maverick from the Clichy and a lone producer with a vision.
by 21 Comments
Wobble has one of the best live bands I’ve seen in recent years. He’s not the world’s best bassist, as he’d happily admit, but he is very competent and extremely effective. Also a pleasant affable chap, these days.
Everyone says his live band is stellar.
Saw him earlier this year in Leeds, as has been said an excellent band, I see them at gigs in Huddersfield occasionally.
Lovely bit of primal therapy.
I hadn’t realised that the Silly Sisters album was before Airs and Graces, we used to have J Tabor at the local folk club in the early seventies, superb singer.
Thanks Niall another excellent read.
Thanks, @hubert-rawlinson. Yes, June Tabor was the only artist from the studio list that I knew. I’d heard the names of a few others but their music is not my cuppa. However, listening to the Jah Wobble stuff while writing has sent me down another rabbit-hole of his.
Niall – my cousins husband is the keyboard player in the Raiders of the Heart. First ever time I was ever put on a guest list was for their Reading gig in March. They are brilliant and so eclectic. Mr Wobble is a brilliant character and the band are super tight and having a ball.
Will shout if I ever get on the guest list again.
Is this the place to say what a collossal record Take Me To God is?
As good a place as any.
Cheers @Leedsboy 👍
Is he not seen as ‘good’? I always thought he was, as a non musician. Stupendously effective at playing the notes and knowing when not to.
I don’t think he’s anywhere near the Jaco P. or Stanley Clark ‘technical’ levels of proficiency, but absolutely agree that his ‘feel’ is exemplary.
I think he came from a pretty DIY punky angle early on, obviously enthralled by the sonic possibilities of dub etc & grew over time to have a pretty singular take. Definitely not a traditional rock player & not interested in being one, but as with the great bass culture folk a notable skill for ‘space’ in the music ( this is getting very close to pseud’s corner territory, so I’m quitting while I’m possibly just still ahead).
He is special, without a doubt.
He doesn’t play much, but he plays all the right notes (to parphrase Mr Morecambe). Think of that bassline he adds to Higher Than the Sun – it’s perfect.
See also Temple Of Sound (one of the blokes from Transglobal Underground) & Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali:
That’s a lovely piece of writing Niall, & evokes a time when loads of people I knew were part of grass roots/ punky/squat/ sound system scenes – I interviewed Crass at Dial House for a fanzine in ‘79 or ‘80 & they were absolutely lovely. It was very herbal tea & straight edge to the max.
I was never a big musical fan of the scratchy anarcho bands, but saw Crass, The Poison Girls, Flux & Honey Bane several times as it was mostly a very friendly scene.
Over time you could see the various factions emerging as ‘Punk’ as a notion fragmented into micro scenes from ALF types to the Convoy & militant squatters as well as the inevitable succumbing to alcoholism & hard drug use that must have been exactly what had happened with earlier ‘scenes’.
Wobble’s music always had a pretty cosmic feel to me & the stuff made by the various incarnations of Invaders of The Heart has stood up well. He really is a bit of an alternative national treasure!
I have lots of Spurs mates who tell me he’s a lovely bloke now, and loves his life.
And thanks, @Junglejim, for the compliment. I was wary of this one as I knew nothing about the music from the studio. So I just concentrated on the human stories, especially that of John Loder, who came across as a special bloke.
Credit absolutely where it’s due, my friend. These things always come down to individuals & their passions & drives in the end & I was oblivious to the people behind it, which is why your piece clicked so.
As a young herbert, I must have just thought this stuff appeared spontaneously!
Astonishing to se June Tabor in such company!
I finally got around to buying Jah Wobble’s “Metal Box – Rebuilt in Dub” a few weeks ago.
It’s a winner, especially “Swanlake”, which surpasses even the PiL original.
Marred only by the vocals, which is also the case for the original.
Another cracker, Niall!
Thanks @Billybob-Dylan. I was nervous about this one but it seems to have gone down well.