12:11pm Monday 18th May 2009
By Duncan Hall
"Punk was a wonderful scene, this laugh that lasted for nine months. By 1977 it got dark."
As someone who was there from the start, Jah Wobble is one of the best people to talk about the musical movement that changed culture in the late 1970s.
A long-time friend of both Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious, Wobble saw both the birth of the Sex Pistols and the eventual collapse of the rock and roll swindle.
In an engrossing and insightful talk with Pistols biographer Jon Savage, he admitted to starting the fight on the boat that sailed past the Houses Of Parliament in 1977 and gave the unseen sides of the punk legends, comparing Rotten to Albert Steptoe and revealing Vicious's love of kitsch.
Wobble came across as the sort of guy you would love to chat to in the pub, both in terms of his fascinating anecdotes and the wisdom he dispensed including: "If you eat people's food and like it, it's a great ice-breaker."
As well as talking about his role in Public Image Limited, his exploration of world music, and a wealth of knowledge about London underground trains, he revealed his secret as a bassist.
"It's just four strings. I reduced it to one string and then two notes."
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