Jah Wobble

Hebden Bridge Trades Club 23/3/12

This was always going to be an odd one. I've been a long term fan of Public Image Ltd and intermittently appreciated Wobble's solo work and ecelectic collaborations down the years. I hugely enjoyed his 'Memoirs Of A Geeser' - a high velocity autobiography shot through with deadly humour and a survivior's instinct. I'm no musician but even so can appreciate his influential, self-taught bass technique. His book goes into some detail about his love of the instrument and how he learned it by touch and feel, as an external extension of his inner pysche. This relationship with the bass makes for compelling watching. He's not so much in a zone but he seems to have created an organic relationship with the instrument. He cradles it, the fingers constantly ablur.

Tonight he's re-united with original PIL and The Clash guitarist Keith Levene, himself recovering from long-standing drug issues. They are here to re-create 1979's Metal Box, undoubtedly PIL's finest album - largely responsible for what we now know to have been post-punk.

Hebden Bridge is the perfect setting for this re-creation, a suitably down-to-earth crowd, largely pissed by the time they get going around 9.10pm. The stage is a caged area, barely elevated above the floor itself, and it's sold out with a mixed bag of around 250 ageing punks, the curious and, this being Hebden Bridge, the downright weird.

I'd been speculating how Wobble would address the vocals and after the first warm-up instrumental on strolls Nathan Maverick, in full length leopard skin coat. He IS John Lydon, complete with sneer and shoulders back arrogance. His voice is uncannily like the man himself but he plays it straight - this is no impersonation but a re-creation, neither is it a tribute, but a homage. It's a make or break moment, one that I fear may have me fleeing for the exit, but it works. Levene's shredding guitar sounds magnificent. There is a lone trumpeter who frequently picks out the only melody amid the minor chord wall of sound but the beat is propulsive, veering towards post-funk, if there is such a thing. It works, the songs sound as fresh as ever and Wobble orchestrates it beautifully, seamlessly calling the shots as the songs just keep on coming. His eye contact with Levene is constant, like a Dad leading his errant son through the songs he had once learnt but had since forgotten. Levene seems to gain energy as the show progresses. His frailty gives way to a broad smile and he relishes the opportunity to show off the kind of guitar skills that so heavily influenced bands from the post-punk era.

So we get 'Memories', 'Poptones', 'Chant', 'Theme', 'Careering', 'Albatross' plus a couple of bonuses - 'Low Life' and the first single 'Public Image'. It IS an odd sight, half of PIL and a doppleganger imposter and it's a brave move by Wobble who could so easily have settled for touring with the current version of Lydon's PIL. Ultimately it's about the songs and a great album  - on this occasion faithfully and thrillingly executed.

'Jack Of All Trades' - Bruce Springsteen

Ever more thoughtful and articulate as he ages, Springsteen recently said that 'I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream'. Not even the most forensic musicologist could have put it better and there have been many distilled examples of how he accomplishes this in songs that act as screenplays for much bigger issues and themes than the characters in them.This song from the new album 'Wrecking Ball' communicates the pain and ambiguity of an honest, hard working man fighting to make a living in the face of the recession. He has sight of his version of the American dream but daily exposure to American reality is testing his dignity and ability to live by his values.

Like all good art, it is simple yet multi-layered, a deceptively complex song in which every syllable counts. Its component parts coalesce around a traditional song structure but those parts are daringly confident and ambitious. It is a waltz, it is a ballad, it has a brass band, a guitar solo by Tom Morello, it is a lament, it is highly political, shocking even - and lyrically it draws together the sentiments and insecurities of a nation. Not many could attempt to pull this off but he does so by stepping into an everyman persona - the Jack of all trades.

There is plenty of evidence here of Springsteen's notorious perfectionism and attention to detail. The way he exhales on the line 'When the blue sky breaks...'; the noise distortion as the character's anger momentarily gets the better of him; the major chords of the brass orchestration as he is restored to sanity and remembers his responsibilities towards (presumably) his wife; the drum as a heartbeat, stoically keeping him on his righteous path.

There is an instinctive spirituality to the song and which Springsteen anoraks will recognise from earlier songs such as 'Factory' and 'Honest Man' in which characters struggle to maintain their integrity. In this case his hero is God-fearing, the imagery in biblical technicolour. The message is that the faceless men who have stripped him of his livelihood cannot touch his faith - 'that it'll be alright' - and it will see him through these dark times, until that blue sky breaks. It's an important song in an impressive canon of work, one which may well resound across America in an election year.

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I saw three Springsteen shows this summer and I'm not alone in thinking they are among the best of his career. He's used the tragedy of losing the gigantic presence of Clarence Clemons to re-invent the E Street Band, not just by expanding its membership but in re-energising himself and his audience with the full throttle stadium-friendly songs of 'Wrecking Ball'. A Springsteen show has always had a quasi-religious element to it, he's weaved a gospel fervour into his performances for many years. This time, it's an overt leap to connect on a soul level with his audience, and it takes a cold cold heart not to go along for the ride.

The three shows - San Sebastian, Sunderland and Hyde Park were studded with so many highlights  - from the grace and enthusiasm of the Spanish audience, the roar of Sunderland at the idea of shooting the bankers on sight to a lonesome Thunder Road in London, reprising his first live song on British soil in 1975. Despite the 13-strong band, these shows lost none of their spontaneity - his energy levels remain as high as ever but his instinctive knack of pacing saw a stretched-out 'Backstreets' merge into a gut-churning The River in Spain. 'Point Blank' in Sunderland came across like a confession in front of 50,000 people.

Strapping in for the greatest hits encore is to witness an audience like no other. It's an experience impervious to rain, cynicism, to any negativity (even curfews) and as near to living in the moment as I can get, the equivalent of charging from an energy source that transmits only positivity and the feeling that it's more than just OK to be glad I'm alive.

Whatever the superlatives  - cinematic, wide-screen, transformational  - there are live shows and there are Springsteen shows. He turned 63 today - anyone who saw him this summer will just go WOW at that.