“The Cockney is dead, long gone, moved out to Essex,” says the great Jah Wobble (real name John Wardle) sitting in second-hand splendour in the otherwise hushed dining room of the Chelsea Arts Club, where the ex-punk is holding court this afternoon. He is extraordinarily good company, whether he’s expounding on his Buddhist faith, the machinations of the music industry (a founding member of John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd, he has collaborated with everyone from Brian Eno and Can to U2 and Sinéad O’Connor), self-obsessed twats (like himself, occasionally), addiction, the legacy of the Sex Pistols or indeed the Cockney diaspora.
He was there right at the start of punk, was a close friend of Lydon (Johnny Rotten to the great unwashed), saw one of the first Sex Pistols rehearsals and was mooted as a replacement for Glen Matlock when he was unceremoniously booted out of the band. But Wobble knew the chemistry wasn’t right (no one orders him around).
