Born today in 1958 to a postman & secretary, Jah Wobble was on the short list as a bass player to replace Glen Matlock in the Sex Pistols. Legend tells that the childhood friend of Johnny Rotten & Sid Vicious attained his monicker from the drunken slurring of his name by Vicious, but there's also a chance it came from his devotion to the "wobbly" bass lines of reggae and as praise to "Jah." There's also tales of extreme boozing and the fact that he may have once set fire to onetime drummer for the Fall, Karl Burns. Regardless, his bass playing on the first two Public Image LPs is beyond compare.

Wardle left PiL in 1980, citing an unhappiness with the creative direction of the band. He collaborated with a number of people including Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit from Can, but was continually troubled by problems with drugs and drink. He eventually took a job with the London Underground railway system, where he'd announce over the loudspeaker at the Tower Hill Underground Station, "I used to be somebody. I repeat, I used to be somebody."

Eventually Wobble cleaned up his act and quit the booze n' dope, returning to make more music. He has four children with two different mothers, one of his daughters is UK television actor Hayley Angel Wardle. In 2009 he published an autobiography called Memoirs of a Geezer.

Ultimately, he could have just played the bass lines on PiL's Metal Box and that would be enough brilliance for any life time. Simply have a listen to all of the tracks from that LP after the jump and see for yourself. Word is that PiL were maxed out on the junk when Metal Box was recorded, but drugs and music always had a way of getting along, no?