Legendary bassist and producer Jah Wobble and Liverpool-based duo Tian Qiyipresent 'Strawberry Fields Forever', ushering in their new album 'Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles' Psychedelic Psongbook', out August 14th via Cherry Red Records and Wobble's label 30 Hertz. Previewed by the lead track 'Tomorrow Never Knows', this is a deeply personal reimagining of The Beatles’ psychedelic period, these songs are framed within a soundscape of Chinese, Mongolian and dub traditions.
These songs may have been penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but Jah Wobble (aka John Wardle) and his sons John T Wardle and Charlie Wardle (aka Tian Qiyi) have made these songs uniquely their own. 'Mystic Liverpool' draws on Wobble’s signature dub bass, John T’s drums, Chinese percussion and yangqin, and Charlie’s erhu and vocals, while 'Strawberry Fields Forever' sees Charlie play morin khuur with the boys' mother Zi Lan Liao — a Royal Academy of Music–trained harpist and the most recognized gu-zheng performer worldwide — joining on gu-zheng.
Jah Wobble is a founding member of Public Image Ltd (PiL) and formed Invaders of the Heart in 1982. In his 50-year career, he has achieved chart success, a Mercury Music Prize nomination and a rich discography. He has collaborated with Can's Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, U2's The Edge and producer François Kevorkian, in addition to Sinéad O’Connor, Massive Attack, Ginger Baker, Björk, Brian Eno, Pharoah Sanders and, most recently, Horace Andy on his 'Timeless Roots' album, Ken Boothe on his 'Old Fashioned Ways' album, and Jon Klein on the 'Automated Paradise' album.
Tian Qiyi takes their name from John T Wardle and Charlie Wardle's Chinese middle names, Tian Qi and Tian Yi. Meshing British, Chinese, Mongolian and dub traditions, their music bridges cultures to forge a sound that also weaves in post-punk and experimental production, their sound imbued with magnetic tension between ancient tradition and dub futurism, East and West, land and spirit.
"This is the one that started everything for me — the song that opened my psyche as a small boy in the East End. So it was always going to be the centrepiece of this record. It’s a family track in every sense with Charlie on erhu, morin khuur and vocals, John T on drums and yangqin, and Zi Lan on guzheng," says Jah Wobble.
"The dub sensibility runs right through it — there’s a lot of space in the mix, a lot of trust in the listener. I don’t think we’ve tried to compete with the original. What we’ve done, I hope, is honour the mystery of it — let it breathe in a slightly different room, with different instruments, and see what happens. It still feels like more than music to me."
JAH WOBBLE TOUR DATES
AUG 14–16 - Suffield, UK @ The Suffield Arms (Suffield Summer ¡Fiesta! 2026)
OCT 3 - Stourbridge, UK @ Katie Fitzgerald's
OCT 16 - Todmorden, UK @ Unitarian Church
OCT 21 - Frome, UK @ The Tunnels
OCT 22 - Bristol, UK @ The Fleece
OCT 23 - Reading, UK @ The Face Bar
NOV 7 - London, UK @ Bush Hall
NOV 25 - Hasselt, Belgium @ Club AFF
NOV 26 - Bruges, Belgium @ Cactus
NOV 27 - Oudenaarde, Belgium @ Harmonie
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