The world according to a very Cockney geezer

Buddhism, the changing face of the East End and the Sex Pistols ― welcome to life through the eyes of cult musician Jah Wobble, as told to Dylan Jones. Just don't get him started on hipsters...

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THE Cockney is dead, long gone, moved out to Essex," says the great Jah Wobble (real name John Wardle) sitting in second-hand splendor in the otherwise hushed dining room of the Chelsea Arts Club, where the ex-punk is holding court this afternoon. He is an 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).

"The Cockney has become a kind of hybrid," he says. "It's Essex now. If you want to hear people who talk like me you go to Buckhurst Hill, at the other end of the Central line. Buckers, as they call it. In my family the ones who have done reasonably well have gone to north Essex, and the other lot have gone to Barking and Dagenham. Cockney is done now. I've been very influenced by Buddhism, and everything's impermanent. It all dissipates. Same for the Cockneys."