Ballardian

Jah Wobble, John Lydon’s old mucker and former bassist for Public Image Ltd, has reviewed the Pocket Essentials guide to Psychogeography, by Merlin Coverley.

It’s an odd little review. Wobble gets headaches from the concepts on offer and writes that “you will always find marginal blokes walking in marginal (urban) places”, while expounding the belief that film and TV are more suited to said concepts than literature, with the exception being “…J G Ballard but, then again, he’s a great novelist and storyteller who knows how to use and develop psychogeographical themes and ideas in his narratives”.

PiL’s first two albums, First Issue and Metal Box, before Wobble jumped ship, are deliriously good, although not overtly Ballardian or psychogeographical, except in a cold, anomie-infested, post-punk fashion.