Legendary bassist and producer Jah Wobble and Liverpool-based duo Tian Qiyi present ‘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.”
Charlie Wardle adds, “This is a song about a real place Lennon remembered from childhood, and the erhu suits that kind of homesickness really well. We didn’t try to be clever with it — we just played the melody like we meant it.”
Jointly produced by Jah Wobble, John T and Charlie, this album was recorded and mixed by John T at Pagoda Studios in Liverpool, where Tian Qiyi is now based.
“Everyone knows this song, so there was no point in doing a straight cover. We made a conscious choice to go for a massive, hypnotic wall of sound. We brought our mum in to layer up these beautiful, cascading textures on the guzheng, Charlie’s driving the melody on his strings, and then dad and I just locked in to create this heavy, deep groove on the bass and drums. It’s less of a tribute and more of a dark, trippy, out-there collision of our family’s two musical worlds,” says John T Wardle.
The Liverpool connection runs deep through their family. Zi Lan’s father, Mr K.H. Li (Liao Gui Xiong), arrived from Guangzhou in 1981 as Chinese Cultural Officer at the Pagoda and went on to establish the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra — the ensemble Zi Lan (now also director of Pagoda Arts Centre) runs and that both her sons grew up playing in from the age of three. The record is dedicated to him; a lifelong Beatles fan, he owned everything they ever released on vinyl.
The album journeys through The Beatles’ psychedelic-era songbook, treating the material as the genuinely mystical music it always was rather than as nostalgic covers with ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ as particular touchstones.
As of July 14th, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever, is available from digital music platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify, where ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ can also be found. The ‘Mystic Liverpool’ album is out on August 14th, both digitally and as a CD Digipack.
Jah Wobble & Tian Qiyi perform that same day at Suffield Summer ¡Fiesta! 2026. In addition, Jah Wobble and The Invaders Of The Heart are touring the UK throughout 2026, with tickets available at https://jahwobble.com/#live
TRACK LIST (Catalog No. 30HZCD49)
01. Tomorrow Never Knows
02. Strawberry Fields Forever
03. Within You Without You
04. I Am The Walrus
05. Norwegian Wood
06. Blue Jay Way
07. The Inner Light
08. Love You To
09. Flying
10. Rain
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
FOR SHARING
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ https://cherryred.co/StrawberryFieldsForever
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/0TUqwOMFcmYcDWGFvtmn1R
‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ visualizer video https://youtu.be/EBPWmf3tvYw
Get the single https://cherryred.co/TomorrowNeverKnows
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/2xv9fm5hgYmW2c1UCn18qO
‘Mystic Liverpool’ album www.cherryred.co.uk/jah-wobble-tian-qiyi-mystic-liverpool-the-beatles-psychedelic-psongbook-cd-digipak-edition
Rough Trade CD order www.roughtrade.com/en-us/artist/jah-wobble-and-tian-qiyi-mystic-liverpool
TOUR TICKETS https://jahwobble.com/#live
EARLIER RELEASES
Jah Wobble & Jon Klein ‘Automated Paradise’ album (2026) https://wardle.bandcamp.com/album/automated-paradise
Jah Wobble ‘Dub Volume 1’ album (2025) https://wardle.bandcamp.com/album/dub-volume-one
Jah Wobble – Cherry Red Catalogue www.cherryred.co.uk/artist/jah-wobble
Tian Qiyi on Bandcamp (2 albums) https://wearetian.bandcamp.com
Jah Wobble & Tian Qiyi ‘Incantation’ https://youtu.be/a6-2kG1JZLc
Jah Wobble & Tian Qiyi ‘Red Mist’ https://youtu.be/kWv2TQtIypA
Tian Qiyi feat. Jah Wobble ‘Watch The Sunrise’ https://youtu.be/CYmVD-7pOUc
Keep up with Tian Qiyi
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Keep up with Jah Wobble
Website | Bandcamp | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Soundcloud | Apple Music | Spotify | Jah Wobble & Jon Klein | Press contact
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