There are certain bass players whose role is to keep time reliably and anonymously in the background while flashier band members hog the limelight. They have names like Bill Wyman and less charisma than a Swiss bank.

Then there are bass players with a bit more ambition. In Jah Wobble's case, this has meant parlaying the four strings on his bass guitar into a career of staggering variety.

A central figure in London's punk scene (his stage name supposedly derives from Sid Vicious's slurred attempts to pronounce his real name, John Wardle), he was a founding member of Public Image Ltd, the band John Lydon formed in 1978 after leaving the Sex Pistols.

PiL's fusion of dub reggae and post-industrial rock was bold but merely hinted at the full extent of Wobble's creative wanderlust. Since then his solo work has meandered esoterically through different musical genres and cultures, taking in everything from William Blake's poetry to Chinese classical music. The last time I saw him in concert he was accompanying a group of traditional musicians from Laos. On this occasion at the 100 Club he had English folk music in his sights, leading his band in a bass-heavy mutant sound that would have horrified folkie purists.

Wobble's take on folk involved songs about blacksmiths set to mighty basslines, clattering percussion, drone-rocking electric guitar, a piper playing a strange array of medieval-looking instruments and two female vocalists who struggled to make themselves heard over the instruments. This was English roots music given a roots reggae and experimental rock makeover, with a dash of free jazz added for good measure when a trumpeter and flautist joined in for a couple of long jams. It might have been a hopeless mess but Wobble's bass-playing held the music together, and helped give it hypnotic power and clarity.

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