East London music icon Jah Wobble and Liverpool duo Tian Qiyi are ready to introduce ‘Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles’ Psychedelic Psongbook’ to the world on August 14th via Cherry Red Records and Wobble’s label 30 Hertz. Previewed by ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, these reimaginings treat the material as the genuinely mystical music it always was, with ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ as particular touchstones.
These ten tracks travel through the most exploratory corners of The Beatles’ catalogue. Not simply nostalgic covers, ‘Mystic Liverpool’ treats these songs as a starting point for something more personal: a meeting point between Liverpool, China and Mongolia, between family tradition and contemporary dub, and between the music Wobble grew up with and the musical world his sons have inherited.
Jointly produced by Jah Wobble (aka John Wardle) and his sons John T Wardle and Charlie Wardle (a.k.a. Tian Qiyi), this album was recorded and mixed by John T at Pagoda Studios in Liverpool. Together, they have made these songs uniquely their own, drawing on Wobble’s signature dub bass, John T’s drums, Chinese percussion and yangqin, and Charlie’s vocals, erhu and morin khuur. The boys’ mother Zi Lan Liao — a Royal Academy of Music–trained harpist and the most recognized gu-zheng performer worldwide — also contributes gu-zheng on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
“I’d been circling the idea for a while. A Beatles record, but specifically the psychedelic years — that’s where the real music is, for me. That’s where they stopped being a pop group and started being something else. I had the family right there: two sons who’d grown up between Chinese classical music and dub, a wife who’d studied at the Royal Academy and grown up in Liverpool, a father-in-law who’d owned every Beatles record on vinyl. It was almost odd we hadn’t done it already,” says Jah Wobble.
“Once I put it to John T and Charlie, it moved quickly. We curated the tracklist, coming back to the songs where the Beatles were reaching for something genuinely mystical — ‘Within You Without You’, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘Strawberry Fields’. George Martin had given them the tools to get those inner spaces on tape, and we wanted to work in the same register. Not fusion. Not homage. Just: play the songs with the instruments we actually have in the house, and mix them with the ear we actually have.”
At the centre of this record is the Wardle family’s uniquely deep connection with Liverpool. Zi Lan’s father, K.H. Li (Liao Gui Xiong), arrived in Liverpool from Guangzhou in 1981 as Chinese Cultural Officer at the Pagoda. He subsequently established the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra, now run by Zi Lan (along with the Pagoda Arts Centre), in which both sons played from the age of three. A lifelong Beatles fan who owned everything the band released on vinyl, ‘Mystic Liverpool’ is dedicated to him.
“Growing up, traditional Chinese music, classical, dub, jazz, rock, and hip-hop were all treated as equal music in our house. We realized that Harrison was tapping into that exact same ancient, spiritual lineage. This album isn’t about nostalgia; it’s about stripping away the standard guitar layers, bringing in our family’s heritage, and finding that deeper, hypnotic frequency that ties all these sounds together,” says John T. Wardle.
Charlie Wardle adds, “We recorded this album for the city. Liverpool’s famous for pop music, but it’s also this old port town with fog and the river and a hundred iron men standing in the sea. We wanted to capture that side of it.”
Jah Wobble co-founded Public Image Ltd (PiL) and formed Invaders of the Heart in 1982. He’s seen chart success, a Mercury Music Prize nomination and a rich discography, and collaborated with Can’s Holger Czukay, Jaki Liebezeit, U2’s The Edge, François Kevorkian, Sinéad O’Connor, Massive Attack, Ginger Baker, Björk, Brian Eno, Pharoah Sanders and, most recently, Horace Andy on ‘Timeless Roots’, Ken Boothe on ‘Old Fashioned Ways’ and Jon Klein on ‘Automated Paradise’.
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.
As of August 14th, the ‘Mystic Liverpool’ is available from digital music platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify, where ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ can also be found. In addition to the digital version, the album will also be released as a CD Digipack.
Jah Wobble & Tian Qiyi perform that day at Suffield Summer ¡Fiesta! 2026. Throughout 2026, Jah Wobble and The Invaders Of The Heart are also touring, with tickets 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 – 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