1983 saw the release of Killing Joke's 'Fire Dances' album, which whilst not necessarily one of their best albums, in its defence in the discography it does sit in between two of the band's titan albums, 'Revelations' (1982) and 'Night Time' (1985). Anyway here are KJ promoting the album in Geneva. There was some uncertainty as to the correct date of this gig. The cassette that I had many years ago stated September (with the exact date unknown). A peruse of Discogs earlier threw up a bootleg cassette with the date of 26th November 1983. The issue was settled by the https://killingjokeconcerts.blogspot.com/ website that includes specific mention of the squat gig taking place on 26th November 1983.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-rEpKJc2eHa
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-LZ72AyMMc6
Here are a couple of interviews with members of Killing Joke that appeared in Record Mirror either side of the release of the 'Night Time' album.
Record Mirror (16th February 1985)
KILLING JOKE are in Germany, the home of the Brothers Grimm and an apt setting for a band who've had more fairy tales written about them than tight panted princes on white horses. Joke aren't ogres hunting for blood, they aren't dragons breathing fire into the tape recorders of the music press, they're just fed up.
Fed up with mealy-mouthed journalists intent on getting 'a good piece' whether it represents the band or not, fed up with encountering people'who don't know anything about, like, or even listen to the band. Personally, I love 'em.
"We've had a lot of prejudice against us of course," says drummer Paul resignedly as we sit backstage in Cologne's now defunct old railway station - scene of tonight's gig. "We're renowned for being a bunch of fu---ers or whatever. Now, finally we've got other people to listen to us who wouldn't normally, and that's what we need. We want to spread our music as wide as possible, we don't want to turn people against us, we want people to like and appreciate us. That's the biggest buzz, people turning up to the gigs when they would never have considered it before."
He's right of course. Killing Joke gigs have traditionally been a hot bed of spikey haired leather jackets, a hard core of fans who've ignored the bands up-and-down hip status and concentrated on - the music.
"We always think of Gary Glitter and Alex Harvey," grins Paul when I tell him how the title track of the new album 'Night Time' reminds me of Gazza. "They're the two guys who we all really really like musically. We're not ripping them off but there's always this idea that that's where we see pop music."
Guitarist Geordie nods. "Gary Glitter rang us up and asked if he could do a cover of 'Follow The Leader'. That's what 'Love Like Blood' was, great pop music as it should be."
GREAT INDEED, Killing Joke's first top twenty hit and never off the turntable chez moi, a huge pop noise and classic pop single. It must have come as a welcome reword for the band after six years of relative poverty.
"I don't find it rewarding particularly, says Geordie sipping the ever present Tequila (cue raucous renditions of Mexican tunes in Killing Joke tour bus). “I find It funny because the success of 'Love Like Blood' shows that we were right all the time to believe in our music. We've still got no money but the thing is we've spent five or six years surviving somehow and If we'd had the money we'd have done exactly the same things, but we'd Just be in a lot worse physical condition.
Paul turns our attention to the new
single.
"We may have been skint for five years but we've been living like kings and queens, he beams. ‘Kings And Queens', the new single, is another slice of Killing Joke at their best. It drives along on a typically thunderous Geordie riff, showing up most so called 'heavy' guitarists for the wimps they are, and is topped off with a suitably manic Jaz vocal. Paul and Geordie are quick to put me right when I suggest the lyrics could be taken as somewhat apathetic.
"No, not at all," says Paul. "In fact it's quite the opposite. It's about what we've been doing for the last five years, living with no money. We're saying live as if you've got everything because you don't actually need very much. One of the things we actually would consider as a message, if there was to be any attached to us is that you take what you want out of life because life is there to be used. If you go round thinking ' - shit I've got no money, I can’t do anything, then you won't do anything will you?"
Geordie agrees. "We started out like that right? We were squatting and we wanted to do a record so much that we blagged some geezer out of £250, blagged someone else for another £300, recorded and pressed 500 copies, gave it to John Peel who played all three tracks first time he heard it and that was it. We wanted it so much, it was mind over matter."
"It's saying no matter how little you’ve got you can live like a king. You don’t need anything, you just need to do it because you can do anything you want to - way or another," adds Paul. We’re not saying make the most of what you’ve got, make more than you've got. It's enthusiastic, not apathetic.”
AS THE band takes the stage in the now packed hall, that enthusiasm and self-belief pays off. As Jaz stalks the stage with the two familiar black smudges framing his cheeks, you can't fail to be impressed. This is a band that's worked and worked hard hard and as the band storm through a set which ends with the anthemic ‘Eighties’ they don't even seem to be bothered by the rather cool reception which is the norm in these parts.
As we sit ourselves down some twenty minutes later in a restaurant which Jaz assures me is the number one Japanese in Europe, he is still excited about the gig.
"The atmosphere of a gig is the most important thing as far as I'm concerned," he says between alternate swigs of iced water and sake. "There was a feeling about tonight that was great. Those people were really for Killing Joke and most of them had probably never heard of the band until a couple of months ago. Killing Joke's in this year!
"What more do you need to know about the taste and colour of Killing Joke," he grins. "Wasn't that just serious business, the best food in Europe?"
"There are only three great pleasures in life Andy," offers Geordie. "Sex, food and music!" Bass player Raven, who would not look out of place playing the baddest baddie in a spaghetti western (except for the red DM's), asks me what I thought of the gig and with a bottle of sake warming me, I'm ready to tell him the truth.
"'Love Like Blood' and 'Kings And Queens' were a bit slow actually Raven," I offer, half expecting to finally be flung through the nearest window.
Raven's bear-like features break into a
huge grin. "That's very astute of you he says. "I thought so too."
Killing Joke - regular Mr Nice Guys? Well
almost.
As I remember, I first became away of aware of Killing Joke as a thing in about 1982/1983. It was the sight of a scary looking bloke in a cut down T-shirt (weren't they all then!) bearing the image of a disconsolate jester that I recall. I thought nothing more of it until I heard 'Eighties' on The Tube quite a few months later. My next encounter with the band was when someone gave me a C90 cassette which had on one side 'Permanent Waves' by Rush (the album with 'Spirit of Radio' on it), whilst the other was better for it was Killing Joke's first album. In the weeks that followed, this borrowed tape was in heavy rotation.... well one side of it was at least! I still cannot believe that a lot of the revision for my mock O-levels was done with that album in the background!
In January 1985 I heard 'Love Like Blood' the single that heralded the arrival of the band's fifth studio album, 'Night Time' due for release the following month. There were no two ways about it, 'Love Like Blood' was an immense powerhouse of a song and I fell for it big time. So come February I was off to W.H. Smiths (perhaps with a Christmas Record Token in hand) to get the new album).
'Night Time', the song, sets the tempo for this, if not their best album one that is in most fan's top 5 I would guess. The two Pauls, Ferguson and Raven drive the tracks along with thunderous drums and bass, whilst moody keyboards glide over the top and provide a counterpoint to Jaz Coleman's unmistakable vocals. 'Night Time' feels like a complete body of work, everything is in its correct place. There is not a duff track on it and certainly no filler. It was a real return to form after 1983's rather patchy 'Fire Dances' album (an album that was perhaps always going to struggle as the follow up to another classic, the 'Revelations' album).
I think 'Night Time' was a turning point for Killing Joke. Many of the songs on the album, 'Love Like Blood' and 'Europe' for example, compositionally remind me of religious music, hymns I suppose, a writing style that the band have carried through to subsequent albums.
I know that there is a lot of cross over with The Stranglers fan base and Killing Joke (I believe Jaz is a fan of the band), but in case you are unfamiliar with them, then 'Night Time' would be the perfect point at which to jump in... then work both backwards and forwards to understand just how diverse their material has been over many years.
Unfortunately, I don't have a full complement of UK music press reviews for 'Night Time', so these will have to do for now.
Record Mirror (2nd March 1985)
A rather poignant one this one, being as it was Geordie's last gig. As yet a gig not released and nothing on the cards. I did go to this gig and it was great but I was still miffed to have missed the warm-up gig at the 100 Club. In a foyer area I remember hearing something behind some manner of display. On peeking around it threre was none other than one Paul Cook and a mate, no doubt he was avoiding multiple requests for selfies etc.
Were it not for the loss of Geordie, I am sure that Killing Joke would have had a few more years/albums in them and who knows what we could have enjoyed, but I could never envision it without that guitar style of his.
Many thanks to Chatts for the share.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-w2H3z7kaoQ
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-9NIUYmcxXf
It was a shock last week to learn of the passing of Geordie Walker, Killing Joke’s powerhouse guitarist since March 1979. Watching Geordie play was like watching an optical illusion. Calm in the eye of the storm he seemed to be unmoved by the musical cacophony that enveloped him. His playing was more than laid back as he slowly massaged the strings of his Gibson. As seemingly effortless means of creating a wall of sound, the sonic assault that underpinned so much of the band’s material.
Like The Stranglers, Killing Joke have enjoyed the loyalty of an ardent fanbase for many years, through good times and bad, and I am sure that they are keenly feeling the same sense of loss that accompanied the loss of Dave and Jet. With Jaz due to embark on his spoken word tour of a life with Killing Joke in March, I wonder what the future holds for this legendary band.
Here is a fairly recent recording of the band from Manchester. Many thanks to the original Dime uploader (rbose1).
RIP Geordie Walker.
Without doubt, one of the most influential, innovative and enduring bands to have come out of the punk/post punk landscape. No other band sounds like them which is no mean feat nearly 70 years since Elvis. I admire this band for their courage to experiment where other bands opt to play it safe. Those experiments don't always pay off, but when they do something extraordinary results.
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-Qm4Z1D0jP7
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-VDhdvbD2Cd
Here's a typically robust performance from Killing Joke, appearing at the short lived Phoenix Festival in Stratford. I cannot remember the music programme that featured this footage.
DVD Disc Image: https://we.tl/t-Oya5c54jUi
Artwork: https://we.tl/t-lohycHqHFb
Killing Joke to play a ‘secret’ gig in a 200 capacity Camden boozer. It doesn’t get much better than that. I am happy to report that Jaz looked terrifying in his white face pain as he lead the band through and incredible career spanning set. I recall standing around a table next to Gaye Black (Advert). ‘Peaches’ came onto the jukebox and she said to ne ‘Oh they're playing your song’ looking at my ‘Down In The Sewer’ T-shirt. What a gig!
FLAC: https://we.tl/t-DhHpPBXnqv
Sleeve: https://we.tl/t-SEwTQ2mJue