About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Killing Joke

Encyclopedia : K : KI : KIL : Killing Joke

Lead singer Jaz Coleman dominates the cover of Killing Joke's 1986 release Brighter Than a Thousand Suns.
Enlarge
Lead singer Jaz Coleman dominates the cover of Killing Joke's 1986 release Brighter Than a Thousand Suns.

Killing Joke are an influential English post-punk rock band formed in 1978. Founding members Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman (vocal, keyboards, synthesizers, and arrangements) and Geordie Walker (guitars) have been the only constant members.

Named after a Monty Python sketch (see:The Funniest Joke in the World), Killing Joke are regarded as one of the most significant bands to have emerged from the post-punk/new wave era of the late-1970s/early-1980s, having strongly influenced bands such as Nirvana, Metallica, Ministry, Soundgarden and Korn, all of whom have at some point have cited a substantial debt of gratitude to 'The Joke'.

Original drummer "Big Paul" Ferguson once described their music as "the sound of the earth vomiting". Killing Joke's music consists of thick-sounding guitars; rhythms that are heavy, tribal, funky, and danceable (usually all at once); keyboards and synthesizers with sounds typical of New Wave music; and Coleman singing in a talk-sing style, or shouting in a malevolent-sounding growl.

Contents

1978-1982

Ferguson was in the Matt Stagger Band when he met Coleman (originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire) in London. In late 1978, after Coleman was briefly in the band, he and Ferguson defected from the Matt Stagger Band and formed Killing Joke with Geordie and bassist/producer Martin "Youth" Glover. According to Coleman, their manifesto was to "define the exquisite beauty of the atomic age in terms of style, sound and form".

In late 1979, they began the Malicious Damage record label as a way to press and sell their music; Island Records distributed the records, until Malicious Damage switched to EG Records in 1980. The songs on Killing Joke's early singles were primitive punk rock sometimes mixed with funk ("Nervous System") and dub/reggae ("Turn to Red") styles. Their 'Nervous System/Turn To Red' EP came to the attention of legendary DJ John Peel, who was keen to champion the band's urgent new sound and gave them extensive airplay. They quickly progressed this sound into something denser, more violent, and much akin to heavy metal, as heard on their first two albums, Killing Joke (1980) and the more abrasive What's THIS For...! (1981). They gained infamy performing live throughout their native England during this time, and both fans of punk rock and fans of disco took interest in Killing Joke through singles such as "Follow the Leaders" (1981).

Killing Joke became notorious largely due to the controversies that arose from their imagery. The images that appeared on their records and on-stage while performing live were, typically, bizarre and potentially shocking and imflamatory. One promo poster featured an undoctored photo from the Spanish Civil war, of Pope Pious being shown off to rows of saluting Nazi's. Shortly afterwards, the band was banned from performing a concert in Glasgow, Scotland. Strangely enough, at that time some NME´s leftist journalists were suspicious about Killing Joke´s image and wrote that "Killing Joke´s music includes certain fascist tendencies...". This was a common misconception because, if anything, Killing Joke were a politically left-leaning band, with much of their disturbing imagery acting as ironic and cynical symbologies for a world which they perceived was becoming ever more materialist, injust and neoconservative. However, following various 'run-ins' with a number of music journalists, Killing Joke were far from being the industry darlings of the era, regardless of their actual output. Indeed, they were the complete antithesis of their contemporaries in the pop-rock world, an age of New Romanticism and futurist electro-pop, with only bands such Bauhaus and Husker Du coming close to their ferocious musical intensity.

Killing Joke's third album, Revelations, was issued in 1982, and supported by a pair of performances on The John Peel Show and by the singles "Chop-Chop" and "Empire Song". Both a non-LP single, "Birds of a Feather", and a limited EP of a brief live performance 10" Ep HA!, produced by Conny Plank recorded in Toronto, that appeared later that year.

By 1982, members of Killing Joke, especially Coleman, had become immersed in the occult, particularly the works of occultist Aleister Crowley. That year, Coleman and Geordie, Youth following shortly, relocated to Iceland to weather the apocalypse, which Coleman predicted was soon. While in Iceland, Coleman and Geordie performed in various Icelandic bands. After a few months, Youth decided there was no indication of the apocalypse, and decided to relocate back to England. Youth then began the band Brilliant with Big Paul, but the latter defected and traveled to Iceland to rejoin Killing Joke with new bassist Paul Raven in tow. After performing for some time in Iceland, Killing Joke returned to England.

1983-1989

Killing Joke's fourth album, Fire Dances (1983), contained music that, like that heard on the "Birds Of A Feather" single, was artier and relatively calmer than the music Killing Joke had made previously, which, in hindsight, began a new direction "Me Or You" (1983, b/w "Wilful Days") and "A New Day" (1984, b/w a dance remix or dub mix of the same), the latter promoted with a music video.

Mixing their sound with a slightly pop style, and Coleman singing and not growling (indeed he harboured an exceptional singing voice), Killing Joke had developed a decidedly unique variation of new wave, which was heard on their fifth album, Night Time (1985). Killing Joke unexpectedly achieved mainstream success with the single "Love Like Blood" (from Night Time), which became a big hit, peaking at #16, and an exceptional one in the U.S. Night Time was also supported with singles for "Eighties" (1984), "Kings and Queens" (1985) and "Love like Blood (Gestalt mix)" (1985).

The music on Killing Joke's sixth album, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (1986), was mostly similar in sound and mood to Love like Blood and was much less aggressive and heavy than their older work. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns is controversial among listeners, owing to disagreements between fans and critics alike ranging from whether the band was conforming with pressures from EG Records to develop a more commercial sound to whether the songs were powerful enough. Those who are strongly approving of the work consider it a milestone--and quite intense--progressive rock album, and their most consistent work to date.

(Killing Joke albums are not stylistically uniform; whole genres can change from one release to the next. A post-punk phase becomes an almost-danceable proto-funk rock, which is followed by big hook/keyboard-driven marches, then a metal phase (Extremities), followed by a metalcore phase, followed by sequencer productions, and then hardcore. No album is like the adjacent).

In 1987, Coleman began plans for a solo record of unusual music, and he made demos of his songs, on which he performed with Geordie's assistance. When some from the record company heard the demos, however, they decided Coleman's songs would sell better if Killing Joke performed them. In spite of Coleman's objections, plans were made for the music to be soon released under the name "Killing Joke", which resulted in Coleman and Walker hastily completing all the songs, with Geordie's guitar effects considerably toned down in the final mix. The resulting album, Outside the Gate (1988), is Killing Joke's most controversial album, with opinions ranging from admiration to total disgust, owing to its pop sound (there is even a rap onboard) and disagreement over the quality of the songs (which by all accounts were underdeveloped).

Killing Joke was dormant in 1989, only with The Courtald Talks - a double LP of a speech Coleman gave in 1987 with Geordie and a percussionist performing background music - released under the band's moniker. It is commonly accepted that they disbanded shortly after Outside the Gate.

1990 and onward

A chance reaquaintence of Coleman and Geordie with Raven, and a chance acquaintance with Martin Atkins (who had gained notability as the drummer for Public Image Ltd. and then Ministry), resulted in a revival of Killing Joke. The new Killing Joke - Coleman, Geordie, Raven and Atkins - returned to the band's earlier, harsher sound and was a considerable return to form. Killing Joke's eighth album, Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions (1990), included some of the heaviest, noisiest and harshest music to ever appear on any of Killing Joke's records, highlights being Solitude, Slipstream and Age of Greed.

An anthology, Laugh? I Nearly Bought One!, was released in 1992. The same year saw Geordie Walker, Martin Atkins, Paul Ferguson, Paul Raven join with the band's live keyboard player John Bechdel and Scottish vocalist Chris Connelly (Fini Tribe, Revolting Cocks) to form the short-lived Murder, Inc..

Coleman produced the 1993 debut album Churn by the New Zealand Band Shihad. Shihad drummer Tom Larkin played drums on many of the songs on Killing Joke's album Pandemonium. Relations later soured between Coleman and Shihad due to a dispute over Coleman's production fee for Churn, and the fact that Shihad considered him due to his personality as a complete "megalomaniac". Shihad's second album, 1995's Killjoy includes two songs about Coleman and the dispute Bitter and You Again. Coleman has made a number of disparaging remarks about Shihad in the media. Shihad singer and guitarist Jon Toogood says his band have put the dispute behind them, however a song was recorded by Shihad called "Killing Jaz".

Also in 1992, two singles (on cassette and CD) appeared featuring the early songs "Change" and "Wardance" in several new versions, all Youth (who by then was a popular producer) remixed. At almost this time, Coleman and Geordie reactivated Killing Joke as a trio with Youth back on bass guitar, releasing two strong albums and well-received, Pandemonium (1994) and Democracy (1996). This provided Killing Joke with a memorable Top of the Pops performance for the single 'Millennium' in 1994, which was a UK Top 30 hit.

Killing Joke also sued Nirvana, alleging that the riff for the latter's song "Come As You Are" was copied from the riff for their song "Eighties". The lawsuit was dropped after the sudden death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

After another break - where Jaz Coleman took a main role in the film Rok ďábla (Year of the Devil) by Czech filmmaker Petr Zelenka - Coleman and Geordie reformed as Killing Joke in 2002, with Raven returning on bass, to record their second eponymous album, released in 2003. They cited Bush's war on terror and the invasion of Iraq as major factors in their reforming and this is reflected in the lyrical content of much of the album, based on themes of war, government control and armageddon.

This album was their heaviest to date and spawned two singles, "Loose Cannon" and "Seeing Red", with Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Probot) occupying the drum stool for all tracks on the album. The album release was accompanied by a tour of the United States, Europe and Australia in 2003/2004. In February 2005 they played two consecutive shows at London's Shepherds Bush Empire to commemorate their 25th anniversary. DVD and CD recordings of their Shepherds Bush Empire anniversary show, called XXV Gathering: The Band That Preys Together Stays Together were released in the fall of 2005. In summer 2005 they supported Mötley Crüe on the British leg of their world tour and recorded Hosannas from the Basements of Hell, with young Twin Zero and Sack Trick drummer Ben Calvert handling the sticks, in Prague, which was released in April 2006.

Killing Joke began a European tour in April 2006 -- though without bass player Paul Raven, who departed to tour with Ministry. The tour included an appearance on the MySpace stage of the Download Festival on June 10th 2006, which received four K's by Kerrang magazine.

Discography & Videography

Albums

*(Also available as Double Vinyl)
  • BBC In Concert [live] (1996)
  • Democracy (1996)
  • Killing Joke (2003)
  • (live, 2005)
    • *(Also available as Double Orange Coloured Vinyl)
  • Hosannas from the Basements of Hell (2006)
    • *(Also available as Double Blue Coloured Vinyl)
    See also: list of musicians with multiple self-titled albums

    Singles & EPs

    Compilations

    Videography

    Rok Dabla/Year of the devil feat. Jaz Coleman Czec Rep. 2002

    Side Projects

    Influence

    External links

     

    From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
    All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

    Search Titles
    0123456789
    ABCDEFGHIJ
    KLMNOPQRST
    UVWXYZ?

    E-mail this article to:

    Personal Message: