UPDATE FROM JAZ: 29TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GATHERING
ORIGINAL LINE-UP OF KILLING JOKE PLAY 3 CLASSIC ALBUMS BACK TO BACK ON WORLD TOUR AND RELEASE NEW ALBUM
Finally, after numerous line-up changes through the years, all original Killing Joke members reunite for new album and world tour.
Drummer, Paul Ferguson, rejoins the line up for the first time since 1987 enabling a whole new generation of fans to see Killing Joke's legendary original formation. Diehard fans have been waiting for this moment for two decades!
Bassist, Martin 'Youth' Glover also steps back into the live arena after a near 15 hiatus, having not played live with Killing Joke since 1994's Pandemonium tour.
The tour will see Killing Joke take up a two night residency in most venues offering a different set on each evening. On the first night, they will play their first two albums in their entirety, 1980's self-titled album followed by the album 'What's This…For!'. Their second performance in each city will treat fans to 1994's Pandemonium and the Island Records singles of'79 to '80.
Once described by Ferguson as 'the sound of the earth vomiting', Killing Joke is anthemic and grandiose in it's evocation of nightmare visions. Taking a sarcastic jab at authority and perceived reality to a sonically charged mixture of post punk and metal, Killing Joke's heavy guitars and pounding tribal drums conjure a primitive atmosphere of doom, gloom and resistance.
Notorious for their use of inflammatory imagery, a backlash against a world they perceived as ever more materialistic, unjust and conservative, Killing Joke, railed against the establishment and created a unique sound from their very conception.
Ironically, in the current musical climate with it's obsession with rehashing eighties sounds, the 80's saw Killing Joke really pushing music forward, incorporating danceable elements with aggressive, grinding guitars and thumping drums. With elements of proto-techno rock, their post apocalyptic vision has inspired bands as diverse and influential as Nirvana, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden and Godflesh. Killing Joke have always been and continue to be more than just a band.
Godfathers of post-punk, Killing Joke return with their eagerly anticipated new album to coincide with their world tour. Album release date TBC.
LIVE DATES September 13 - (JP) Tokyo 14 - (JP) Tokyo 16 - (ES) Madrid 17 - (ES) Barcelona 19 - (IT) Milan 20 - (IT) Milan 22 - (CH) Geneva TBC 24 - (DE) Berlin 25 - (DE) Berlin 26 - (FR) Paris 27 - (FR) Paris 29 - (BE) Brussels 30 - (BE) Brussels October 02 - (UK) London 03 - (UK) London TBC - (US) New York TBC - (US) New York
"At last a ray of sunlight to illuminate these dark days. It is indeed my deepest pleasure to announce the dates of the 29th anniversary of the gathering. As usual we are never content sitting on the laurels of past Glories, a new Killing Joke recording is scheduled this summer!. Both Geordie and myself are thrilled as we hope you are with the line up, such anticipation comes as no surprise considering we have not played together since the Brighton Top Rank in 1982. We always knew this day would come after all it was inevitable. We hope all gatherers will join us in warmly welcoming back to active service our brothers Big Paul and Youth. The mysterious chemistry of the original line up is back, let there be gladness in your hearts." - Jaz
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 28 February 2008 17:34 (eighteen years ago)
Would love to see this
― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 28 February 2008 17:46 (eighteen years ago)
wow, yes
― OskarM, Thursday, 28 February 2008 17:50 (eighteen years ago)
Well, I'm excited. . . to put it very fucking mildly.
― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 28 February 2008 23:28 (eighteen years ago)
Pleased for yer!
Roll on those TBC's mate.
― Mark G, Friday, 29 February 2008 09:34 (eighteen years ago)
I predict Coleman buggering off to Iceland on about 22 September. But I can understand the excitement.
― Guilty_Boksen, Friday, 29 February 2008 12:53 (eighteen years ago)
Did the world really need another excuse for Alex In NYC to masturbate furiously over his mint condition vinyl of "What's THIS For...?"?
― King Boy Pato, Friday, 29 February 2008 12:56 (eighteen years ago)
"inspired" "Nirvana" - that's a diplomatic way of putting it.
― Guilty_Boksen, Friday, 29 February 2008 13:00 (eighteen years ago)
I don't have a mint condition vinyl of that album, but maybe if I did.....
― Alex in NYC, Friday, 29 February 2008 14:41 (eighteen years ago)
.. it woudn't be mint for long. Mint coloured, maybe,...
― Mark G, Friday, 29 February 2008 14:47 (eighteen years ago)
ha
― Alex in NYC, Friday, 29 February 2008 15:12 (eighteen years ago)
I think we should start a fund to send Alex to Tokyo so he can catch the kick-off just in case tempers flare too much during the tour, "delaying" the NY shows
― J0hn D., Friday, 29 February 2008 15:51 (eighteen years ago)
September 13 - (JP) Tokyo 14 - (JP) Tokyo 16 - (ES) Madrid
jetlag alarm
― StanM, Friday, 29 February 2008 16:00 (eighteen years ago)
yeah that's just asking for trouble
― J0hn D., Friday, 29 February 2008 16:14 (eighteen years ago)
I'll be frankly amazed if the tour reaches NYC. They've scuttled their own momentum countless times before. But hope springs eternal.
― Alex in NYC, Friday, 29 February 2008 19:39 (eighteen years ago)
LIVE DATES September 11 - (JP) Tokyo, Duo 12 - (JP) Tokyo, Duo 16 - (ES) Madrid, Heineken 18 - (ES) Barcelona, Apollo 19 - (IT) Milan, Rolling Stone 20 - (IT) Milan, Rolling Stone 24 - (DE) Berlin, Columbia Hall 25 - (DE) Berlin, Columbia Hall 26 - (FR) Paris, Trabendo 27 - (FR) Paris, Trabendo 29 - (BE) Brussels, AB Club 30 - (BE) Brussels, AB Club October 03 - (UK) London, The Forum 04 - (UK) London, The Forum 09 - (US) Los Angeles, House of Blues 11 - (US) New York, Filmore East / Ex Lrving Plaza 12 - (US) New York, Filmore East / Ex Lrving Plaza
― chaki, Saturday, 3 May 2008 08:19 (seventeen years ago)
Has anybody seen any reviews of the Tokyo shows yet?
― aldo, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 09:37 (seventeen years ago)
They were great last night in Madrid. I hadn't seen them before and they look old but sounded quite ferocious, esp. Jaz Coleman. Opening with "Communion" from Pandemonium, they went through most of the first album (can't remember if they did all the songs). They played other stuff too: "Tension", "Asteroid", "Money is not Our God" and a new track, "Timewave", based on the writings of Terence McKenna (which Jaz was told about by Youth). Geordie used a semi-acoustic guitar and an ancient looking amp. They had a guy playing samples and additional percussion on a laptop and a couple of keyboards, and Youth did the vocals on one of the songs.
― no-nonsense, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 10:41 (seventeen years ago)
asteroid! money...! wooo!
― m the g, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 10:49 (seventeen years ago)
Madrid and Barcelona aren't like the rest of the tour though, are they? They're more normal gigs and not the Don't Look Back style affairs the rest are.
― aldo, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 10:53 (seventeen years ago)
Yep, they did a mixed setlist. Promoters probably didn't deem sensible to book for KJ two nights on a row at that price (30€). I've read that next month Firehouse will do precisely this in the same venue, which is bizarre.
― no-nonsense, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 11:18 (seventeen years ago)
firehouse?
as in "baby, don't treat me bad"?! surely not...
― m the g, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 11:27 (seventeen years ago)
Having spent nearly twenty-five years of time and money invested in Killing Joke, this was to have been a triumph. Instead, it ended up being something altogether different.
The Forum is full of people who appear to have stumbled in directly from 1984. Mohicans abound, although the shaving in them appears odd, and on closer inspection the signs are all obvious. A room of middle-aged men pretending, possibly for one last time, they are still teenagers. There are paunches, neatly trimmed moustaches, business suits; even the bar is selling little other than Tuborg and weak cider, presumably in tribute. And so it is on stage.
I have no idea who the first band were, or why they were on the bill. They are like Mika fronting The Automatic and if more than 5 people ackonledge their presence I'd be amazed. They're followed by Treponem Pal, who are back together again. The new songs are still pretty great (including one very long one that briefly makes me think a Treponem Pal/Young Gods tour could be the best thing ever) but the years haven't been especially kind to Marco and it all looks bizarre. We get dub DJing from Alex Patersson, which prompts from me some semi-drunken theorising about how much reggae and dub have (or indeed, haven't) changed over the years and the last bastion of it may well be white men of a cetain age. Then, heralded by video footage, Killing Joke finally take the stage.
Bizarrely, two of them appear to have come in fancy dress. Jaz is wearing what seems to be directly ripped of Heath Ledger Joker makeup, but even stranger is Youth, who is dressed as Don Johnson Out Of Miami Vice with a matching white sun visor. But let's not obsess about how they're dressed, it's about the music, right? Well they don't directly go for the 'Don't Look Back' style run through, but the albums are mostly played in order, and one after the other, with 'Eighties' as a bridging song between the two and 'The Wait' tacked on to the end of 'what's THIS for'. And this, perhaps more than anything else, may have shown up the problems. The sound early on is muddy as hell, with the guitar particularly low in the mix and it's only clear when we get to the 'Fall Of Because' why this is - it's been set up directly to suit the sound of that album and self-titled be damned. As such, side one of 'what's THIS for' is an incredible highlight and everything else just feels like an afterthought, and that can't be right. 'Pssyche' closes, as it always did. Many go home.
What then follows is very odd. Jaz comes out and asks for a minute's silence for Raven, which is VERY badly observed by the crowd. He then rewrites their time togethe by insisting they were always good friends and never fell out not even once, before a very routine (and tired) canter through 'Love Like Blood' which gets the biggest cheers of the night and the only noticeable singalong. A stumble through 'Change' follows before "the first song we ever did together" which, if possible, is an even more cack-handed version of 'Are You Receiving' than several of the versions I have floating about from the very, very early shows when there were so few songs there were Sex Pistols covers to pad the set out. With that, and sporadic cheering, it's over.
This night should have been the culmination of everything. Instead, it was a wallowing episode in nostalgia, one last hurrah before retreating forever into a life none of us would ever have dreamed would be ours in the 80s. I saw people I hadn't seen in over 10 years, veterans of Courtald, Finsbury Park, people that were supposed to be going to the Cook Islands. I spoke to one, and couldn't face speaking to any more. We're not the same people and this was a night when we couldn't acknowledge this simple fact. I have never felt so old as on the journey home.
― aldo, Saturday, 4 October 2008 14:49 (seventeen years ago)
Don't forget Michael Meecher (Labour MP, on the left of the party, ex-cabinet minister) was there and Jaz reckons Meecher knows the truth about 9/11 and the "inside job".
Nothing else to add to aldo's thoughts on the Killing Joke gig except to agree with him. KJ were never that important to me (I was too in to Joy Division) but I recognise their importance to post punk and after. And there is no doubt that there was a sad feel about last night. You couldn't escape the atmosphere of a last chance to grab your youth (sic) before a return to normal middle age life.
― Guilty_Boksen, Saturday, 4 October 2008 16:33 (seventeen years ago)
Also "I would like to say thanks to Geordie and Big Paul, for teaching me enough about music to record an album as good as 'Urban Hymns'."
― aldo, Saturday, 4 October 2008 20:18 (seventeen years ago)
didn't youth always sport that don johnson look?
http://www.codaagency.com/agents/artists.asp?artistid=1585
i went to the glasgow show and there was also a sad feel about it, although jaz's increasingly out there rants were quite amusing. he managed to rile some of the crowd by telling us that scotland would be completely f**cked if we became independent. he started some other rant but paul ferguson had obviously had enough and counted in the song and he was completely drowned out by geordie (who on at least one occasion could be seen trying to sneak a smoke on stage - it's hard to be sneaky when there are 1200 people watching!).
i sort of wish i hadn't gone although i did enjoy listening to geordie who from my vantage point looked like he hadn't aged a day. unlike all of us in the audience.
― stirmonster, Monday, 6 October 2008 12:56 (seventeen years ago)
I'm DJing the Sunday night at Irving Plaza. Any requests guys?!!?!?!?
― jonathan - stl, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 21:51 (seventeen years ago)
Bunch of roots UK punk with proto-Goth (hi Alex!) and Dub influences seems like the ticket: The Ants "Physical", UK Decay "Unexpected Guest", Ruts "Babylon's burning" for starters.
― Soukesian, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:29 (seventeen years ago)
Yeah, UK Decay for definite. 1919 as well, I think. Plus, for the reggae/dub interface, 'Chase The Devil', GTA be hanged.
― aldo, Wednesday, 8 October 2008 22:58 (seventeen years ago)
Awesome. I'll keep that stuff in mind!
― jonathan - stl, Thursday, 9 October 2008 05:03 (seventeen years ago)
Of course, any more requests are completely welcome.
― jonathan - stl, Thursday, 9 October 2008 05:04 (seventeen years ago)
. . oh, and PiL, for sure.
― Soukesian, Thursday, 9 October 2008 09:20 (seventeen years ago)
I honoured the fire last night in Los Angeles, and it was awesome. I don't know if they were just warming up on the UK shows, but they were fantastic. And the crowd was surprisingly diverse.
― Hell Bent for Leatherface (J3ff T.), Friday, 10 October 2008 22:20 (seventeen years ago)
I am jealous, I admit! No way I could have made it but hey.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 October 2008 22:48 (seventeen years ago)
Rumor had it that Morrissey was at the LA show.
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 10 October 2008 22:59 (seventeen years ago)
I used a urinal next to Dave Grohl.
― Hell Bent for Leatherface (J3ff T.), Friday, 10 October 2008 23:07 (seventeen years ago)
Might as well revive this thread of the eight million KJ ones -- Enjoy a bit of the new documentary
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 4 September 2009 13:12 (sixteen years ago)
Disappointed that it wasn't the 'chimp pissing in its mouth' video.
― Don't Be A Ned Raggett (King Boy Pato), Friday, 4 September 2009 13:13 (sixteen years ago)
Never mind that shit, why not GO TO THE OFFICIAL PAGE!
― Alex in NYC, Friday, 4 September 2009 13:39 (sixteen years ago)