Killing Joke - Classic Or Dud, Search And Destroy

I hate this fucking world.

I hate that it took the death of Paul Raven to bring it about, but.............

..............

...................

i'm guessing i need to read your blog alex to plug in the gaps of that statement ?

Thursday, February 28, 2008

UPDATE FROM JAZ: 29TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE GATHERING

"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 their be gladness in your hearts."

ah ha .. sorry.
was a little too quick off the mark there.

'requiem' is one of my favourite opening tracks ever.

it's pretty awesome

I like it too.

actually, that entire first record is something quite special. so powereful and enamoured with meaning, yet so digestible

Damn right.

Erm.

Official Statement

A statement was posted on Facebook, reputedly by our singer, maligning both The Cult and The Mission and pulling us out of the shows.
He is now AWOL and has not contacted any of his band mates.

We are deeply embarrassed by this and offer our sincere apologies to all involved.

We are all concerned about our missing singer's welfare.

Killing Joke made a collective decision to play with The Cult and The Mission in September.

It was agreed by all of the band that we would do these shows. Indeed, we thought that they were something to look forward to, even though they were downsized.

We would still like to honour our commitment to this tour, the other bands, and all the Gatherers and people who have already bought tickets and made travel arrangements.

If this proves not possible, Killing Joke will make alternative arrangements to compensate for the trouble caused.

Meanwhile we are doing everything we can to make this tour happen and locate our missing singer.

KILLING JOKE

So I lost track of the story after the original facebook post about leaving the tour. Did it turn out to actually be Jaz who wrote it? I thought he was perhaps above using slang like "They all suck". But now he's hiding out somewhere, so who knows.

Did they check the bathroom?

Dear Gatherers,
It gives me great pleasure to announce the cancellation of the upcoming gigs with The Cult and The Mission.

Frankly, playing at a gig with The Cult never appealed to me in the first place. The only reason we allowed ourselves to be talked into it was to blow both bands off the stage and to steal their respective audiences.

As the concert has been downgraded to a venue that we have recently headlined (and sold out) it doesn't make sense. In addition to this Gatherers would only get to listen to a one hour set.

Then there would be a problem with the dressing room and witnessing The Cult charge the fans $200 per head for a Meet & Greet.

Lastly, all their songs suck! They clearly have no integrity (they refer to their hometown as L.A.)...

On a more positive note KJ will be recording in Argentina just after Christmas and Brixton Academy is booked for Spring.

I do believe the band will play a private gig at Metropolis Studios (London) which is of course open to all Gatherers (you are the first to know!).

I hope you are all as relieved as I am!

Black Jester

PS I don't want your money
PPS Life without KJ is unthinkable!"

It's YOU who is shit, am0n.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, July 23, 2007 5:12 PM

XD

KILLING JOKE To Release The Singles Collection 1979-2012 This Spring Via Spinefarm/Universal

KILLING JOKE will celebrate their 35th anniversary in style next year with the release of The Singles Collection 1979-2012 and a world tour set to commence in Europe this coming March. 2013 will also see the band release a new studio album!

The Singles Collection 1979-2012, set for release via Spinefarm/Universal on April 16, 2013, captures their ever-evolving story with a series of dark, apocalyptic songs that have successfully combined disco, funk and shamanic wisdom with the dark side of the punk fall-out. The Singles Collection 1979-2012 will be released in three formats: as a digital download, a limited edition 3-CD set and a super deluxe edition.

http://www.earsplitcompound.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/killing-joke.jpg

Formats:

3-CD Version includes:
- 33 career-spanning singles over 2 CDs + a third disc of rarities, including previously unreleased studio tracks. This 3-CD version will be limited in number, reverting to 2 CDs containing the singles tracks. To preorder, go HERE.

Super Deluxe Version includes:
- Hand-numbered hinged-lid “cigar box” made from 1500mcn black-lined rigid board finished with matt print retrospective artwork.
- 33 career-spanning CD singles plus selected B-Sides in full-color card wallets featuring original artwork.
- Rarities disc, including previously unreleased studio tracks.
- 32-page perfect-bound book including rare photos, archive notes, band commentary.
- Poster designed and personally signed by long-time KILLING JOKE artist/champion, Mike Coles, printed on 250gsm silk art.
- Aluminum screw-top branded cigar tube containing original wrappers of cigars smoked by Jaz Coleman and Paul Raven during the recording of the Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell album. To preorder this version, go HERE.

KILLING JOKE, with their original line-up of Jaz Coleman, Geordie, Youth and Big Paul continuing to hold firm, have signed a brand new deal with Spinefarm and will soon set about recording a third studio album for the label. The release date of this new studio album is likely to be late 2013.

Ooh, that looks nice. I finally found a copy of this year's album, I think it's even better than the last one. Shame about that cover art though.

They've lacked a good career overview for about 20 years! I'm curious about the unreleased material but I don't have high expectations. And yet, I've pre-ordered it (not the super deluxe, just the 3CD set). Sucker...

Original wrappers of cigars smoked six years ago? What else they hording?

You really don't want to know...

I've never had this happen before, but I was filling up at the gas station and a car drove up to the next pump blaring Killing Joke's "Love Like Blood." Before I turned my car off, I was blaring Killing Joke's "Love Like Blood" as well. What are the odds that two people at the same gas station are playing the same obscure 30 year old song? Must be astronomical.

thats pretty crazy!

double the fire!

I'm invariably setting myself up, but herewith my review of their latest..

Never been a fan, but read a review of a new documentary about the group that actually sounded p interesting - it's a good story, regardless of the music

The new album is pretty good, a bit of a mix of "Pandemonium" style metallics with 80s style Jaz vocals. I like the approach even if it doesn't always work, but then I've loved these guys for 30 years and can forgive the odd misstep.

Too many damn threads to search through for this band.

Fire Dances is the first time I've ever heard Killing Joke and I love it (great cover art too). And yeah, it does sound quite goth to me and even Sonic Youth in some moments. Really kicks off in the second track and keeps going.

Peel session of "Dominator" is really cool.

Looking forward to hearing the first 3 albums.

Sounds insane that some don't really rate this album but perhaps I'll know why when I hear the earlier ones.

It was Justin Broadrick's Baker's Dozen that got me to jump on Fire Dances.

thought this revive was cos of this article that an ex-ilm'r posted yesterday :

https://uk.lush.com/article/join-youth-club-why-killing-joke-deserve-kudos-post-punk-innovators

Honour the pie-er

https://piecaramba.bigcartel.com/product/official-jaz-coleman-killing-joke-pies

I can't tell if that's a piss-take or not...

No maggot option...

you know i think alex may have been onto something all these years.
just played "Absolute Dissent" through.
possibly the first time since i bought it, and it's f&cking brilliant.
maybe the world just needed to become as f*cked up as it is for their apocalyptical excess to make more sense.

'the raven king' : chills all over.
as good, if not better, than anything on 'night time'.

My take on Absolute Dissent at the time. Like Napalm Death, I’ll take 00’s Joke over the 80s version

https://web.archive.org/web/20101119023723/http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/6070

Really great take. Thanks for sharing. 'Absolute Dissent' is such a killer, fun listen. Pushing me to watch the documentary on BezosPrime - though I'm wondering if that will be a buzz kill take. Last two shows I had tix for, for their American tours were cancelled, but the one time I saw em is pretty burned on my brain.

But Killing Joke is a confusing enterprise.

indeed.
thanks for the pointer re the review bendy.
hits the nail on the head.

2 1/2 hours for a documentary on KJ is about 45-60 minutes too long, but I might have a look at that thing sometime this weekend anyway.

I’ve watched about half the doc, it’s pretty illuminating. Convincing as to how nuts the whole crew is.

It's been some time since their last album, gotta figure Jaz is in full conspiracy theory freak out mode so he should be full of wild lyrics...

The doc would be a solid 70 mins if you subtracted the 'mystical' stuff, Jaz's sketchy colleagues that have nearly nothing to do with the band, and the relentless tinfoil hat eschatology. His Mum is A+ though.

Cool, I did not know about the documentary.

Received wisdom is that the first 3 albums are best but I dont think the debut was anywhere near as good as Fire Dances.

I just started listening to What's THIS for...! after years of only knowing the debut and a couple of later tracks. It's got a relentlessly bleak energy, but compared to the debut, it also seems like nobody except the drummer prepared anything before they started recording. It fits the mood of our times well enough, though.

I enjoyed the documentary and didn't mind all the colleagues because it seemed like they were all important to what Jaz was doing. My only real problem are the jumps forward and back in time that seemed to make no sense at all.

Imdb reviews all complain of bad sound mix obscuring the interviews but I never had a problem with this, maybe it was fixed later?

I've started watching this in 20 minute bits here and there and felt the sound recording was often pretty bad and the mix wasn't helping

The editor has done a great job of papering over the seemingly quite limited footage, but at this stage I'm really wanting to see more of the band in full flight

I suppose that's what YouTube is for

Loving the second album. Hard to imagine any other classic punk band coming ahead of them in my heart.

Still very fond of that documentary aside from the weird timeline jumping

I got tired of waiting for a new album so I compiled a bakers dozen of 21st century Jaz guest appearances and collaborations and, as the kids say, it smacks:

Transformations - Proměny (with Čechomor)
Molten (Tribazik)
Human Smile (Les Tambours Du Bronx)
Freedom Song (Levee Walkers)
Tears For The West (Levee Walkers)
Party In The Chaos (with Deflore)
Sunset In The West (with Deflore)
Transhuman World (with Deflore)
The Day The Earth Went Mad (with Ondrej Smeykal)
Perversión (Liquidarlo Celuloide)
Remembrance Day (K÷93)
Giving Up The Ghost (K÷93)
Scrying (K÷93)

What's This For is a great album to play loudly. From cassette if possible.

Really enjoying the Alex Paterson bio. Lots of great stories and details around the formation of Killing Joke and sister(?) band Brilliant.

Lol at the early stretch of this thread.