Well it’s with a heavy heart that I must share the death of one of the greatest ALT Rock guitarists of all time… GEORDIE WALKER. I saw KILLING JOKE twice last year on what turned out to be their penultimate tour. Unlike the STRANGLERS (another favourite group of mine) KJ remained solidly anti establishment with original line up members (theres no fan bashing any key former members as is the case with STRANGLERS and HUGH). The band even ventured into Anti Vax and Anti Military Industrial Complex areas not touched on by other artists …as well as the hell of Big Tech in various songs such as CORPORATE ELECT. What I loved was they proved one band could really escape the poisonous Music industry and be uncompromising. I met JAZ briefly in connection with an artist friend of his called SVANUR THORKELSSON from Iceland (incidentally COLEMAN disappeared to Iceland in 1982 and missed Top of the Pops as he thought it was doomsday !)
I had met SVAN at the previous Bristol date and as me and JAZ discussed UFOs i spotted WALKER hovering about looking exhausted behind the scenes…if only I’d been able to meet him too and it’s extraordinary to remember what a huge debt NIRVANA and the GRUNGE scene owed to KILLING JOKE. Particularly GEORDIE with his unusual face distinctive Cap and charming demeanor…His magnificent guitar made as deep a booming hum as any in heavy ROCK with a range that encompassed REGGAE, DUB, HEAVY METAL, INDIE , ALT ROCK and a true POST PUNK sensibility bordering on PROG. Below are some special photos I took in Bristol with meeting JAZ in Hammersmith too…LOVE LIKE BLOOD and EIGHTIES clearly had a slightly off tune on purpose unusual Hallmark style which certainly most obviously came to the fore with the COME AS YOU ARE riff which was a sped up version KURT improvised from the GW original…
At the bottom of this KJ piece is a very nice message from KEN RUSSELLs widow on my article on his lost COLERIDGE poetical epic…which is on this blog and was published.
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