The entry will doubtlessly be of interest only to a select gaggle of readers, so bear that in mind as you progress.
Ten plus years into this blog, it’s rare that a month of posts go by without at least a cursory mention of Killing Joke … or, more accurately, my beloved Killing Joke, as I’m usually inclined to couch it. They were, are and remain my unequivocal favorites. If you’ve not figured that out by now, you’re just not paying attention.
In any case, as such, I’m usually quite keen to post things about them here. You might remember a lengthy entry here recently wherein I reviewed their latest album, Pylon. Invariably timed to the release of same, a British photographer named Frank Jenkison recently published “Killing Joke Picture Book 1979,” a collection of stark black ’n’ white photos of the band in its infancy. While a handful of these images had emerged over the years — manipulated renditions of them on compilation covers, etc. — to see the full array of images from Jenkinson’s sessions with the band is a revelation and a must for any die-hard fan (like myself). If you’re intrigued or would just like a preview, you can find out more via this page. I do highly recommend it.
More recently, however, a fellow fanatical Killing Joke acolyte — or Gatherer to use the proper parlance — named Simon Hill posted a series of photographs on Facebook that he shot of the band circa 1983, and they pretty much stopped me dead in my tracks.
Captured in a transitional incarnation, the band depicted in Hill’s photographs emanate the very essence of Killing Joke that struck me when I first heard them a year later. While making an arguably conscious effort to make their sound marginally more accessible, the Killing Joke of 1983 were augmenting their arsenal with a bit more color and texture than they’d employed in previous years. Possibly reinvigorated following the notorious Iceland episode (seek ye “The Death and Resurrection Show” if you’re unfamiliar with that particular saga), Killing Joke were on a new mission of conquest, with the freshly recruited Paul Raven on bass.
Here’s how Hill fleetingly remembers this performance….
From an old dusty box of slides in the loft. My guess is Spring Street Theatre Hull in July 1983, there might be some in there from Nottingham Rock City same tour. Enjoy.
Here's Killing Joke onstage in Florence, Italy a few months after these photos were taken....
More Killing Joke on Flaming Pablum....
Metadatapanic in the Age of Surveillance: Killing Joke Unleashes Pylon
No Telling, Only Joking: Back to the No-Tell Motel
Catching up with Big Paul Ferguson
Remembering the Raven
Interview with Big Paul Ferguson, September 4, 2004
Recent Comments