Coleman returns

So, the missing Jaz Coleman has returned, apparently unaware that his 'working retreat' to the Sahara had led to reports of his disappearance.

He also claims that he knows nothing about the slagging of the Mission and Cult:

Yet mystery still surrounds the message on Facebook regarding The Cult and The Mission Shows of which Coleman claims no knowledge. 'Looks like this has caused a right ding dong and feel its impossible to continue this tour under the circumstances'. His comments were to wish both The Cult and The Mission the best of luck on the tour, and to find out who has been impersonating him.

A right old ding dong? Was Coleman spending time in the desert or the 19th Century? My guess is that the person who "impersonated" him will turn out to be the same person who hacked Grant Shapps' YouTube account that time. Or at least have a similar relationship to the "victim".

No Joke: Jaz Coleman is missing

Last week, Jaz Coleman was being grumpy about being forced to tour with The Mission and The Cult. Now, apparently, he's gone missing. That's what the band's official Facebook presence claims, anyway:

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

Amongst the band's fans, there seems to be a split over if this is something to be seriously worried about, or merely some sort of stunt. There's a lot of furious pointing to a similar vanishing back in 1982, which Coleman explained - sort of - in his autobiography:

The day I woke up in Iceland, I decided to become a composer for symphony orchestra in order to fully comprehend the workings of the universe. I have recently calculated that I could have quite realistically continued doodling on the piano for another 15-20 years if I had not conversed with my Holy Guardian Angel (or the true location of my genius, for want of a secular description). The subsequent knock-on effect of this very painful process was beyond my powers of explanation at that particular time. Indeed I do not truly believe it would have got me any further if I had explained to Youth and Big Paul. While I regret the hurt I caused, I would point out that if it had not been for this division, Youth would not have suddenly accelerated in the skills of production, making him the great producer he is today.

That Joke isn't coming any more: Killing Joke axe tour

There's a tour in September which brings together The Mission, The Cult and Killing Joke. Or at least, there's supposed to be. The whole thing is looking a bit sick now.

First, as Slicing Up Eyeballs reports, the whole thing downsized to smaller venues as organisers discovered the supply of ageing Goths isn't as large as they'd first thought.

Now, it looks like Killing Joke have quit the tour, although not yet officially:

[A] scathing note about the tour and, specifically, The Cult (“All their songs suck!”), purportedly written by Jaz Coleman, was posted then removed from the band’s Facebook page.

In part, that note read: “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.”

Really, Jaz? You've agreed to do a tour simply to pick up a few fans from The Mission? Fans who have clung doggedly to The Mission through thick and - let's be frank - an awful, awful lot of thin? Is anyone else thinking of that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine tries to turn the guy?

Has Jaz stopped to think that if last time his band sold out all the tickets, and yet even with addition of two other bands the tour can't even do a decent stab at filling out a larger venue, there's a possibility that the sell-out audience for Killing Joke left the venue going "I'm never going to see them again"? Because it doesn't sound like there was much demand for a second go, does it?

Downloadable: Killing Joke

The press people sharing the news about the new Killing Joke compilation Bustin' Out offer a delicious amuse bouche in the form of a free mp3 of November 1979 release Almost Red, with a plea:

Feel free to re-host this link but please don't deep link.

I suspect they mean rehost the track rather than the link to the file; which is what Vinyl District have done. Rather than duplicate their good work, I'll just point you there.

A musical Joke

It seems like days since a seminal 80s band got back together, so it's timely that Killing Joke have resurrected their 1987 model for a world tour and - with an eye on that Bauhaus record, we suspect - plans for a new album in the summer.

Rockobit: Paul Raven

The death has been announced of former Killing Joke bassist Paul Raven.

Born in Wolverhampton in 1961, Raven played bass for Kitsch, a proto-Dogs D'Amour, but his first big break came when he joined Killing Joke, taking over as Youth quit. He stepped down from the band in 1988, rejoining for the band's 1990 Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions album. Raven stayed on when the band dropped Jaz Coleman and morphed into Murder Inc. A 1992 Killing Joke reunion saw Youth return, but when the Joke revived in 2003 Raven again took on the bass.

A busy man, Raven also found time to be part of Prong and Godflesh, but perhaps achieved his greatest success after a meeting with Al Jourgensen led to him joining Ministry, a role he relished as it allowed him to bring his political side more to the fore:

"For me politics and punk rock went together. That has been handy about my association with Al and his Bush bashing. I have tried to keep my musical roots intact. I have lived in America so long I feel entitled to state my opinion. 'Maybe I can put a foot on George Bush's ass on his way out of the White House'."

Raven - who was working on a solo project, Mob Research - died of an apparent heart attack in a village on the France/Switzerland border.

What goes ha-ha-bonk?

Remember the 80's reporting that Killing Joke are back in the studio, with a new album and a one hundred date tour - one hundred of the things - written on Jaz Coleman's Puppy Love 2003 Calendar in pencil.