KILLING JOKE guitarist Geordie Walker dead at 64

The news came as a shock: the legendary English rock band lost its guitarist following a stroke

Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker has passed away today (Sunday, November 26) in Prague, Czechia, at the age of 64. Two days earlier Geordie had a massive stroke. Today, his close friend Luca Signorelli confirmed the tragic news: “This morning I got a phone call, telling me that Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker had died few hours ago in Prague, following a massive stroke last Friday.”

The band’s drummer, Martin Atkins commented on his bandmate’s death by sharing a video of THE DAMAGE MANUEL’s ‘Laugh Track’ with the caption reading “gutted”. In the comments section, Atkins wrote “Geordie has passed”. He then took to X (ex-Twitter) and wrote: “#GodBless Geordie Walker”.

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Remembering the years spent with Geordie, Luca Signorelli wrote: “the closest friend and most important person I’ve ever had outside my family. I don’t remember even one moment Geordie was around that was awkward or boring.”

Talking with MTV, Coleman said about Walker:

“Working with Geordie Walker — he’s a magic player. It’s my deepest pleasure to have spent more years with him and more time with him than my own blood[-related] brother.”

Geordie Walker and Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards) were the only constant members of Killing Joke lineup. Side by side they walked the whole path, starting with their post-punk sound in early 1980s (which co-founder Ferguson described as “the sound of the earth vomiting”), experimenting with electronic and synth-pop atonal elements and later incorporating gothic and industrial rock. Killing Joke’s music has influenced many later artists, including Metallica, Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails. Their biggest commercial success across Europe was the hit “Love Like Blood”, which landed in U.K. singles chart in 1985.

In November 2020 Finnish journalist Jyrki “Spider” Hämäläinen published the band’s biography, titled “Killing Joke: Are You Receiving?” The band was still creatively active and wasn’t planning to call it quits. In March 2022 Killing Joke released a new EP, Lord Of Chaos, marking their first new music in seven years. They dropped a brand new single, ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ and enjoyed a sold-out headline show at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

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