Released.

Killing Joke released Fire Dances on this day in 1983.

"Let's All Go (To the Fire Dances)"...

And.

Introduced.

The world was introduced to Killing Joke on this day in 1980.

"Wardance"

Self-Educate.

In 2021, Jaz Coleman received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Gloucestershire.

Self-educate, as I did. Exercise, locate your God-gift.  Do what you love and get paid for it and you, too, will never have to work again ...

Killing Joke, "The Wait"

Geordie at 2:23 ...

Chimes.

SHALLOW

Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight and I have seen!—Ha, Sir John, said I well?

FALSTAFF

We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.

SHALLOW

That we have, that we have, that we have. In faith, Sir John, we have. Our watchword was "Hem, boys." Come, let's to dinner, come, let's to dinner. Jesus, the days that we have seen! Come, come.

William Shakespeare, from Henry IV, Act III, Scene II

Tradition.

Killing Joke founder, Jaz Coleman, on the origin of their sound ...

KYLE HARCOTT

The formative Killing Joke sound was unique amongst its contemporaries of the time, I wanted try and get a sense of where you were coming from musically, and how your beliefs tied into that formation as well.

JAZ COLEMAN

One of our foundations was to inspire a renaissance, when I remember my early conversations with Paul – and this was before Geordie and Youth [Glover, bass] even came on the scene. That was the objective; that and also to have an understanding of the world’s power system, the world power complex; and more importantly – to see ourselves in context to it. That was one of the other points I remember discussing with Big Paul.

Apart from that there was strict musical form. We rejected ALL blues music as musical communism, because it was a musical form from a foreign land and not our country of origin. We would ask ourselves these questions on what an Anglo-Saxon rhythm is, so Killing Joke came out of fierce debate like this. We rejected ALL guitar solos, on the grounds that they were an expression of ego – and that tradition remains to this day. The drums were always considered the royal instrument. Big Paul drew from Celtic tradition on drums, and we meant to reinvent and establish modern tribal drums of an Anglo-Saxon style – so in many respects we were almost writing our own folk music, because England has no real folk tradition. And by that I mean, no one sings the songs of their ancestors or forefathers anymore. If you asked 500 people in England today to sing the songs of their forefathers, they’d probably sing you a Manchester United song! So it was always about reestablishing tradition. And of course that’s what we are today.

EUPHORIA

Overcast, the branches bare

The autumn leaves have fallen

I can hear the magpies laugh

I can't shake this melancholy

And then the clouds break

A ray of sunlight, gloria!

As if a promise

Some strange kind of euphoria

Dark phantoms of the past

Some things are best forgotten

Like Orpheus, don't look back

The best years are waiting for you

And then the clouds break

A ray of sunlight, gloria!

As if a promise

Some strange kind of euphoria

And then the clouds break

A ray of sunlight, gloria!

As if a promise

Some strange kind of euphoria

And then the door breaks

A ray of sunlight, gloria!

As if a promise

Some strange kind of euphoria

Geordie Walker, Rest in Peace

One of my favorite guitarists, Geordie Walker, has passed.

"Wardance"

Music to march to ...