WORDS AND IMAGES BY BRIAN SAYLE
‘Jaz Coleman Is A Captivating Frontman, Facial Expressions Similar To Alice Cooper’
Killing Joke are back, the Honour The Fire tour is their first UK tour since the Laugh At Your Peril 40th Anniversary Tour back in 2019, but thankfully this time they have a show in the 02 Academy Liverpool, a city they haven’t played for a long time, they played Eric’s a few times in 1980 and once at the Royal Court in 86 but haven’t passed through this city for a few years now.
Coming out, with Jaz wearing a dark blue boiler suit and straight into “Love Like Blood” from the 1985 album Night Time, a timeless song with a haunting intro, followed by one of there oldest tracks from the debute LP “Wardance”, what a pair of tracks to open a set with, an overwhelming bittersweet sense of 80s nostalgia.
Onwards through The “Fall of Because”, “I Am The Virus”, “The Pandys Are Coming”….etc
Lots of old punks and goths are out tonight, original Erics and Planet X faces together again, not so much an organised reunion, they just all happen to be in the same place tonight to catch once again the post punk band originally formed in 1978. Its good to see though the crowd is not just older fans in there 40s and 50s but younger followers too are out tonight to see a band whose music transcends many genres, punk, new wave, industrial, Goth…etc Killing Joke are almost a genre on their own, few bands can draw such a diverse audience as we see tonight and there is good reason for it.
Around 700 are in tonight, tickets weren’t too cheap on the weekend everyone is stressing about the increase in energy bills but with a set around one hour 45 minutes long everyone is going to get their moneys worth.
Killing Joke have recently released their first new material in over seven years, “The Lord Of Chaos” EP which included two new songs and two re-worked songs from their last album, Pylon, released in 2015, they played the title track deep into the set
Jaz Coleman is a captivating frontman, facial expressions similar to Alice Cooper, gliding around the stage like a robot, his stage presence is like a well used machine. With very little chat tonight from the band, infact none from Jaz but late into the set Youth points out that Liverpool has always been good to them, they can still remember playing in Erics with Bauhaus and meeting Bill Drummond and Julian Cope for the first time.
Band:
Jaz Coleman – Lead Vocals, Synthesizer, Keyboards
Paul Ferguson – Drums, Backing Vocals
Geordie Walker – Guitars
Youth – Bass, Keyboards
Touring with the original June 1979 line up of frontman Jaz Coleman, Paul Ferguson on drums, guitarist Geordie Walker and Youth on bass, with the youngest member being 61 there is a lot of years of experience with these guys, 247 in total and the experience shows, they played a long set, few bands can hold a crowd for that long and leave them wanting even more.
After four decades Killing Joke have stood the test of time, apocalyptic live shows and on record, ending the set with “Pandemonium” I left with the lyrics stuck in my head
I can see tomorrow
I can see the world to come
I can see tomorrow
Hear the pandemonium
Wise words to end with, they have been predicting the Future since 1978, heres to many more years of Killing Joke
SET LIST
1.) Love Like Blood
2.) Wardance
3.) The Fall of Because
4.) I Am The Virus
5.) The Pandys Are Coming
6.) We Have Joy
7.) Money Is Not Our God
8.) This World Hell
9.) Primitive
10.) Turn to Red
11.) Lord of Chaos
12.) Mathematics of Chaos
13.) The Death and Resurrection Show
14.) Total Invasion
15.) Loose Cannon
16.) The Wait
17.) Pssyche
Encore:
18.) Requiem
19.) Pandemonium
FOLLOW KILLING JOKE
Brian Sayle is a freelance photographer from the North West of England who has been working professionally since 2014.
He used to be a house photographer for the Academy music group but has also covered live concerts for several blogs and publications and also been in print in magazines such as Metal Hammer and Terrorizer.
Multi disaplined with a camera his main specialist areas of expertise are live performance, both theatre and music and also architecture, he has photographed buildings across the UK ranging from modern architecture to Grade I listed buildings, both commercially and for his own pleasure.
BrianSaylePhotography.co.uk
