1. People near the coast should evacuate immediately, houses
are collapsing
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2. Israel may bomb Iran.
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3. If I were Iran I would be trying to get nuclear weapons.
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4. America was the first nation ever, to use nuclear weapons.
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5. 600 people are now confirmed dead,
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6. they died because they listened to the Governor.
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7. Who will help us already? We can not do anything!
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8. Does the dollar get destroyed or is every currency going to
get destroyed?
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9. A series of demonstrations against corporate greed
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10. Move! Keep moving please! Get out of the way!
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11. Civilians can be stopped on the street with very little actual
suspicious cause
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12. Do we fear China or do we need China?
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13. Because the extra low frequency waves
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14. drill deep into your brain.
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15. The sun has a temper tantrum.
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16. But it doesn't end there, if there were an electromagnetic
problem
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17. it could be the end of life as we know it.
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18. It is obvious why the world is so stressed and humanity
suffers as it does.
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19. And humanity suffers so much.
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20. If you look at what's circled in the centre you can see a smiley
face.
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21. Do we care? Do we have a moral compass anymore?
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22. I visualised Killing Joke
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23. before Killing Joke actually happened.
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24. There was a stage.
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25. An anonymous band emitting sounds of a primeval world;
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26. it was like a generator,
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27. and there was no applause, there was only dispersal,
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28. the musicians were like insects.
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29. LONDON
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30. I was standing in the dole queue about to sign on
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31. and there was this Indian guy in front of me, and he went'Hi,
my name's Carlos."
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32. and I said “Oh, my name's Jaz, I've come to London to form a
band?
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33. And he goes “I know, and I'm going to introduce you to the
drummer who lives in my house."
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34. I was already playing with a band,
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35. I met Jaz and invited him to join the group.
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36. But we both took off just before a concert.
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37. Which I'll eternally feel bad about
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38. but you know; needs must when the devil pees in your kettle.
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39. The second I set eyes on Paul's face,
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40. we both knew that destiny had struck us,
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41. It was kind of...
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42. mutual repulsion.
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43. We sort of discussed, well how are we going to meet
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44. two other guys who not only have a revolutionary style of
playing,
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45. but they also have a right side of brain capacity
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46. sufficiently developed
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47. to understand philosophy and broader ideas?
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48. Paul said
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49. "Magick".
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50. At that time I didn't know, that Paul knew
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51. anything about Magick.
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52. He had extensive knowledge about the ceremonial Magick,
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53. and the Rosicrucians, the system of the Golden Dawn.
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54. He had a very good understanding of the Kabbalah, the
mystery traditions
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55. and the secret history of the world.
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56. By then, I had already studied Wicca
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57. and ceremonial Magick.
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58. When I discovered that he had followed the same path as me,
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59. "that was it"
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60. Our mutual interest in all things occult and spiritual
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61. made us think we could do something musically
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62. that channeled what we were exploring.
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63. On the 26th February, three o'clock, 1979
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64. Paul and I performed the ritual of dedication
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65. to find the other two.
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66. We painted the floor black,
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67. and drew the circle and the Pentagram,
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68. aligning it with the cardinal points, as one should do
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69. We did a banishing ritual, stated our intentions,
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70. did an invocation ritual
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71. It was somewhat amateurish and basic stuff
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72. but, apparently, it apparently turned out to be quite powerful
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73. Unknowingly, we invoke the fire and er...
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74. the flat burnt down!
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75. The flat got burnt down because they got their navigational
compass points wrong.
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76. They had not yet perfected their art at the time
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77. "Have you heard? They've burned your flat!"
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78. WANT TO BE PART OF THE KILLING JOKE
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79. BASS AND GUITARIST WANTED
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80. I'm not quite sure how they found Geordie. I think it was
through
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81. A Melody Maker ad, and I was found through a Melody Maker
ad.
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82. Geordie showed up. He had long, curly, ginger hair
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83. and a Northern attitude.
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84. This sort of, Teddy, yob, lout type character.
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85. You have to take into consideration what he said on the
phone to us;
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86. “I've never played with a band but I'm the best in the world”.
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87. And when I asked him “Well where have you been playing?"
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88. he went “In my bedroom at my Mum's place",
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89. It did not sound very good.
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90. When he plugged in, and he started playing,
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91. it was like fire from heaven...
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92. I knew it, I knew the sound,
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93. it was a complete sense of déjà vu, it was incredibly
emotional,
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94. and I was so, so excited.
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95. He came over to my bedsit in Earl's Court and he said
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96. "You'll have to come up to Cheltenham where the singer
lives, do an audition."
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97. Tempted him down there under the sort of premise of free
food and lodging.
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98. So we ended up all up in Cheltenham at Jaz's Mum's place
and Mr. C too, god rest his soul
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99. and booked the first rehearsal.
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100. Do you know I'd really love to know the date?
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101. You know it was just Jaz bashing around on this electric
piano
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102. and he had this sort of beret, a feather, he was a bit of a hippy
really.
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103. He denies this fervently, but he had a feather earring
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104. and I just thought that was really weird.
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105. The Youth in his swastika t-shirt and his fucking chain doing
the full Sid routine.
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106. It was just sort of, ”Oh, oh it's him"!
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107. I was the most really experienced in the real world,
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108. because I'd done tours with other bands and I'd done proper
gigs
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109. and they'd never played outside their bloody youth club
basically.
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110. I think he was trying to avoid something
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111. something or trying to find somewhere to live or something
like that you know?
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112. And he was just there.
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113. We played a bit and Jaz and Paul commented:
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114. “Let's go to the pub and talk about this.”
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115. I don't think they were very impressed.
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116. Youth couldn't play he fucking choked.
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117. “Come on, Jesus Christ, you've got to . . ."and we just
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118. ended up fucking finding one note and fucking staying on it.
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119. And it went on for ages and got more and more intense
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120. Jaz and Paul walked in on it.
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121. We'd had enough to drink and it was like, "Well, shall we?"
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122. Perhaps the beer had worked it's magic but,
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123. it wasn't the same room that we'd left.
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124. Paul just went straight for the kit and started playing,
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125. and then Jaz just started playing and that became
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126. "Are You Receiving", our first single.
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127. I considered that point the birth of the band, that was it.
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128. When the chemistry comes together, when the planets
collide, you know?
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129. It ain't a fucking set up this shit
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130. Shrewdly I think we spent almost a year rehearsing in
Cheltenham before
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131. we unleashed ourselves.
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132. I think within seventeen gigs
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133. we were headlining at the Lyceum.
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134. Needless to say, these two great souls that manifested
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135. were Geordie and Youth. The Magick had worked.
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136. "Pssyche", this was a John Peel session, in November
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137. 1979.
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138. That was a few years ago!
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139. John Peel said: "This is a good band."
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140. He thought it was a professional band having him on
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141. He said: "I have never had a band as good as this."
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142. It was for "Turn To Red".
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143. Killing Joke are good. Good punk. Not commercial.
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144. A lot of bands nowadays have gone crap commercial.
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145. We'd come through all these punk bands who were really
good to go and see live,
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146. but they couldn't play for fuck. Bands like Eater and...
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147. The Clash were around,
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148. but were just a pretend rock 'n' roll band dressed up as punks,
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149. and The Sex Pistols had almost disintegrated by then.
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150. But then Killing Joke, it wasn't just screaming and shouting
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151. and... They could actually really play.
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152. We like rhythm, you know . . .?
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153. Rhythm, you understand?
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154. Because it makes me feel... Rhythm makes me feel like I'm a
human being,
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155. like I'm an animal, you understand?
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156. I saw them for the first time in 1981, I was 16 years old...
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157. No other group has made me feel the same.
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158. It was like an electric shock going through me.
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159. When I actually saw them play it was incredible.
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160. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife it was really... And
it was a real tribal thing,
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161. they were giving out to the audience, the audience were
giving back...
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162. and it had this air of menace to it which you know,
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163. I love that in music: menace and danger.
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164. I know they're terms that are used a lot in music
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165. but believe me it was really there.
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166. Jaz would come on in full make-up
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167. and you didn't know whether to laugh or to be totally afraid
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168. because he kind of looked like the Devil...
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169. but it was slightly perverse and a bit strange and almost
silly.
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170. Nothing like that scares me I'm from Salford; who gives a fuck
about the Devil?
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171. He wasn't comfortable being the singer, he didn't want to be,
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172. he wanted to be the keyboard player and we had arguments
about it.
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173. I had a voice, but, playing the drums and being the singer, it
looks really bad
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174. it was never going to go anywhere!
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175. So he is the reluctant frontman of the band.
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176. You have a sort of, very mixed image I think, certainly in the
band,
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177. from your sort of Alvin Lee rocker type hairstyle
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178. to this Sid Vicious twisted hair, how does that arise?
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179. Well it's always been like this,
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180. we don't consider ourselves to be anything other than
individuals.
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181. We have our own personal likes and dislikes,
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182. and out of this somehow
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183. we coalesce into something called Killing Joke.
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184. Paul never seemed to be thrashing away you know, he wasn't
Keith Moon or...
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185. It was just quite controlled but, huge power.
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186. If he looked at me I thought he'd... hit me you know
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187. He had me on the edge of my pants, I had to keep up with
him
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188. and, not make him look silly. He made me into a good player.
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189. You're certainly more on the, the art, sort of University
circuit...
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190. No that's rubbish,
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191. there's nut-cases at our gigs,
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192. Why?
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193. They're the only sort of honest people, you know, they
haven't got any pretense about them you know?
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194. I just thought, this is what music should be,
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195. it's just like being hit in the face by a train.
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196. When I joined I was the one who wasn't really into the occult
and the Magick
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197. I was a really arrogant, conceited, young punk,
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198. who thought he knew everything?
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199. And suddenly I was totally flung
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200. into this hermetic, occult, mystical world
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201. of possibilities and realities, of which I'd never been aware of
before
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202. and I did blow a few fuses.
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203. When they first came in they were a cocky bunch of guys,
really.
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204. They'd come in as a pack
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205. and then after a while I found out that they were this band
called Killing Joke,
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206. which meant nothing to me at the time.
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207. I heard a bit of their music and it fitted.
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208. Looking at the times that I grew up,
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209. the hippy dream had started to get a bit nasty,
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210. people started dropping acid, went to various gurus
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211. and Eastern philosophy and everything;
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212. It was all starting to eat itself, with the Manson stuff...
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213. And I think that's sort of culturally
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214. when people started looking at mysticism,
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215. and perhaps Aleister Crowley and all that sort of thing,
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216. for their, you know, new experience of the enlightenment
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217. that hippiedom had promised them.
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218. Prepare to enter a world
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219. stranger than you have ever imagined:
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220. The world of witchcraft, Magick and ritual.
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221. It was very much a time for throwing away the rules,
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222. you were considered terribly staid and unnecessarily stupid
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223. if you did it the way round that people have been doing it for
a hundred years, four hundred years, whatever.
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224. And so you just launched yourself into
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225. whatever particular ritual you wanted to do at the time,
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226. and you were prepared to take the consequences
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227. because all men think that they're going to live fast and die
young and what the hell.
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228. We call to the Earth.
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229. We call to the sky.
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230. Mother father.
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231. We were shamanistic, generally speaking,
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232. and devotional, which was Geordie and myself
predominantly.
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233. We would celebrate the moons to get,
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234. our actions aligned with
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235. the seasons of mother nature.
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236. Paul was actually the ceremonial one.
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237. I grew up listening to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin.
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238. What you going to do, what's that all about?
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239. There's no doubt about the fact that your overall beliefs,
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240. no matter what they are, are going to underlie what you're
doing.
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241. I do not know collectively, but as far as Jaz goes
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242. I know that mysticism played a very important role to him.
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243. Within the music, he's either playing with Magick
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244. or Magick's playing with him.
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245. What was apparent about him was that he was a doer, he's an
experimenter,
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246. he doesn't just accept what he's told.
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247. We used to take the car and go to the Rollright Stones in
Oxford.
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248. Sometimes at very important dates, you know, like Solstice.
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249. I was even starting to be scared to be perhaps sacrificed,
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250. and I was keeping a very low profile, disappearing into the
forest or something!
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251. And let them do their ritual in the middle of the circle.
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252. We would use drum and mantra.
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253. I would take my ocarinas
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254. and I would move in a clockwise direction
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255. in a spiral dance around the stone circle
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256. We became adept at raising energy at these grid
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257. points, we became really, really good,
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258. we could activate these grid points
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259. There was so much symbolism and so many things I thought:
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260. oh my God, perhaps I'm going to die!
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261. And of course this technique was sort of employed
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262. within raising the energy live on stage.
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263. And eventually the two became one,
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264. the gigs became
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265. ceremonies.
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266. And then we did it on a grid point,
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267. by accident,
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268. and time was transcended.
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269. Reading Hexagon. Mad fucking gig, and suddenly...
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270. about five songs in...
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271. it's gone silent, totally fucking silent.
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272. You just heard this, “khhhhhhhh”.
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273. And before this it was just screaming madness.
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274. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.
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275. And I'd be looking at Geordie
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276. Everything was slowing down.
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277. I'm playing the fucking guitar... What the fuck? I can't hear
anything.
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278. And I'm witnessing this body playing,
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279. I'm getting scared, so I look over to Jaz,
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280. and he's on the keyboard, and he's doing exactly the same;
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281. “what the fuck's going on?"
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282. I had no idea what was going on.
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283. Total silence.
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284. Total. Fucking. Silence
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285. I'd look at the audience and they're all like, “Woah? What's
going on?"
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286. It became an out of body experience.
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287. We're very fucking clever aren't we? We did this man,
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288. we fucking got it to this stage:
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289. God walks through the fucking room.
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290. And then suddenly; Whoosh
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291. BANG! Back into super-reality of the place going insane.
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292. Could have been thirty seconds, could have been forty
seconds,
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293. but it was paradise for fucking forty seconds
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294. It was the most incredible experience
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295. and we experienced it collectively...
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296. and everybody shit themselves.
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297. The other thing in the early days with Killing Joke was the...
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298. the actual Killing Joke as a unit.
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299. The minute the four of them got together,
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300. it was a complete personality change.
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301. This wasn't Paul Ferguson, this wasn't Jaz Coleman,
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302. this was Killing Joke,
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303. and that's when the aggro over the artwork would start.
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304. It was just chalk and cheese, they'd want something I'd want
something else,
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305. and I'd do something and we'd fight and whoever got the last
word...
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306. I mean I totally fucked up the sleeve to 'What's THIS For . . .!'
on purpose.
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307. Paul Ferguson said "Oh we want that for the album,
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308. that's going to be brilliant."
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309. I said “Well I haven't finished doing what I was doing with it."
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310. I just got really angry,
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311. and threw some films together and said you go on and
fucking print that then you bastards.
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312. WHAT'S THIS FOR . . .! IS THE WALKING, TALKING,
INCARNATION OF EVIL
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313. Sounds gave it five stars for music, and one star for morals!
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314. And I've never seen that before or since.
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315. The guy was freaked out, and he felt obliged to put a warning
in,
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316. that it could corrode you spiritually!
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317. Killing Joke is best explained in your emotions;
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318. in the eyes, in the mouth, in the emotions you see?
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319. See, we try to be human beings in Killing Joke that's all.
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320. Killing Joke were not a polite band,
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321. they really don't say things just to please you I mean... They
were really raw.
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322. Hammersmith Palais, February 23, 1982.
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323. A French television team was there so it was really organised.
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324. I'd been doing the interview before, I was trying to talk about
occultism,
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325. but Jaz said: "I do not know what you mean."
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326. They had these huge studio TV cameras in the middle of the
dance floor,
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327. and the whole thing collapsed with the weight of the fans.
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328. I remember being terrified because I was down the front,
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329. and I remember just bodies falling and bodies flying around
me,
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330. the bouncers trying to pull people out
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331. and shouting “Stop playing! Stop playing!”
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332. And I remember Jaz looking at this chaos at the front
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333. and just went “Wardance!” and then they went straight into
'Wardance'!
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334. And it was just like a scene from
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335. Dante's Inferno down the front and they weren't going to
stop playing!
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336. I think he was really pleased to be filmed that day.
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337. It was going to be shown on French television on a Saturday,
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338. so twenty million people are going to see Killing Joke.
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339. Western civilisation, I give it, twenty months
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340. and it'll be gone, all gone; bang!
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341. SINGER VANISHES
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342. SINGER (?),
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343. KEYBOARD WIZARD, AND ALL ROUND POISON DWARF
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344. JAZ HAS GONE AWOL... PRESUMED DISTURBED.
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345. Jaz had a Wobbler, he basically thought that the end was
nigh.
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346. He went on one of his birthdays I even made him a cake and
he disappeared.
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347. JAZ VANISHES
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348. We were standing outside a television studio, we were
supposed to go on
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349. and this sort of letter showed up, you know,
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350. saying "599 Ya!"
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351. “Where is Jaz Coleman?”
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352. And they phoned me up and I wouldn't tell them.
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353. JAZ... IS ALIVE... AND WELL...
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354. LIVING IN ICELAND
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355. Punk star goes nuts runs off to Iceland; great story.
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356. We learned that he had fled to Iceland.
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357. And did anyone give a fuck...?
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358. No.
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359. I fled myself a couple of times, never made it to Iceland but I
made it to the Isle of Wight once,
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360. realised what a shithole it was and came home.
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361. "Fuck You!"
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362. JAZ IS STILL REFUSING TO EXPLAIN WHY HE LEFT THE BAND
IN THE LURCH
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363. HIS RESPONSE WAS A CURT "FUCK OFF"
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364. And that was when I left the band, or when the band left me!
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365. Because first 3217. went, and then Geordie
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366. I was sitting in my flat, and I felt something behind me.
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367. But I didn't turn round, I deliberately ignored it.
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368. That thing that I felt was actually Geordie leaving,
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369. It was Geordie out the front door, because we lived together.
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370. Silently and stealthily, like a snake,
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371. They took off without leaving me a note.
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372. And with Jaz I was particularly upset
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373. because I had to read about it in the bloody NME.
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374. I'd known these guys four or five years,
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375. gone through some serious rights of passage with them
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376. and they can't even give me the time of day.
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377. Well I don't know what happened in Iceland
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378. because I had to go out and work in the Middle East,
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379. I was skint because I didn't get any money out of Killing Joke
or Malicious Damage!
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380. I'm not sure that it went very well for them over there.
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381. ICELAND
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382. Jaz told me that he had read and article
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383. about what would be the safest place in the world if there
was a nuclear war...
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384. and in that article it said the north east of Iceland.
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385. Another thing was that he was the reincarnation of Aleister
Crowley.
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386. I think he was the third or the fourth one that I've met.
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387. There is a sentence in the Book of the Law which says
“Choose ye an island and fortify it!"
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388. and things like that.
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389. “Island" is written the same way that we write “Iceland” in
Icelandic,
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390. that was also a connecting point,
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391. I think he sincerely believed that.
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392. The thing about the Book of the Law is that Crowley
channelled it in 1904
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393. and he spent the rest of his life trying to decode it.
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394. Because of its complexity, it is open to interpretation.
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395. I mean at one time I had a moated site in Sussex
Copy !req
396. and I thought that was the island!
Copy !req
397. It's your application to your, you know, your Magickal destiny.
Copy !req
398. I found many references,
Copy !req
399. Prophetic references,
Copy !req
400. describing a better way of life,
Copy !req
401. an island that survives the great upheaval.
Copy !req
402. The interesting thing was;
Copy !req
403. all the references I discovered,
Copy !req
404. were nearly all by Rosicrucian authors.
Copy !req
405. At the centre of the Golden Dawn system of Magick
Copy !req
406. lies the invocation of the holy guardian angel;
Copy !req
407. an ecstatic mystical process
Copy !req
408. that fascinated the chiefs and leading members of the
Golden Dawn.
Copy !req
409. Individuation, in Jungian terms,
Copy !req
410. is about tapping into the unconscious.
Copy !req
411. Each of us has a dark double,
Copy !req
412. an adversary that we must face.
Copy !req
413. And until we know this double
Copy !req
414. we do not know ourselves.
Copy !req
415. So I decided to go through this process.
Copy !req
416. Apart from Geordie, no one was really aware of my intentions,
Copy !req
417. I couldn't honestly imagine sitting down
Copy !req
418. with the band and management
Copy !req
419. explaining why I wanted to study a range of different
subjects, from Nordic mythology
Copy !req
420. to the study of radiations that emanate from certain holy
sites,
Copy !req
421. let alone the location of my holy guardian angel.
Copy !req
422. So, I made plans in secret and left for Iceland,
Copy !req
423. and then, I began the process of individuation
Copy !req
424. at Snaefellsjökull Glacier.
Copy !req
425. This is special!
Copy !req
426. There are many people who believe
Copy !req
427. that there is some special power in the glacier...
Copy !req
428. I believe that also, there's some power up there I can feel it
myself.
Copy !req
429. It's an energy spot.
Copy !req
430. The energy is intense, is not good or bad, is pure energy.
Copy !req
431. It amplifies whatever is there
Copy !req
432. so if you're an evil person you'll be a more evil person if your
standing there
Copy !req
433. and if you're good, you'll be even better.
Copy !req
434. I remember we went to the glacier.
Copy !req
435. It was the right night, the right moon...
Copy !req
436. We were walking for two or three hours,
Copy !req
437. when we get up to the snow...
Copy !req
438. It suddenly got warmer and misty-er,
Copy !req
439. it was like we were welcomed you know, the mountain was in
control.
Copy !req
440. They were very happy to be there, and they started
dancing...
Copy !req
441. Jaz was not walking anymore and it was beyond fucking
doubt
Copy !req
442. he was levitating, he was about two foot off the ground,
Copy !req
443. quite fucking surreal.
Copy !req
444. It is a strange place.
Copy !req
445. The elements change, the vibrations change,
Copy !req
446. your physical body disappears or appears.
Copy !req
447. The energy of that fucking place was. ..
Copy !req
448. I wouldn't say intense it was just fucking freedom,
Copy !req
449. absolute fucking freedom.
Copy !req
450. There was a rumour from Iceland that they were messing
Copy !req
451. around with a weird sound machine that vibrated...
Copy !req
452. Brian reckons that they rang him up and tried
Copy !req
453. to do something to him over the phone once.
Copy !req
454. The theory of the walls of Jericho.
Copy !req
455. And you can actually do deep enough sound
Copy !req
456. sound and it will shake walls and bring down buildings
Copy !req
457. but you know, that's just fucking weird rumours.
Copy !req
458. I took part in something called Oracle Project.
Copy !req
459. A certain number of geomancers who got together.
Copy !req
460. Experiments were conducted on human behaviour
Copy !req
461. by means of resonance,
Copy !req
462. this was done with a gentleman called Gutti Ottarsson,
Copy !req
463. open-minded inventor, who also happened to be a musician.
Copy !req
464. Jaz joins forces with the Icelandic band 'Theyr'
Copy !req
465. Theyr and Jaz are planning to work on a concept called (you
guessed it) "Iceland"
Copy !req
466. The Band Iceland-Niceland, Jaz Coleman and Theyr
Copy !req
467. it was a very intense, small group of people.
Copy !req
468. We wanted our music to break through your defense
mechanism;
Copy !req
469. we went to great lengths to encode messages
Copy !req
470. into the structure of our music in very subtle ways.
Copy !req
471. One element that was very dominant
Copy !req
472. in the music of Theyr and Killing Joke
Copy !req
473. was the strange intervals we used.
Copy !req
474. We were not using minors or majors,
Copy !req
475. we were doing diabolic intervals,
Copy !req
476. very dissonant,
Copy !req
477. but if you put all the dissonance and the demons together,
Copy !req
478. they turn into angels.
Copy !req
479. Very simple,
Copy !req
480. but it breaks all the rules;
Copy !req
481. that was Jaz Coleman.
Copy !req
482. Break all the rules,
Copy !req
483. collect all the demons
Copy !req
484. from music, throughout five thousand years
Copy !req
485. and put them together in one song.
Copy !req
486. Gutti was interested in developing a prototype
Copy !req
487. to create mood changes within the perimeter of a concert,
Copy !req
488. however my interests lied firmly in researching the Earth's
pulse rate
Copy !req
489. of 7.83Hz
Copy !req
490. which I considered would be more prevalent in sacred sites.
Copy !req
491. I could see a correlation between healing in such areas
Copy !req
492. by gradually adjusting the Earth's pulse rate by chant,
mantra,
Copy !req
493. in order to accomplish quantum healing.
Copy !req
494. And so, I embarked upon a series of experiments
Copy !req
495. with two of my colleagues at the Oracle Project.
Copy !req
496. Sarah Parkinson...
Copy !req
497. was a student of the occult,
Copy !req
498. and I met her in Cheltenham when I was eighteen.
Copy !req
499. And then there was Vivan Ottisdottir,
Copy !req
500. Gutti's sister.
Copy !req
501. I see the Earth rising a second time,
Copy !req
502. out of the foam, fair and green.
Copy !req
503. Down from the fells, fish to capture,
Copy !req
504. wings to eagle, waters flow.
Copy !req
505. We repeated these four lines over and over again,
Copy !req
506. until we entered another dimension.
Copy !req
507. We called it "Universe B".
Copy !req
508. I see the Earth rising a second time,
Copy !req
509. out of the foam, fair and green.
Copy !req
510. Down from the fells, fish to capture,
Copy !req
511. wings to eagle, waters flow.
Copy !req
512. The experiences
Copy !req
513. were of such intensity
Copy !req
514. that past and future seemed to be transcended;
Copy !req
515. we would not actually be in our own bodies.
Copy !req
516. There were many strange incidences
Copy !req
517. during this series of experiments,
Copy !req
518. one of which was when Vivan
Copy !req
519. was struck by lightning.
Copy !req
520. We were in the kitchen,
Copy !req
521. the window was wide open
Copy !req
522. and I just witnessed this huge lightning...
Copy !req
523. and this screaming from Vivan, hysterical screaming.
Copy !req
524. I turned back to Vivan and Jaz and shejust...
Copy !req
525. Yes, she was
Copy !req
526. freaked out.
Copy !req
527. He showed me her hand
Copy !req
528. and it was all swollen and red,
Copy !req
529. Yes. No...
Copy !req
530. How can someone survive from being hit by lightning?
Copy !req
531. My sister got struck by lightning two times
Copy !req
532. in Jaz Coleman's company.
Copy !req
533. The second time was more dramatic.
Copy !req
534. Lightning striking all over the place, thunder and rain,
Copy !req
535. Magick was in the air, Aleister Crowley and books
Copy !req
536. everybody was crazy.
Copy !req
537. She was soaking wet, standing out on the balcony
Copy !req
538. confronting Jaz Coleman on personal matters.
Copy !req
539. She was so lucky, she was protected, she was soaking wet
Copy !req
540. so the millions of volts of
Copy !req
541. energy just slid around her
Copy !req
542. wet, smooth body, to the ground.
Copy !req
543. She was unharmed, not even knocked out
Copy !req
544. So our dear Mr Coleman really
Copy !req
545. recognized my sister as a divine being.
Copy !req
546. Iceland was a series of experiments,
Copy !req
547. a period of such exquisite beauty
Copy !req
548. that I've spent the last twenty seven years
Copy !req
549. trying to access
Copy !req
550. the dimensions that I visited.
Copy !req
551. It's an emotive subject,
Copy !req
552. not least for the fact that Sarah and Vivan are both dead.
Copy !req
553. I did meet Sarah and Vivan later on
Copy !req
554. and I noticed a curious parallel.
Copy !req
555. After meeting Vivan in Geneva
Copy !req
556. she confided in me that the rituals we performed
Copy !req
557. were one of the most beautiful experiences of her life.
Copy !req
558. And Sarah, she admitted much the same.
Copy !req
559. I was left with the feeling that both Sarah and Vivan,
Copy !req
560. had little interest in the mundane concerns of the world
around them shortly
Copy !req
561. before their respective deaths.
Copy !req
562. It was almost as if they personified a profound nostalgia
Copy !req
563. for a vaguely sensed lost paradise,
Copy !req
564. both possessing the single urge;
Copy !req
565. to abandon their earthly existence for their true home.
Copy !req
566. Time to sit back once again and enjoy the sounds of Killing
Joke
Copy !req
567. By the time Iceland came along I'd had
Copy !req
568. a breakdown because I'd been taking quite a lot of LSD.
Copy !req
569. I started to get very paranoid, see conspiracies everywhere,
Copy !req
570. and I even broke into the Grand
Copy !req
571. Lodge of the Masons of the Masons in Covent Garden
Copy !req
572. We went through a few weeks of trying to find a replacement,
Copy !req
573. it was just pointless, you know, I mean...
Copy !req
574. And how . . .?
Copy !req
575. For what purpose?
Copy !req
576. SO WHAT? TWO FUCKING BASTARDS LEFT!
Copy !req
577. FUCK OFF!
Copy !req
578. I do remember they were on Top of the Pops, well, he wasn't
on Top of the Pops,
Copy !req
579. it was a man with a motorbike helmet on playing the
keyboards.
Copy !req
580. I was going to say because they did that when Jaz was just
like this dummy, as in it wasn't a person it was just a dummy.
Copy !req
581. Yes
Copy !req
582. Well I wasn't even that pissed off, I mean to be honest, I was
sad,
Copy !req
583. because Jaz had had a few other kamikaze moves on the
band,
Copy !req
584. Just when the band was going to fucking break Jaz would do
something
Copy !req
585. to make sure it wouldn't happen.
Copy !req
586. You know, one minute you're riding the crest of the wave and
the next minute, you know, your boat's sunk.
Copy !req
587. Everything was open for them,
Copy !req
588. when Jaz disappeared
Copy !req
589. they have to cancel so many important events,
Copy !req
590. the business never forgave that.
Copy !req
591. TRUST KILLING JOKE TO MAKE AN IGNOBLE FUSS OVER LOST
PERSONNEL.
Copy !req
592. Think they were under a lot of pressure from the record
company to start touring
Copy !req
593. because the record had recently been out
Copy !req
594. out and it was very important for them to start catching up.
Copy !req
595. REVELATIONS? TOO TRUE! AND THAT'S JUST THE START.
Copy !req
596. ARROGANCE AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE ANGER
Copy !req
597. IT'S THE SOUND OF AN ANNIHILATING EFFICIENCY
Copy !req
598. WITH A SHEEN OF GRATUITOUS NOISE MAKING.
Copy !req
599. I got this phone call from a friend who was in contact with Jaz
and Geordie
Copy !req
600. and asked me if I was willing to meet them, in a week
Copy !req
601. I was in London.
Copy !req
602. They lacked a drummer, they called Paul Ferguson and asked
him to come
Copy !req
603. This must have been six months after they left or something
Copy !req
604. in the meantime I'd lost... everything
Copy !req
605. And trying to get this project, called Brilliant
Copy !req
606. going with Youth,
Copy !req
607. and I just got a telephone call saying “Would you consider,
you know, coming back.
Copy !req
608. I went out there and felt...
Copy !req
609. felt like, a bit of an outsider in a way,
Copy !req
610. I felt that we hadn't really done what we'd set out to do.
Copy !req
611. They told me that Paul was willing to join the band
Copy !req
612. but he would decide which bass player he would play with.
Copy !req
613. Told Youth,"I'm not doing this Brilliant thing with you
anymore, I'm going off to Wales"
Copy !req
614. And it was Raven.
Copy !req
615. I didn't speak to Youth again for quite a few years.
Copy !req
616. BRILLIANT. THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR...
Copy !req
617. I just took the flight back to Iceland.
Copy !req
618. people watching tonight may not have heard of, never
mind seen, the next band.
Copy !req
619. That hasn't stopped them building up a fanatical following
and notching
Copy !req
620. up four chart albums,
Copy !req
621. here's a chance to find out what you've been missing, here
we have
Copy !req
622. Killing Joke!
Copy !req
623. This is called "Frenzy".
Copy !req
624. When I met Raven was with a girl from my home town.
Copy !req
625. He said, "This is Paul, wants to play in Killing Joke".
Copy !req
626. I looked at him and thought, "Well, Youth has gone mad so,
Copy !req
627. there might be a chance there!
Copy !req
628. And this kid Raven showed up,
Copy !req
629. I didn't know who he was, or where he came from,
Copy !req
630. he was young, energetic, really
Copy !req
631. really into doing it and, he had an attitude.
Copy !req
632. Raven was party central,
Copy !req
633. but he was also a very down to earth guy,
Copy !req
634. he fitted in perfectly I think.
Copy !req
635. Paul brought a different dynamic to the bass in the band...
Copy !req
636. he defined himself outside of Youth.
Copy !req
637. There was that point where he was doing all those curling
baselines and I think Paul
Copy !req
638. gave him the space to do that because he always knew that
Paul would be rock solid behind him.
Copy !req
639. After our trip to Iceland,
Copy !req
640. where I began the process of individuation process
Copy !req
641. I made contact with Hilmarsson.
Copy !req
642. Hilmarsson gave me a strange object,
Copy !req
643. that was carved out of ash.
Copy !req
644. On one side it had a snowflake design,
Copy !req
645. on the reverse side was my rune.
Copy !req
646. I started having the habit of putting this object underneath
my pillow
Copy !req
647. and I had three
Copy !req
648. incredibly vivid dreams
Copy !req
649. that would point me in the direction of a certain place at a
certain time
Copy !req
650. The first of these, a voice was saying to me, “The Islands of the
North Atlantic's
Copy !req
651. “Johan
Copy !req
652. And so, in January of '82 I set off for Iona
Copy !req
653. That's where the first transmission occurred.
Copy !req
654. The pendulum gave me the indication
Copy !req
655. that there was a mass of energy at this place called Duni,
Copy !req
656. which is the highest point on Iona.
Copy !req
657. I fasted for three days, I went up to the top of this mountain
Copy !req
658. and then I got myself into my usual state of trance.
Copy !req
659. I recited mantras and played the drum,
Copy !req
660. until I heard a quiet voice that told me to stop
Copy !req
661. it was at that point that the transmission began.
Copy !req
662. The word “lcha”, and then it continued,
Copy !req
663. “lchabod's the veins are in the body of the gods.
Copy !req
664. When I checked the Kabbalistic reference it gave
Copy !req
665. “Eve”, or “to show forth",
Copy !req
666. and Eve at the top of Duni means
Copy !req
667. the point of fertilisation.
Copy !req
668. I see the earth rising a second time,
Copy !req
669. out of the foam, fair and green,
Copy !req
670. down from the fells, fish to capture,
Copy !req
671. wings to eagle... Good afternoon Prime Minister...
Copy !req
672. Her Majesty The Queen has asked me to form a new
administration,
Copy !req
673. and I have accepted.
Copy !req
674. Where there is discord, may we bring harmony,
Copy !req
675. where there is error, may we bring truth,
Copy !req
676. where there is doubt, may we bring faith,
Copy !req
677. where there is despair, may we bring hope."
Copy !req
678. Eighties was kind of a groundbreaking track.
Copy !req
679. It was a song about what was happening at that time in the
world.
Copy !req
680. You never really heard it on the radio, Maggie Thatcher
wouldn't have it on,
Copy !req
681. because he forecast the Falklands War before it actually
started!
Copy !req
682. And she didn't like that.
Copy !req
683. Geordie's guitar tuning on that track was unique
Copy !req
684. Nirvana must have been huge fans because they played...
Copy !req
685. What was that song . . .?
Copy !req
686. Come As You Are. I mean that is Eighties.
Copy !req
687. We've got a three million lawsuit against Nirvana
Copy !req
688. for stealing Eighties off us which is Come As You Are,
Copy !req
689. Kurt from Nirvana has already said “Yes we did it”!
Copy !req
690. If it was resolved I don't, well I should have seen some money
Copy !req
691. and I don't think anybody saw any money
Copy !req
692. Oh well I didn't know who the fuck they were when I met
them, I didn't know anything about them
Copy !req
693. but... I don't know why I got the call to work with them.
Copy !req
694. I do know why; it was EG Records.
Copy !req
695. They said “There's this very awkward band that we have on
the label
Copy !req
696. that maybe you can help us with...
Copy !req
697. Quite a few friends said ”What are you doing?"I said ”I'm
working
Copy !req
698. with Killing Joke", they said, ”You're working with Killing Joke?
Copy !req
699. Are you mad? They're crazy! They're devil worshippers!"
Copy !req
700. In 1979 a British DJ felt that the name should be forbidden
and the band
Copy !req
701. should be commandeered to rake leaves in Hyde Park, in
order to find inner peace.
Copy !req
702. Killing Joke
Copy !req
703. It was decided that we would go to Berlin to record the
album.
Copy !req
704. Berlin . . .is the absolute insanity of humanity,
Copy !req
705. absolute madness.
Copy !req
706. Jaz favours countries that are in the midst of economic decay
Copy !req
707. and collapse,
Copy !req
708. he feels there's a power there, an electricity because there's a
certain
Copy !req
709. thing going wrong
Copy !req
710. We started recording and the band that I knew from London
Copy !req
711. all of a sudden was a completely different beast
Copy !req
712. QUITE SIMPLY THE BEST GUITAR RECORD THIS YEAR
Copy !req
713. The Art of Evil
Copy !req
714. KILLING JOKE, NIGHT TIME (EG). SUCCESS AT LAST FOR THE BAND
OF THE RISING APOCALYPSE OR WHATEVER THEY CALL THEMSELVES
Copy !req
715. Working with the band I suddenly began to realise how
Copy !req
716. Geordie and Jaz worked off each other.
Copy !req
717. Jaz is in awe of Geordie,
Copy !req
718. because Geordie can interpret Jaz's chords in
Copy !req
719. such a different way... I've never heard a guitar player like
Geordie,
Copy !req
720. Geordie is like... His guitar is like playing... an orchestra.
Copy !req
721. IT MAKES THE SMITHS LOOK AND SOUND LIKE SIMON AND
GARFUNKEL
Copy !req
722. Love Like Blood was a deserved hit for all the right reasons.
Copy !req
723. I don't think anyone
Copy !req
724. could argue with them for that
Copy !req
725. I think it kept the head bangers happy, kept the goth fans
happy, it was a little bit of genius songwriting.
Copy !req
726. It was always great going to see them around that time on
tour,
Copy !req
727. I remember seeing Jaz come down the stairs there
Copy !req
728. and it literally was like seeing the return of Emperor Nero
Copy !req
729. it was a fabulous feeling.
Copy !req
730. It's one of the defining baselines of that era you know?
Copy !req
731. It was not a conscious attempt at writing a commercial song
at all.
Copy !req
732. We did start to tap into an emotional side
Copy !req
733. that we hadn't explored before,
Copy !req
734. I suppose it might have been partly
Copy !req
735. Jaz's classical background.
Copy !req
736. He just had an anthem, love like blood, love like blood,
Copy !req
737. and that was all based around a book that Paul was reading.
Copy !req
738. We did have a hit, wow, amazing.
Copy !req
739. And it's the only time that we had any money,
Copy !req
740. it wasn't very much but it was enough to go ”Oh, wow, this is
good?
Copy !req
741. Yeah it was on every jukebox in every pub,
Copy !req
742. and suddenly they were on the highest profile music show in
Britain at the time
Copy !req
743. Raymond, of Killing Joke.
Copy !req
744. Raven!
Copy !req
745. You did it already! I knew I'd get something wrong!
Copy !req
746. It was a very drunk Raven and Jaz were interviewed by Paula
Yates
Copy !req
747. and Jaz going on about how like, you know, how solid they
were,
Copy !req
748. one direction, big shiny boots, follow the drum, and they
came on and stormed it.
Copy !req
749. Did you ever think that you would be suddenly so successful
after five albums?
Copy !req
750. Why do you think it's happened like that, that suddenly
everyone's buying your records?
Copy !req
751. Because...
Copy !req
752. Shut up a minute...
Copy !req
753. Because there's too many hairdressers around that's why
Copy !req
754. and it's also because
Copy !req
755. err
Copy !req
756. we're just the most brilliant live band in the world.
Copy !req
757. Get it?
Copy !req
758. Do you think that saying things like that has made you a bit
unpopular in the past?
Copy !req
759. Because you have had a terrible reputation for saying
outrageous things.
Copy !req
760. What with journalists you mean? Yeah with journalists rather
than with...
Copy !req
761. We've got, we've got a good relationship with the press
actually you know?
Copy !req
762. They were hated by... the press.
Copy !req
763. Music papers liked having Killing Joke because they knew...
Copy !req
764. something was going to happen,
Copy !req
765. they had a real love hate relationship with it.
Copy !req
766. There was always this thing called the graveyard shift and it
always meant going to interview Killing Joke.
Copy !req
767. Wasn't really so much a process of asking questions...
Copy !req
768. One of them would say something... The other one would
criticize them for saying it...
Copy !req
769. They would start arguing with each other...
Copy !req
770. You just had to try and get in there and gradually make some
sense of it all.
Copy !req
771. I don't think people really pay as much attention
Copy !req
772. to music journalism as perhaps the media would like to think.
Copy !req
773. "Jaz displays that Colgate ring of confidence"
Copy !req
774. Like all the people at the NME, these people think they're
like... gods or something.
Copy !req
775. It was a good game for some years and they played it well,
Copy !req
776. the band, for quite a while.
Copy !req
777. Some people, who didn't really realise what you're talking
about
Copy !req
778. would probably construe that as negativism.
Copy !req
779. I cannot see how we can be portrayed as negative.
Copy !req
780. The only true optimism comes from realism.
Copy !req
781. Jaz, a hundred quotes a minute worth blowing up in big type.
Copy !req
782. I WILL DEFINE THE ATOMIC SOUND BEFORE I'M DEAD
Copy !req
783. JAZ COLEMAN "I AM NOT A NUTCASE!"CLAIM
Copy !req
784. Newspapers never lie!
Copy !req
785. I'm pleased I wasn't handling their publicity!
Copy !req
786. Geordie I was reading the biog
Copy !req
787. and it said something about the Gematria system that you'd
been getting into
Copy !req
788. Gematria system, Gematria system? What's that about?
Copy !req
789. Well... Go for it.
Copy !req
790. Back to Jaz!
Copy !req
791. They generally didn't really care about being in the press, but
at the same time Jaz loves to have an audience.
Copy !req
792. That is using the beats per minute and relating that to
numerology,
Copy !req
793. which is obviously an ascetic pursuit of arts.
Copy !req
794. Most people didn't really know what Jaz was talking about...
Copy !req
795. Good lord, it sounds like, quite heady that
Copy !req
796. but, so, let's pick up the conversation again in a minute...
Copy !req
797. Because Jaz often wouldn't talk about it, I mean Jaz would
mention it
Copy !req
798. and then as soon as the journalist would go "So would you
like to clarify?"
Copy !req
799. ”No, fuck off!"
Copy !req
800. “Well why did you mention it?"
Copy !req
801. It became, obviously, a talking point with the press because it
was a bit, you know, woooh.
Copy !req
802. I always felt that Jaz was the active part and Geordie was
perhaps more in-sinuous obviously,
Copy !req
803. because they share the same beliefs and everything.
Copy !req
804. The sound that comes out of this man Geordie,
Copy !req
805. it strikes terror into every guitarist on the planet;
Copy !req
806. you know it's Geordie, you know it cannot be any other
guitarist.
Copy !req
807. Geordie is just a phenomenally innovative musician.
Copy !req
808. Got a unique, vicious,
Copy !req
809. bitter, biting, twang to his guitar.
Copy !req
810. Yeah he's got an amazing sound;
Copy !req
811. the intensity of that is the subtlety of less is more, you know
you can overplay
Copy !req
812. and bugger it all up, you know?
Copy !req
813. You're in the band with him, I'm watching Geordie for every
cue.
Copy !req
814. Which is interesting, because you usually follow the singer,
and that's the key; you watch Geordie.
Copy !req
815. With Geordie, he could have gone out there and become part
of a lot of other bands,
Copy !req
816. and I'm talking big bands, you know bands like Metallica or
something like that,
Copy !req
817. but he's stuck with Killing Joke all the way through.
Copy !req
818. He's never really got a lot of money out of Killing Joke,
Copy !req
819. but he's, you know, got that strong allegiance to being in
Killing Joke
Copy !req
820. Jah Wobble said,
Copy !req
821. “imagine an Avro Lancaster, 1942 bomber.
Copy !req
822. A guy in the leather hat and a cigarette holder and cigarette,
Copy !req
823. and a gin and tonic in the other hand,
Copy !req
824. 'Right we're over the target!'
Copy !req
825. that's how I'd describe Geordie Walker to you."
Copy !req
826. He's so English, he can't live in England anymore; he lives in
Prague
Copy !req
827. in a weird sort of way the Dickensian blackened streets of
Prague
Copy !req
828. owe more to his sense of Englishness
Copy !req
829. than anything England could offer anymore.
Copy !req
830. For someone who's had such a big impact, Geordie's a very
quiet
Copy !req
831. guy in the public face I think.
Copy !req
832. You'll find that my partner Geordie
Copy !req
833. doesn't do interviews, unlike me
Copy !req
834. and his reason for this is that
Copy !req
835. he cannot see the point in talking about music,
Copy !req
836. when it should be listened to.
Copy !req
837. Now I can really understand that although...
Copy !req
838. When Geordie came to Iceland
Copy !req
839. with his full bodied jazz guitar,
Copy !req
840. we couldn't understand what he was doing with this
instrument...
Copy !req
841. But he played it like a motherfucker!
Copy !req
842. Which is the shit that's got the goo!
Copy !req
843. You know you just know when it has...
Copy !req
844. "Give us the goo!"
Copy !req
845. It's suspensions as well, there's always
Copy !req
846. the odd ringing note
Copy !req
847. and you move chords and that's still ringing
Copy !req
848. a suspensions... it's what you get with the echo too,
Copy !req
849. because there's previous notes from previous stuff still
decaying
Copy !req
850. under it
Copy !req
851. He always plays the same guitar, because it's semi-acoustic
Copy !req
852. it enlarges the sound, it rings more.
Copy !req
853. And he would play through two Burman amplifiers
Copy !req
854. with a little chorus on them.
Copy !req
855. And he's playing these weird shapes and inversions,
Copy !req
856. he's got all these harmonic overtones
Copy !req
857. because it's a semi-acoustic guitar...
Copy !req
858. It's fucking resonances and beats, it's fucking microscopic
you know?
Copy !req
859. It's like, you can hear it,
Copy !req
860. you just heard it, when you tune it up and you get that beat,
Copy !req
861. it's getting that at the right sort of resonance,
Copy !req
862. as a low fucking frequency thing going on too
Copy !req
863. Its not fucking unlike cooking.
Copy !req
864. Getting all the fucking flavours sort of...
Copy !req
865. resonated.
Copy !req
866. Geordie is the most honest man you'll meet.
Copy !req
867. He'll tell you, whether you want to hear it or not, there's no
doubt about that.
Copy !req
868. He's got a pretty short fuse,
Copy !req
869. he's a perfect foil to Jaz, you know, that's why it worked.
Copy !req
870. Geordie and Jaz are the alchemical marriage.
Copy !req
871. Elementally they're really well balanced,
Copy !req
872. Geordie is earthy and fire-y and Jaz is air-y and watery
Copy !req
873. so they have the perfect alchemical material.
Copy !req
874. You get the theatrical Jaz you know with all his stance and all
that.
Copy !req
875. And you get Geordie, it's like he's playing a ballad on the side
of stage.
Copy !req
876. Their charts are really well linked.
Copy !req
877. Jaz has Jupiter in Sagittarius sits right
Copy !req
878. on all Geordie's planets in Sagittarius
Copy !req
879. and it's ascendant in Capricorn
Copy !req
880. so it's a hugely abundant creative relationship.
Copy !req
881. You have the feeling that nothing can touch Geordie.
Copy !req
882. Bless us,
Copy !req
883. and all who come on pilgrimage to Glastonbury
Copy !req
884. Guide our feet on the path of righteousness,
Copy !req
885. inspire us by your spirit...
Copy !req
886. I went to Glastonbury on February the 2nd 1982,
Copy !req
887. and I got the second transmission.
Copy !req
888. This transmission began with “Hraachmaa”,
Copy !req
889. this word which was 256, the number of the spider,
Copy !req
890. which has 256 kalas in the voodoo cult.
Copy !req
891. And actually, when I studied it more,
Copy !req
892. 256 is the
Copy !req
893. 'Spirit of the Mother'.
Copy !req
894. Within days of going to Glastonbury
Copy !req
895. I opened Tony Morrison's book Pathways of the Gods,
Copy !req
896. and there in front of me was the Spider at the Pampas de San
Jose,
Copy !req
897. with its abdomen intersected by a line
Copy !req
898. that was aligned to the constellation of Orion.
Copy !req
899. I worked out when, approximately,
Copy !req
900. the constellation of Orion would be coming over the horizon,
Copy !req
901. and went straight to the Pampas.
Copy !req
902. I arrived there two weeks before
Copy !req
903. the proposed time of ritual,
Copy !req
904. I pitched my tent behind a small hillock
Copy !req
905. and lived in a semi-primitive state.
Copy !req
906. Three days before the ritual I began my fast,
Copy !req
907. and then on the third day, after nightfall,
Copy !req
908. I made my way up one of the pathways I knew would
intersect with the Spider's abdomen.
Copy !req
909. When I arrived in the correct place, I began to play the drums
Copy !req
910. and immersed myself in mantra,
Copy !req
911. so I could get to the past and future place
Copy !req
912. of Universe B.
Copy !req
913. And again, a voice told me to start writing,
Copy !req
914. and the first word of the writing was “Tomenga”.
Copy !req
915. The quicksilver methodology of communication;
Copy !req
916. this is the third degree.
Copy !req
917. out of the foam, fair and green...
Copy !req
918. I discovered that ordinary men and women
Copy !req
919. guard these vector points
Copy !req
920. where UFOs and UAVs
Copy !req
921. and hyper-dimensional entities manifest.
Copy !req
922. Right, that's where it was, right?
Copy !req
923. And when you come here, right watch this, this whole area
was static right?
Copy !req
924. There were at least nine or ten...
Copy !req
925. balls, glowing balls.
Copy !req
926. And then it starts flashing this image to us,
Copy !req
927. like pulsating but strobing like..."
Copy !req
928. It stayed in the air for ages didn't it? It didn't move away for a
while.
Copy !req
929. Do you understand where I'm coming from? I'm a military
man, I know this shit.
Copy !req
930. And one of them shot towards us...
Copy !req
931. This is after we've already, fucking, you know, like literally just
been like absorbed by this energy.
Copy !req
932. I found it quite bizarre how this first confrontation I had,
Copy !req
933. with something I believed deep down inside happened
Copy !req
934. in the presence ofJaz.
Copy !req
935. They flashed a symbol at us,
Copy !req
936. it's kind of weird, because I recognised the symbol,
Copy !req
937. it was like a matchstick man
Copy !req
938. with a line through his head.
Copy !req
939. That, experiencing in there, I think they knew me, Yeah, I felt
like I'd been looked at.
Copy !req
940. To Jaz it was something else.
Copy !req
941. Brighter than a Thousand Suns, that's when he was...
Copy !req
942. trying to sing properly! Stop it.
Copy !req
943. It was a bit of a labour of love because I didn't choose to go
to Amsterdam to record the album,
Copy !req
944. it's the last place where I would have taken Killing Joke, Berlin
was dangerous enough.
Copy !req
945. LACK OF PRUNING RITUALS
Copy !req
946. ENSURING NO HIT SINGLES FLY HERE
Copy !req
947. Melody Maker, in its gossip column, printed this photograph
ofJaz
Copy !req
948. getting out of a swimming pool with all his hair sort of
squashed down
Copy !req
949. and was basically taking the piss out of him
Copy !req
950. because the single hadn't been the number one that
everyone had expected.
Copy !req
951. The Phone started ringing, it's Jaz at a hundred miles an hour
in my ear,
Copy !req
952. “Who's the person that wrote it? Who's the person that wrote
it? I'm going to get my pendulum and come up there,
Copy !req
953. I'm going to point it at everyone and find out who wrote
that."
Copy !req
954. I had been interviewing the band, and after Jaz said,
Copy !req
955. “Come with me I'm going to give you a good story...
Copy !req
956. So we jumped in a car, he tells the driver to stop
Copy !req
957. at a fishing tackle shop. He comes outwith a package,
Copy !req
958. we go on a bit further, and he stops at a butcher's shop,
comes outwith a package.
Copy !req
959. Phone call from reception,
Copy !req
960. "Oh Mat, I've got Jaz Coleman in reception for you shall I let
him in?"
Copy !req
961. ”No, no, don't let him in!"
Copy !req
962. There was a security door where all the journalists from
Melody Maker were pressed up against the glass,
Copy !req
963. all staring, wide eyed, and none of them would dare come
out.
Copy !req
964. So I went out to the reception and Jaz was there, and was all
lovely Jaz you know,
Copy !req
965. he sort of put my arm round him and goes, “Ah Mat, pleased
to see you,
Copy !req
966. shall we go in?”and I said,
Copy !req
967. “You know I can't let you in there Jaz, because I know what's
going
Copy !req
968. to happen if I let you in there it's going to be chaos."And at
that point he just went crazy
Copy !req
969. He takes out this piece of liver from his jacket
Copy !req
970. and slaps this liver on the table,
Copy !req
971. then he takes out a tub of maggots and he dumps the
maggots over the liver...
Copy !req
972. and started throwing it all over the reception
Copy !req
973. these maggots just go crawling across this desk
Copy !req
974. the poor receptionist is screaming her head off.
Copy !req
975. DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Copy !req
976. And he had these scissors which he dug into the table
Copy !req
977. and recited some Latin and said
Copy !req
978. "I want this journalist to call and apologise for what he's
written about me."
Copy !req
979. Part of it was brilliant, part of it was frightening,
Copy !req
980. part of it was like, where the fuck is this going to end?
Copy !req
981. It was welcome to Jaz world, for everyone
Copy !req
982. in that reception that day.
Copy !req
983. Suddenly we're on all these pop shows around Europe
Copy !req
984. and the sort of, the other side of the coin.
Copy !req
985. Oh, this is a commercial band now.
Copy !req
986. It was nice you know,
Copy !req
987. it was like a little glittery thing
Copy !req
988. dancing in front of your eyes
Copy !req
989. but it didn't bring us any closer together,
Copy !req
990. if anything we got further apart from each other.
Copy !req
991. The Joke kind of lost control of their empire themselves,
Copy !req
992. it got very dissipated
Copy !req
993. and the reason I think it got dissipated was because
Copy !req
994. they didn't have any money, they were broke.
Copy !req
995. Night Time album was very successful
Copy !req
996. Brighter was, you know, relatively successful
Copy !req
997. the deal that they were sucked into, they were never going to
make any money.
Copy !req
998. They were just losing all the time.
Copy !req
999. They weren't going to be Top 10 every record,
Copy !req
1000. you sign to a big label what do they want?
Copy !req
1001. Why are they bothering to put money into you if you're not
going to pay them back with hits?
Copy !req
1002. Yes we were under pressure,
Copy !req
1003. Yes the record should be better than the last one,
Copy !req
1004. Yes you should, you know, try and follow in the vein of Love
Like Blood or whatever,
Copy !req
1005. but we'd just discovered an emotional
Copy !req
1006. side that we wanted to pursue.
Copy !req
1007. Killing Joke were stuck between...
Copy !req
1008. at that point they were trying to be as independent
Copy !req
1009. and as bloody minded as ever
Copy !req
1010. but they also wouldn't have minded having number one hits,
Copy !req
1011. I don't think you can have both.
Copy !req
1012. For a label I think, they would have been one almighty
headache,
Copy !req
1013. I'm sure.
Copy !req
1014. I really liked the idea that we'd have this incredibly powerful
musical thing
Copy !req
1015. and nobody would know ever who did it;
Copy !req
1016. I thought it was a lovely idea,
Copy !req
1017. but of course, you get on stage and you're all there what are
you going to do?
Copy !req
1018. Play behind a screen?
Copy !req
1019. Once people are interested in hearing
Copy !req
1020. what the singer has to say, suddenly
Copy !req
1021. you've got a cult of personality
Copy !req
1022. and to a large extent I think that's why we eventually fell out.
Copy !req
1023. It talks about an incandescent column of smoke and flame
Copy !req
1024. brighter than a thousand suns...
Copy !req
1025. I'm not saying anybody's right or wrong here
Copy !req
1026. it was becoming more and more about ego,
Copy !req
1027. and my ego was getting hurt.
Copy !req
1028. IT'S NO JOKE
Copy !req
1029. RAVEN AND FERGUSON QUIT KILLING JOKE
Copy !req
1030. JAZ BUTCHERED
Copy !req
1031. the original line up, only you two I think?
Copy !req
1032. There have been changes, there had to be changes,
Copy !req
1033. The fact is we don't really want a sort of punk rhythm section
Copy !req
1034. for the next eight years you know?
Copy !req
1035. Some of his behaviour was an affront to me,
Copy !req
1036. an affront to the band;
Copy !req
1037. we couldn't be in the same room together.
Copy !req
1038. We wanted a more articulate, funky, powerful rhythm section.
Copy !req
1039. Did the other guys feel bad about it? Not at all we paid them
off... ha ha ha
Copy !req
1040. And then of course, he started doing his solo material
Copy !req
1041. which started costing an awful lot of money and the record
company said,
Copy !req
1042. “Well no, this has to be a band project."
Copy !req
1043. So I recorded drums with him not being there
Copy !req
1044. and I refused to listen to any of the keyboards on the record
while I was doing it
Copy !req
1045. which is just insane, I was playing completely out of time.
Copy !req
1046. I got the message that the drum tracks were no good,
Copy !req
1047. you'll have to pay for them and do them again,
Copy !req
1048. and I just said, “Fuck it, I'm not going to." I just left the country.
Copy !req
1049. I'M JUST DISAPPOINTED THAT JAZ HAS HIS HEAD SO FAR UP
HIS ARSE NOW.
Copy !req
1050. THERE'S TOO MUCH EGO STROKING GOING ON
Copy !req
1051. JAZ STOPPED WRITING LYRICS WITH PAUL
Copy !req
1052. THE WORDS BECAME A SERIES OF DEMENTED RANTINGS
Copy !req
1053. I'M BONKERS!
Copy !req
1054. As long as I'm alive, as long as Geordie's alive, Killing Joke is
alive,
Copy !req
1055. right?
Copy !req
1056. And it got to a stage with Jaz where he went into deep
depression,
Copy !req
1057. he was being sued by the record company
Copy !req
1058. if he ever walked out of his front door there'd be a person
with a writ there,
Copy !req
1059. so he could never work again unless he started paying the bill
off.
Copy !req
1060. He was terrified, he was in the middle of a nervous
breakdown
Copy !req
1061. His passion and intensity is good, but invariably, you know,
you mix passion and intensity
Copy !req
1062. with a big bag of drugs and a load of booze
Copy !req
1063. and you're going to get someone going off the handle aren't
you really?
Copy !req
1064. You have written, they're lying here on the floor, a symphony
and a book, you are quite a busy person.
Copy !req
1065. That's right, my symphony I hope to have performed this
year,
Copy !req
1066. in England I hope and the other side of the world... Can I
show it?
Copy !req
1067. Sure. Is it really a symphony?
Copy !req
1068. That's right... And then
Copy !req
1069. then it was the beginning of his classical career.
Copy !req
1070. Art of Noise supremo Anne Dudley
Copy !req
1071. and Jaz Coleman, Killing Joke's founder member,
Copy !req
1072. are an unlikely couple to see on the streets of Cairo.
Copy !req
1073. They came here to record an album called Songs from the
Victorious City,
Copy !req
1074. A mutual love of classical music
Copy !req
1075. drew Dudley and Coleman together on this project;
Copy !req
1076. he's a classically trained violinist
Copy !req
1077. and she spent three years studying at the Royal College of
Music
Copy !req
1078. When at first I met him he was very crazy.
Copy !req
1079. Because he told me, “I want to learn about the Arabic music."
Copy !req
1080. He wanted to know everything, you can see it in his eyes.
Copy !req
1081. So I keep learning him for about ten days
Copy !req
1082. after that, I was surprised he could write our Arabic
Copy !req
1083. music, as one of us.
Copy !req
1084. I didn't believe that he can make good harmony
Copy !req
1085. between the Western and the Oriental music, but he has
done it.
Copy !req
1086. He'd been playing me bits and pieces of symphonies that
he'd been writing
Copy !req
1087. through the Joke sessions, but
Copy !req
1088. this was the first time that it was a collaboration and
someone released it.
Copy !req
1089. The biggest pop star in Egypt!
Copy !req
1090. And then, of course, the depression disappeared
Copy !req
1091. and Jaz's classical career was
Copy !req
1092. just taking off right, left and centre.
Copy !req
1093. This is called the Zep Symphony. Symphony; it's a symphony,
Copy !req
1094. I tell you... ... the machinery is in place,
Copy !req
1095. big record, London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Copy !req
1096. and I'll take you, to the West, one go, tonight.
Copy !req
1097. It was a surprise for me,
Copy !req
1098. to find English people interested in our music...
Copy !req
1099. He sat at the piano and I sat at the kanun and we tried to
make a relation.
Copy !req
1100. Since this time I found he knows what he wants.
Copy !req
1101. Good.
Copy !req
1102. I heard that he was doing it, but I didn't get to hear it until the
end
Copy !req
1103. and I thought he'd done a magnificent job
Copy !req
1104. OK it was Led Zeppelin, but he'd brought Jaz Coleman to the
party;
Copy !req
1105. Jaz is in there, alive and well.
Copy !req
1106. Jaz, being classically trained, fantastic musician,
Copy !req
1107. in the pages of the music press they didn't really deal with
that
Copy !req
1108. I think a lot of the antagonism in the early days
Copy !req
1109. was just journalists not understanding it.
Copy !req
1110. He won the St Nicolas Award at the age of four
Copy !req
1111. in the pop landscape of the time that meant for nothing
really.
Copy !req
1112. It was just very easy for them to say, “Oh, well, he's mad isn't
he."And then sort of like, take the piss out of him,
Copy !req
1113. but he wasn't mad, he was passionate.
Copy !req
1114. You don't have to be Egyptian to enjoy Egyptian music, you
don't have to be
Copy !req
1115. West Indian to enjoy Caribbean music;
Copy !req
1116. it's whatever you identify with, spiritually.
Copy !req
1117. Is Jaz religious?
Copy !req
1118. Is he a Muslim? He must.
Copy !req
1119. 2000, JAZ COLEMAN WEDDING, MOROCCO
Copy !req
1120. Everyone is Muslim.
Copy !req
1121. They make themselves Christian or Jewish or...
Copy !req
1122. but the religion it's one, it's one god, you believe or you don't
believe.
Copy !req
1123. What do you think will happen to mankind?
Copy !req
1124. It's finished, it must finish.
Copy !req
1125. Everything has a start and have an end.
Copy !req
1126. Our Prophet,
Copy !req
1127. he's the last prophet.
Copy !req
1128. Someone asked him about the day of the end,
Copy !req
1129. “Between me and the end,
Copy !req
1130. lies from this finger to the other one."
Copy !req
1131. I don't know how much time from hereto here;
Copy !req
1132. it doesn't make a difference for me, it's going to the end.
Copy !req
1133. Did you prepare yourself for the end?
Copy !req
1134. This is, this is the question.
Copy !req
1135. When Egypt goes,
Copy !req
1136. which it will do because of the decreasing geomagnetic field,
Copy !req
1137. it's a kind of signal. And this was written
Copy !req
1138. into the holiest books of the occult in modern times.
Copy !req
1139. There's going to be a huge upheaval coming.
Copy !req
1140. There will be fire and blood, in the Victorious City
Copy !req
1141. Al Qahirah is the Victorious City.
Copy !req
1142. We're at 0.05 gauss at the moment, and we're decreasing to 0
gauss,
Copy !req
1143. as soon as we get close to 0 gauss,
Copy !req
1144. they've done the tests on the astronauts,
Copy !req
1145. this manifests in terms of random aggressio
Copy !req