[kj] OT: The Cure

Brendan bq at soundgardener.co.nz
Thu Aug 30 04:26:08 EDT 2007


I can recommend them highly, three hour concert, longest I've ever been to
from a single band, a real testament to them giving a shite about
themselves and their fans, and ALL of it was good.


> Cheers for that, I've been out of touch with what he's been up to for a

> while. The Cure always take me back to being a messed up goth.

> (Although I think I'm more messed up now than when I was a goth!)

>

>

>

>

>

> ________________________________

>

> From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]

> On Behalf Of phatseanio

> Sent: 30 August 2007 00:20

> To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)

> Subject: Re: [kj] OT: The Cure

>

>

>

> howdi......

>

> ....might be a chance Robert Smith sings with Paul Hartnoll (of ORBITAL

> fame),at the roundhouse,london on tues 4th sept,and manchester

> bridgewater hall wed 5th sept,seeing as he's guested on one of the

> tracks on his solo album THE IDEAL CONDITION....

>

> he's performing the album in full,tis quite a nice mix of synths &

> orchestral sounds......

>

> y'never know!!!!!

>

> he's also had a single out with the mighty shend from THE CRAVATS on

> vocals this year......that took me back to being a messed up goth,I can

> tell you...........................!!!!!!!!

>

>

>

>

>

> sean

>

>

>

>

>

> On 8/28/07, Janean Lancaster <Janean.Lancaster at hopwood.ac.uk > wrote:

>

> Bit late replying to this one - been away.

>

> Anyway...

>

> <<<I went and saw The Cure last night, which is

> an extrememly rare treat in NZ, the last time they visited was 15 years

> ago.>>>

>

> I'm so jealous! One of my favourite bands and still love them.

>

> <<< Fucking brilliant concert, sigh...I grew up on those guys. You lot

> in the

> UK, Europe and the 'States are fucking lucky to have bands like that

> playing every bloody Tuesday or whatever.>>>

>

> The Cure haven't played the UK since 2004, which was a paltry 90 minute

> set at a festival (paltry seeing as they are known for their 3 hour

> performances - I still loved it though), which is why I'm so jealous!

>

> They just don't seem to want to play at home anymore - probably because

> they can't pull large numbers into the arenas anymore. Such a shame.

>

> No doubt when I'm over in NZ visiting my dad, The Cure will play the UK

> and I will be mortified...

>

> Cheers,

> Janean

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto: gathering-bounces at misera.net

> <mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net> ]

> On Behalf Of Brendan

> Sent: 14 August 2007 23:48

> To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)

> Subject: Re: [kj] My Facebook

>

> Speaking about goths, haha, I went and saw The Cure last night, which is

>

> an extrememly rare treat in NZ, the last time they visited was 15 years

> ago.

>

> Fucking brilliant concert, sigh...I grew up on those guys. You lot in

> the

> UK, Europe and the 'States are fucking lucky to have bands like that

> playing every bloody Tuesday or whatever.

>

> Except when Armageddon comes me, Bongo and Jaz are all gonna be fine and

> you're all fucked, so get down here now, and bring Tool, Killing Joke,

> and

> all the other decent bands with you! And don't buy real estate below 50M

>

> above sea level...

>

> ;p

>

>> Here are the 5 paragraphs that deal with Killing Joke in --

>>

>> Simon Reynolds' 402 page _Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1979 -

>> 1984_ (Penguin Books, 2005).

>>

>> The five paragraphs are in the section on goth near the end of the

> book:

>>

>>

>>

>> "If Bauhaus, the Banshees, and the Birthday Party were the crucial

>> groups that bridged postpunk and Goth, Killing Joke was the fourth

>> cornerstone of the Goth sound and sensibility. Like the other three

>> bands, they started out as postpunk experimentalists. In Killing

> Joke's

>> case, that meant following PiL's lead. In 1980, singer/keyboardist Jaz

>

>> Coleman talked of wanting to keep the funk but strip away disco's

>> 'sugarshit' sheen, replacing it 'with mangled, distorted, searing

>> noise.' This element came from guitarist Geordie, who transformed

> Kieth

>> Levene's sound into something sulphuric, inhumane, practically

> inhuman.

>> Coleman added jabs of atonal synth and electronic hums, along with the

>> barked menace of his vocals, which sounded like he was choking on his

>> own fury. 'Tension music,' the group called it.

>>

>> "Initially, Killing Joke seemed vaguely political. Their striking

>> seven-inch sleeves and micro-ads in the U.K. music press grabbed the

> eye

>> with images of the pope receiving a Nazi salute from German troops or

> a

>> top-hatted Fred Astaire tap dancing over a trench full of World War I

>> corpses. The name Killing Joke, explained Coleman, condensed their

> whole

>> worldview into a single phrase, 'the feeling of a guy in the First

> World

>> War who's just about to run out the trenches ... and he knows his life

>> is going to be gone in ten minutes and he thinks of that fucker back

> in

>> Westminster who put him in tha position. That's the feeling that we're

>> trying to project -- the Killing Joke.'

>>

>> "Jaz Coleman was an unlikely protest singer, though. A high-caste

>> Brahman Indian on his mother's side, Coleman was wealthy, well

> educated,

>> and musically trained (after Killing Joke he became a classical

>> composer). In almost pointed contrast to Coleman's accomplishment,

>> Killing Joke was conceived as a barbarian entity. Paul Ferguson's

> beats

>> were tribal and turbulent. Starting with their second album, _What's

>> THIS For...!_ and reaching fruition on 1982's awesome _Revelations_,

>> Killing Joke shook off the PiL influence (all the dub and death disco

>> trappings) and emerged as something closer to Black Sabbath: doomy,

>> tribalistic rock that exulted in its visions of darkness and the

>> apocalypse.

>>

>> "Coleman saw Killing Joke's music as 'warning sounds for an age of

>> self-destruction.' The end was nigh ('I'll give it eighteen months,'

> he

>> said in 1981), but Coleman was glad. The aftermath was 'the period of

>> time I'm looking towards at the moment,' he said, when a new, brutally

>> instinct-attuned _un_civilization would emerge phoenixlike from the

>> smoking ruins. Coleman told NME, 'I see a more savage world ahead,

>> right? It's music that inflames the heart.' Fire was Killing Jokes

>> favorite of the four elements. They even recruited a fire eater, Dave

>> the Wizard, to do his act on stage with the band. 'Fire to me is

>> symbolic of the will power,' declared Jaz. 'I think the power of the

>> individual is really underestimated.' Yet it seemed more the case that

>> Killing Joke's music exalted the power of the mob.

>>

>> "Goth's appeal to the irrational and primal could sometimes stray into

>> troubling territory, something Killing Joke exemplified. Coleman's

>> rhetoric -- reveling in male energy, describing war as the natural

> state

>> of the world, jubilantly heralding Armageddon -- veered unnervingly

>> close to that dodgy zone between Nietzschean and Nazi. 'The violence

>> that is Killing Joke is about is not violence on the immediate level

> but

>> the _mass_ violence, the violence bubbling up underneath your feet,

> the

>> violence of nature throwing up,' Coleman solemnly proclaimed. 'And we

>> _become_ that violence.' Even some Goths felt there was a faintly

>> fascistic aura to the vibe catalyzed by Killing Joke at their gigs."

>>

>>

>> [from July 7, 2007 post to list]

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> B. Oliver Sheppard wrote:

>>> Actually, 5 paragraphs devoted to Killing Joke in Simon Reynolds bok,

>>> near the back, in the section on goth. And they're not very

> flattering

>>> paragraphs, really.

>>>

>>> (I posted all 5 paragraphs fromt he book to the list maybe a month

>>> ago. Reynolds said the Killing Joke -- and he spoke of them in the

>>> past tense, too -- were somewhere between Nietzschean and Nazi. No

>>> kidding.)

>>>

>>> -Oliver

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>

>>>>>

>>>>> PS: I had another interview a day earlier with the culture editor

> of

>>>>> a reputable media outlet, and we similarly ended up talking about

>>>>> music. Turns out her husband is none other than Simon Reynolds, the

>>>>> celebrated music critic who wrote the arguably authoritative

>>>>> post-punk tome, "Rip It Up And Start Again" (75 pages devoted to

>>>>> Scritti Politti, 9 pages devoted to Killing Joke).

>>>>>

>>>>>

>>>>

>>>

>>

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