Geordie Walker, Killing Joke’s pioneering guitarist and co-founder, dies aged 64

Geordie Walker, the Killing Joke guitarist and co-founder admired by everyone from Jimmy Page to Dave Grohl, has died aged 64.

News of Walker’s death was confirmed by the band in a statement, which revealed he died after suffering a stroke on Sunday 26 November.

“It is with extreme sadness [that] we confirm that at 6:30am on 26 November 2023 in Prague, Killing Joke’s legendary guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker passed away after suffering a stroke,” the band said. “He was surrounded by family. We are devastated. Rest In Peace brother.”

Martin Atkins, who played drums for Killing Joke and played with Walker in his band Murder Inc, also posted to Instagram: “Geordie Walker has left the building”.

The Newcastle-born Walker joined Killing Joke along with bassist Youth in 1979, after spotting an advert frontman Jaz Coleman and drummer Paul Ferguson had placed in an issue of Melody Maker.

The ad said: “Want to be part of the Killing Joke? We mean it man. Total exploitation, total publicity, total anonymity. Bass and lead wanted.”

Killing Joke’s self-titled debut album was released in 1980, influenced by their peers including Adam Ant and Public Image Ltd.

Coleman and Walker were the only constant members of Killing Joke, seeing the band through a relocation to Iceland (Coleman was concerned about the apocalypse) and their dumping by Virgin Records after the release of 1988’s Outside the Gate.

They went on to release Pandemonium, one of the biggest albums of their career, in 1994. This also marked the return of Youth, replacing Paul Raven on bass, after choosing to stay in England while Walker and Ferguson joined Coleman in Iceland.

Walker often complained about the quality of British bands, claiming that US artists were putting them to shame. However, he was perhaps more disgruntled by the row that erupted over allegations that Kurt Cobain had ripped off the riff from their single “Eighties” for Nirvana’s 1992 song, “Come As You Are”.

“We are very pissed off about that, but it’s obvious to everyone,” he told Guitarist magazine in 1994. “We had two separate musicologists’ reports saying it was; our publisher sent their publisher a letter saying it was and they went, Boo, never heard of ya! But the hysterical thing about Nirvana saying they’d never heard of us was that they’d already sent us a Christmas card!”

Any discussion of a potential lawsuit was dropped after Cobain’s death in April 1994. But it was still a surprise when Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl – a fan of Killing Joke since he was 14 years old – played on their self-titled 2003 album.

Walker is survived by his wife, Ginny Kiraly-Walker, and their son, Atticus.