Killing Joke guitarist Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker has died at the age of 64.
A key member of the post-punk group from 1979 until 1996 before rejoining in 2002, Walker passed away on Saturday (11.25) after suffering a stroke in Prague, leaving his bandmates “devastated”.
The band took to social media with an official statement on their official Instagram page: “It is with extreme sadness we confirm that at 6:30am on 26th November 2023 in Prague, Killing Joke’s legendary guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker passed away after suffering a stroke, he was surrounded by family. We are devastated. Rest In Peace brother.”
After answering an advert by frontman Jaz Coleman in the now-defunct Melody Maker magazine, Geordie joined the band, who enjoyed mainstream success in 1985 with their studio LP ‘Night Time’ and the single ‘Love Like Blood’ –
Famous for his unique style of playing and his need to tune his guitar a whole tone lower, Georgie explained “It suits the resonance and the volume of the thing, and you can use heavier strings. I’ve got 58s on the bottom. Basically if I play an E-position chord, it’s D.”
Along with Paul Ferguson and Youth, Walker and Killing Joke recorded 15 studio albums, including their most recent ‘Pylon’ (2015.)
In tribute to the rocker. Faith No More’s Bill Gould took to X with “RIP Geordie Walker, one of, if not THE, the most natural, intuitive, original guitarists I’ve ever seen,” and Public Image Ltd ex-bassist Jah Wobble wrote: “RIP GEORDIE WALKER.”
Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker was also in industrial groups The Damage Manual and Murder, Inc.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Tuomas Vitikainen