After buying most of my Christmas presents from them, Amazon kindly gave me a £2 voucher to spend in the MP3 download store.
As the festive season of hosting friends and family approaches, I decided on a ’easy listening’, ‘middle of the road’ purchase suitable for all the family to act as a quiet backdrop while we gather to play charades around the fire.
‘Killing Joke’ by ‘Killing Joke’ was one of the first vinyl records I ever bought and, as always, I was introduced to the band by the wonderful John Peel. I was intrigued by the cover art which I still think is brilliant.
Killing Joke also used another very striking and evocative image. When I visited a mate in London, I was surprised to see he had a massive Killing Joke poster adorning his lounge of Nazis saluting the Pope. Initially, I thought it was a mock-up but he told me it was a genuine photograph from the 1930’s and while he wasn’t a right-wing fascist (quite the contrary in fact), he also thought it was a very striking and thought provoking image.
I’m pleased to report the LP sounds as fresh as it did 30 years ago. Deserves to be played loud.