The guitarist of the London-based band Killing Joke, Kevin “Geordie” Walker, has died at the age of 64.
The first to report the news was the band’s drummer, Martin Atkins, who posted a video of Laugh Track by the Damage Manual (a supergroup they both belonged to) on his Facebook page, explaining succinctly: “Geordie has died“.
Confirmation came yesterday from the official profile of Killing Joke: “With extreme sadness, we confirm that on November 26 at 6:30 in the morning, the legendary guitarist of Killing Joke, Kevin ‘Geordie’ Walker, passed away in Prague due to a stroke. We are devastated“.
Also notable was his beef with Nirvana over “Come as You Are,” which, according to the guitarist, extensively borrowed the riff from their “Eighties” for the “Nevermind” single. “We’re pissed off about this, but it’s so obvious to everyone,” he said on the matter. “Our publisher sent them a letter about it, but their response was ‘We don’t know you.’ But what really gets me is that Nirvana told us they didn’t know us after sending us a Christmas letter!”