Killing Joke: Are You Receiving?

Jyrki “Spider” Hamalainen NEW HAVEN

Geared to the ‘Gatherers’, a valiant if patchy stab at the first book about Killing Joke.

Considering Killing Joke’s colossal influence and awe-inspiring standing, it’s shocking that there hasn’t been a biography of the band until now. Invoking hoary bus analogies, there will be two purporting to tell this uniquely dysfunctional band’s chaotic story when Chris Ryan’s A Prophecy Fulfilled oral history joins Are You Receiving?, Finnish fan Hamalainen’s just-published mix of interviews, cut-and-paste press clippings and online research that has already been well-received by KJ’s ‘Gatherers’ fan base.

Killing Joke’s 21st-century exploits fare much better here than the their origins and first phase, which curiously omits childhood events and starts with Youth’s short tenure in 4" Be 2", before Jaz and Big Paul emerge playing in Matt Stagger, Geordie arrives from Milton Keynes and Youth answers a Melody Maker ad in early ’79.

It would’ve helped greatly if the author