Geordie Walker

Kevin Walker (18 December 1958 – 26 November 2023), known professionally as Geordie Walker, was an English rock musician, songwriter and producer. He was best known as the guitarist of post-punk band Killing Joke. He joined the band in March 1979; his first recording was released in December of that year. Their debut eponymous studio album came out in October 1980. Walker recorded 15 studio albums with Killing Joke and also took part in various side-projects. His unorthodox style of electric guitar playing was widely acclaimed.

Life and career When he was ten years old, Walker was deeply marked by the guitar sound in the song "Sabre Dance" by Love Sculpture. "I used to go mad when it came on the radio." When he was fourteen, Walker's family moved south from Chester le Street to Bletchley in Buckinghamshire and he attended Leon School; it was during this era that he acquired his nickname due to his north-eastern "Geordie" accent. He decided to learn to play the guitar: "I used to run home from school at about four, lock myself in the bedroom, turn the amp up full, and thrash it till he [his dad] came in. It was a daily ritual".

Walker later moved to London to study architecture and became a founding member of Killing Joke in March 1979 when he responded to an advertisement placed by the singer Jaz Coleman. He had never played in a band before. He recorded fifteen studio albums with the band between 1980 and 2015. Walker and Coleman were the only constant members of the group until Walker's death.

Walker had also been a member of industrial music supergroups Murder, Inc. and The Damage Manual.

In the mid-1990s, Walker lived in Royal Oak, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, with his wife Ginny Kiraly and his son Atticus (born in 1992). At the time of the recording of Hosannas from the Basements of Hell in 2006, he produced UK girl punk rock act Mary–Jane at Faust Studios in Prague. He then resided in Prague, He divorced in 2012. He continued living in Czech Republic with his partner Alexandra Kocourkova, and their daughter Isabella (born in 2018).

Influences Walker cited the band Love Sculpture featuring Dave Edmunds and their sound on their cover version of "Sabre Dance" because "it used the guitar as a musical instrument to convey an atmosphere, it wasn't normal guitar playing which people feel they have to play, certain rhythms, certain solos, certain scales". while peer Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine praised Walker's guitar playing, which he described as "this effortless playing producing a monstrous sound".

Equipment His guitar of choice was a hollow-bodied 1952 Gibson ES-295 in gold lacquer with a trapeze tailpiece,

Death Walker died in Prague on 26 November 2023, two days after suffering a stroke. He was 64.