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Fact #159503

When:

Short story:

Jaz Coleman of UK rock band Killing Joke suddenly leaves England and moves to Iceland.

Full article:

Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman had disappeared on February 26, 1982, two days after the industrial-goth pioneers completed a UK tour at the Top Rank in Brighton.

In the words of Brian Taylor, Killing Joke’s manager at the time, “They’re disturbed, stupid, crazy. It’s all to do with this fucking magic Jaz is into. It’s like he’s almost taken over Geordie’s mind or something. … the happiest day of their lives will be when the holocaust comes, just so they can say I told you so.”

Indeed, Jaz’s conviction that a nuclear holocaust was going to obliterate the world on March 10, 1982, did seem to have something to do with his disappearance. The date had been predicated by psychics all over the world, because of a particularly undesirable conjunction of planets on that day.

Before then, however, Killing Joke had to play live on the BBC tv show Riverside, but with no idea of his whereabouts they were obliged to fudge their way through the appearance with a dummy standing in for Jaz. Determined to continue with their next UK tour, the band set about looking for a replacement. “We’re not looking for Jaz clones, “ said Taylor, “though we’ve already had one application from someone claiming to be Jaz in a different form.”

March 10th came and went, but Jaz had still not returned. It was March 27 before the NME revealed that Jaz had been traced to Iceland, where he was working with a local band, Peyr, which was creating ‘diabolic devices’ to control audiences and building its own recording studio - underwater.

During April, he was joined by band-mates Paul Ferguson and Geordie. They announced plans to open a club specialising in ‘somewhat barbaric music’ while awaiting an imminent nuclear armageddon. Iceland, they reckoned, was the safest place to be when the holocaust came. Manager Taylor didn’t seem too upset. “There’s just a tremendous relief and release now they’ve gone. They’re the biggest bastards under the sun. They never gave me a moment’s peace since I met them, two years ago. I’m glad they’ve gone.”

A year later, with the world still intact, they returned. “Iceland was simply aspirations that failed,” explained Jaz, subsequently adding, “We got beaten to fuck with sticks … trying to run me over in Landrovers, things like that.” So, not a complete waste of time then.

By March 00, Mr Coleman had become composer in residence with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and forged a new recording career as composer of chart-busting orchestral albums based on the music of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and others.