Kevin "Geordie" Walker (born 18 December 1960) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...
group
Killing Joke
Killing Joke are an English rock band from Notting Hill, London, England, formed in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (bass).
Their first album, '' Killing Joke'', was released ...
. His unorthodox style of electric guitar playing is widely acclaimed.
Jimmy Page
James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...
of
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ...
hailed Walker's guitar sound as "really strong". Peer
Kevin Shields
Kevin Patrick Shields (born 21 May 1963) is an American-born Irish musician, singer-songwriter, composer, and producer, best known as the vocalist and guitarist of the band My Bloody Valentine. They became influential on the evolution of alter ...
of
My Bloody Valentine praised Walker's guitar playing, which he described as "this effortless playing producing a monstrous sound".
Life and career
When he was eight years old, Walker was deeply marked by the guitar's sound in the song "Sabre Dance" by
Love Sculpture
Love Sculpture were a Welsh blues rock band that was active from 1966 to 1970, led by Dave Edmunds (born 15 April 1944 in Cardiff, Wales), with bassist John David (born 19 January 1946 in Cardiff) and drummer Rob "Congo" Jones (born 13 August ...
. "I used to go mad when it came on the radio."
When he was fourteen, Walker's family moved south from
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
to
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...
in Buckinghamshire, 45 miles northwest of London. It was during this era that he acquired his nickname due to his northeastern "
Geordie
Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of North East England, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitute ...
" accent (which he has subsequently lost). 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
is dadcame in. It was a daily ritual".
He learnt that it's melody lines as opposed to solos.
The first guitar that helped him to find his way was bought in Northampton at Christmas 1973. When his mother saw a
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typ ...
in the shop, she suggested he try it in remembrance of a concert she attended with
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
on the bill.
After Walker played about two chords, his mother's verdict was: "We'll take it."
He worked at that time, "two real jobs" that allowed him to save money. He then bought another guitar, a
Gibson SG Junior
The Gibson SG Junior is a solid-bodied electric guitar manufactured by Gibson from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. Like its earlier sister, the Gibson Les Paul Junior, it had been created for sale at a lower price. It is known for its single ...
.
Walker later moved to London to study architecture and became a founding member of Killing Joke in 1979 when he responded to an advertisement placed by the singer
Jaz Coleman
Jeremy "Jaz" Coleman (born 26 February 1960) is an English singer and musician. He came to prominence in the early 1980s as the lead vocalist and keyboardist of post-punk group Killing Joke.
Coleman is known for his unique raspy baritone voic ...
. He had never played in a band before. Walker and Coleman have been the only constant members of the group since.
Walker has also been a member of
industrial music
Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initial ...
supergroups
Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc. (Murder, Incorporated) was an organized crime group, active from 1929 to 1941, that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicatea closely connected criminal organization that included the Italian-American Mafia, the ...
and
The Damage Manual
The Damage Manual was an industrial music, industrial supergroup (bands), supergroup formed in 2000. It featured Martin Atkins on drums and loops, Chris Connelly (musician), Chris Connelly on vocals, Geordie Walker on guitar and Jah Wobble on ba ...
.
Walker now lives in
Royal Oak, Michigan
Royal Oak is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Royal Oak is about north of Detroit's city limits. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 57,236.
Royal Oak is located along th ...
, a suburb of Detroit with his wife and son, Lloyd (Atticus). 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
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
.
Influences
Walker cited the band
Love Sculpture
Love Sculpture were a Welsh blues rock band that was active from 1966 to 1970, led by Dave Edmunds (born 15 April 1944 in Cardiff, Wales), with bassist John David (born 19 January 1946 in Cardiff) and drummer Rob "Congo" Jones (born 13 August ...
featuring
Dave Edmunds
David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has alwa ...
and their sound on the song "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".
Walker also named
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Siouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bass guitarist Steven Severin. They have been widely influential, both over their contemporaries and with later acts. ''Q'' magazine in ...
' debut album ''
The Scream
''The Scream'' is a composition created by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1893. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images of art, seen as symbolizing the anxiety of the human condition. Munch's work, including ...
'' as an influence because their original guitarist
John McKay "came out with these chord structures that I found very refreshing".
Style
Walker's tuning of guitar is different. He likes it to be strung a whole tone lower. "It suits the resonance and the volume of the thing, and you can use heavier strings. I’ve got 58s on the bottom. Basically if I play an E-position chord, it’s D."
Walker said that "a guitar has a lot of musical capability, but it has the rhythm as well. As one instrument, I think it has the most pleasing sound, the attack, the rhythm".
Concerning his guitar playing, Walker explained: "If you hit a chord and press down on the bridge, it bends all six notes at once, that's probably one of the odder aspects of my technique. If you want to get technical - things like augmented fourths and sevenths have a certain unnerving effect, a bit like a tingle up the spine. I go for a lot of those in my chord structures.
Equipment
His preferred guitar of choice is a hollow-bodied 1952
Gibson ES-295
The Gibson ES-295 (1952-1959) is a hollow body guitar which was built by the Gibson Guitar Company. The ES-295 was introduced in May 1952 as a fancier version of the ES-175. The 295 had the same measurements as the ES-175, but it came in gold fi ...
in gold lacquer:
an instrument also previously used by
Elvis Presley sideman
Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott Moore III (December 27, 1931 – June 28, 2016) was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968.
Rock critic D ...
. It is a semi-acoustic guitar, made in 1952, with a trapeze tailpiece. Walker bought it from an old jazzman who played in clubs. He plugged it into the Burman amplifier, "and the sound was there – a full resonance, and totally bell-like with the sustain on it through 250 watts of amplification in stereo. You can feel the thing vibrating, it's a huge sound. I tune the guitar in D (below bottom E) and my strings are really thick, I use an 062 on the bottom, and because of the way I tune the guitar, the strings still have the same response as a normal guitar would. The amplification makes the bottom end sound unreal.
..the sound of the guitar is a lot sharper, a lot clearer than other ones I've heard."
He has used ADT units made by Bell, one of those on each amplifier : "It's got from a really tight delay to a single short delay, and a pitch bend on it", and Electro Harmonix Memory Man
Chorus
Chorus may refer to:
Music
* Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse
* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound
* Chorus form, song in which all verse ...
.
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Geordie
1958 births
English rock guitarists
English male guitarists
Living people
English punk rock guitarists
British post-punk musicians
English expatriates in the United States
Killing Joke members
Pigface members
People from Chester-le-Street
Murder, Inc. (band) members
The Damage Manual members
Industrial metal musicians
English heavy metal guitarists