Killing Joke fans’ fury at Coleman AWOL ‘stunt’

Jaz Coleman: "What's the fuss?"

Fans of Killing Joke have reacted in fury after suspecting they’ve been victims of a publicity stunt involving the alleged disappearance of frontman Jaz Coleman.

The band released a statement last month saying they were concerned for his welfare after he disappeared. That followed a post on the band’s Facebook page, purportedly from Coleman, slamming future tourmates the Cult and the Mission, and leading to KJ being dropped from the tour.

On Sunday Coleman – who had an official Facebook page launched while he was believed to be missing – announced his reappearance and revealed three new products.

His statement said: “To the relief of family and friends, Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman appeared yesterday (Sunday, August 12) from his retreat in the Western Sahara bemused by all the fuss of his disappearance. ‘I’ve been finishing my book and writing the score for my new project, The Nirvana Symphonic. [laughs] What’s all the fuss about then?’

“Coleman had apparently been living a nomadic existence for the last month in the desert in order to concentrate on finishing his two current projects.

“Nirvana will likely become a TV show and a concert in Seattle in 2013 and the book and an exclusive Coleman album will be packaged together and available for order as early as next week.”

The singer claimed he hadn’t made the original controversial post, saying: “It was the work of an ‘impersonator’. It looks like this has caused a right ding-dong and it’s impossible to continue this tour under the circumstances.”

He then vowed to “find out who has been impersonating him.”

Hours earlier, KJ cancelled a London concert in September which was billed as a VIP-treatment TV and DVD session, including complimentary drinks and a meet-and-greet session, costing £195 per ticket. That came days after the band had revealed bassist Martin ‘Youth’ Glover would be selling an album of KJ remixes.

But many fans were incensed at what they believe has been a PR exercise.

Some of the comments on Facebook include:

This is really shitty to do to anyone, especially fans like us here who actually thought something tragic happened. Not fucking cool at all.

What a fucking arsehole. That’s me finished with Killing Joke. Anyone who wishes to follow a band with such a selfish, arrogant, deluded, vain and egotistic frontman, good luck to you.

They knew exactly where and what Jaz was doing. Tickets are booked and passports stamped for a Sahara trip. The statement is total bullshit. Total insult to us fans. Find it hard to swallow that a post was put on the official FB page by someone claiming to be Jaz but wasn’t, and no one running this page realised. Bollocks.

That’s an insult to anyone’s intelligence – it’s on a par with the dog ate my homework.

I am, however, not a moron and I’m not gullible. It’s your band Jaz, do what you like with it, but please don’t insult us by feeding us transparent lies. I’d rather hear nothing than be expected to listen to bullshit. We deserve the truth, whatever it might be.

Other fans, however, felt that even if it wasn’t entirely true, the drama was in keeping with KJ’s style. Comments include:

This is not publicity, this is Jaz.

Who gives a fuck if it’s a publicity stunt? If it is, it’s a pretty good one. Apart from the fantastic music, another big reason I love KJ is because of all the chaos that can come with following them. Never a dull moment!

He’s an artist and only real artists behave this way because they are different. This “incident” isnt really anything new or surprising.

I’m not saying that the cancellation of the gigs isn’t a huge disappointment to those that had tickets. I’d be as cut as them. But the muse comes at a cost with some artists; from Dali to Brian Jones, genius oft attracts bizarre behaviour. Give me absolute dissent over some ho-hum greatest hits tour.

The band itself had not released a statement at time of publication.