Jim Walker | |
---|---|
Born | 1955 (age 68–69) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
Genres | Punk rock, post-punk |
Occupation | Drummer |
Years active | 1977–1984 |
Jim Walker (born 1955) is a Canadian musician who was a founding director as well as the original drummer for the UK music group Public Image Ltd. [1]
James Donat Walker was born in Edmonton, Alberta. He first trained as a jazz drummer at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he was taught by Alan Dawson and Joe Hunt. [2]
In 1977, Walker, along with Malcolm Hasman and Chris Arnett, formed the Vancouver area punk band the Furies, the first punk rock band in Western Canada. [3] The band broke up after a few months, and Walker moved to London later that year. In early May 1978, after answering an ad placed in Melody Maker , [4] he auditioned for and became a founding member of Public Image Ltd., with John Lydon, Keith Levene, and John Wardle (Jah Wobble). [5] [6]
Dissatisfied with the band's direction, he left PiL as a player in February 1979, and as a director in January 1980. After PiL, he played for a few lesser known local London bands, including Kirk Brandon of Theatre of Hate's first band, The Pack, and Stan Stammers' band The Straps, [7] [8] before forming the Human Condition in 1981 with Jah Wobble and Dave "Animal" Maltby. [9] The Human Condition were together for just over a year, playing to mixed reviews, before disbanding in 1982.[ citation needed ]
In 1984, he left London for New York, and after playing that year left the music industry. [10] Walker was interviewed for the 2017 documentary film, The Public Image is Rotten. [11]
Public Image Ltd are an English post-punk band formed by lead vocalist John Lydon, guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble, and drummer Jim Walker in May 1978. The group's line-up has changed frequently over the years; Lydon has been the sole constant member.
The Flowers of Romance was an early punk band, formed in mid-1976 by Jo Faull and Sarah Hall, girlfriends at the time of Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols. The band did not release any recordings and, like London SS and Masters of the Backside, are more famed for the number of band members that later became well known, including: Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, Keith Levene, Palmolive and Viv Albertine of The Slits, and Kenny Morris. Morris replaced Palmolive on drums in the last months of the band's existence in late 1976. The band ended in January 1977 when Vicious joined Sex Pistols and Morris rehearsed with Siouxsie. Despite never playing live, they were interviewed by SKUM fanzine in which Sid Vicious proclaimed "I'll just be the yob that I am now".
Martin Clive Atkins is an English drummer, best known for his work in post-punk and industrial groups including Public Image Ltd, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Pigface, and Killing Joke. He also works as a consultant, has written multiple books on the music industry, and is the music industry studies coordinator at Millikin University in Decatur, IL. Atkins is the owner and operator of the Museum of Post Punk and Industrial Music in Chicago, is an honorary board member of the Chicago-based nonprofit organization Rock For Kids, and a fellow of In Place of War.
John Joseph Wardle, known by the stage name Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; he left the band after two albums.
Julian Keith Levene was an English musician who was a founding member of both the Clash and Public Image Ltd (PiL). While Levene was in PiL, their 1978 debut album Public Image: First Issue reached No 22 in the UK album charts, and its lead track "Public Image" broke the top 10 UK singles chart.
Metal Box is the second studio album by Public Image Ltd, released by Virgin Records on 23 November 1979. The album takes its name from the round metal canister which contained the initial pressings of the record. It was later reissued in standard vinyl packaging as Second Edition in February 1980 by Virgin Records in the United Kingdom, and by Warner Bros. Records and Island Records in the United States.
The Damage Manual is an English industrial supergroup formed in London in 2000. It featured Martin Atkins on drums and loops, Chris Connelly on vocals, Geordie Walker on guitar and Jah Wobble on bass. A second lineup saw Steven Seibold of the band Hate Dept. replacing both Walker and Wobble after their departure.
The Flowers of Romance is the third studio album by English post-punk band Public Image Ltd, released on 10 April 1981 by Virgin Records.
Public Image: First Issue is the debut studio album by English rock band Public Image Ltd, released in 1978 by record label Virgin.
"Death Disco" is a song by Public Image Ltd. The record was released in both 7" and 12" single formats with a "½ Mix" of the song and "Megga mix" on the 12" version. It reached number twenty on the UK Singles Chart. The song was released in an alternative shorter version as "Swan Lake" on the group's second album, Metal Box, with slight changes at the end. The title change reflects the quote from Tchaikovsky's ballet score that surfaces in Keith Levene's guitar part.
The Straps are an English streetpunk band, formed in 1977 in Battersea, South London by vocalist Howard Jackson and guitarists Dave Reeves & Steve MacIntosh & Brad Day on drums
Stan Stammers is an English musician best known as the bass player for the bands Theatre of Hate, Spear of Destiny and Plastic Eaters.
Bruce Neal Smith is an American musician best known as the drummer for post-punk band The Pop Group. He has also been a member of The Slits and the New Age Steppers and is currently performing with Public Image Ltd. He was raised and educated in Bristol, England and was once married to Neneh Cherry.
John Joseph Lydon, also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a British-born singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. He was the lead vocalist of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, which was active from 1975 to 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is also the lead vocalist of post-punk band Public Image Ltd (PiL), which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again since 2009.
Post-punk is a broad genre of music that emerged in 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experimental approach that encompassed a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-rock influences. Inspired by punk's energy and do it yourself ethic but determined to break from rock cliches, artists experimented with styles like funk, electronic music, jazz, and dance music; the production techniques of dub and disco; and ideas from art and politics, including critical theory, modernist art, cinema and literature. These communities produced independent record labels, visual art, multimedia performances and fanzines.
Paris au Printemps is a live album recorded by Public Image Ltd in 1980 on two consecutive dates in January in Paris, and released in November the same year. The title of the album is French for 'Paris in the Spring', with French names also given to the band itself and songs in the track listing. It is notable as the band's last full-length release featuring founding bass player Jah Wobble, as well as the Paris concerts being drummer Martin Atkins' first gigs with Public Image Ltd. The album reached number 61 on the UK album charts.
"Public Image" is the debut single by Public Image Ltd. It reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The lyrics were written when band co-founder John Lydon was a member of the Sex Pistols. The song addresses Lydon's feelings of being exploited in the Sex Pistols by Malcolm McLaren and the press. Along with being released as a single, it appeared on PiL's 1978 debut album Public Image: First Issue.
Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs is an autobiography by John Lydon, former singer, songwriter, and front man of the punk band Sex Pistols. Co-authors of the autobiography are Keith and Kent Zimmerman. The book was first published in 1994 by St Martin's Press (USA) and Hodder & Stoughton (UK), a second edition became available in 2008 by Plexus Publishing (UK) and Picador (US).
"Disappointed" is a 1989 song by post-punk group Public Image Ltd. It was the first single from 9, their seventh studio album. Lyrically, the song was inspired by John Lydon's experiences with friends within the band throughout its history, who he commented often let him down. Musically, guitarist John McGeoch used an alternate tuning courtesy of Who guitarist Pete Townshend to begin composing the song.