KILLING JOKE LYRICS

1. The Courtauld Talks

[bell chimes]

[quiet]

Good afternoon.

[pause]

Why?

[pause]

Because I feel compelled to speak my mind.

So before anyone writes any review of this occasion or jumps to any
conclusions, I ask them to hear me out from beginning to end of this talk.
_Then_ they are entitled to criticise but _not_ before. So I ask you first
to entertain possibilities and open your minds.

[bell chimes]

"The man of truth is beyond good and evil. The man of truth is ridden to
all is one. The man of truth has learned that illusion is the one reality
and its substance is a great impostor."

[bell chimes]

H. P. Lovecraft.

Throughout my forthcoming book, "An Irrational Domain", I work from the
fundamental assumption that for the artist dreams and visions are a more
authentic source of information than fact or reason. Now this hypothesis
has steadily evolved to the extent that it is no longer merely a
conviction but my perception of truth itself. Consequently, all activity
derived from such foundations cannot coexist with any form of rationalist
or intentive thought. The primary objective is to set everything in
motion in the required direction. For example, existing concepts of time
are only real if we accept and succumb to the boundaries and divisions
laid down. I'm simply pointing out that we do of course have the option to
ritually smash the clock up along with its corresponding restrictions and
transform, extend, increase or decrease such boundaries, enabling us to
achieve a greater freedom by changing our perspective of truth and reason.
We may conclude that, if truth as we see it to be, can be rearranged to
benefit us in any way, then this flexible truth is justified. The same
would apply in the eradication of supposed historic fact.

Now, in accepting the endless possibilities of the irrational domain we
can evoke a chosen picture of the past to influence the present and
future. The rejection or alteration of conventional perception of
measurement, fact, time and reason can shatter restrictive barriers and
open up frightening possibilities. To illustrate the point, an elementary
annihilation of the assumption that Columbus was the first navigator
across the Atlantic changes the entire Western concept of civilisation.
Again, should we choose a certain axiom as a starting point, we do so
regardless of so called fact or reason.

However, today at the Courtauld Institute we shall be focusing our
attention on those forces visible behind the changes in modern society.
And how we may view these criteria with true objectivity from within the
medium of music...

[quiet and to the audience:] Cheer up!

There are many strange phenomena where objective points are reached
through work in the metaphysical. Now the dowsers, or "water diviners"
employed by the water board to locate underground streams are a good
example of this. And yet the individual accomplishing them is generally
not aware that he is doing so by the aid of a force. He discovers he has a
power but does not know what that power is. He only knows the results.
That's all he can see. Had the atheist scientist of the rational world
given as careful study to forces as he did to elements, constantly working
back and back, following one force to another, eventually he might have
some understanding of the origin of movement. At this moment in time our
scientific rationale tells us that the blood in our body is pumped around
by our heart, but what makes it tick?

He doesn't know!

Similarly, if we look at the rapidly transforming world of atomic power
and super-technology on its exterior, we begin to wonder about the nature
of force from which the ripples of momentum originated and I think we can
all agree that there is something decidedly unhealthy about our current
mode of existence.

[sigh] But I'm just a mad artist. I shall view the changes perceived from
that role I know best. If you would focus your aural faculties on the
sound, one minute...

[guitar begins to play]

I'll go back in time. To before I formed the group Killing Joke and I want
you to come back in time with me.

Silence... please...

I can remember first discussing the virtues of bombarding the individual
with disturbing aspects of modem day reality on stage with Paul Ferguson,
prior to the formation of Killing Joke. It was indeed refreshing to find
someone else who saw the entirety of creative function as something other
than a pleasure principle. In actual fact we utterly rejected the common
artist's objective of creating a more desirable aesthetic effect.

Do you follow?

We firmly believed that by employing a reversal of this process, true
progress could commence. Now, this was far from a contemporary ploy but a
utilisation resembling a healing therapy of antiquity. Now, let me
explain: the fundamentals of such performance are clearly routed in the
venerable healing magic of the ancients, I assure you. Central to this
very old form of therapy is the idea that if you suffer from the
underworld you can only be cured in the underworld. Underworld.

It is a homeopathic principle. The cure for a sickness is accomplished by
dosing the patient with minute quantities of substances which in larger
doses would actually create the very symptoms of the sickness. Such a cure
for a sickness involves experiencing a little of the essence of sickness.

What sickness? Huh?

What sickness I hear you say.

Which underworld? Where?

The initial symptoms have escalated into a monstrous plague. It does not
require much imagination to locate the underworld within a scarred,
butchered landscape. Industrial wasteland, inhumane concrete hovels,
resembling rabbit hutches stacked up on top of one another. Created
specifically for maximum capacity at minimum expenditure.

[guitar stops suddenly]

[guitar starts again]

Grotesque Judeo-Christian compassion exposed in its truest form, directly
reflected in the environment. Homes for the common people that have been
consciously designed to perpetuate an ignorance, clearly intended to be
left at their own devices within controlled surroundings.

Do you follow?

Those individuals who are either insensitive or too weak-willed to command
and control their immediate environment are collectively housed.
Widespread mediocrity in its most terminal context eliminating even the
human dignity of a slave, I believe.

You go to Sheffield; we'll go to Sheffield. Let's take a look around
Sheffield. Take a good look! Drained, soul-less young men and women
drastically alienated from the natural order over-compensating in puerile
fantasy, debauchery games and various trivia encouraged by ...
consumerism. That which remains of the instinct unconsciously anticipates
the absolute horror of mass annihilation, vast and impersonal. Envisaging
themselves so disgustingly humiliated by their own vulnerability,
powerless to react, powerless to react on any defensive or significant
basis. A collective nightmare of the day, you know the day, when looting,
pillage and screaming insanity reigns. A hideous prelude of pure terror
concentrated within the boundaries of minutes, seconds. Man suffering the
indignity of resembling panic-stricken battery chickens awaiting
slaughter, pathetically running 'round in circles at random.

Erg...

Decisions determined in the lives of billions made exclusively by
microchips impregnated and programmed with the epitome of rational
thought.

[synthesised effect]

You can imagine the irony of the dilemma.

Listen to me well.

Absolute conflict. Destruction and mega-deaths are logical and imperative
assumptions. Overpopulation at loggerheads with human compassion. The
hygiene of conventional war obliterated by the escalation of technology
thus all reason made obsolete and redundant by the rationalist himself.
Mass unemployment also caused by rapid development of technology. Manpower
no longer economically viable. Abandoned industrial areas claiming a
greater surface area than farmland, thus only enough harvest produce to
feed one eighth of the existing population.

Do you understand?

Nations ideologically opposed to one another dependent on each other for
existence, import, export, mutually assured destruction, M.A.D. Foreign
policies based on the same principles evident in the period of time prior
to the second World War, now applied in this temporary stage of
super-technology.

Now, I think we'll both agree, I think we'll all agree that such extreme
pressures of the decade seem to almost transform human awareness into a
curse. Yet, we still find perspective within the primal performance that
embodies such extremities or should I say sicknesses?

I believe it is necessary to look beyond the face value of such seemingly
horrific events. Extremities that we observe on a daily basis must be
viewed as a link or a transition. One cannot bypass initiation, thus the
work of Killing Joke becomes considerably more coherent when seen in terms
of a generator musically suggesting such a process.

The effect is akin to that of a vortex. Fascinating. And ultimately all
encompassing. Now, I tell you the penultimate objective of recent work has
been to actually identify the precise forces behind such global trends and
movements and incorporate them within the form and foundation of our
music. In order to explain these forces with some degree of accuracy, it
is necessary to expand on the origin and nature of these particular
forces. The following excerpt is taken from a Cincinnati Journal of
ceremonial magic.

And I quote: "In the macrocosm these forces are the Elder Gods; in the
microcosm they are the forgotten ones, constituting the dark aspects of
the anti-universe and of human unconscious respectively."

Admittedly, there is certain danger inherent in contacting them, but there
is sure disaster in neglecting to do so. The Elder Gods, let me explain,
the Elder Gods dwell in the spaces between positive manifestation. That
is, they exist between the possibility universes or in the
inter-dimensional angles that separate our evolutionary time-stream from
the next.

It's not so complicated. Their previous dealings with our planetary life
force earn them an exile from this access to our space-time. Now, the
problem is our own discovery and employment of thermo-nuclear energy,
however, has unsealed the gateway. Part of the coming crisis will be their
attempt to resume control of the race.

Hear me out, please.

The major means of contact between the conscious man and the Elder Gods
are the forgotten ones. Now, the forgotten ones dwell in the individual
and irrational unconscious. They are the gods of survival, they are
pre-rational, they are blind and immensely powerful. Their force
manifested in man as hunger, the sex urge, the 'fight or flight'
adrenaline reaction and the tribal cohesion factor. Hunger constitutes the
primary link between the Elder Gods and the forgotten ones. The search for
nourishment antedates the desire for mating, even the asexual amoeba must
eat to survive. The process consists of the intake and assimilation of
energy either directly as in vegetable photosynthesis or indirectly by
consuming energy-storing matter. The forgotten ones seek both matter and
energy. Particularly in substances that consist of both modes: blood,
mediumistic ectoplasm, the alchemical elixir; now, this type of substance
is used to trap the forgotten ones into manifestation.

Dare we entertain it, to effectively counter a planetary invasion by the
Elder Gods the forgotten ones must be summoned to consciousness. In the
process the individual's demons will be released and must be reabsorbed,
the forgotten ones must be comprehended and absorbed and the link that
exists between them and the Elder Gods must be obtained and controlled by
the will of the magician. The forgotten ones have been left to work and
function in the lower levels of sentience, gathering power and
accumulating explosive potential under pressure. Now, it is in the
controlled release of these gods that the consciousness will be propelled
beyond its present state and achieve the next and necessary condition of
gestalt-consciousness."

I believe!

"Having achieved the gestalt, the magician will be in contact with the
race consciousness that spans history and planetary geography. This
entity, or 'planet man', is the only human mode capable of enforcing the
edicts of exile upon the Elder Gods." That was written by Neema and
Shadow.

Now, let me explain. As an artist, one's whole life is dedicated to an
unending series of contrasts. As one matures through the years he becomes
increasingly aware of the necessity of maintaining balance and polarity.
Margaret Crosby, the author of the writing I have previously read, who
goes under the name of Zora and Alhambra, explains further the
implications of polarity: "The forgotten ones are your sources of personal
magical power. The higher you reach to the gods of light the lower you
must plunge to the gods of darkness. And furthermore, to ignore their
presence is to guarantee their eventual dominion over your will." Kenneth
Grant, the author of 'Outside the Circles of Time' adds: "The forgotten
ones are the forces which the Christians declared satanic and which by
suppression have now grown to formidable dimensions threatening imminent
disaster for Humanity." So we are beginning to understand the Aquarian
ideal of standing upright with our heads above the heavens and our feet
below the hells. Or simply the implications of balance and truth, I
believe. Our current means of embodying the specific forces within our
music is developed from this point. For example, in a recent experiment I
wished to convey an extra-dimensional experience encountered within a
ritual invocation of a particular primal entity, that I believe to be
latent in the Middle East region at this moment.

Yes, it's abstract.

Now, to do this I chose to instigate a time change completely unrelated to
the rest of the music. For I perceived the particular entity as being in
between the space-time continuum. The time change was introduced with a
simple phrase [claps the time signature]: breakout of the cliché. For
anyone interested in it the time signature was 13/12. I chose this using
the number 13 signifying Pluto, or Plutonium, symbolising regeneration, as
the basis of the rhythm. I simply hummed the music I could hear to Martin
my engineer - he is over there - I went: [Jaz hums title track from
'Outside the Gate'], something like that. Martin, my engineer, then
pinpointed the precise time in numerical form. Now, as this generally
ranges from 40 beats per minute to 280 in modern metronomes one can square
or divide a number or either for more a precise variation. So, as I hummed
the music perceived, Martin noted the number of the natural speed and it
occurred to me that we had devised a means whereby we could identify the
exact force inherent within the foundations of the music if we checked a
number arrived at with the system of numerology known as the Hebrew
Geometria.

Now, as I had insane but fervent convictions that the force I had
encountered was active in the region of the gulf in the middle east, I was
astounded to learn that the number of the natural speed was 103 which
ironically is that of the prophet. Now, as we in Killing Joke have now
perfected a13-note scale corresponding to planetary influences the
nightmare of the immediate future became visible on an aural basis. So let
us watch with our ears and see for ourselves:

[excerpt of the song 'Outside The Gate' is played.]

So, how do we explain the prevailing trend towards self-destruction in
civilisations of both the East and West? Is it, as Professor Velacovski
suggests, that the terrifying memory of massive global cataclysms has been
wiped from the amnesiac human psyche and that those, the collective
unconscious, who refuse to understand the past are condemned eternally to
repeat it. Or, I ask, is there another reason? I feel that the true answer
is far simpler than Professor Velacovski suggests. Whilst his hypothesis
has something, I feel the underlying answer is far more straightforward,
though perhaps less attractive to the intellectual.

Man's behaviour patterns when scrutinised with true objectivity force us
to accept the unyielding conclusion that he is an irrational primeval
beast. He needs, he needs magic and miracles to dominate his existence.
His unconscious mind yearns for this.

Now, it would be correct to assume that in our rational society the magic
of current religious practice is no longer evident in daily life.
Consequently, the unconscious habitually searches for a primal source of
power worthy of marvelling at whilst retaining a one-dimensional
perception corresponding to the age of reason. For example, Pascal Jordan,
the great German physicist, recollects the early years of atomic research
thus, and remember this well: "Everybody was filled with such tension that
it almost took their breath away. The ice had been broken! It'd become
more and more clear in this connection we had stumbled upon a quite
unexpected and deeply embedded layer of the secrets of nature."

Doctor Oppenheimer, the pioneer of the atomic bomb, also remembers: "Our
understanding of atomic physics of that which we call the quantum-theory
of atomic systems had its origins in the turn of the century and its great
synthesis and resolutions in the 1920s. It was a heroic time, a time of
earnest correspondence in the horrid conferences, of debate, of criticism
and brilliant mathematical improvisation; for those who participated it
was a time of creation. There was terror as well as exaltation in their
new insight."

Now, from these two excerpts we can deduce that there was great excitement
about the discoveries taking place. The unconscious worship of power
tapped through fission had already begun!

Brilliant men and women who represented the quintessence of the scientific
rationale were now linking their consciousness to the fantastic! An
irrational domain that deified even the minds of the very acolytes
responsible for its creation.

Craving, do you understand? Craving. Do you understand this word? It's a
disgusting word. Craving, the scientist craving for the liberation of such
immensity of energy was finally realised. He'd become spellbound by his
part in unleashing the forces of nature. Soon the world would feast their
minds and participate in the fervent adorations of horror-beauty.
Civilisation would kneel on bended knee outwardly horrified but inwardly
fascinated and all times paying obedience [?] to the knowledge of magics,
perpetual manufacture, its consequences and most of all its exquisite
threat!

[cymbals crash]

From the moment of the first detonation at Alamogordo, Man could no longer
deny his unconscious worship of such power. There were many men and women
who have experienced what we have not and I would like to recount one
man's experience. We are too flippant about the energies we have
harnessed. So let us take it second-hand from someone who saw. So listen
well, for I'll say it only once:

"The whole country was lighted by a searing light with an intensity many
times that of the midday sun. Thirty seconds after the explosion came
first the air blast, pressing hard against the people and things, to be
followed immediately by the strong sustained awesome roar which warned of
doomsday and made us feel the we puny things were blasphemous to dare
tamper with the forces heretofore reserved to the almighty.

"Words are inadequate tools for the job of a quantum dose not present,
metaphysical, mental and psychological effects, it had to be witnessed to
be realised." - General Farrel, 16th of July 1945, the Manhattan Project.

How about this one?

"The second coming in vengeance!" Winston Churchill on the atomic bomb.

The situation, I'm speaking to you now, the situation today facing us
forty or so years after the first atomic explosion at Alamogordo only
reinforces my point: the collective unconscious everywhere now eagerly
anticipates the return of the Old Ones.

Dark aspects or gods of blind terror, pre-rational and immensely powerful.
Entities we have invoked back into our existence through the portals of
our very actions. Our own discovery of thermo-nuclear energy has unsealed
the gateway. These dark elements of nature have already partially resumed
control of the race.

Where are they? Huh?

Where are they? I assure you will see them when you've finished this
lecture.

Where are they? They are evident in the mayday celebrations in Moscow and
Peking as the intercontinental ballistic missiles are gloriously paraded
down the street.

They are there.

In its American counterpart we find childish, pro-Star Wars advertisements
that promote the puerile space-age technological dream of lasers,
protective screens and push-button annihilation. Their presence is also
discernible in Israel's atomic progress at the heart of which lies a base
Old Testament hate and loathing towards the enemies of the Zionist cause.
But most of all they are visible in the governing bodies of the White
House whose policies and politics are determined, to be precise, are
determined by a consumationist interpretation of St John's testimony of
the apocalypse.

Armaments of obliteration in all their forms have become symbols, or
idols, of a rational world with which man has begun to worship bodies of
unlimited power. The confusion and hypocrisy that surrounds the potential
employment of these weapons only broadens the irrationality of the human
psyche, for it should be known, it should be noted, that the image of the
enemy remains unalterable.

Do you hear me?

Banners of the free West are piously flown under which crusades against,
and I quote Mr. Ronald Reagan, "Godless monsters of an evil empire" are
undertaken. Similarly, any attempt at imperialist intervention would be
made with a, quote Mr. Gorbachev: "a glorious and crushing strike." A
glorious and crushing strike. The seeds of natural regeneration have begun
to germinate visibly in the feverish pitch of human activity within the
various superpowers as they prepare for the climax of their existence.

Huh, you know, astonishingly enough, however, in the midst of all this
madness, all still claim to be operating in the name of freedom. Now,
whether this is collective or individual is irrelevant. Somewhere there is
truth in their assumptions for they are most certainly moving towards a
liberation of one kind although, I suspect it is probably far removed from
the written political and ideological creeds. Should civilisations
suddenly bear a collective awareness of the unconscious mind, then I have
no doubt that it would be uniquely horrified at the kind of liberation it
is actually initiating.

The prevailing idealism at this moment in time is most definitely
unconscious as opposed to conscious. This for me is possibly the most
unacceptable aspect of it all. The reluctance of humanity to face the
state of its collective unconscious has been made apparent at two specific
times in the last eight years of my career with Killing Joke. In both the
Falklands War and more especially the American bombing of Tripoli, I
noticed a sudden surge of interest in both my activities and studies.

People were ringing me up, night and day. It appeared to me, you know what
I thought? It appeared to me as though the red alert was the unification
point of humanity. Primal fear appears to stimulate the conscious mind's
awareness as to the workings of its unconscious. The rational mind at this
point becomes confused at its discoveries which resemble, which resemble a
perverse fascination with the subject of dread. In every case of a person
successfully establishing communication with me at the two times stated,
the only question their trembling voices wanted an answer to was: "Is it
going to happen?"

The adrenaline induced by fear manifests the focal point of worship in the
conscious mind! Naturally, as soon as the assault on the conscious mind
from the external world subsides, the link with the unconscious is broken
and in the case of Tripoli the entities or primal thought forms that exist
there, return to being superficially dormant. But now we have learnt that
a series of associated aural and visual images is all it requires to
awaken such entities at will. If I had to condense the foremost aim of my
musical endeavours over the last eight years into one paragraph, I would
say that it has been to create a concrete vision of the future by
suggesting a spiralling recession of time. The regression of every aspect
of existence to its original condition of primal substance. The term
"killing joke" amplifies the idea of the laughter that dispels the
ultimate fear of returning to our base origin.

Nevertheless, we still have to learn that the climate of an age is
unalterable. The changes we see before us must be recognised as natural
growth, insofar as we can perceive nature or evolution to be. Therefore,
no matter how we feel about the severity of such proliferation we cannot
alter its direction. Therefore, one is forced to accept that all
analytical breakdowns of developments are obsolete.

Have a look at it, imagine...

"The shipyards blaze, vibrant arsenals wait their turn. Idols of rational
world to worship power, to worship strength. Great crowds excited by riot,
pleasure and work. Insane crusades, destructive gestures of the freedom
bringers. And all the bells shall toll as holy banners fly and all will
talk of freedom. Let rage and hate of races run from Adam down. The magic
of our science shines brighter than a thousand suns. Liberty in new
dimensions, ruthless and spectacular, obliteration shall be poetry of
'Golden Dawns.'

[note: this is taken verbatim from the lyrics to 'Rubicon']

It can be seen at this stage that all my conclusions are formulated on the
premise that rationalism ultimately destroys itself through its own
irrationality. We can actually prove this by utilising a sequential
thought process for the elimination of supposed fact.

Now, I turn this systemised regression for convenience sake. So let us all
in the Courtauld Institute go into the future, and we shall go into the
future by using reason:

(A) History proves that war is an integral part of human existence.

(B) The intellect neither alters nor detracts from the fact that man is an
aggressive and predatory beast.

(C) The application of both intellect and science is therefore inevitably
employed for the purposes of tribal dominance.

(D) The continual perfection and development of (C), which is the
application of both intellect and science, the perfection and development
of this through time, for example the industrial revolution, rapidly
evolving research et cetera, government funded, invariably culminates in
super-weapons of total annihilation. The opposing bodies of government
that license such production become aware of the catastrophic implications
of these instruments. Mutually assured destruction: MAD. And subsequently
justify their deployment on the basis of deterrence. Now at this moment in
time we are precisely at (E).

I shall explain (E). Weapon stockpiles increase at an alarming rate and
similarly so do the law of averages for human or technological error,
coupled with conflicting ideological, economic and strategic gestures. And
I warn you that the Zionists believe that it will come six months after a
major peace agreement. [quiet: pff...it's rubbish.] So weapon stockpiles
increase at an alarming rate and similarly so do the law averages for
human or technological error, coupled with conflicting ideological,
economic and strategic gestures. The logical result of which would be:

(F) An eventual thermo-nuclear exchange destroying approximately 93% of
the global population. Now, statistics assimilate that total extinction is
still highly unlikely. So, the surviving 7% will be distributed between:
I) government fallout shelters containing sophisticated ecosystems, and 2)
small islands of people scattered across the under populated regions of
the Southern Hemisphere.

Now (G). These two modes of existence both rapidly transformed from their
former condition by being psychologically and physically exposed to
extreme changes, logically [cymbal crash], logically.

(H) The former group (1) being subjugated to the confine of a subterranean
existence in a regimental fashion necessary for its own maintenance, it is
logical to conclude that with restricted natural resources taken into
consideration barbarism, cannibalism and separate factions will occur over
an extended period of time. Now, in the long term we can see that the
psychological aftermath of such repetitious brutality would assure a
complete nullification of all previous remnants of reason. More
importantly the memory of the former civilisation would revert to
mythological status.

Ha-ha.

(I) The letter I, (I), the latter group, (2), reduced to a far baser level
of civilisation, the radiated food, absence of energy, medicine, function
of ecosystems, etc. would have inevitably experienced atrocities to the
extent that their emotions would have been hardened to the point of
tranquility. Now, this in conjunction with the effect of radioactive
substances that appear to induce a modification of the genes in certain
individuals could support recent medical disclosures that if the protein
in the gene is slightly affected, it can no longer produce certain acids
which cause us to feel anxiety.

Similarly, we are forced to admit that over an extended period of time
undetectable mutation would develop, giving us a terrestrial being of a
conscious vertebrate type that is physically, spiritually, psychologically
and fundamentally alien to our present condition. Again, the memory of the
former civilisation, which is the one you and I are sitting in now, would
revert to mythological or legendary status. I haven't finished.

Letter (J) for "Joke".

In both cases the creation of a new humanity occurs at the diminishing
point of the age of reason. In both cases, though more significantly in
the latter, Man reaches a state that epitomises freedom in its most
objective context. In both cases the memory of the former civilisation
reverts to legendary status. Now, in these examples we can observe that
the product of rationalism has created the perfect climate for the birth
of a magical age or an irrational interpretation of existence if you like.

Simultaneously, with a rudimentary equation of this process we cancel out
the necessity of the equation. And it subsequently disintegrates into
nothingness. I'll demonstrate. The existence of reason plus the exclusive
enhancement of reason equals the eventual and sudden breakdown of reason,
which equals the creation of its antithesis, which is a magical
interpretation of existence.

Reason, it seems, is made void by its inefficiency at embracing and
adequately explaining the exhilarating phenomenon of existence. Sure, it's
impossible to accurately estimate the repercussive effect on a future
society that might arise from a consciousness that has witnessed and
all-out atomic cataclysm first hand and survived.

Now, seen in this light we are talking about a natural function, yes, a
natural function, that does not fall short of a global initiation
perceived as a whole. A purification by ordeal. Possibly. The birth of a
New World; new consciousness; new Man. But we can only see this vision
with true objectivity if we continue to bind this objectivity into our
existence. When we almost become our vision. Must become!

When we achieve polarity and we stand with our heads above the heavens and
our feet below the hells. Stand upright. Now, much attention is given
these days to the work of H. P. Lovecraft whose fictional entity seems to
correlate to the major shift in global trends. Only the other day I picked
up a magazine that contained an article by one Peter Smith expanding on H.
P. Lovecraft and the occult tradition. He says: "Lovecraft is a
particularly interesting case of transmission via dream. He violently
denies the idea of the existence of occult phenomena. Nevertheless, this
denial is belied by the unconscious elements of his stories, indicating a
division between the rational and intuitive side of his personality. With
the appearance of each story an underlying pattern becomes evident. 'All
my stories'. He wrote, 'unconnected as they may be, are based on the
fundamental law or legend that this world was inhabited at once time by
another race who in practising, who in practising black magic lost their
foothold and were expelled, yet live on the outside, ever ready to take
possession of this earth again.'"

Now, this is the central theme of 'The Call of Cthulhu' written in 1926.
1926 that must be about, what, 12 years before, 12 years after the Aim of
Horus which happened around the year 1904. I'm to understand. Correct me
if I'm wrong. Don't bother.

The subject of the story is the idea that at certain times when the stars
assume their correct position these dark powers can influence sensitive
individuals, giving them visions of the great Old Ones or, if they resist,
driving them insane.

[synthesiser effect]

These entities exist in another dimension or vibrational level and can
only enter this world through a specific window area or psychic gateway, a
concept fundamental to many occult traditions. Lovecraft describes the
world after the return of the Old Ones: "Mankind would become free and
wild beyond good and evil with laws and morals thrown aside and all men
shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones
would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel, and all the world
would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."

There is a marked similarity in this passage to the teachings of many
secret societies including the Assassins, the Gnostics and the Templars.
But in particular, to the law of Thelema as expressed by Lovecraft's
contemporary the very dubious character Aleister Crowley. Very dubious
character!

The main distinction between them, that is Lovecraft and Crowley, is a
moral one. Whereas Lovecraft regarded these ancient gods as essentially
evil in nature, Crowley saw their return as being in full accord with the
progression of aeons which means it is, and it is to be.

Just because I don't like thermo-nuclear power does not mean that it is
gonna go away.

Evidence shows the opposite. Just because I find these forces repugnant
does not mean to say I will not come into contact with them. So my
opinion, where do I stand upon this moral and ethical dilemma?

The first thought that comes to my mind is my beautiful little daughter,
who I love very much. Somewhere I tend to agree with H. P. Lovecraft. I
mean, I find these entities, or should I say these changes, repugnant. I
am in the end a romanticist. I still dream of the Cotswold Hills as I
remember them in my childhood; the wildlife; the exquisite beauty of the
countryside on a hot English summer's day. But there is also something I
cannot dismiss about Crowley's assumption that the return of these ancient
forces are in a call with the progression of aeons, or the scheme of the
universe if you like. And yes I believe somewhere we have a moral and
ethical responsibility to polarise or stabilise these forces with balance
and truth. In fact, I have to go back to the ancient hills of the
Cotswolds to my homeland and to the religion which nourished me. "Eight
words the Witches' Creed fulfill: if it harm none, do what thou will."

I also believe that we can only respond to such changes on an individual
basis. As I am primarily a musician I have tried to achieve this balance
with my musical form. The harsh masculine force of change is typified by
dissonance and discordance. This is neutralised by the feminine currents
of harmony and melody. It is here, the contrast between the two, that I've
found my polarity.

Now, I hear that one or two of you have travelled a very long distance to
this talk and I wanted it to be a, a non-profit occasion. And I thank you
all for hearing me out, very much.

[guitar stops playing]

As far as our future plans are concerned everything is tied up in our
forthcoming album, 'Outside The Gate'. We have consciously written the
music to celebrate one occasion for ourselves which is a performance of
the music in a location one hundred miles north of Ayers Rock in
Australia, on the edge of a precipice. Now, naturally such an event would
be filmed. Obviously there are a lot of arrangements and obstacles we have
to cross before this objective can be realised. But there is a new Killing
Joke, and we would like you to listen and read our recent work and judge
us on the merits of that work only.

Thank you very much for hearing me out.

[applause]







KILLING JOKE LYRICS