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  5. Desperately sad news, particularly poignant when many are currently enjoying and celebrating his huge contribution to the creation of This Is The Sea. Here’s one he co-wrote with Mike.

  6. That’s really sad. An integral part of my favourite era of the Waterboys and then all the great World Party stuff. I remember knowing that I was about to get the elbow from a girlfriend in London when she asked me to make sure I brought back her CD of their Bang album. Goodbye Jumbo is the album I played to death in the short time I lived in the ill-fated Grenfell Tower. The two are intertwined in my memories. I also remember a friend of mine in fragile mental health asking me to play him some music to lift his mood. I played him World Party’s version of Dylan’s All I Really want to Do. He became a fan instantly. It’s still a joyous track.

    RIP Karl.

  9. That’s really sad news. He kind of slipped into my music collection and definitely made his mark. I then saw them him/them live and realised he had attracted other favourite musicians of mine into his orbit too. He’s left us a few great tunes. RIP

  11. Ah man that’s terrible. Just made some of the best music of my youth. So many tunes. All I Gave alone has enough melodies for other bands to construct whole albums out of.

    RIP Karl.

    • Awful news. Goodbye Jumbo was a classic and an album I played to death.
      Loved all his World Party stuff and was hoping that there was more to come. The last interview I read of his (about 2 years ago) he was quoted as saying there was stuff in the pipeline so you never know it might see the light of day.
      RIP Karl.

      • There’s a lot in the can, as you might imagine from a musician with a home studio and no new releases for decades.

        The recent WP album reissues were vinyl only with almost no extra tracks as (a) that’s how KW wanted them to be (b) he only owned the masters to the albums, so there was no incentive to license b-sides etc from his old label as he wouldn’t get paid for doing it (he said as much in a recent-ish podcast) (c) KW wasn’t an easy person for a label to deal with.

        I know the bloke who is now head of back catalogue at Chrysalis records, perhaps now they’ll do a proper WP box set to rival the Waterboys (and forthcoming Sinéad) ones.

        • There was a boxset that came out a few years ago that was excellent – a lot of Beatles covers etc.
          Tell me more about the Sinead boxset – that is intriguing.

          • Yes, Arkeology, “a song diary”. Many b-sides and odd tracks, but not all.

            It stopped before the last couple of albums, and KW was talking about a second volume.

            A box set of I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got has been ready for years – an EP was released for RSD three years ago, but no sign of the rest yet. There’s a box of The Lion & The Cobra ready to go now, too.

  13. Very sad news. Such a fantastic songwriter, gone too soon.

    Some classics selected above. As a teenager in the 90s, I discovered World Party around the Egyptology LP and always loved this one too:

  14. Really sad. Goodbye Jumbo is one of those albums that I strongly associate with a particular time and place. In this case, the year we got married and were living in leafy Burnham.

  16. That came as a shock. Whilst undoubtedly Goodbye Jumbo is an all time classic, I’ve always loved Bang! – probably helped by the fact that it was one of the first CDs I bought when I moved to Singapore and was on constant rotation in those first couple of years (and still gets played fairly regularly these days).

    I actually had the US version of the CD which had the hidden track “Kuwait City” at the end (I don’t think it was on the UK CD – although I may have this the wrong way round). World Party does The Beach Boys….

  17. Not unexpected in a way, serious brain issue wasnt it?

    Toured as support for Dylan down here. Suffered from the usual inferior sound for the support. Would have loved to seen their own show. Such perfectly formed songs.
    Mike Scott in a Twitter comment said he was the most talented musician he ever knew.

  18. Such sad news Private Revolution was on constant repeat in my youth. . Only saw them live once at Glastonbury in the late 80’s . You know you’re getting old when your heroes start to die . RIP

    • Same here – Glasto the only sighting. This is really sad news; I loved his music. When I read this news, sitting at my desk, I automatically looked down towards the floor next to my left foot – which is where the W section starts on my CD shelves; the World Party CDs have been regular listens for decades now. Condolences to all his family and friends, he’s a geat loss.

  19. Saw him at the Glee club in Birmingham and he’s superb although was intrigued that he played the guitar left handed but with the strings upside down. Didn’t stop the tunes coming out.

  20. What a songwriter – those WP albums were a staple back in the day but sadly I’ve probably not played them much at all in the last decade or so. This was always a low key personal fave

  21. Very sad, absolutely loved WP.
    Saw them at the Forum in Kentish Town just the once, but remember the band being excellent, and they appeared to enjoy the show as much as the audience.

  22. This is such a joyful noise. I always think it has two choruses (and a fabulous verse). Pop music at is very best – taking bits from so many places and making something unique and brilliant.

  24. Really sad news. He did so much brilliant stuff as World Party. I saw them at the Albert Hall in 2012. They were fantastic. I’m also very fond of the Big Blue Ball album from Real World where he sings lead vocals on the title track:

    And he had this on another Real World compilation:

  25. This has come as a shock. Such sad news.

    I played Goodbye Jumbo to death in what I now recognise as the formative years of my musical taste (I was 15/16 when it came out), and I couldn’t have had a better foundation of melodic pop. Its songs are some of the most persistent earworms I have, and their lines frequently spring into my head even now, despite not listening to it very often in the past decade.

    As I got into various 60s bands’ catalogues over the years, I enjoyed stumbling across the odd musical phrase or flourish that Karl had skillfully nicked and remodelled as flourishes into his own beautiful work. It was like a much, much better Oasis.

    Bang! has some terrific tunes on it, and the subsequent tour was the only time I saw WP live (with support from Aimee Mann, Whatever-era – so I’ve got Karl to thank for that life-long musical obsession as well), but I drifted away from WP after that – I probably got distracted by other things and just didn’t invest enough time in Eqyptology.

    Time to immerse myself in Arkeology. Why do I always need the death of an artist to make me take the time to really explore their full work?

  26. Sad news.

    Saw World Party at one of my favourite venues, the Wedgwood Rooms in Southsea a few years back. Place felt almost empty. I doubt there were 100 people there when a pretty numerous version of WP came on and played a storming set.

  28. Hepworth and Ellen were talking the other day on their podcast about Side One of ‘Pretzel Logic’ being perfect. I would suggest that Side One of ‘Goodbye Jumbo’ achieves the same status.

  29. I remember seeing Ship of Fools performed on the Secret Policeman’s 3rd Ball and being knocked sideways by how brilliant it was. CDs playing today, what a talent, sorely missed.

  30. A sad loss.

    Saw him live at Leeds Uni on 8th October 1986 and there were 6 of us in the crowd. We shared the rider with the band after the gig and he signed my ticket with the message ‘Andy, World Party NEXT YEAR, Karl Wallinger’. I still have it.

    I saw them in 1988 in Leeds after Ship of Fools had been a minor hit and finally in 1990 on the Goodbye Jumbo tour at the Leeds Town and Country club (long since gone).

    Great memories and I have dug out all the albums and singles, plus Arkeology, and will immerse myself in his music tonight and for the next few weeks I am sure.

    RIP Karl.

  34. I just played Egyptology through, and spiffingly brilliant it is too. As I reached for the play button to spin it again, I reflected upon the fact that I can’t think of another CD I own with 15 tracks, count ’em, wherein not one of which ever causes a twitch in the direction of the skip button. Bloody marvellous.

  38. In the last 10 days World Party have gone from being a group I liked a lot to a full on obsession. Just the 5 albums plus the Arkeology box but what riches and how little i really knew. KW was seriously talented. Dumbing Up for example which I’d never listened to before – probably never even registered its existence before tbh – is absolutely wonderful as is much of Arkeology. The increasingly common situation of discovering or in this case rediscovering an artist when they die is very sad but for KW and WP it’s been an absolute revelation.

    • Better late than never. I didn’t buy Bang! until a couple of years after it came out. I borrowed it from a colleague and it was great. If I ever want to hear WP I still reach for the first two.

      • For me it’s been the realisation of how good what’s there outside of Goodbye Jumbo and Bang is. It wasn’t a one or two album career. Can only hope there’s some unreleased stuff to come.

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