WOLVO BORN KILLING JOKE STAR DIES

22-10-2007

Former Killing Joke bassist Paul Raven has died at the age of 46 in Switzerland. The Wolverhampton-born star cut his teeth with local punk heroes Neon Hearts.

Raven was found slumped in a chair at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning by Ted Parsons, drummer of legendary US grungers Prong. The pair had been working with the French band Treponem Pal and had been out celebrating the completion of an album the previous evening.

The cause of death is unknown, leaving Paul's mom and his brother Daniel - who has gone to Switzerland to collect the body - to await the results of an autopsy.

Steve Harrington, former Neon Hearts vocalist and now promoter of Club Hell in Wolverhampton (http://www.myspace.com/yourclubhell) said he'll remember Paul with great affection, as a gregarious bloke who enjoyed life to the full.

"He was the kind of character who would walk into a room, and he would know half the people there. He loved to have a laff and was always up for a bit of fun."

Their time together in Neon Hearts was, Steve said, "the first real taste any of us had of success" and although the band foundered on record company blundering, it set Paul on the road to stardom.

In 1982 he replaced the original bassist Youth in Killing Joke, a legendary outfit who collaged punk, funk and dub reggae and hung around for six years - the most commercially successful in the group's history.

He then rejoined the band intermittently, as well as recording and touring with Ministry, Godflesh and former Nirvana drummer/Foo Fighters main man Dave Grohl.

"We met up again a couple of years ago" says Steve. "He had a drink and he looked through the scrapbook. He even talked about coming back to live in Wolverhampton but he was like a fish out of water here.

"He could get band anywhere in the world, except Britain."