Pandemonium

From a childhood marked by racism and a sense of outsider identity to the explosive rise of Killing Joke, Jaz Coleman’s journey is one of rebellion, creativity and survival.

A gifted classical music prodigy growing up in conservative 1960s Cheltenham, Jaz seemed destined for a very different life, until aged 18 he abandoned it overnight and decamped to London, fired up by the idea of forming an experimental band.

Killing Joke emerged from the post-punk underground to become one of the most influential bands of their generation. But as the group rose to international success, their frontman was living a life of chaos and contradiction. From encounters with organised crime, running a hashish empire in Iceland and robbing Rough Trade Records to finding himself living rent free in a house owned by Princess Diana’s cousin, he tells a shocking often surreal story of different worlds colliding in a hidden corner of cultural history.

Yet throughout it all, Jaz never lost touch with his classical roots. Alongside Killing Joke, he built a remarkable parallel career as a celebrated composer and conductor, selling more than a million albums and taking him far beyond the boundaries of punk.

Drawing on decades of personal, contemporaneous diaries, this epic, provocative and revealing memoir offers an intimate portrait of one of British music’s most uncompromising, original and unpredictable creative forces, whose impact on culture and counterculture has endured for almost half a century.