Songs have been Karl Wallinger’s compass, melody his north star. Once I interviewed him in 2012, over shepherd’s pie on the Groucho Membership, he described himself as being a “track creature all my life”. One of the best tracks by World Occasion, whom he fronted, sound like a person attempting to cram all of the love and pleasure of his personal fandom into 4 minutes, to distil the essence of Bob Dylan, Prince, the Rolling Stones, Sly Stone, Van Morrison, the Seaside Boys, maybe above all of the Beatles, into one effervescent, funky, heartfelt and barely ramshackle homebrew.
Wallinger, who has died aged 66, pulled it off various occasions. The massive hitters within the World Occasion canon – Ship of Fools, Put the Message within the Field, Method Down Now, Is it Like Right this moment?, She’s the One – sound like the most effective sort of pop music: ageless, past style. Flip to them at any time and they’ll brighten any room.
Past these staples, although, {the catalogue} runs deep. World Occasion have been typically dismissed as Sixties revivalists, however though the by line is Wallinger’s dedication to pop classicism, the music is extra various than that may counsel, incorporating funk, nation, synth-pop, folks, mock-opera and nu-soul.
The balm-like prayer of It Can Be Stunning (Generally) and the ominous All Come True, each from the band’s debut, Non-public Revolution, are poles aside stylistically. World Occasion’s greatest and most profitable album, Goodbye Jumbo, encompasses rolling folk-rock (Take It Up), stoned boudoir funk (Ain’t Gonna Come Until I’m Prepared), Brill Constructing balladry (And I Fell Again Alone), crunchy psychedelia (Thank You World), and all factors in between. The field set Arkeology is a vibrant decide’n’mixture of of scattershot creativity which additionally harbours sensible songs reminiscent of One other World, a ravishing apologia from mankind to the Earth it has destroyed.
Lyrically, there was nothing nostalgic about Wallinger’s writing. “I’m not retro,” he informed me in 2012. “I’m writing songs about now – in reality, the songs I wrote again then are much more related now than they have been after I wrote them. I wasn’t attempting to be forward of the curve, I used to be simply writing about issues that appeared apparent to me on the time, and we nonetheless haven’t achieved something about it.”
Certainly, Ship of Fools – a churning minor-key broadside towards the “avarice and greed” of our leaders – is depressingly topical in 2024. One other World was removed from the one World Occasion track to deal with impending ecological catastrophe – Goodbye Jumbo even appeared to bid farewell to the elephant on its cowl – and Wallinger was effectively forward of the occasions by making environmentalism a key theme. The ragged history-of-the-world philosophising of Is It Like Right this moment? was impressed by Bertrand Russell; morality vultures have been skewered on God on Your Facet.
The humanity within the songs feels actual exactly as a result of it’s conflicted, the love – of music, mankind, our planet – served with scathing wit and a healthy dose of north Wales scepticism. Once I met Wallinger, a decade after he had suffered the mind aneurysm that just about killed him, he balanced a extra reflective outlook on life with ripe disgust. “I used to suppose we have been all proper, now I believe we’re a bunch of twats. Me too. I will be as a lot of a twat as the subsequent man …”
He was terrific firm. Opinionated, sharp, humorous, wry, offended. The identical form coronary heart and sharp tongue he displayed in individual is clear within the work. The ultimate observe on the third World Occasion album, Bang!, is known as All I Gave. It’s a breezy George Harrison-esque tune, cheerfully asserting our particular person worth within the face of life’s many vagaries. “All I gave was me,” sings Wallinger on the refrain. Listening to it once more this morning, it rings more true than ever.
In addition to a flexible songwriter, characterful singer (he had an excellent falsetto), and charismatic stage performer, Wallinger was a vastly gifted multi-instrumentalist. His former bandmate within the Waterboys, Mike Scott, referred to as him “one of many most interesting musicians I’ve ever identified”. For a yr or two, his taking part in graced a number of basic Waterboys songs, with a spectacular organ half on Rags and great piano on A Pagan Place. On The Complete of the Moon, Wallinger’s synth bass and cascading vocal line close to the tip – influenced by David Bowie’s Fame – add significantly to the wealthy sonic tapestry.
On the primary few World Occasion albums he performs just about the whole lot, however technical perfection was by no means the purpose. Wallinger labored in his personal makeshift recording areas – one, in deeply city King’s Cross, was jokingly referred to as Seaview – and appeared happiest bashing about. Goodbye Jumbo is under no circumstances a pristine audio artefact, however it hums with the enjoyment of creation. Within the early 90s, that album appeared to be in every single place. Citing the regulation of unintended penalties, a case could possibly be made that it heralded the approaching tide of Britpop, drawing on a number of the identical sources with higher wit and much much less self-consciousness.
Wallinger wasn’t fascinated with browsing that wave, or some other. Past the consequences of his sickness, which clearly slowed him down creatively, there’s a suspicion that he progressively retreated from the trimmings of the music trade to protect the enjoyment in what he did. “I simply know I’m right here and need to play some music and make good use of my time,” he informed me. “It’s that tacky.”
It at all times got here again to the music. Once we met, he would break off from chatting to sing melodies into his telephone, manipulating them in an app utilizing a wah-wah impact. His ringtone performed Sly Stone’s Household Affair. His canine was referred to as Ringo. Goodness, Karl Wallinger liked music. We ought to be grateful that he shared the love round.
