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Thank You World: Karl Wallinger bids farewell

World Party singer-songwriter dies aged 66

By Paul Sinclair

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Karl Wallinger the singer-songwriter who was best known for World Party, his almost-solo outfit, has died aged 66, it has been announced.

Wallinger first came to prominence as the touring keyboard player in The Waterboys although his role grew by the time of 1985’s This Is The Sea and Mike Scott has acknowledged his significant contribution in terms of arrangements and his skills as a multi-instrumentalist (Wallinger also co-wrote opener ‘Don’t Bang The Drum’).

Karl left during the This Is The Sea tour to pursue his own solo career (what would become World Party) and the first album Private Revolution was released in 1986. The second single from that long-player, ‘Ship of Fools’ was a significant success, especially in America where, remarkably, it reached No 27 in the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK, the song underachieved, peaking frustratingly just short of the UK top 40 at No 42. Singles being within touching distance of commercial success but not quite getting there, would become a common theme during World Party’s 13 or 14 years of regular activity.

Neither ‘Put The Message in the Box’ or ‘Way Down Now’ – both superb pop songs – from World Party’s undoubted 1990 masterpiece Goodbye Jumbo were a hit, which seems unfathomable now, but Wallinger was probably just too far ahead of the curve with his fusion of sixties songwriting idealism and one-man-band recording techniques. Remember, this was all happening during the embers of PWL, Acid/House, Grunge and the ‘Baggy’ dance/rock scene. Even The Las album (issued six months after Goodbye Jumbo) only peaked at number 30 and neither ‘Timeless Melody’ or ‘There She Goes’ were a hit when first released, to reinforce this point. We’d have to wait three or four more years for Oasis to turn up before the public were seemingly ready for bands to channel The Beatles.

But Goodbye Jumbo is a truly wonderful album. I remember exactly where I bought my copy, in Cheapo Cheapo record shop in Soho, probably around 1991. I don’t remember knowing anything from it at the time but I must have vaguely read or heard something about World Party being quite good. Karl Wallinger could write brilliant tunes with great hooks and lyrics, but it was the sound and the production that made everything work so well. ‘Ain’t Gonna Come ‘Til I’m Ready’ is pure perfection; so many tiny sonic details placed, layered and mixed with precision and Karl sings beautifully with that Prince-like falsetto. He could build a song for days, weeks, months with that studio craftsmanship and then write an achingly simple tune like ‘Love Street’ or the piano ballad ‘Sweet Soul Dream’.

When Goodbye Jumbo entered the the UK album charts at No 41 in May 1990, the top 20 included Paula Abdul, Big Fun, Sonia, Phil Collins, Michael Bolton and the Inspiral Carpets. A week later the album moved up to No. 36 for its single week in the UK top 40, before disappearing. Almost a year later, Ensign (part of Chrysalis) issued ‘Thank You World’ as the third and final UK single but any hope that it might give the album a late boost was dashed by it’s failure to be any kind of a hit (it peaked at No 68).

In spring 1993, a couple of years after the Goodbye Jumbo campaign ended, World Party returned with their third album Bang! and, somewhat against the odds, it was a commercial success! This was all down to the first single, the brilliantly languid and lovely Is It Like Today?, which was a hit, offering the band national exposure on Top of the Pops.

I say it was a ‘hit’, ‘Is It Like Today?’ actually only got to No 19, but hey, so did ‘Losing My Religion’ two years earlier in 1991 and look how much that helped R.E.M.’s Out Of Time. World Party’s Bang! entered the UK album charts at No 2 and only Automatic For The People, R.E.M.’s follow-up to Out Of Time, denied them a number one album.

On reflection, the second single, the funk-rock of ‘Give It All Away’, was perhaps not the song to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining this hard won territory inside the actual pop charts and World Party were back to their old ways of peaking just outside the top 40. It was borderline criminal that the commercially catchy pop of ‘Sooner Or Later’ wasn’t the second single from Bang! and by the time the sunny ‘All I Gave’ was released, in the autumn of 1993, the moment was gone. This period was great in some ways because fans were rewarded with some fantastic CD 1 / CD 2 singles with a plethora of extra tracks, such as an extended version of ‘Give It All Away’ and the excellent ‘Basically’ (B-side to ‘Is It Like Today’).

The wait for the next album, Egyptology, seemed very long at the time, but was actually only four years. Nevertheless, the momentum had gone (Wallinger told me the label encouraged him to get back into the studio rather than tour on the back of the success of Bang!) and ironically having been ahead of the curve with Goodbye Jumbo, Karl had missed the best years of Britpop (1994-5) when World Party’s retro style of pop-rock would have probably been best received. ‘She’s The One’, which was famously a No 1 hit for Robbie Williams in 1999, features on Egyptology, but was only released as a promotional single and at the time with Chrysalis opting for ‘Beautiful Dream’ as the lead track from the album (issued on three different CD singles in the UK). That stalled at No 36 and no more singles were issued. Egyptology had its moments, but it always felt too long and while there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it, the magic was missing to a degree, and it was rather weighed down by solid, if not outstanding numbers.

What we now know as World Party’s last album, Dumbing Up, was released on Karl’s own Seaview label in October 2000. One single, ‘Here Comes The Future’, was put out to little fanfare. Not long after this, in early 2001, Wallinger suffered an aneurysm that left him unable to speak and it took almost half a decade for him to be well enough to make a return, albeit only on stage. The next decade featured a series of sporadic tours, normally in America, although World Party did support Steely Dan in Australia in 2007 (“we were like the naughty kids on their tour”). They played festivals, vineyards and the like and by all accounts had a very pleasant time of it!

Karl was always disinterested in reissues (“I don’t like it when you go to buy a CD and it’s got five other tracks at the end that are basically rubbish versions of other tracks on the album. I hate that” he told SDE in 2012), and even when he grudgingly approved the band’s one and only greatest hits compilation (2006’s Best in Show, not issued in the UK) he didn’t bother sweating over the tracklisting and just looked at the iTunes chart and picked the 13 most downloaded World Party songs (the reason seven tracks are from Goodbye Jumbo).

What Karl did approve, in 2012, which now seems like an amazing gift, was the release of Arkeology, a 70-track anthology (“it isn’t a box set” he insisted). This 5CD set contains no studio album tracks which illustrates just how prolific Karl was, even if he seemed reluctant to actually release anything (surely only Prince could perhaps have put together a similar collection). As well as old B-sides, live cuts and covers, Arkeology included what were new recordings at the time, songs like ‘Everybody’s Falling in Love’ and ‘Photograph’ (finished in 2011). In November 2012, World Party played their first UK show in 12 years at London’s Royal Albert Hall. I was there and it was beautiful.

SDE spoke to Karl at length around this time. He admitted he was “quite insular” and said “I have been locked away in a studio, I do have all the masters up there, and I am my own boss, but in the same way that this Arkeology project is so personal, back then it was always these record companies pulling you into this de-personalised zone. I’m much happier now, I’m able to do my own thing”.

He was a kind man. At end of our conversation (which was conducted on Skype) I asked if he might be able to sort me out with a copy of Arkeology for an SDE competition. He’d surely never heard of this fairly new blog called ‘Super Deluxe Edition’ and had no idea who I was, but on realising I lived in East London he said he would immediately take a copy he had in his home (at the time in North London, he later relocated to Hastings) and put it in a black cab and deliver it to me. When it turned up it came with the lovely handwritten note below, which I will always treasure. Rest in Peace, Karl Wallinger.

Karl’s handwritten note accompanied a copy of Arkeology

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99 Comments

99 thoughts on “Thank You World: Karl Wallinger bids farewell”

  1. I was at student at Bristol Poly when I first heard The Waterboys and about Mike Scott and Karl Wallinger. I remember listening to This the Sea endlessly and thought it was one of the greatest songs of the time but then World Party came along with Ship of Fools and blew it out of the water (excuse the pun). World Party played the Poly and after the gig the band came into the bar and sat down with us and had a few beers. What a great memory.

    I only heard today that Karl Wallinger had died. It is so sad that now 3 of my 5 musical heroes have died (Prince, Mark Hollis and KW which just leaves Adam Dervitz and Fyfe Dangerfield). I think I saw World Party about 5 times in the 1990s and each gig lives in my memory as some of the best gigs I have been to (and I have been to hundreds). I have been listening to World Party since I heard the news and I am at the moment listening to ‘Give it all away’ which I remember was the song they ended at one of the gigs I went to.

    I remember hearing the Karl Wallinger had had a brain aneurysm in 2001 and then found out he lived literally round the corner from me in Crouch End. I really wanted to go round to his house to see how he was and that if it hadn’t been for Robbie Williams hit with ‘She’s the One’ kept him financially solvent. Thanks Robbie.

    I have every album (other than Arkeology) that KW made and honestly there must be only one or two songs I don’t really like. To me Prince was a true musical genius but KW was not too far behind. RIP Karl Wallinger.

  2. Just so, so sad. Unfortunately as we ourselves age so do our musical heroes. Bearing in mind how great Arkeology was there’s almost bound to be much excellent unreleased material and some odds and ends from before as mentioned above. Could SDE play a role in pulling such a set together as a final tribute to Karl?

  3. So sorry to hear…..on YouTube there is a radio station “World Party Full Performance (Live On KEXP)” where he does two songs and talks about the Arkeology at length in the middle….worth a visit….thanks Paul for everything and the dedication

  4. Karl was a an amazing talent and taken too soon. Have all of his discography. I had hoped he was working an album when he went quiet with studio releases after his health issues. RIP.

  7. I discovered World Party with “Ship of Fools” in 1987 when I was a Senior in high school. World Party got heavy airplay on KROQ 106.7 in Los Angeles, and it sounded unlike the other bands that dominated that station — The Cure, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, New Order, etc. The title track, “Private Revolution,” got even more airplay on KROQ than Ship of Fools, finishing the year on KROQ’s Top 100 countdown at #57, one spot ahead of “People Are Strange” by Echo and the Bunnymen, and one spot behind “Hot Hot Hot” by The Cure. “All Come True” also got a lot of airplay. I loved that album, and know every lyric by heart.

    I didn’t lose track of World Party after Private Revolution, I knew Goodbye Jumbo and Bang had come out, but for some dumb reason, lost to me today, I chose to spend my music budget on other albums. And then I randomly listened to Egyptology in 1997 as it happened to be queued up at a listening station at some CD store, and it re-ignited my love of the band. I bought the CD, and within days quickly tracked down Goodbye Jumbo and Bang (both easily available in used cd bins those days), and kicked myself for not buying them earlier. I’ve returned to those first four WP albums at least once a year over the past 25 years, usually listening to all of them multiple times over the course of a few weeks, and then putting them away for a season. I will continue doing this for the rest of my life. R.I.P. Karl Wallinger, and thank you for the memories.

  8. Indeed, great writing Paul. Like others I’ve been playing the albums constantly since the news. I still come back to Ship of Fools, first seen on The Chart Show, one of my first CD singles and the song has to be in my top 10 of the 80s (if I had such a thing). Great talent.

  10. My LRS, Raves From the Grave in Frome, was treated to a mini gig by Mr. Wallinger when he played outside their old shop in Cheap Street. Pretty sure there’s a clip on YouTube. Goodbye Jumbo, for me, is their worst album. I find myself skipping tracks on it, unlike the others.

    Was lucky to see WP play live very early doors, supporting U2 and they were much better than the lacklustre headliners.

  11. Great story. Thanks for sharing! I always wondered how and why Karl and World Party seemed to avoid mainstream recognition and success. Such as prolific pop songwriter and gifted lyricist. But part of me was happy that World Party never reached the masses, as I feared what success would do to Karl’s music and whether I could still enjoy it, if everybody knew about it. I still listen to Goodbye Jumbo. I wrote this review of it, 21 years ago, 13 years after its release. Enjoy!

    https://www.vinniestravinski.com/post/world-party-goodbye-jumbo

    1. So del amitri where influenced by world party! Waking hours was released in 89! 1 year before goodbye jumbo! Not seeing any similarities between the 2 bands at all,, apart from the fact that they both play musical instruments! Amen.karl was really good who couldn’t like his hits! A bit like the lightning seeds who doesn’t enjoy pure when it comes on the radio! Pity he’s dead now but let’s not go overboard with who he allegedly influenced.

      1. Take a deep breath John.

        Both Karl Wallinger’s and Del Amitri’s first releases came out in 1982.

        The first (Eponymous) album (1985) of The Del’s then beat World Party’s ‘Private Revolution’ (1986) by a year.

        Regarding that Justin Currie allegedly wasn’t very happy with the Eponymous album there might be a chance that he and Iain Harvie came across ‘Private Revolution’ while penning the songs for ‘Waking Hours’.

        Should you meet one of them at the banks of River Clyde maybe just ask them.

        Otherwise i’m completely with you in saying both bands made some really great records and personally i favour Del Amitri just a tiny bit over World Party but there’s no need to get annoyed over possible influences from one to the other.

        1. Well klaus tell me 1 song from waking hours that could have been influenced by a song from private revolution! I will give them a good listen and see if I can join the dots! Probably tom petty and the heartbreakers pack up the plantation live double album would have been a 1985 release that would be more influential to the dels ( country, ballads and rock ect,And if your in glasgow mate don’t be walking by the Clyde looking for popstars! Can get very dangerous down that walkway theas days! Stick to the west end where Justin and iain stay! Probably bump into them at jimmy Egypts guitar shop they are never out of it jimmy does them and a million other pop / rock stars guitars including his mate Robbie mc intosh! Love john

          1. Hi John,

            thanks for the reply and your fair warning of certain areas of your hometown.

            I’ve never been to Glasgow (obviously) as of today but if i’ll ever take a trip to it i’ll announce it in a comment here so that we might have a pint together there somewhere and you can show me the safer areas of the city.

            Kind regards Klaus

  14. What a beautiful goodbye, Paul, thanks a lot!

    Very sad to read about Karl’s passing even though I was never a fanboy or anything. I just loved “Is It Like Today?” and Bang!.

    It’s a pity that Karl was never a fan of deluxe/expanded editions and the like during his lifetime, I’m sure there would have been amazing bonus material for all albums and he also could have helped with creating astonishing surround mixes for his music. Maybe someone will create beautiful BluRay editions for SDE one day?

    Rest in peace, Karl Wallinger!

  15. I discovered him with Egyptology, one of my “desert island” discs. I loved it so much, I got everything I could get my hands on that came before it. I’m always astounded when people refer to Egyptology as a “slip” or as Paul said, “too long.”(!) To me, it was his best work. All the older stuff had moments, but that album is perfection from beginning to end. I very much enjoyed Dumbing Up (my next favorite), too.

    Paul, you neglected to mention that Wallinger re-sequenced Dumbing Up in 2006 and substituted two new tracks (“Til I Got You” and “I Thought You Were A Spy”) for two he removed (“All The Love That’s Wasted” and “Little Bit Of Perfection”). He was not your typical rock artist. A great loss.

    1. I saw World Party on the Egyptology tour (which was great). BUT I just don’t think that album is at the same level as the previous two. Even She’s The One, which is obviously a great song… is it as INTERESTING as ‘Ain’t Gonna Come Til I’m Ready’ or as moving as ‘And I Fell Back Alone’ etc.? I didn’t think the production was as good, either. Not as nuanced.

      1. We’ll have to agree to disagree about that, then. I suppose we like different things about those records. What we do agree on was that he was great!

  16. Sad news indeed. Below is intersting reading –
    “The song’s producers, Guy Chambers and Steve Power, used the drummer and bassist of World Party’s touring band (neither of whom played on the World Party version) to perform the backing track for Williams, resulting in a very similar-sounding cover. World Party’s frontman and songwriter Karl Wallinger was not made aware that a cover was going to be released using his own band. When the song became a hit, and after having experienced a near-fatal brain aneurysm around the time of the song’s release, Wallinger stated that he experienced “ongoing bitterness”, going on to say that “the song had a much better time than me, popping off to the Brits while I was at home eating crackers dipped in water”.
    When introducing the song in live performances, Williams often claims that it is one of the best songs he’s ever written, despite not actually having written the song. This culminated in a telephone outburst from the song’s actual writer, Wallinger, to Chambers, stating “Your fucking friend Robbie Williams. Tell him from me that he’s a c%nt”. Williams has never publicly acknowledged that “She’s the One” is a cover of the World Party’s track, although in a 2019 commercial for his album The Christmas Present featuring Amazon Alexa, when Williams claimed he had written the song, the device states that he did not write She’s the One, to which Williams admits “no, I didn’t”. – cheeky sod :-).

    1. Thanks for the info, I had no clue. Very sad that this left such a bitter taste for Karl. I was hoping that the success of his song might have helped him/his career, but apparently not. :-(

      1. I think Karl made his peace with this in later years. Got his kids through school etc. Allowed him to mess around and not release anything for a long time…

  17. That is a beautiful Paul tribute to a beautiful man Paul. I met Karl Wallinger in 1984 he was with Anthony Thistlethwaite and Mike Scott in a pub across from The Gallery in Manchester were I saw The Waterboys for the first time. Karl commented on the music we played on the jukebox, Neil Young and Bob Dylan if you’re wondering. We had a short chat about both artists with my three friends then left them to their drinks. I was a fan of World Party AKA Karl Wallinger from the beginning, every album Karl released had great tunes and commentary. My favourite was Egyptology we were also fortunate to see the band at Holmfirth were the live album was recorded. Karl Wallinger was a truly gifted musician and decent human being, go gently into the night Karl you’ll always be remembered.

  18. That’s very sad news. When I got into World Party the 1st act I thought of was in fact Del Amitri. Both bands had identically fascinating growers in their repertoire. Put The Message In A Box and Nothing Ever Happens for instance you could easily record on a cassette tape one after the other. This was far too early to leave this earth for Karl. R.I.P.

  19. Sad news.

    I followed World Party from the start knowing that it in fact was the one man effort of that guy who played lots of instruments on the magnificent ‘This Is The Sea’.

    ‘Private Revolution’ didn’t work for me originally so i needed a push from a daily local radio show that back then had an “Album of the week” of which they played two songs per day.

    So i had the opportunity to listen to basically all of ‘Goodbye Jumbo’ from Monday to Friday and then went to my favourite record shop on Saturday, bought the album and listened to it in complete sequence for the first time when i arrived back home. I think that hundreds of plays of it followed since then, because it is one of the records that i have, and always will, get back to within days.

    As is often the case when you love something so much i didn’t quite cherish the following WP albums in the same way but i will admit that each and every one of them also included some damn fine songs as well.

    As with others who contributed to this thread it was not until in 2012 ‘Arkeology’ was released that i was reminded what a brilliant songwriter Karl Wallinger was.

    I bought it (as one of the first SDEs when i got into that sort of thing) on release for sentimental reasons and because it seemed good value for money at 40€ back then.

    Boy what a treat…

    I wasn’t initially aware that it wasn’t like other boxes where lots of original albums with some bonus tracks were included but that it only contained former b-sides, versions of songs i knew in other form and lots of completely unreleased stuff on top.
    It’s still one of the best SDEs ever imho.

    Farewell Karl and if there should be such a thing as afterlife i sure hope you’ll enjoy it.

  20. I first heard Karl Wallinger and World Party on MTV, back when they had a 2 hour program late Sunday evenings called 120 Minutes. It was dedicated to what was back then just beginning to be called ‘alternative’ music. Ship Of Fools was the song they played. I heard even more of the band on a radio program called Rock Over London, which aired late Wednesday evenings in Chicago on the station WXRT. Thank goodness for these two programs. They really broadened my interest in all the fantastic music coming out of the UK in the 1980s. So sad to be at the point where we’re starting to lose these musical geniuses (Mark Hollis, Terry Hall, Mark E. Smith, Joe Strummer, Bap Kennedy, Shane MacGowan). The world won’t be the same without them.

    1. This is so interesting. We have so many more platforms now, but it felt like we had a better chance of connecting with good music back then.

  21. I’m so sorry to read this. I loved “Goodbye Jumbo” when it came out and if there’d been a Mercury Prize one year earlier I think it might have won, but he arrived almost fully realised with “Ship of Fools” and “Private Revolution” in 1987 (Sinead was in his backing band briefly as she was signed to Ensign as well). If anything he was in tune with the mood in dance culture more than indie in 1990, and that in wider society with Glasnost etc. a positive eco-conscious lyricism that wasn’t that different from The Beloved or the Shamen. It’s aged well too, with its festival style aesthetic. He said “She’s the One” paid to put his kids through schooling, and that IS a classic song, whoever sings it. Thank you world? Thank you Karl!

    1. That is an excellent point Joe. I can totally see the parallels with The Shamen’s “In Gorbochev We Trust” LP or early Beloved “Where It Is” LP.

  22. I used to know drummer Peter Jones, a fellow Australian who was briefly with Crowded House and is also sadly no longer with us. In one of our many chats about music, I mentioned my love of Karl Wallinger and World Party. Peter’s face lit up. “Yeah, I’ve met him,” he said. “I was at this swanky music function in London. I didn’t know anyone and everyone seemed a bit stuck up. Karl was the only person who would speak to me!” Peter’s lasting impression of Karl as a lovely, humble human being echoes everything that has been said here.

    I can tell you, I am absolutely shattered by the news of Karl’s passing. As an eighties teenager who had an anachronistic taste in music for the time (huge Beatles fan here), I was disaffected by most of the music in the charts for a good few of those teenage years. I can still remember the first time I heard Ship of Fools in 1987. Actually, I heard AND saw it – on Video Hits, which was a popular music clip show in Australia. I was blown away…by the melody, by the themes of the lyric, by the production, by the aesthetic of the music video. For me, it was like…”Yes, finally, THIS is awesome!” I promptly went to Brashs, our local music store, and bought Private Revolution. And was blown away some more.

    From that point on, if Karl recorded it, I bought it. An occasion that was all too rare for my liking. I wish, perhaps selfishly, that such a creative talent was more prolific. But then again, Karl was apparently very happy doing what he did, and with the pace at which he did it. Knowing that he was more than content to noodle away in his studio, emersed in what he loved and not at all interested in the celebrity that his talent could have conjured…well, that is actually a lovely thought. More power to you, Karl. You had a great time making music and still left us with an amazing anthology of songs that I will treasure forever.

    Thank-you Karl.

  23. Yet another musical maestro taken too early. I bought Bang! On cd quite a few years ago and it’s a great album. I have Egyptology on a CD-R which I also enjoy listening to. Lots of depth and style variations to the music and some great messages in the lyrics. I think I’ll have to put these on in the van this week as a tribute. I’m of the same opinion as Karl, regarding re issues with pointless extra tracks on. I’d hope for some quality vinyl reissues of his catalogue at some point in the future. RIP Karl.

  24. Dwight Twilley last year. Eric Carmen last weekend. And now this. What a sad day for Power Pop fans around the world. I wish he had recorded more albums, but I am grateful for every one he has given us. He was great. He could do it all – soul, rock, pop, ballads and everything was always so catchy/melodic. I agree that Goodbye Jumbo is his masterpiece, bur for my money, he has never made a bad record. He could do Prince, the Fabs or mid-sixties Dylan (just listen to “Who Are You?” from Dumbing Up) without somehow ever sounding like anybody but himself. I will miss him. In fact, I already miss him. Thank you for your heartfelt tribute.

  25. Beautifully written Paul as are some of the comments.
    Goodbye Jumbo and Egyptology are all time great albums.The rest of the catalogue is consistently engaging and enjoyable.
    Everything I’ve ever read about Karl backs up your reminisce about what a nice person he was.If anyone has a copy of Arkeology read the piece his nephew wrote (22-28 June in the diary).There is no better tribute.

  27. Firstly, great write up Paul.

    This was devastating news, when my friend text me monday night. I still cant quite believe it.

    Hard to believe but I had heard ‘Thank You world’ on radio 1 in may 91, I was lyrically and sonically in from the get go. My girlfriend at the time told me about them, Goodbye Jumbo and ran to HMV in Liverpool the following day to buy the 12inch of Thank You World and Goodbye Jumbo, which I instantly fell in love with.

    Later that year, Chesney Hawkes was touring in Liverpool and performed Put the Message in A Box.

    Anyway, I had the good fortune of seeing World Party live in May 93 at thr Manchester Acadamy, which was, regretably the only time I saw them live. Amazing show.

    Strangely, last week I had put a compiliation of my favourite tracks together of world party and had been hammering them all week. It led me to thinking – hoping – would this be the year we heard new material?

    So so saddened by this loss.

    World Party songs and their themes have been a backdrop to my life since 1991. The music, lyrics and subject matter never fail to stir and resonate with me…

    Karl, World Party

    Thank You world.

    Love is Best.

  28. Gosh this is a shock and 66 is far too young. I actually picked up a copy of Arkeology a few months ago and went through it disc by disc and was reminded of what a talented guy he was. What a shame.

  29. Sad news but lovely journalism Paul
    Bizarrely, I also bought my Goodbye Jumbo in Cheapo Cheapo. Spent so much money in Berwick Street back in the day….

  31. I was a very big fan of world party.
    I bought the blue 2 7 inch singles That were released in Australia.
    I also bought the album on cd..
    It was one of the very first cds I ever bought.

  32. Really sad….The big music has gotten smaller and we’re drifting on a ship of fools.
    From the first track of A Pagan Place in ’84 I knew that band was amazing, then Karl and World Party righteously confirmed it.
    As if Private Revolution wasn’t great enough, Goodbye Jumbo stood on that album’s broad shoulders and upped their game even more.
    I personally hoped medical advances would one day resolve his health issues, freeing-up his full musical abilities for the benefit of us all.
    Nice eulogy Paul.
    Godspeed Karl.

  33. Tribute from Jim Lea of Slade –

    “Karl Wallinger rented my flat in Highgate , which is how I came to meet him. He was a very talented and unique man.
    I used to go to his studio every other Wednesday where we enjoyed jamming into the early hours .
    I will really miss him “

  36. A lovely tribute, Paul.

    I was so sad to read this news yesterday evening. Condolences to all his family and those who knew him.

    I was a big fan of Karl and enjoyed all his records over the years. The last few years I was always hoping that ‘next year’ might be the year to get a new WP album and it feels so sad that this won’t be happening now. He came across so funny, articulate and human in his interviews.

    I saw World Party twice – once at the Oxford warm up show in 2012 mentioned further down the thread. Then at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of days. The size of the venues couldn’t have been more different, but Karl and his band didnt miss a beat. It didnt seem to matter where they were playing (at least from the outside). I was so pleased for him on the night of the RAH show. Happy he was here, sad he is gone.

  37. Lovely tribute Paul and Arkeology is treasure. The notebook design makes it such a fun set to look through as well as to listen to.

  38. I’m feeling incredibly sad at this news, but a great tribute Paul.

    My intro to World Party was Goodbye Jumbo and saw WP touring it at the Leadmill in Sheffield (supported by local band Treebound Story which featured Richard Hawley).

    I bought the vinyl reissues a few years back and realised how much great material I’d missed.

    RIP Karl Wallinger

  40. A very nice tribute from the Icicle Works’ Ian McNabb:

    I knew Karl. Ever since I purchased Private Revolution (1987) I’ve been a dedicated fan of his work. I knew his name from his tenure in The Waterboys, his playing, singing and arrangement skills scattered throughout A Pagan Place (1984) and This Is The Sea (1985), but I didn’t meet him (properly) until the early nineties when ex-Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock became his loyal padawan – often enduring weeks of what can only be described as “squatting” in Karl’s ‘Seaview’ studio in central London, having rare respite from KarlWorld™ in a sleeping bag under the grand piano, fingers aching, not from drumming duties – but from operating the Scalextric handset on a round-the-clock basis. And losing repeatedly to a chain-smoking, cackling, slightly-mad adversary.
    Karl comes from Prestatyn but I was always impressed with his Royal Air Force/Beatles conversational burrrrr, a curious thing which was forged in his time at Charterhouse (a public school in Surrey where Proggy, Peter Gabriel-fronted Genesis bloomed) and his lifelong obsession with the Fab Four.
    He was very funny, very talented and very lazy. He was always in his beloved studio, doing but he enjoyed drinking tea and doing bugger all as much as he enjoyed crafting magpie melodic marvels such as ‘Ship Of Fools’, ‘When The Rainbow Comes’, ‘Is It Like Today’ and “White Album”-homage beauties such as ‘She’s The One’ which made him a lot of money when Robbie Williams covered it – but Karl wasn’t impressed. At all. No siree (a story for another time).
    Random memories are coming through the mist – the time we were having food after a Brian Wilson show in London when Karl decided to start having a pop at Ringo Starr for some reason – unaware that my guest that night, and sitting right next to me at the table – was Lee, Ringo’s daughter.
    When Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve came out he didn’t stop playing it for a week. I told him it sounded like Simple Minds and he told me to fuck off.
    I once played slide guitar on a version of ‘If Not For You’ which I’ve never heard since. I would pop in to see Karl occasionally when I was at John Henry’s rehearsal rooms on Brewery Road, shoot the shit briefly – then hop it. I would attend his rare World Party shows whenever I could. They were always immersive and almost holy in nature – such was the intensity and beauty of his music.
    The last time I saw him play was at The Cavern in 2016 which is such a perfect memory I try not to access it too much in case I wear it out.
    When my mother passed in 2022 Karl was very kind and sympathetic to me – regularly trying to get me down to his country pile in Hastings to cheer me up (“the pool should be working soon and the Calrec desk won’t be far behind it!” – something which I promised to do, but sadly never got around to and now … regrettably – never will.
    Karl flirted with The Big Time – even having the same management as Prince at one point – but he was far too involved with The Source to spend the rest of his time chasing ACTUAL rainbows.
    I will miss him terribly and will keep his number in my phone. Just knowing he’s in it makes me feel better.
    “Mr. Postman, look and see
    if there’s a message in your bag for me
    could be a bomb or it could be a letter
    it don’t matter, it can only get better
    Mr. Postman, look and see
    if there’s a message in your bag for me
    you know it’s been such a long, long time
    since I could laugh at this world of mine…”
    Karl Edmond De Vere Wallinger
    © Polygram Music Publishing Ltd.
    Goodbye Jumbo,
    Ix

  41. Lovely tribute. I thought your comment about “Goodbye Jumbo” and it’s similarities with The Las album was really apt – I always wondered why, retrospectively, both albums weren’t world shakers – but you are right – 1990 was a weird pop music era. Remnants of the 1980s lingered, pop rap and acid house were still raging, the indie scene was dance rock, and there was a terrible whiff of Retromania in the air. I bought “Goodbye Jumbo” based on it being listed as one of the albums of the year in Q magazine. I thought it sounded a little lightweight then. I grew into it. Bought Arkeology – absolutely hated the spiral notebook – impossible to file; great music.

  42. Wonderful tribute, Paul. I first became aware of World Party when they appeared on Saturday Night Live (Nov. 10, 1990) and have remained a major fan every since. There weren’t enough opportunities to see them live in the U.S. but I’m grateful I got to see them open for 10,000 Maniacs on June 26, 1993.

    Very much agree with Arkeology being an amazing gift for fans. Reissues would be nice if only to round up the few stray tracks that didn’t make it onto that collection including Karl’s/World Party’s versions of “Martha My Dear,” “Penny Lane,” “World Without Love,” and “No. 9 Dream,” the track from the W.B. Yeats musical tribute (“The Four Ages of Man”), the Reality Bites soundtrack song (“When You Come Back To Me”), and b-side strays like “Holy Water,” “The Little Man Within (demo),” “Seaview Story,” “Nicotine,” “Sunset” and the full-length “Give It All Away”.

  44. RIP Karl, so sad to hear this, he was too young
    I got to know Karl’s music through the Waterboys, but was always in awe of his songwriting and arranging.
    There are so many things to say and think, but I just hope that he’s in a good place now. Thanks Karl, for everything.

  45. It’s a shame that Rxxxxe Wxxxxxxs has to be mentioned within this article. After the way Karl was treated, as far as I am led to understand from reports over the years, his behaviour has been disgraceful. My understanding is that he has blatantly stated at concerts that She’s The One is one of the best songs he’s ever written.

    Some might question whether that matters – after all, Karl still received royalties as the writer of the song. I personally can’t imagine what it must feel like to write such a great song, to then have it hijacked by someone else.

      1. Still morally contemptible. I used to appreciate Robbie Williams and his jovial character. Now I just think of him as a weak, lying joke after reading this story about She’s The One.

      2. Yes and no. It did tide Karl through the lean times as he recovered. He said it best himself.
        “It’s like he nicked my pig and killed it but left me enough bacon to live on for four years.”

  46. Lovely, warm, personal tribute Paul.

    I saw Karl on his ‘comeback’ post-aneurysm tour in Oxford a decade or so ago. He had a decent band with him and I shouted out for one of my favourite tracks, “Radio Days” from Bang! Karl, who was very down to earth and seemed just happy to be alive, looked straight at me and answered – perhaps more mindful of the hideous amount of studio layering, sampling, overdubs and dense harmonies involved than I was – “You’re joking, aren’t you?”.

    Great man, great legacy and Arkeology is the gift that keeps giving when you’ve worn out the grooves on Goodbye Jumbo.

  47. Really nice words, Paul. I’m absolutely gutted at the news today. Goodbye Jumbo was a huge album for me too, finally persuading me that ‘year zero’ rules weren’t right after all, and there was a whole new adventure to be had exploring music made/inspired by the time before punk. World Party were always a joyous experience live, as well – the last time I saw them was for Dumbing Up at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and by then it felt like he’d reclaimed his mojo after the slight disappointment of Egyptology. Such a musical force of nature.

    I’ve been really hoping in recent years he’d resurface with a new album at last, and get some of the wider credit he richly deserved, but sadly not meant to be. Bless you Karl, you brought beauty and happiness to a world that’s always in dire need of it.

  48. From Peter Gabriel:

    Shocked and saddened to learn we no longer have Karl Wallinger with us.
    I had admired his work from afar but it was when we did a Real World Recording Week together that I had the most creative and fun week I have ever had in the studio. Karl was overflowing with wonderful musical ideas that blew us all away, all delivered with terrible jokes that had us laughing uncontrollably all day and night. He was such a gifted, natural writer and player, it was a tap that he could turn on at will, effortlessly.
    Like many a great comic and many great musicians, melancholy was strong in the mix, but his charm, humility, intelligence and razor-sharp wit made him great company.
    Karl was an abundant talent and we have been given extraordinary music and memories from this extraordinary man.
    Thank you, Karl.
    -pg

  49. This isn’t going to be a great week.

    Karl was one of my favorites, having followed him since his stint with the Waterboys.

    I just found out about another passing this morning. Fans of 70’s power pop will also be mourning the passing of Eric Carmen this weekend. An older 74 but still too young.

    I hope the week’s over now.

    2. A terrible week indeed Pete O. Eric Carmen was a genius. ‘go all the way’ is one of the greatest 45s of all time and the middle eight in ‘it hurts too much’ shows that pop music can be just as magnificent as it can be silly, indeed sometimes at the same time.
      Lovely words on Karl Wallinger, Mr. Paul, very moving. It seems that you have been writing far too may tributes of late.

  50. Great tribute Paul.
    Like many I am saddened to hear the news of Karl’s passing. My first memory of World Party was hearing the Message In A Box single and from that point in I was hooked and to this day Goodbye Jumbo remains one of my favourite albums. Karl was a superb songwriter, gifted musician and had a unique sound. Why he wasn’t a mega star I will never know.
    Bang was almost as good as Jumbo and I was lucky enough to see the band on that tour. Egyptology and Dumming Up didn’t quite match up to the previous two but the Arkeology set more than made up for it. A treasure trove of great music.
    The much rumoured new album has never arrived and now we have lost Karl. It’s a sad day.
    RIP Karl, thanks for the wonderful music!

  51. What a beautiful tribute! I’m absolutely shocked that Karl died. I just looked up World Party in my collection (thankfully I have the Arkeology box) a few days ago because of your video of the beautiful “1985” book by the Waterboys.

    To this day “Ship Of Fools” is one of my all time favorite songs and I’m still baffled this wasn’t a top 10 hit around the world. Goodbye Jumbo is an absolutely stellar album and a classic in my house. It was Prince’esque. He sounds like the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil on Way Down Now (the woo woo towards the end of the song), the Beatles on When The Rainbow Comes and Prince on Show Me To The Top (from around Prince’s Sign O The Times period). Listen to “And I Fell Back Alone” and you WILL get goosebumps.

    I hope we finally get some expanded reissues. The world deserves to hear that class act album that Goodbye Jumbo is, in Atmos and with all the b sides, remixes, live and alt versions. Rest In Peace Karl. Thank you for giving us such joy.

  52. Not forgetting Ship Of Fools was a massive hit in Australia, reaching number 4, due to constant plays of Channel 10’s Video Hits. This lead to the even more beautiful single All Come True only for Australia, US & Canada. Australia is the only place a 12″ single of All Come True was released to retail. And a mighty fine ep it is too, with 3 bonus tracks.

  54. It was 1988, I was waiting for a concert to start at San Diego State Amphiteatre. I believe the band was Love & Rockets, although it could have been Duran Duran or Midnight Oil. While waiting for the show to start, I heard this great song. I didn’t know who it was by, I only assumed the title was ‘Ship of Fools’ due to how many times that was sung. Did you know 2 songs called ‘Ship of Fools’ were released in 1988 – Robert Plant, and Erasure. However, neither was the one I was searching for. And since the one I was searching for was 2 years old, stumbling upon a display in a record store with a promotional sticker, or reading about this ‘new’ song in a music magazine, wasn’t happening. And there was no Google. Eventually, around 1993, I finally heard Ship of Fools again – the correct, best Ship of Fools. And then I went into a World Party rabbit hole. This is really sad. Such a great, underappreciated songwriter! RIP Karl!

  55. Nice write up. I remember buying Private Revolution on cassette (later upgraded to a CD copy) after seeing the video for Ship of Fools on a Channel 4 programme at time that had no presenter, just an hour of back to back videos. I bought all three CD singles from Goodbye Jumbo and even though it wasn’t a Top 40 hit, Message In the Box seems to be a widely known song. The hidden track on Bang! caught me out a few times – sitting in silence for 20 minutes and suddenly the pastiche Beach Boys track starts playing!

    1. Pedantically, Message In The Box was a UK Top 40 hit, but only just (it peaked at 39) I remember hearing it a lot on the radio at the time.
      Brian Kennedy got all the way to 37 with his version.

      I’ve never owned a World Party album but I have a few tracks on compilations etc. Way Down Now is on a South African Now album, I presume it was a hit over there.

  59. Ship of Fools was a top 5 hit in Australia!
    Unusual how it came to pass that Karl co-wrote the song ‘World Party’ with Mike Scott which was released by The Waterboys after World Party started releasing music!
    It is sad to think he is no longer with us and I do hope there may be more music shared from his vaults.
    So many great songs, I can’t recommend my personal favourite of ‘theirs’….the ‘Bang!’ album …..enough and as mentioned…the b-side ‘Basically’ along with ‘Mystery Girl’ are also ace!

  60. A great tribute, Paul. 66 is far too young.
    Although I was never a fan of Robbie Williams, I do remember hearing ‘She’s The One’ playing in the hospital, on the morning just before my first child, a daughter, was born. As such it has always had a place in my heart, so much respect to the man who wrote it.
    I used to buy Record Mirror back in the 1980s. They always seem to champion World Party. The band did deserve greater success. RIP Karl.

  61. Fantastic, heartfelt tribute, Paul! One of my favorite things you have posted. I am so sad to hear of Karl’s passing. What a monumental talent! I always assumed that WP were a much bigger act in the UK than here in the US where they have always struck me as having a cult like following despite their chart success. SDE is one of only a couple of places that I have seen Karl’s death reported. Sadly, he was too far ahead of the curve for the masses to catch on.

  63. I saw World Party on 29th October 2012 at the O2 Oxford. Karl was brilliant (as was the band) and was talking about the excitement of the up coming Albert Hall gig and couldn’t really believe it was happening.
    Anyway, he was wonderful, and I’m very sad

  64. A great loss and a great tribute Paul. After The Beatles and before Oasis, Lightning Seeds etc World Party filled the huge gap that they left. Apart from Goodbye Jumbo and Bang the Arkology set contains some of the most unique, imaginative songs ever committed to disc. A true talent, may he rest in peace

  65. I’m severely saddened by this news. I have listened to and owned all of his records along the way with Private Revolution and Goodbye Jumbo topping the list. Arkeology was a major surprise…like receiving a Christmas gift. I was lucky enough to meet Karl in St Louis several years ago and will always remember it with fondness.
    He will be greatly missed. Rest In Peace.

  66. I too joined the [World] Party with Goodbye Jumbo. I bought the 12” singles from that LP and played them to death. I loved his cover of Lennon’s Happiness Is A Warm Gun – more than the original if I am truthful – and as soon as I had the money I snagged the LP. Like you, I have no idea where I heard them first, it must hav been on the radio at some point I guess and I must have liked it a lot to swing for the 12” rather than the 7”!

    Karl was a superb talent and I will miss him greatly. Another one gone too young. RIP KW.

  67. I’m absolutely gutted to hear this news. One of our finest singer songwriters who never really got the acclaim he deserved. ( another is John Butler from Diesel Park West, who is still thankfully with us ).

    I feverishly bought everything by World Party from Ship of Fools onwards and still have a full collection to this day which, overall, contains some of the finest music from the last 35 + years.

    Around the more well known tracks he released, I Fell Back Alone is a mighty tune ( Forever doesn’t mean for ever ).

    RIP Karl and thank you so much for the music which has seen me through my late teens to my mid fifties.

  69. Lovely article. I was listening to Arkeology a couple of weeks ago – Lost In Infinity is brilliant. And I still wonder if the spine of the vinyl reissue of Dumbing Up labelling it Private Revolution was a little joke as opposed to an error.

  70. Thank you for this beautiful tribute.
    And thank you too for remembering that Karl basically invented Britpop and never got to capitalise on it.

    I can vouch for the fact they were the naughty kids on the Steely Dan tour.

  71. RIP Karl. His music was the closest I can recall that channelled the melodies of Paul, the fun of Ringo, the spirituality of George and the raucous vocals of John in his work.
    Saw them support Steely Dan in Adelaide in 2007 where to me they were the true headliners. Never made a bad album and Arkeology was the way an anthology should be assembled.
    Thanks for the music Karl.

  72. A lovely piece, Paul.

    It’s such sad news. ‘Goodbye Jumbo’ was the first CD I ever bought. Bizarrely, I played it yesterday evening for the first time in years and loved every second of it. An hour later I read online that Karl had died. Have played it 4 times since. You’re right about ‘Aint gonna come til I’m ready’. A brilliant song and production. RIP.

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