(1994 Cheltenham local newspaper, possibly The Clarion)

Rave from the grave hits the pop charts

No curse of the Pharoah

A Cheltenham mother is celebrating after her son's rock band crashed into the charts with a comeback album partly recorded in an Egyptian king's burial chamber.

The album, Pandemonium by Killing Joke, which is fronted by Jaz (Jeremy) Coleman is at number 16 in the British album charts in its first week of release. It has also toped the independent charts which are designed for recordings which were not produced on major record labels like EMI and Sony.

Singles taken from the album, Millennium and the title track, Pandemonium, have both catapulted into the Top 30.

Jaz, who was brought up in Charlton Kings, arranged to record the vocals for one of the songs, called Exorcism, in the burial chamber of the Great pyramid in Egypt. The singer's mother was delighted with her son's success.

"I am very proud," she Said. "He was expecting to be successful. I do not remember them doing as well as they are now.

"It is a very strong and different album and very dynamic.

"It is certainly much more optimistic in its outlook than their previous albums."

She believed that there would be a follow-up album after the other band members have taken time out to complete other projects.

Jaz formed Killing Joke in 1977 after he left Boumside School in Cheltenham at the age of 16.

They had a cult following in the early 1980s scraping into the charts with singles such as Love Like Blood, Wardance and Birds Of A Feather.

Gloria Coleman - Very proud mother