Farewell to Karl Wallinger (Waterboys and World Party)

Karl Wallinger, former leader of the World Party and part of one of the first incarnations of Mike Scott's Waterboys, has passed away at the age of 66. Born in Wales in 1957, he died last Sunday: his death was confirmed by his press office, without revealing the cause.

In 1981 Wallinger joined the Waterboys, a band that would become central to British rock in the 80s: he worked with leader Mike Scott on the first three albums, the eponymous one of the same year and then on “A Pagan Place” and ” This Is the Sea”, published in '85. Just in recent days, a Waterboys box called “1985” was released which contains the sessions of that period, the one in which the band's greatest success, “The whole of the moon”, was released.

Wallinger left the group immediately afterwards, before the folk breakthrough of the Waterboys: he formed World Party in 1986, with whom he released 5 albums until 2000 – in 2001 he had an aneurysm which put his career on hold, which he subsequently resumed mainly with live activities. Among other things, Wallinger contributed to Sinead O'Connor's debut album “The Lion and the cobra” and to Peter Gabriel's project “Big Blue Ball”, released in 2008.