Killing Joke — Let's All Go (To The Fire Dances)

JUL 01 1983 · 12:00

Killing Joke — Let's All Go (To The Fire Dances) (1983) Director: Tony van den Ende Era: Post-Punk Transition Era (1983) - British post-punk at its commercial pivot point; Killing Joke bridging industrial darkness and new wave accessibility on their fourth LP, Fire Dances, at the height of UK alternative chart culture. Exceptional curatorial significance as Killing Joke's inaugural music video — a documented first in the band's visual history — directed by a confirmed and prolific period director (Tony van den Ende) during the foundational era of the UK music promo industry. The clip's warm, fire-saturated palette, fast editorial rhythm, and tribal-ritual performance staging encapsulate the post-punk moment's visual grammar at the precise instant it intersected with mainstream promotional media. An irreplaceable primary source for scholars of 1980s British alternative culture, music video history, and post-punk aesthetics. Context: Released in June 1983, 'Let's All Go (to the Fire Dances)' arrived at a critical juncture in British post-punk's evolution. Killing Joke had spent the prior year in near-dissolution, with vocalist Jaz Coleman relocating to Iceland amid apocalyptic beliefs. Fire Dances represented a reconstituted band — now featuring bassist Paul Raven — steering toward greater accessibility while retaining the group's tribal, occult-inflected intensity. As the band's first-ever music video, this production holds landmark documentary value: it represents Killing Joke's initial engagement with the MTV-era promotional apparatus, at a moment when the UK alternative underground was being drawn into mainstream visual culture. The fire-and-ritual imagery resonates with the band's long-standing engagement with occult symbolism and communal ceremony, framing post-punk's anxieties within a quasi-anthropological visual grammar. Director notes: IMVDb confirms Tony van den Ende as director of the 1983 'Let's All Go (to the Fire Dances)' video, listed under his 1983 credits. This was notably the first music video ever made by Killing Joke, produced to promote the single and its parent album Fire Dances (E.G./Polydor, July 1983). The video's warm, fire-referencing visual palette directly mirrors the album's title and tribal-ceremonial thematic content. Van den Ende was active in 1982-1983 UK promo clip production during the formative period of the music video industry, and his work in this era demonstrates the period's characteristic blend of performance footage and high-concept staging.