Ferguson was drummer in the Matt Stagger Band when he met Coleman (originally from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire) in Notting Hill, London. In early 1979, after Coleman was briefly keyboard player in that band, he and Ferguson defected to form Killing Joke with Geordie and bassist Martin "Youth" Glover. According to Coleman, their manifesto was to "define the exquisite beauty of the atomic age in terms of style, sound and form".