Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and attempting not only to sing the words but to vocally recreate all of the sounds on the record),[2] the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Kinks, Buddy Holly and the Motown label.

[2][7][8][9] Wallinger's musical career began in Prestatyn in 1977 as a keyboard player with Pax,[10] before forming the short-lived band Quasimodo with Dave Sharp and Nigel Twist (who both went on to be in the Alarm).

[7] Wallinger was particularly key to the final form of the best-known Waterboys song, "The Whole of the Moon", having taken Scott's original voice/piano/guitar structure and introduced polyphonic synthesizer parts, synth bass, upbeat and off-beat cymbal accents (all of these influenced by Prince) and a final tumbling backing vocal (influenced by David Bowie), as well as bringing in drummer Chris Whitten.

"[18] Aware that his own musical ambitions were bringing him into conflict with Scott, Wallinger opted to leave the Waterboys in late 1985 towards the end of their 'This is the Sea' tour.

"[7] Leaving London, Wallinger relocated to Woburn and took up residence in a dilapidated former rectory in which to work on solo material (which would eventually emerge as World Party).

[16][2] World Party began as a solo studio project with Wallinger as a one-man-band (plus guests) exploring rock, pop, folk and funk ideas plus elements of other genres.

[19] In 2024, The Guardian's Graeme Thomson would summarise the band's best work as "sound(ing) like a man trying to cram all the love and joy of his own fandom into four minutes, to distil the essence of Bob Dylan, Prince, The Rolling Stones, Sly Stone, Van Morrison, The Beach Boys, perhaps above all The Beatles, into one bubbling, funky, heartfelt and slightly ramshackle homebrew.

"[20] Thompson also noted that "the big hitters in the World Party canon... sound like the best kind of pop music: ageless, beyond genre.

Other significant World Party contributors over the years included Guy Chambers, Jeff Trott and Dave Catlin-Birch (with guest appearances including Waterboys saxophonist Anthony Thistlethwaite, violinist Steve Wickham, and vocalist Sinéad O'Connor returning favours owed for Wallinger's work on The Lion and the Cobra).

The first release under the World Party banner, 1986's Private Revolution, was strongly keyboard-based, diverse in stylistic focus and Prince-influenced (coinciding with Wallinger signing a deal with Prince manager Steve Fargnoli),[2][7] and spawned a hit single, "Ship of Fools".

[1] Shortly before his death, Wallinger had been working on a long-delayed sixth World Party album,[27] although this has yet to be confirmed as being complete or ready for release.

"[7] Throughout his career Wallinger continued to collaborate with others, including the aforementioned Sinead O'Connor while he also featured on the Bob Geldof album The Happy Club released in 1992.

[29] He was musical director on the 1994 film Reality Bites, composing an instrumental score and contributing the end title song "When You Come Back to Me" to the hit soundtrack album.

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.

[39] After several months of writing for the band, he felt unwell, and asked his friends to call an ambulance to take him to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm.