Gang of Four (band)
Encyclopedia
Gang of Four are an English post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 group from Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. Original personnel were singer Jon King
Jon King (musician)
Jon King, born 8 June 1955, London, is a singer, musician and founding member of the Leeds based UK rock band Gang of Four. He attended Sevenoaks School, where he was a member of the 'Art Room' that produced musicians Tom Greenhalgh and Mark White of The Mekons, along with Andy Gill of Gang of...

, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen
Dave Allen (producer/bassist)
Dave Allen was the bass guitarist for the post-punk band, Gang of Four. In 1981, he left Gang of Four to found Shriekback....

 and drummer Hugo Burnham
Hugo Burnham
Hugo Burnham was the drummer for the English rock group Gang of Four. Creem magazine's Dave DiMartino said in 1980 "Witness Hugo Burnham, a close-cropped, thickset out-and-out scary drummer who looks like his idea of fun might be pushing young American faces into old American brick walls." He...

. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill. In 2004, the original line-up reunited but in November 2006 Allen was replaced on bass by Thomas McNeice and Burnham on drums by Mark Heaney
Mark Heaney
Mark Heaney is an English drummer. A self-taught drummer who started playing drums at the age of eight after seeing Buddy Rich playing on TV, by age ten he was working two to three nights playing in pubs and clubs throughout the United Kingdom in his father's band.Heaney has recorded and played on...

.

They play a stripped-down mix of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

, funk music and dub reggae, with an emphasis on the social and political ills of society. Gang of Four are widely considered one of the leading bands of the late 1970s/early 1980s post-punk movement. Their later albums (Songs of the Free
Songs of the Free
Songs of the Free is the third studio album by Gang of Four, released in 1982. In 1996, Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings label issued it on CD, with two bonus tracks, and with a slightly changed song order , and mistitling "I Love a Man in a Uniform" as "I Love a Man in Uniform." EMI...

 and Hard
Hard (Gang of Four album)
Hard is the fourth studio album by the English post-punk group Gang of Four. It was originally released in 1983 on Warner Bros. Records and was the first album to not feature original member Hugo Burnham, while Dave Allen had already left before the previous album, Songs of the Free.The album was...

) found them softening some of their more jarring qualities, and drifting towards dance-punk
Dance-punk
Dance-punk is a music genre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the post-punk and No Wave movements.-Predecessors:...

 and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

. Their debut album, Entertainment!, ranked at Number 490 in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

s The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...

, and is listed by Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 as the 8th best album of the 1970s. David Fricke in Rolling Stone said "Gang of Four are probably the best politically motivated band in rock & roll."

History

Gill and King, the primary creative forces in the band, brought together an eclectic array of influences, ranging from the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

 of social criticism to the increasingly clear trans-Atlantic punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 consensus. Gang of Four was named by a member of the Mekons when while driving around with Gill and King he came upon a newspaper article on the intra-Party
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

 coup
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 against China's "Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...

".

Gill's guitar sound had a forebear in the playing of Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson is an English guitarist and songwriter, particularly associated with the UK rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.-Career:...

, the guitarist with Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...

. Gill's staccato, aggressive style has proved an enduring influence in turn. Paul Morley
Paul Morley
Paul Morley is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications...

 described the band's music as "a kind of demented funk, incredibly white but also, because of political commitment and defiant sloganeering, very dark, and ultimately as close to the depraved edge of the blues and Hendrix." Critic Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...

 found his first viewing of the group's performance so shattering that he left after their set rather than risk having the impact of the deeply political Gang of Four's songs dampened by the pop-punk of the Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton in 1976, led by singer–songwriter–guitarist Pete Shelley.They are regarded as an important influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, pop punk and indie rock. They achieved commercial...

.

The Gang's debut single, "Damaged Goods" backed with "(Love Like) Anthrax" and "Armalite Rifle", was recorded in June 1978 and released on 10 December 1978, on Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

's Fast Product
Fast Product
Fast Product was an independent record label, established in Edinburgh by Bob Last in December 1977. Its first release was also the first single by the Mekons, released on 20 January 1978....

 label. It was produced by the Gang of Four and Bob Last and Tim Inman. It was a Number 1 indie
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 chart hit and John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 radio show favourite. This led to two Peel radio sessions, which, with their incendiary live performances, propelled the band to international attention and sold-out shows across Europe and North America. They were then signed by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

 records. The group's debut single with this label, "At Home He's a Tourist", charted in 1979. Invited to appear on top rated BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 music program Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

, the band walked off the show when the BBC told them that they must sing "packets" instead of "rubbers" as per the lyrics of the song, as the original was too subversive for this TV slot. The single was then banned by BBC Radio and TV, which lost the band support at EMI, who began to push another band, Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...

, instead. A later single, "I Love a Man in a Uniform", was banned by the BBC during the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

 in 1982.

Critic Stewart Mason has called "Anthrax" not only the group's "most notorious song" but also "one of the most unique and interesting songs of its time". It's also a good example of Gang of Four's social perspective: after a minute-long, droning
Drone (music)
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect.-A musical effect:A drone...

, feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...

-laced guitar intro, the rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...

 sets up a funky, churning beat, and the guitar drops out entirely. In one stereo channel, King sings a "post-punk anti-love song
Love song
A love song is about falling in love and the feelings it brings. Anthologies of love songs often contain a mixture of both of these types of song. A bawdy song is both humorous and saucy, emphasizing the physical pleasure of love rather than the emotional joy...

", comparing himself to a beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

 trapped on its back ("and there's no way for me to get up") and equating love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

 with "a case of anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...

, and that's some thing I don't want to catch." Meanwhile, in the other stereo channel (and slightly less prominent in the mix), Gill reads (on the original E.P. version) a detailed account of the technical resources used on the song, which on the re-recorded album version is replaced by a deadpan
Deadpan
Deadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or body language, usually speaking in a casual, monotone, solemn, blunt, disgusted or matter-of-fact voice and expressing an unflappably calm, archly insincere or artificially grave demeanor...

 monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...

 about public perception of love and the prevalence of love songs in popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

: "Love crops up quite a lot as something to sing about, 'cause most groups make most of their songs about falling in love, or how happy they are to be in love, and you occasionally wonder why these groups do sing about it all the time." The simultaneous vocals are rather disorienting, especially when Gill pauses in his examination of love songs to echo a few of King's sung lines.

According to critic Paul Morley
Paul Morley
Paul Morley is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications...

, "The Gang spliced the ferocious precision of Dr. Feelgood's working-class blues with the testing avant-garde intrigue of Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...

. Wilfully avoiding structural obviousness, melodic prettiness and harmonic corniness, the Gang's music was studded with awkward holes and sharp corners." At the time, the band was recognised to be doing something very different from other white guitar acts. Ken Tucker, in Rolling Stone, 1980, wrote: "...rarely have the radical edges of black and white music come closer to overlapping... the Gang of Four utilize their bass guitar every bit as prominently and starkly as the curt bass figures that prod the spoken verses in (Kurtis Blow
Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker , better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major record label...

's "culture defining" huge summer hit) “The Breaks
The Breaks
The Breaks is an American 1999 comedy film written by and starring Mitch Mullany and directed by Eric Meza. The plot involves a day in the life of Derrick King, an Irish kid raised by a black family in Los Angeles, as he is kicked out of his house and suffers various other mishaps before eventually...

.”

In 1981 the band released their second LP, Solid Gold
Solid Gold (album)
Solid Gold is the second album by the British post-punk band Gang of Four, released in 1981. Two of its tracks, "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" and "He'd Send in the Army", are re-recordings of songs previously released as a single in the UK....

. Like Entertainment!, the album was uncompromising, spare, and analytical; such songs as "Cheeseburger," "He'd Send in the Army," and "In the Ditch" exposed the paradoxes of warfare, work, and leisure. Van Gosse, in a Village Voice review said: "Gang of Four embody a new category in pop, which illuminates all the others, because the motor of their aesthetic is not a 'personal creative vision.'"

A troubled American tour saw the departure of Allen (who later co-founded Shriekback
Shriekback
Shriekback are an English rock band, formed in 1981 in Kentish Town by Barry Andrews, formerly of XTC and League of Gentlemen , and Dave Allen, formerly of the Gang of Four , with Carl Marsh, formerly of Out On Blue Six soon added to the line-up. They were joined by Martyn Barker on drums in 1983...

, Low Pop Suicide
Low Pop Suicide
Low Pop Suicide was an indie rock band of the early 1990s on World Domination Recordings. Rick Boston sang and played guitar. At first, Dave Allen, founder of the record label, played bass and Jeff Ward was on drums. These two left the band and it became a vehicle for Boston. His then girlfriend...

 and The Elastic Purejoy
The Elastic Purejoy
The Elastic Purejoy was Dave Allen's own band on the label he founded, World Domination Recordings. Their sound can be characterized as bass-driven, progressive indie rock and pop.After their first release, Allen's name appeared on the records' packaging...

); he was replaced briefly by Busta "Cherry" Jones, a sometime player with Parliament and Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

. He left to work with The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 and was replaced by Sara Lee
Sara Lee (musician)
Sara Lee is an English bassist and singer-songwriter, best known for replacing Dave Allen on bass guitar in post-punk band Gang of Four. Lee confirmed in an interview on Rundgrenradio.com that Sara Lee is her birth name.-Biography:...

, who was Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

's bassist in League of Gentlemen
League of Gentlemen (band)
The League of Gentlemen was a band active during March–December 1980 that featured guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame. Other members included bass guitarist Sara Lee , keyboardist Barry Andrews and percussionist Johnny Toobad, replaced late in the band's tenure by Kevin Wilkinson...

. Lee was as good a singer as bassist, and she helped give the band's third studio album, Songs of the Free
Songs of the Free
Songs of the Free is the third studio album by Gang of Four, released in 1982. In 1996, Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings label issued it on CD, with two bonus tracks, and with a slightly changed song order , and mistitling "I Love a Man in a Uniform" as "I Love a Man in Uniform." EMI...

, a more commercially accessible element. Although "I Love a Man in a Uniform" from the album was the band's most radio-friendly song, it was banned in the UK shortly after its release because Britain went to war in the Falklands Islands. In the spring of 1983, Burnham left the band after the release of Songs of the Free and formed Illustrated Man. Gill and King continued Gang of Four, releasing Hard
Hard (Gang of Four album)
Hard is the fourth studio album by the English post-punk group Gang of Four. It was originally released in 1983 on Warner Bros. Records and was the first album to not feature original member Hugo Burnham, while Dave Allen had already left before the previous album, Songs of the Free.The album was...

 in 1983.

1986 saw the release of The Peel Sessions, a collection of rawly rendered material recorded during the period 1979 to 1981 for British radio BBC. Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...

 dubbed the album "a perfect and classic nostalgia trip into the world of gaunt cynicism."

After retiring from working together, Gill and King reunited to record Mall
Mall (Gang of Four album)
Mall is the fifth studio album by Gang of Four.Seven years after Gang of Four's breakup, founding members Jon King and Andy Gill reteamed for Mall...

 in 1991, and finally Shrinkwrapped in 1995. Lee later joined The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...

 to be replaced by Gail Ann Dorsey
Gail Ann Dorsey
Gail Ann Dorsey is an American musician considered one of the premier bass guitarists and vocalists within the alternative rock scene. With a distinguished career as a session musician, it has been most notably her long association performing in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to the present day,...

, later famous for her longtime association with David Bowie.

The original lineup of Jon King, Andy Gill, Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham reformed in November 2004. A UK tour in January 2005, shows in Europe and Japan and tours of the United States in May/June and again in September. In October 2005, Gang of Four released a new disc featuring new recordings of songs from the albums Entertainment!, Solid Gold
Solid Gold (album)
Solid Gold is the second album by the British post-punk band Gang of Four, released in 1981. Two of its tracks, "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" and "He'd Send in the Army", are re-recordings of songs previously released as a single in the UK....

 and Songs of the Free
Songs of the Free
Songs of the Free is the third studio album by Gang of Four, released in 1982. In 1996, Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings label issued it on CD, with two bonus tracks, and with a slightly changed song order , and mistitling "I Love a Man in a Uniform" as "I Love a Man in Uniform." EMI...

 entitled Return the Gift, accompanied by an album's worth of remixes. They continued playing occasionally during 2006, including a tour of Brazil.

Hugo Burnham retired as drummer in December 2006 . Mark Heaney, who had recorded drums for "Return the Gift" and played a couple of European shows in the summer of 2006, replaced him full-time playing alongside Allen until, in May 2008, Allen also announced his departure, to be replaced by Thomas McNeice.

In January 2011, the band released a new album, Content
Content (album)
Content is the seventh full-length studio album by UK band Gang of Four, released January 24, 2011 on Grönland Records in Europe and the following day on Yep Roc Records in the US.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Andy Gill and Jon King...

, which was very well received. Andrew Perry, writing in Britain's Telegraph newspaper, gave it (21 January 2011) a 5-star rating and said that it was "their best record since the Seventies", Jon Pareles, awarding the album 4 stars in a New York Times review of 25 January 2011, declared that [the band] "have reclaimed, with a vengeance, their old attack", Dan Wilcox of KCRW
KCRW
KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...

 (17 January 2011) said [of Content]: "Entertaining, scintillating and dangerous, the band has lost none of its explosive edge over the years." In his Pitchfork review of the album, January 26, 2011 Stuart Berman wrote "If Gang of Four's 2005 reformation proved they could more than hold their own against the upstarts, then Content shows that their chief concerns – the financial and psychological toll of keeping up with the Joneses – resonate all the more loudly in an Internet-accelerated era where even those on the vanguard can feel behind the times, and where the lawless, anonymous nature of online exchange threatens to overwhelm our identities. It's thus fitting that the album's most exuberant moment – the muscular Motown stomp "Who Am I?" – is used to soundtrack a modern-day anarchist's existential crisis: "You can't steal when everything is free".

Berman also writes, in the same feature, about the use of the song "Natural's Not In It" in a television commercial for Kinect, a device for Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

's Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 video game platform; "When Jon King sarcastically asked, "What to do for pleasure?" on Gang of Four's epochal 1979 debut, Entertainment!, little did he realize that, 32 years later, he'd be answering his own question with: buy an Xbox 360 Kinect! But rather than undermine Gang of Four's ideological integrity, the recent use of the song quoted above ("Natural's Not in It") in a Microsoft gaming-console commercial marked a logical extension of it. Despite their Maoist fascinations and anger-is-an-energy fervor, Gang of Four were always less interested in smashing storefronts than in exploring the anxiety of consumerism—how a culture obsessed with status and acquisition reduces personal interaction to a transactional experience. And they did so not out of scorn for those who fuel the capitalist machine, but to acknowledge their own complicity in it."

The band, comprising Andy Gill, Mark Heaney, Thomas McNeice and Jon King, toured the US, Canada, Australia and Europe in February & March 2011

Influence

Gang of Four went on to influence a number of successful alternative rock acts throughout the '80s and '90s, although few of their followers were as arty or political. R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe
Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...

 cites Gang of Four as one of his band's chief influences; Flea
Flea (musician)
Michael Peter Balzary , better known by his stage name Flea, is an Australian-American musician and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist, co-founding member, and one of the composers of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers...

 of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...

 has stated that Gang of Four were the single most important influence on his band's early music (Andy Gill even produced the Chili Peppers debut album). Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...

 stated that Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

 started as "a Gang of Four... ripoff". Andy Kellman, writing in Allmusic, has even argued that Gang of Four's "germs of influence" can be found in many rap metal
Rap metal
Rap metal is a subgenre of rap rock which fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop music with heavy metal.-History:Rap metal originated from rap rock, a genre fusing vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with rock...

 groups "not in touch with their ancestry enough to realize it".

Sara Lee was also a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....

 to support independent artists' careers.

In recent years the band has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, initially due to emergence of new post-punk revival
Post-punk revival
The post-punk revival was a development in alternative rock of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in which bands took inspiration from the original sounds and aesthetics of garage rock of the 1960s and post-punk and New Wave of the late 1970s...

 bands such as Clinic
Clinic (band)
Clinic are a Liverpool based post-punk revival band noted for their often fast-paced, eclectic sound. Their sound is often distinguished by the prominent use of vintage keyboards/organs, most notably the Philips Philicorda, and peculiar off-scale chord progressions.-Formation and early...

, Liars
Liars (band)
Liars is a three-piece band formed in 2000 consisting of Angus Andrew , Aaron Hemphill , and Julian Gross...

, The Rapture
The Rapture (band)
The Rapture is an Indie rock band based in New York City. The band mixes influences from many genres including post-punk, acid house, disco, electronica and rock, pioneering the post-punk revival genre...

 and Radio 4
Radio 4 (band)
Radio 4 is a band from Brooklyn who formed in 1999. They claim that their sound, which has been described as "danceable punk", is "made in New York, is about New York, and sounds like New York"....

, and then the rise of Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand (band)
Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish post-punk revival band formed in Glasgow in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos , Bob Hardy , Nick McCarthy , and Paul Thomson .The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out", reached #3 in...

 and Bloc Party
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...

, which led to the renewed patronage of the NME.

On December 7, 2009, the band was mentioned by Rachel Maddow
Rachel Maddow
Rachel Anne Maddow is an American television host and political commentator. Maddow hosts a nightly television show, The Rachel Maddow Show, on MSNBC. Her syndicated talk radio program, The Rachel Maddow Show, aired on Air America Radio...

 on her MSNBC news show in differentiating it from the new Senate gang commissioned by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, called the “Gang of 10”, after which she and her associate Kent Jones
Kent Jones
Thomas Kenton "Kent" Jones is a writer and performer on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, airing live M-F at 9 p.m. Eastern time...

 donned sunglasses and danced to their song "Damaged Goods".

Studio Albums

  • Entertainment! (EMI, 1979) – UK
    UK Albums Chart
    The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

     Number 45, Australia Number 39
  • Solid Gold
    Solid Gold (album)
    Solid Gold is the second album by the British post-punk band Gang of Four, released in 1981. Two of its tracks, "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" and "He'd Send in the Army", are re-recordings of songs previously released as a single in the UK....

     (Warner Bros., 1981) – UK Number 52, US Pop Number 190
  • Songs of the Free
    Songs of the Free
    Songs of the Free is the third studio album by Gang of Four, released in 1982. In 1996, Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings label issued it on CD, with two bonus tracks, and with a slightly changed song order , and mistitling "I Love a Man in a Uniform" as "I Love a Man in Uniform." EMI...

     (Warner Bros., 1982) – UK Number 61, US Pop Number 175
  • Hard
    Hard (Gang of Four album)
    Hard is the fourth studio album by the English post-punk group Gang of Four. It was originally released in 1983 on Warner Bros. Records and was the first album to not feature original member Hugo Burnham, while Dave Allen had already left before the previous album, Songs of the Free.The album was...

     (Warner Bros., 1983) – US Pop Number 168
  • Mall
    Mall (Gang of Four album)
    Mall is the fifth studio album by Gang of Four.Seven years after Gang of Four's breakup, founding members Jon King and Andy Gill reteamed for Mall...

     (Polydor, 1991)
  • Shrinkwrapped (Castle, 1995)
  • Return the Gift (2005), V2 - re-recordings of earlier tracks
  • Content
    Content (album)
    Content is the seventh full-length studio album by UK band Gang of Four, released January 24, 2011 on Grönland Records in Europe and the following day on Yep Roc Records in the US.-Track listing:All tracks composed by Andy Gill and Jon King...

     (Yep Roc, 2011)

Compilation albums

  • The Peel Sessions
    The Peel Sessions (Gang of Four)
    -Tracklisting:All songs written by Dave Allen, Hugo Burnham, Andy Gill, and Jon King, except as noted.#"I Found That Essence Rare"#"Return The Gift"#"5.45"#"At Home He’s A Tourist"#"Natural’s Not In It"#"Not Great Men"#"Ether"#"Guns Before Butter"...

     (1990), Strange Fruit/Dutch East India
  • You Catch Up With History (1978–1983) (1990), Greenlight-Capitol
  • A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
    A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
    A Brief History of the Twentieth Century is the first compilation album by Gang of Four. It was released in December 1990.- Track listing :# "At Home He's a Tourist"# "Damaged Goods"# "Natural's Not in It"# "Not Great Men"# "Anthrax"...

     (1990), Warner Bros
  • 100 Flowers Bloom (1998), Rhino

Extended plays

  • Yellow
    Yellow EP
    The so-called Yellow EP was an untitled 12" Gang of Four EP released in 1980 by Warner Bros. in the US, consisting of songs issued as singles by EMI Records in The UK. It came to be known as the Yellow EP because of its sleeve color...

     (EMI, 1980) - US Pop Number 201
  • Another Day/Another Dollar
    Another Day/Another Dollar
    Another Day/Another Dollar is a 12" vinyl EP by Gang of Four, released in 1982 in the US, by Warner Bros. Records. The release is a compilation of material previously unreleased in the US. The first two tracks were released in the UK as a single...

     (Warner Bros., 1982) – US Pop Number 195
  • The Peel Sessions (16.1.79) (1986), Strange Fruit
    Strange Fruit Records
    Strange Fruit Records was an independent record label in the United Kingdom.The label, established by Clive Selwood and John Peel in 1986, was the primary distributor of BBC recordings, including Peel Sessions....


Singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
US Modern Rock US Hot Dance Club Play
Hot Dance Club Play
The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...

UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

1978 "Damaged Goods" - - - -
1979 "At Home He's a Tourist" - - 58 Entertainment!
"Damaged Goods"/"I Found That Essence Rare" - 39 -
1980 "Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time" - - - Solid Gold
1981 "What We All Want" - 30 -
"Cheeseburger" - - -
"To Hell With Poverty!" - 38 - Another Day/Another Dollar
1982 "I Love A Man In Uniform" - - 65 Songs of the Free
"I Love A Man In Uniform" (US release) - 27 -
"Call Me Up" - - -
1983 "Is it Love?" - - 88 Hard
"Is it Love?" (US release) - 9 -
"Silver Lining" - - -
1984 "I Will Be a Good Boy (live)" - - - At the Palace
1990 "Money Talks" - - - Mall
1991 "To Hell With Poverty!" - - 100 A Brief History of the Twentieth Century
"Don't Fix What Ain't Broke" 14 - - Mall
"Satellite" - - -
"Cadillac" - - -
1995 "Tattoo" - - - Shrinkwrapped
2008 "Second Life" - - - -
2011 "You'll Never Pay for the Farm" - - - Content

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK