Gang of Four

This article is about the British rock band. For the group of authors of the same name from Design Pattern. Elements of reusable object-oriented software , a standard work of software development, see design sample (book)

Gang of Four
General information
origin	Leeds , England
Genre (s)	Post-punk , new wave
founding	1977, 1987, 2004
resolution	1984, 1997
Website	gangoffour.uk
Founding members
singing	Jon King (until 1983, 2004–2012)
Guitar , vocals	Andy Gill (until 1983, 1987–1997, 2004–2020, † 2020)
bass	Dave Allen (until 1981, 2004-2008)
Drums	Hugo Burnham (until 1983, 2004-2006)
Current occupation
singing	John "Gaoler" Sterry (since 2012)
bass	Thomas McNeice (since 2008)
Drums	Jonny Finnegan (since 2014)
former members
Guitar , vocals	Andy Gill † (until 1983, 1987–1997, 2004–2020)
bass	Sara Lee (1981-1984)
Drums	Mark Heaney (2006-2013)

Gang of Four are a British post-punk band formed in Leeds in 1977 . It was best known for its characteristic, driving, funk- borrowed rhythm and political song lyrics.

history

Gang of Four 2011 in Chicago

The band was formed in Leeds ( England ) in 1977 . Her first single Damaged Goods (1978), which appeared on the label fast Product, earned her a contract with the major label EMI . The debut album Entertainment! The line-up was Andy Gill (guitar), Jon King (vocals), Hugo Burnham (drums) and Dave Allen (bass) was released in 1979.

Gang of Four played a minimalist version of punk rock , with elements of funk and dub reggae. The texts dealt with social and political grievances in society . On albums like “Songs of the Free” and “Hard”, their style was also influenced by disco elements.

Their second single, At Home He's A Tourist , made it into the UK Top 40 . So they could have appeared in the charts TV show Top of the Pops , but they refused to remove the word rubbers ("rubbers") from the text. In doing so, they more or less deliberately foregone the chance to reach a larger audience and never came back into the singles charts.

In 1981 Dave Allen left the band and was replaced by Sara Lee. On their third album Songs of the Free (1982) the band had lost their hard edges. In 1984 they broke up after the release of their fourth album Hard . Parts of the band joined forces with other splinters from XTC , Pigbag , Glaxo Babies and The Pop Group to form Shriekback , which occasionally had a minor hit in the mid to late eighties.

Gill and King dedicated themselves to film music, for example for the film Delinquent . In 1990 Andy Gill and Jon King reformed the band and released the album Mall in 1991 on the major label Polydor . Another album followed four years later, Shrinkwrapped . In 1998 the double CD compilation A 100 Flowers Blooming was released on Rhino.

The fact that many subsequent bands referred to them during the 1980s, such as the contemporary German band FSK , the rock bands REM , Interpol , the young New York disco punkers Radio 4 and the Liverpool band The Dead 60s , became gang of Four became a legend even without chart successes. Due to the current interest in the band, the original line-up Burnham / Allen / Gill / King was reformed for their November 2004 tour. Her album Return The Gift , released in 2005, contains new recordings of 14 classics and a bonus CD with remixes by artists such as Ladytron , The Others , Yeah Yeah Yeahs , Phones and others.

Two years after the comeback, drummer Hugo Burnham left the band to focus on his academic work in the United States and was replaced by Mark Heaney. Dave Allen retired in 2008 and was replaced by Thomas McNeice.

In 2008, the group mainly focused on the download market and founded their own label, Gang Of Four Recordings, Inc. , for this purpose . A new song, Second Life , published exclusively in MP3 format , which in the original is reminiscent of early works, has so far remained a one-off, for which only several remix versions have been created. Also in 2008 guitarist Andy Gill released an MP3 mini-album called Genome .

In January 2011, the band's ninth studio album was released with Content , followed by What Happens Next in March 2015 , the first album without Jon King .

On February 1, 2020, Gang of Four announced the death of Andy Gill via Twitter .

Discography

Albums

• 1979: entertainment!
• 1981: Solid Gold
• 1982: Songs of the Free
• 1983: Hard
• 1984: At the Palace (Live)
• 1991: Mall
• 1995: Shrinkwrapped
• 1998: A Hundred Flowers Blooming (compilation)
• 2004: A Brief History of the 20th Century
• 2005: Return the Gift (new recordings of old pieces / remixes)
• 2011: Content
• 2015: What Happens Next
• 2016: Live ... In The Moment (Best Of)
• 2019: Happy Now

Singles

• 1978: Damaged Goods
• 1979: At Home He's a Tourist
• 1979: Damaged Goods / I Found That Essence Rare
• 1981: What We All Want
• 1982: To Hell With Poverty!
• 1982: I Love a Man in Uniform
• 1982: Songs of the Free
• 1983: Is It Love?
• 1991: Don 'Fix what Ain't Broke
• 1991: Satellite
• 2008: Second Life
• 2011: You'll Never Pay for the Farm
• 2011: Who Am I?

literature

• Simon Reynolds : Rip It Up and Start Again - Throw it all down and start over: Postpunk 1978–1984 . Translated from the English by Conny Lösch . Koch International / Hannibal, Höfen 2007. ISBN 978-3-85445-270-6 .

Web links

• Not Great Men (English)
• Gang of Four at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Musical Express: Andy Gill, guitarist and founding member of Gang of Four, has died aged 64 on February 1, 2020, accessed on February 1, 2020