Gang Of Four.

Entertainment is the album, released 1979 on EMI.

My fav track: I found that essence rare

Biography

Gang Of Four was formed in 1977 in Leeds, England, by Andy Gill, Jon King and Hugo Burnham, all graduates of Leeds University, and Dave Allen, who answered an advert for a 'bass player wanted'. After their first single in 1978, they were snapped up by EMI and released their debut album Entertainment! in 1979.

Their second single, At Home He's A Tourist, actually made the UK Top 40, and Gang Of Four had been due to appear on Top Of The Pops, but were dropped at the last minute when they refused to remove the word 'rubbers' from the lyrics. Having retained their artistic integrity but missed their chance of wider fame, they were destined to remain a cult band, and they never again reached the singles chart.

The second album Solid Gold was released in 1981, but shortly afterwards Dave Allen left to form Shriekback, and was replaced on bass by Sara Lee. A third album, Songs Of The Free followed in 1982, but by this point much of the original hard edge had been lost from the music. Hugo Burnham left after this album, and the fourth album, Hard (1983), featured Andy Gill programming the Linndrum, with Jo Galdo, Ron Albert and Howard Albert also heavily involved. Steve Goulding provided live drums until 1984, when the band broke up. A live album, At The Palace, features one of their last gigs.

For a while, that was it, but in 1990 Gang Of Four was re-formed, on a part-time basis, by Andy Gill and Jon King, with various people filling in on bass and drums. The first single from the reformed band was Money Talks, released by independent record label Scarlett Recordings, and an album Mall followed in 1991, on Polydor. The sound was rather more electronic than Gang Of Four's earlier work, and later they admitted to only being happy with about half of it.

Andy and Jon kept themselves busy with film soundtrack work, and one such film, Delinquent, provided much of the music for the sixth Gang Of Four studio album, Shrinkwrapped. The album was released by When! (part of Castle Communications) in 1995, to widespread acclaim but (presumably) the usual dismal sales. A couple of rare but triumphant gigs followed, in London and America, but Jon King has since left the music business, meaning the end of Gang Of Four.

In 1998 Andy, Hugo and Dave worked together in compiling a 2-CD compilation, 100 Flowers Bloom, which was released in the USA including a number of new remixes and previously unreleased live and demo versions of earlier songs. For the future, a live album and even a live video have been rumoured.

One of the few political bands where the sound itself was political. So rigorously ugly! So serious! So sharp! And fonky! cf "What We All Want:" whap-boom-boom ad infinitum. Guitars that sound like the rails of a train.

I also have a probably-too-high tolerance for bands that ape their sound shamelessly (Radio 4 et al).

The two-CD retrospective on Rhino from a few years ago somehow manages to make even the good stuff sound not-so-good.

Sometimes I imagine what would have happened if Go4 had only ever released one single: "I Found That Essence Rare"/"At Home He's A Tourist." I don't know if the world would have lost all _that_ much. (Well, "Love Like Anthrax"...)

Dunno what's up with the supermarket tape -- the next song was "The Lovecats" -- and I'm like, "Whoa."

*"Armalite Rifle" has that particularly good/telling bit - "I disapprove of it. And so does John." There's something endearingly vicarish about "disapprove" in the context.

Don DeLillo will steal this for the sequel to "White Noise," promise.

my band-mates saw them supporting pere ubu (on the new picnic time tour? not sure) and said they were awful, i can remember rob (our bassplayer) imitating their bassplayer, and me thinking "yes that sounds awful"

ubu rob said was the best thing he evah saw

the name "the gang of four" i think is one of greatest evah, and i am quite interested in rehearing the post-entertainment stuff again, to check how much *i* have changed

I'll get me coat.

OK, there are reasons I remember the date but there are very very few other songs I remember the date I first heard them.

Thank you people!

"You don't know how radical "I Love a Man in a Uniform" is until you're walking through a supermarket in the middle of Iowa shopping for vegetables and candy and so on and then you realize the song coming in through the speakers is "ILaMiaU." All products recontextualize themselves under such circumstances."
Don DeLillo will steal this for the sequel to "White Noise," promise.

I just found out that Gang of Four were also on the Karate Kid soundtrack (granted it was later shit-version Gang of Four, but still). Paging DeLillo.

The Yellow EP and Another Day, Another Dollar EP are also good.

HANG ON A SECOND, that's a fantastic song, you nutter. Until the end, when it just kind of forgets that it's over and keeps going.

The greatest moment of like the past year was driving around with two jackasses who'd been wearing Russian military outfits for a week straight for fun when this song came on. "Suddenly this song isn't really f unny anymore." They finally changed their frigging clothes after that. It was beautiful.

http://www.seetickets.com/xxxtickets/event.asp?e%7Cartist=GANG+OF+FOUR

yeah, that live version of "what we all want" is a real monument.

frank kogan called them "teachers' pets" somewhere on ilm, which popped the balloon for me i'm afraid.

"To Hell with Poverty" greatest fucking moment for Gang of Four? I wish I'd been in a band in college just to have played the song in the little smoky bar where all the school bands played Sublime and shit. I love the "Ow ow ow OWWWWW"s and harmonics.

A reunion tour rarely excites me, but since Gof4 was one of my all-time faves, I'm interested, but mostly cuz I've seen them 5 times, but never with Dave Allen on bass.
What's this about a new album? http://www.gangoffour.co.uk/

I wonder what their US dates will look like. I figure 5 or 6 shows apart from that Couchella (sp?) thang in CA.

Thu, 05/05/05
09:00 PM Gang of Four McMenamins Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR

Tue, 05/10/05
07:00 PM Gang of Four Quest Club Minneapolis, MN

Wed, 05/11/05
07:30 PM Gang of Four Metro Chicago, IL

Thu, 05/12/05
07:30 PM Gang of Four Metro Chicago, IL

Sat, 05/21/05
08:00 PM Gang of Four Theatre of Living Arts Philadelphia, PA

Sat, 05/14/05
06:00 PM Gang of Four The Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON

Well maybe if some of the Brits hurry up and get on here...of course it's only 7 AM there, so...

"New album to come"

At Home He's A Tourist was on EMI though

I mean tbh I prefer the album version so maybe it's not a great loss, just if you're gonna do a big box set, with a disc called Singles, you'd think they'd actually put the single on it

unless I am mistaken, there has been no notice on ILM that David Pajo has joined what is otherwise a completely credible lineup of King, Burnham and Sara Lee… while I feel pretty much like a putz for not seeing the 2004 tour, the idea of Pajo having an opportunity to go bugshit on top of Lee and Burnham seems pretty enticing…

Gang of Four Reunite, Plan January Tour!

thank you ufo!

thank you ufo!

Gang of Four without Andy Gill? Sacrilege!

Yeah, but I'll be tempted to go for this Go4, if they come close enough geographically. How's the box? Good remasters, good prev. unreleased?

Ehhhhh, the stuff on the cassette was mostly uninspiring scraps.

I kinda always thought the NY Dolls put it so well with the title of that late reunion record "One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This". Go to the gigs and have fun with what you got, hopefully they will be a good time. I'm sure David Pajo will give it his all to make it work.

Yeah, but I'll be tempted to go for this Go4, if they come close enough geographically. How's the box? Good remasters, good prev. unreleased?

Looks like Sally Timms will be singing backing vox for at least the Chicago date.

Cool

Went to the Brooklyn Made show - it was a lot of fun! Crowd was a pretty good age mix, from I'm guessing late 20's to senior age. The most skeptical remark I overheard was someone saying "it was like watching my dad's older friend's band" which struck me as kind of dumb even though they added they were glad to have seen King et al before they couldn't - the core members have been playing for 45+ years, what did you think they were going to look like? And King performed like a man possessed. He gave it his all and he clearly used up his reserves to deliver - it was likely easier when he was younger, but for someone out-of-shape, I don't think they could've kept pace with the older King for more than a few numbers.

I guess the original line-up played North America for the last time in 2005, correct? Anyone see that tour? I regret missing it - I'm pretty sure I knew and enjoyed at least their debut album by then. How was that tour?

Also splurged on a signed tour poster. Basically the cost of another ticket, but they already had a run of bad luck when they cancelled their Toronto show due to their bus catching fire (!) and they seem to give most of their money to good causes anyway.

Hey there, here is a recording of the Brooklyn gig if you want it, it went up online today and I sent it to a friend who is a diehard fan.

https://www.fromsmash.com/BiS2D6db8e-bt

Ah nice! Thanks man!

FWIW, I found this NY Times article about their 2005 reunion, published on Jan. 24, 2005. Gill's passing aside (I'm still sad he's gone, and I never saw him perform), it's amusing to read in light of the current tour since they joke quite a bit about their age.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/24/arts/music/after-postpunk-postpostpunk-by-the-gang-of-four.html

A relevant excerpt for those who encounter a paywall:

"The goal is to be as incredibly intense as we were the first time around," Mr. Allen said. "What we have to do is leave them with their tongues hanging out again. If not, we don't retain our authority in the musical canon. There's no excuse that we're 23 years older."

Mr. Burnham added, "I realized that we could do it because we all still had our hair."

--

Mr. Gill is the only band member continuing his recording career, writing soundtracks and producing bands including Killing Joke and the Jesus Lizard. Mr. Burnham, who worked as a band manager and recording-company executive after leaving the Gang of Four, teaches at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline, Mass. The other two members have followed the band's media critiques with media jobs. Mr. King is the chief executive of World Television, which produces news reports, Webcasts and corporate video for clients from Greenpeace to Nestlé. Mr. Allen lives in Portland, Ore., and works in digital-music distribution and brand marketing with his company, Pampelmoose.

The band members had to shape up for the tour. Mr. Burnham hadn't played drums since 1985; he started exercising with his wife, a Pilates trainer. Mr. King, who is still lean, teased the other band members with e-mail messages about the "celebrity fat club." But as they started to relearn the songs, old reflexes came back.

"The blueprint was still in my body," Mr. Allen said.

On the 9-foot-by-18-foot stage of the Montague Arms, Mr. King flailed and twitched, dropped to the floor and leaped up like a funky scarecrow, as hyperactive as he was a generation ago. "It's the tragedy of old age that people stop doing stupid things," he said before the show. "When you're young, you're reckless and oppositional, and that's what you should be your whole life. Why should you not take a risk?"

I got to see the ‘05 tour, definitely was a privilege.

Burnham appeared at Pop Con a few years ago. Literate guy.

Also stumbled upon this from 2010: https://exclaim.ca/music/article/gang_of_four_sell_copies_of_new_album_with_vials_of_their_own_blood

Pretty intense "collector's item."

Mr. Allen lives in Portland, Ore., and works in digital-music distribution and brand marketing with his company, Pampelmoose

wait what

is this related to the ILX-famous superstar duo?

that's Pomplamoose, but very close!

I'm connected to Allen on LinkedIn.

more discussion here :

Gang of Four Live

Interesting discovery from another forum:

Not sure if this was mentioned earlier, but I recently got a copy of the standalone Entertainment! LP by Matador, and imagine my surprise to discover it has the full intro to "I Found That Essence Rare" (with the count off and guitar harmonics riff). I noticed that my copy has a different catalog no.—OLE1742LP—as opposed to earlier copies, which have cat. no. OLE1564LP.

Folks who are upset about the missing intro should grab this copy. I wonder if this was just Matador's way of quietly correcting the issue? (If so, that's kinda slimy of them to first deny the mistake by offering a dubious "It's what the band intended" excuse, and then quietly cut and press a second copy with the intro intact.)

I was trying to replace my noisy, worn OG US copy of Entertainment!, and I thought I'd give the Matador reissue a try since it's easy to come by right now, despite the missing intro. Needless to say, I was quite pleasantly surprised to hear the intro there!

I love that intro, good news

In an answer to someone's question on social media, they said they were planning a more extensive North American tour in 2024.

Who is in the band now?

Looks like the same configuration as last year with Sara Lee and David Pajo. They just did a festival show and have more dates this fall in the UK.

I saw them last week and it was overall a much better show than when they first came through early in 2022. Pajo isn't just copying Andy Gill's guitar lines but instead using them as a launch pad for something more, he and Sara are total MVPs.

This is more or less what it was like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnZbKxC41F0

First part of a multi-part David Pajo interview that's going to be uploaded to this podcast:

https://discograffiti.com/podcast/94-david-pajo-part-1-favorites-as-in-records-firsts-as-in-pre-slint-bands-flavorings-as-in-tortoise-yeah-yeah-yeahs-interpol-gang-of-four/

That Damaged Goods video sounds like they need to speed it up a bit

Jon's voice sounds a little tired in that clip. Luckily halfway through he does "that thing live musicians do where they let the crowd sing the chorus."

I almost went to one of their shows. Looking at that video, I'm glad I didn't. Is it just basically all old people trying to re-live their rocker years?

sure looks like it

You're not wrong.

I’m glad I saw the full original lineup reunion in the aughts— Jon was far from tired and seeing Andy shred live was a godlike experience.

So US tour next year. Is it still Sara Lee, Dave Pajo, Hugo and Jon?

I think Sara is out, don't know who's on bass

It will be Gail Greenwood.

I see Songs of the Free dropped as a digital remaster last month. Are there any rumors of Hard and Songs of the Free coming as a physical set like the previous albums?

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20241003-why-gang-of-fours-entertainment-was-the-most-blistering-debut-album-of-all-time

Jon King, Hugo Burnham and others on GO4 debut album 45 years later

I just wrote about A Brief History Of The Twentieth Century, which I maintain is better than any of their albums, even the debut.

Pretty sure a cut-out cassette of that was my introduction to the band, at least before Infinite Zero reissued everything. Man, I miss Infinite Zero ...

Reminding me that I think I still have a Peel Sessions EP on late 20th Century vinyl somewhere: always sounded like flying diamond razors, incl. compared to original tracks on Entertainment---prob helped that the 12" EP had all that room for 4-5 cuts, but still---they didn't do a legit live album, did they? What's a good live bootleg (incl. on YouTube)?

well there are the (unbelievably great) two live tracks on the B-side of the Another Day Another Dollar EP

there is an official live album but it's not very good
https://www.discogs.com/master/94851-Gang-Of-Four-At-The-Palace

It's alright. There's a Peel Sessions CD that is killer.

I don’t think they were released physically, but they put half a dozen late ‘70s / early ‘80s live albums on streaming services around the time that “77-81” box set came out a few years ago.

Here's a really nice, lively audience recording from Minneapolis '79.

https://we.tl/t-n0ask8DNjl