Gang of Four

Gang of Four are an English post-punk band that released four albums between 1979 and 1983 on EMI/Warner. They emerged with the 1978 indie single “Damaged Goods” on Fast Product, followed by the 1979 album Entertainment!, a strident mix of funk rhythms, dischorded riffs, taut vocals, and provocative lyrics. Notable titles include “Love Like Anthrax,” “At Home He’s a Tourist,” “He’d Send In the Army,” and “I Love a Man in Uniform.”

Singer/percussionist Jon King and guitarist/singer Andy Gill led the band, which functioned as a quartet with bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. After their 1981 album Solid Gold, Allen cleared for bassist Sara Lee, who played on 1982’s Songs of the Free. Burnham left before their 1983 album Hard, which spawned the club hit “Independence.”

Members: Andy Gill (guitar, vocals, drums), Jon King (vocals, melodica, percussion), Dave Allen (bass, vocals, 1977-81), Hugo Burnham (drums, 1977-83), Sara Lee (bass, 1982-83), Steve Goulding (drums, 1983-84)

Background

Gang of Four (Go4) started in July 1977 at Leeds University when singer Jon King (b. 1955) and guitarist Andy Gill (1956–2020) teamed with drummer Hugo Burnham (b. 1956). King and Gill were friends since their time at Sevenoaks School, where they were part of the “Art Room” along with future Mekons Tom Greenhalgh and Mark White.

From the outset, King played melodica and percussive sundries. He took to writing lyrics about manufactured consent. After a couple gigs with one Dave Wolfson on bass, they filled that role with Kendal, Cumbria musician Dave Allen (b. 1955). They named themselves Gang of Four after the faction within the Chinese Communist Party that attempted an intraparty coup during the Cultural Revolution.

On March 10, 1978, Gang of Four played a high-profile show at London’s Lyceum Theatre with The Slits, Cabaret Voltaire, John Cooper Clarke, and headliners the Buzzcocks.

1978–79 Singles

Gang of Four made their vinyl debut in October 1978 with “Damaged Goods” (b/w “Love Like Anthrax” / “Armalite Rifle”), issued on Scottish small-press Fast Product (FAST 5), which also issued debut singles by The Human League, The Mekons, and 2.3.

A. “Damaged Goods” (3:35)
B1. “Love Like Anthrax” (3:17)
B2. “Armalite Rifle” (3:05)

Go4 recorded the tracks in June at Cargo Studios, a 16-track converted Rochdale warehouse owned by engineer John Brierley, a prior soundman for Tractor (aka The Way We Live). Brierley oversaw the ensuing debut singles by A Certain Ratio and Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark.

On November 17, 1978, Gang of Four played Manchester’s Factory/Russell Club as part of a multi-act bill with the Human League, Mekons, and Scars, a Scottish act on Fast.

On January 9, 1979, Gang of Four cut their first session for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, performing four originals: “I Found That Essence Rare,” “At Home He’s a Tourist,” “5.45,” and “Return the Gift.” The exposure from Peel’s program (broadcast February 6) elevated Gang of Four to national prominence and netted them a deal with EMI, which issued their second single “At Home He’s a Tourist,” in June with the exclusive b-side “It’s Her Factory.”

B. “It’s Her Factory” (3:08)

On July 2, they cut a second session for Peels 6/9 broadcast, performing “Natural’s Not In It,” “Not Great Men,” “Ether,” and “Guns Before Butter.” Meanwhile, their prior label issued Fast Product: The First Year Plan, a fourteen-track compilation of all prior Fast Records singles sides, including the “Damaged Goods” EP and the first two Mekons singles.

In late August, Gang of Four toured the US as the Buzzcocks’ opening act. The tour hit Boston (8/30: Paradise Rock Club), New York City (9/1: Club 57), Los Angeles (9/7: Music Hall), and San Francisco (9/11: Temple Beautiful).

Entertainment!

Gang of Four released their debut album, Entertainment!, on September 25, 1979, on EMI International.

Entertainment! features twelve group-written originals, including “At Home He’s a Tourist” and re-recorded versions of “Damaged Goods” and “Love Like Anthrax,” all three co-sung by Jon King and Andy Gill, who also share vocals on “Return the Gift” and “Guns Before Butter.”

1. “Ether” (3:52) Jon
2. “Natural’s Not in It” (3:09) Andy
3. “Not Great Men” (3:08) opens on a steady 4/4 beat (126 bpm) joined by a seven-note guitar riff (1-4-3/F#→1-1-7-1/Em) inherited by the bass as guitar notes collide between the right and left channel. Jon spurns revisionist history, which defines key world events by rulers (“The strong men who have made the world”) and not the millions of unnamed workers and soldiers who made it possible (“No weak men in the books at home”).
4. “Damaged Goods” (3:29) is an upbeat allegro of 160 bpm (in Em and C7) with a dotted two-note bassline (root notes) intercut with staccato chords (3rds). The structure locks into a frantic chordal/bass pattern as the caustic vocals take hold. The narrator (in a taut, exasperated tone) extricates himself from toxic sexual relations. He knew there was nothing romantic (“Sometimes I’m thinking that I love you, but I know it’s only lust”) and frames their breakup as positive (“the change will do you good”). The woman’s low esteem and high temperament (“You said you’re cheap but you’re too much”) and road wear (“damaged goods”) leave him cold (“I can’t work, I can’t achieve”).
5. “Return the Gift” (3:08) opens with a trebly two-note guitar figure (1-7-1-7 in Am) mimicked by the vocals on a trailing bassline. Developments: a harmonized chordal bridge (F…G…Am..) against a pounding backbeat and a break marked with dissonant chordal shards. Go4 assail the commodification of workers (“You’re on the price list”) and their transactional worth in the market system (“Go to Scotland, no obligation”). They resign to the meager 20th-century luxuries of the eight-hour shift and five-day workweek (“Please send me evenings and weekends”).
6. “Guns Before Butter” (3:49) spins its title from the idiom Guns or Butter, which indicts the balance of military budgets (guns) over domestic needs (butter).

7. “I Found That Essence Rare” (3:09) Jon
8. “Glass” (2:32) Jon
9. “Contract” (2:42) Jon
10. “At Home He’s a Tourist” (3:33)
11. “5.45” (3:48) has a 30-second drum/harmonica intro at 132 bpm. Verse: somber vocals over guttural bassline (E.E.C.B.). Pre-chorus: homophonic two-note guitar/vocal pattern (7-1-7-1 in Em) on accelerated bassline. Andy chides the desensitized citizen who consumes gory war coverage as entertainment every evening at a quarter to 6:00pm.
12. “Love Like Anthrax” (4:23)

Sessions occurred in mid-1979 at the Workhouse on Old Kent Road, London. Gill and King co-produced the album with engineer Rik Walton, a prior Ian Dury soundman (New Boots and Panties!!) with concurrent credits behind This Heat, Philip Rambow, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (Angel Station), and “Baker Street” saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft.

Gill and King partnered with Cream (a Dutch design firm) on the Entertainment! cover layout: an assortment of colorized postcards and paint swaths (back) on a red backdrop. The inner-sleeve presents freeze frames of TV imagery with angled captions, summarized with one straight sentence: “However unsavoury, events are shown in a palatable way.”

Entertainment! reached No. 35 in New Zealand and No. 45 on the UK Albums Chart. In May 1980, Entertainment! appeared in the US on Warner Bros.

“At Home He’s a Tourist” appeared on Hellow! New Wave Special Sampler, a Japanese Toshiba comp with cuts by The Buggles (“Video Killed the Radio Star”), The B-52’s (“Dance This Mess Around”), Kraftwerk (“Showroom Dummies”), The Motels (“Anticipating”), Pat Benatar (“Heartbreaker”), The Selecter (“On My Radio”), and The Specials (“Too Much Too Young”).

1980 Activity

On February 5, 1980, Gang of Four headlined over The Raincoats at Portsmouth Polytechnic. The two acts proceeded to the Camden’s Electric Ballroom for a Feb. 7 multi-bill with Mekons and Scritti Politti.

“Not Great Men” appeared on What’s All This, John?, a 1980 German EMI comp with cuts by the Buzzcocks (“Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”), Fischer-Z (“Bigger Slice Now”), Punishment of Luxury (“All White Jack”), The Shirts (“Laugh and Walk Away”), Toyah (“Our Movie”), and Wire (“Blessed State”).

On April 18, 1980, Gang of Four released two new songs: “Outside the Trains Don’t Run On Time” backed with “He’d Send In the Army,” both self-produced group compositions. The single appeared on Zonophone, a long-dormant label recently kickstarted as an EMI post-punk subsidiary. Go4 rerecorded both sides for their subsequent album.

“Damaged Goods” and “Anthrax” reappeared on Troublemakers, a two-record compilation on US Warner Bros. with cuts by Devo, John Cale, Marianne Faithfull, Nico, Public Image Ltd., Urban Verbs and repeat acts from prior comps (Buggles, Wire), plus two oldies by the Sex Pistols.

On November 16, Gang of Four headlined London’s Lyceum with openers Delta 5, a female-led Leeds act who plied similar punk/funk territory. The The mastermind Matt Johnson (then of The Gadgets) drove Go4 to the gig in his Ford Escort.

Solid Gold 

Gang of Four released their second album, Solid Gold, in March 1981 on EMI and Warner Bros.

Solid Gold features re-recorded versions of “Outside the Trains Don’t Run On Time” and “He’d Send In the Army,” plus eight new originals. Jon King wrote all the lyrics apart from four numbers co-penned by Andy Gill: “Paralysed,” “Cheeseburger,” “Army,” and “Why Theory?” Go4 group-conceived the riffs and melodies apart from “Paralysed,” “The Republic,” “A Hole in the Wallet,” all Gill compositions.

1. “Paralysed” (3:22)
2. “What We All Want” (4:59)
3. “Why Theory?” (2:33)
4. “If I Could Keep It for Myself” (4:09)
5. “Outside the Trains Don’t Run on Time” (3:19)

6. “Cheeseburger” (4:05)
7. “The Republic” (3:21)
8. “In the Ditch” (4:22)
9. “A Hole in the Wallet” (4:05)
10. “He’d Send in the Army” (4:28)

Gang of Four preceded the album’s release with “What We All Want,” released as a late-February single with “History’s Bunk,” an exclusive b-side.

B. “History’s Bunk” (3:02)

Sessions occurred in January 1981 at Abbey Road Studios, where Gang of Four co-produced the album with veteran engineer Jimmy Douglass, a soundman for Seventies names in soul (Ace Spectrum, Aretha Franklin), rock (Roxy Music, Fotomaker, Television), and jazz-funk (Black Heat, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Roy Ayers).

Gill and King conceived the album’s blue/diagonal cover scheme. The back cover shows a sketch of a Medieval execution with the caption “I hope they keep down the price of gas.”

Solid Gold entered the Billboard 200 albums chart in the US, where “What We All Want” became a Top 30 single on the Billboard Club Play chart.

1981 Activity

On March 9, Gang of Four cut their third Peel session for the DJ’s 3/12 broadcast, which aired “Paralysed” “History’s Bunk,” and “To Hell With Poverty,” a then-unreleased song that appeared on June 12 as a non-album group-written single; backed with “Capital (It Fails Us Now),” credited to Gill, King, and Allen (but not Burnham).

A. “To Hell With Poverty” (4:58)
B. “Capital (It Fails Us Now)” (4:03)

On Saturday, June 13, 1981, Gang of Four played the Walsall FC Fellows Park Concert, a Peel-compèred event headlined by UB40 with sets by Toots & The Maytals, Pauline Murray, and Black Music Co-op. In late June, Gang of Four embarked on a US tour supported by REM, an up-and-coming Atlanta quartet.

On the weekend of September 5–6, 1981, Gang of Four performed at Futurama 3, a post-punk festival at the Staffordshire County Showground with sets by B Movie, Blue Orchids, Bow Bow Wow, Diagram Brothers, Doll by Doll, Eyeless In Gaza, Higsons, Ludus, Modern Eon, Section 25, Simple Minds, and the Virgin Prunes. Go4 headlined Saturday’s lineup, which also featured 23 Skidoo, A Flock of Seagulls, Bauhaus, Felt, The Lines, The Passions, Sisters of Mercy, The Sound, Theatre of Hate, and Clash-associate Tymon Dogg.

Gang of Four landed one live number (“He’d Send in the Army”) on Urgh! A Music War, a 1981 A&M double-album with live cuts by 34 new wave acts, including Au Pairs, Echo & The Bunnymen, Klaus Nomi, Gary Numan, Magazine, The Members, Pere Ubu, The Police, Skafish, Wall of Voodoo, X, and XTC. The corresponding concert film hit theaters in 1982 and reappeared on VHS/Betamax in 1985.

In late 1981, Dave Allen left Gang of Four and co-founded Shriekback with keyboardist Barry Andrews, an original XTC member who recently played in the League of Gentlemen, Robert Fripp‘s post-punk project with bassist Sara Lee. Go4, in turn, hired Lee as Allen’s replacement.

Songs of the Free

Gang of Four released their third album, Songs of the Free, in May 1982 on EMI. It features nine songs co-credited to Andy Gill and Jon King, including “The History of the World,” “Call Me Up,” “Of the Instant,” and “I Love a Man in a Uniform,” a pre-released single.

King plays melodica and sings exclusive lead on Songs of the Free, which features new bassist Sara Lee on backing vocals along with two guests: South African singer Stevie Lange (recently of Night with Earth Band singer Chris Thompson) and Kiwi singer Joy Yates (Esperanto, Pacific Eardrum).

1. “Call Me Up” (3:35)
2. “I Love a Man in a Uniform” (4:06)
3. “Muscle for Brains” (3:17)
4. “It Is Not Enough” (3:27)
5. “Life! It’s a Shame” (5:06)

6. “I Will Be a Good Boy” (3:52)
7. “The History of the World” (4:40)
8. “We Live as We Dream, Alone” (3:37)
9. “Of the Instant” (4:58)

Gang of Four preceded with “I Love a Man In Uniform,” released as a late-April single with “The World at Fault,” an exclusive b-side.

B. “The World at Fault” (3:35)

Sessions took place in March 1982 at Ridge Farm Studios in Dorking, Surrey, where Gill and King co-produced the album with Fiji-born musician/soundman Mike Howlett, the erstwhile Gong bassist with production credits on recent titles by A Flock of Seagulls, Athletic Spizz 80, Blancmange, Martha + the Muffins, Fischer-Z, OMD, and The Original Mirrors.

Songs of the Free was engineered by Simon Smart, a soundman on 1980–82 albums by Bernard Szajner, The Broughtons, Captain Sensible, Dramatis, Henry Badowski, The Pretty Things, Roger Chapman, and Ian Carr’s Nucleus.

Songs of the Free features artwork by the design firm Shot That Tiger! with photography by Colin Barker. The cover presents a green-tinted screen capture of a silhouetted canoe, afloat off-dock with a warship in the distance. The inner-gate contains commentary on commercial travel, foreign luxury resorts, and tourist disconnect with third-world toils.

1982 Activity

Andy Gill played guitar on the 1982 Sire release Famous Last Words, the fourth album by musician/singer Robin Scott and his third under the M moniker. Gill is one of thirteen outside musicians on the album, which also features contributions by Thomas Dolby and guitarist Gordon Huntley (Forest), drummers Andy Anderson (Steve Hillage, The Glove) and Yukihiro Takahashi (Sadistic Mika Band, Yellow Magic Orchestra), and bassists Barry Adamson (Magazine), Mark King (Level 42), Tony Levin (King Crimson), and Robin’s brother Julian Scott (Roogalator).

In September 1982, Gang of Four played the US Festival, a three-day weekend event at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California; organized by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. The Saturday/Sunday lineups included The Cars, Fleetwood Mac, The Kinks, Santana, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Go4 opened Friday’s lineup (September 3, “new wave” day), which also featured The English Beat, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads, and The Police, who promoted their mega-seller Ghost In the Machine.

Before Gang of Four reentered the studio, Hugo Burnham left the band, which continued with a drum machine and supplemental drumming by Andy Gill.

Hard

Gang of Four released their fourth album, Hard, in September 1983 on EMI. It features two songs by Andy Gill (“Is It Love,” “Woman Town”) and seven co-written with Jon King, including “Arabic,” “A Man with a Good Car,” and “Independence,” an underground hit.

Hard features a trio Go4 lineup of bassist Sara Lee and the two remaining co-founders, Gill and King. The album features contributions by bassist Jon Astrop and multiple backing singers, but no actual drummer. Gill plays guitar and “additional drums.”

1. “Is It Love” (Gill) (4:35)
2. “I Fled” (3:54)
3. “Silver Lining” (4:13)
4. “Woman Town” (Gill) (5:12)

5. “A Man with a Good Car” (3:45)
6. “It Don’t Matter” (3:54)
7. “Arabic” (3:39)
8. “A Piece of My Heart” (3:14)
9. “Independence” (4:05)

Gang of Four recorded Hard in Montreal with Gill and King as co-producers. Jon Astrop (Absolute Elsewhere) played bass on “Is It Love,” “I Fled,” “It Don’t Matter,” and “A Piece of My Heart.”

Post-production occurred at New York’s Hit Factory with English mixing engineer John Rollo, a onetime Konk staffer whose Seventies credits include albums by Asgaerd, Kestrel, Batti Mamzelle, Ultrafunk, and Annette Peacock.

Hard was mastered at Criteria Studios in Miami by brothers Howard and Ron Albert (Fat Albert Productions), the sound team on Seventies classics by the Allman Brothers, Derek & the Dominoes, and cult favorites by Cactus, Bang, Bethlehem Asylum, Josefus, Maxayn, Ramatam, and Rasputin’s Stash. Miami Beach conductor Mike Lewis added strings and horns to the final mix.

Hard features four backing vocalists, including Brenda White King, a presence on recent recordings by BB&Q, Cheryl Lynn, Kashif, Luther Vandross, Linda Clifford, Sadane, and Stephanie Mills.

Discography:

• “Damaged Goods” / “Love Like Anthrax” / “Armalite Rifle” (1978)
  
• Entertainment! (1979)
• Solid Gold (1981)
• Songs of the Free (1982)
• Hard (1983)

Sources:

• Discogs: Gang of Four
• 45worlds: Gang of Four
• 45cat: Gang of Four
• RYM: Gang of Four
• MusicBrainz: Gang of Four