Gang of Four were an English post-punk band, formed in 1976 in Leeds. The original members were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. One of the
most influential and groundbreaking bands to rise from the British punk scene in the late '70s, Gang of Four took the freedoms and possibilities presented by punk and brought them to wild and unexpected places, both musically and philosophically. There have been many different line-ups including, among other notable musicians, Sara Lee, Gail Ann Dorsey, Mark Heaney and David Pajo. After a brief lull in the 1980s, different constellations of the band recorded two studio albums in the 1990s.
Gang of Four's music fused tough funk rhythms, jagged shards of metallic guitar, and lyrics that filtered Marxist theory through the realities of daily life into a sound that bore little resemblance to any other
group when they released their debut album, Entertainment!, in 1979. The LP received triumphant reviews from critics and was a surprise hit in the U.K., while their third album, 1982's Songs of the Free, gave them a commercial breakthrough in the United States as the single "I Love a Man in a Uniform" gained airplay on college radio and open-minded R&B stations.
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, feedback-laced guitar intro, the rhythm section sets up a funky, churning beat, and the guitar drops out entirely. In one stereo channel, King sings a "post-punk anti-love song", comparing himself to a beetle trapped on its back.
By the time the album "Solid Gold" was released, Dave Allen had dropped out of the band (he
would go on to form Shriekback); Busta Jones, who had previously worked with Talking Heads and George Clinton, briefly took over live work before Sara Lee (who had worked with Robert Fripp's League of Gentlemen) became GoF's official bassist. Lee's first album with the band, 1982's Songs of the Free, was slightly more accessible than their previous work without robbing the sound of its power.
In 1987, Gill and King began making music together again, and in 1991 they released a Gang of Four album, Mall, a dance-friendly effort dominated by synthesizers and featuring Gail Ann Dorsey on bass. A
variety of session musicians accompanied Gill and King on 1995's Shrinkwrapped, a more aggressive set than Mall; in 1997, they once again retired the Gang of Four banner, and King dropped out of the music business for a while and in 2004 the original lineup of Gill, King, Allen, and Burnham reunited for an international concert tour. Two years later, Dave Allen also left the lineup, with Thomas McNeice taking over on bass.
The band returned to the recording studio, and 2011's Content became their first album of original material
since Shrinkwrapped. In April 2018, Gang of Four dropped a four-song EP, Complicit, produced by Ben Hillier. The release was followed by an extensive tour of North America. It turned out to be a last hurrah for Andy Gill, who died on February 1, 2020, after a brief respiratory illness. In 2025, the band announced they were staging a final tour, with singer Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham joined by guitarist Ted Leo and bassist Gail Greenwood.
GANG OF FOUR - SOLID GOLD 1981
Gang of Four's existence had as much to do with Slave and Chic as it did the Sex Pistols and the Stooges,
which is something Solid Gold demonstrates more than Entertainment! Any smartypants can point out the irony of a band on Warner Bros. railing against systematic tools of control disguised as entertainment media, but Gang of Four were more observational than condescending. True, Jon King and Andy Gill might have been hooting and hollering in a semiviolent and discordant fashion, but they were saying "think about it" more than "you lot are a bunch of mindless puppets."
Solid Gold & Another Day / Another Dollar
Label: EMI – 7243 8 37006 2 2, EMI – CZ 561
Format: CD, Compilation, Remastered 1996
Country: UK & Europe
Released: 1981
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave
SOLID GOLD
01. Paralysed 3:23
02. What We All Want 5:00
03. Why Theory? 2:34
04. If I Could Keep It For Myself 4:09
05. Outside The Trains Don't Run On Time 3:19
06. Cheeseburger 4:05
07. The Republic 3:22
08. In The Ditch 4:22
09. A Hole In The Wallet 4:05
10. He'd Send In The Army 4:28
The EMI Records and Infinite Zero/American 1995 reissue includes songs from the ANOTHER DAY/ANOTHER DOLLAR EP.
11. To Hell With Poverty! 4:59
12. Capital (It Fails Us Now) (Gill) 4:04
13. History's Bunk! (Gill, King) 2:59
14. Cheeseburger (Live) 3:40
15. What We All Want (Live) 5:24
LINE - UP
Dave Allen – bass guitar, vocals
Hugo Burnham – drums, vocals
Andy Gill – guitar, vocals
Jon King – vocals
Flac Size: 0.97 MB
GANG OF FOUR - SONGS OF THE FREE 1982
It is their first recording with Sara Lee as bassist, replacing Dave Allen. The album also marks a shift
towards R&B or funk music, and away from the more abrasive elements in their earlier albums.
Pitchfork listed Songs of the Free as 99th best album of the 1980s. Rhino Records re-released Songs of the Free in limited edition of 6,250 on 180-gram blue, purple, and yellow splattered vinyl for Black Friday Record Store Day 2015.
Gang Of Four – Songs Of The Free
Label: Infinite Zero – 9 43067-2
Series: Infinite Zero Archive
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 1996
Country: US
Released: 1982
Genre: Rock
Style: Alternative Rock, New Wave
TRAXS
01. Call Me Up 3:35
02. I Love A Man In Uniform 4:06
03. We Live As We Dream, Alone 3:38
04. It Is Not Enough 3:27
05. Life! It's A Shame 5:06
06. I Will Be A Good Boy 2:54
07. The History Of The World 4:40
08. Muscle For Brains 3:17
09. Of The Instant 4:58
10. The World At Fault 3:40
11. I Love A Man In Uniform (Dub) 4:48
Engineer – Randy Burns
Executive-Producer – David Rostano
Remix – Steve Sinclair
LINE - UP
Vocals – Andy Gill, Jon King
Vocals, Melodica – Jon King
Backing Vocals – Joy Yates, Stevie Lange
Bass, Backing Vocals – Sara Lee
Drums, Percussion – Hugo Burnham
Guitar, Vocals – Andrew Gill
Written-By – Gill, King
Written-By [Special Assistance] – Jon Astrop
Flac Size: 280 MB
Gang Of Four - Entertainmment 1979 On Urban Aspirines HERE
