Gang Of Three

[Toby Gymshorts]

Andy Gill dead at 64. A unique talent and tone, he'll be sadly missed; often imitated, never equalled.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51344348

[Toby Gymshorts]

There's no way I'm having a nil for this, even if I have to cheat and do it myself. Here's a favourite, RIP Andy.

[MsD]

I'm gutted, just can't think what to say yet. I loved them back in the day and went to see them at Oslo 3 years ago. Know several guitar players who cite him as an influence.

[wingco]

What I wrote on FB.

I'm sure mine is not the only gaff where Gang Of Four is blasting out this evening. As mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough to meet Andy Gill, a fellow guest on the Bigmouth podcast; a diamond of a man. I told him what I truly believe and had wanted to tell him since I was a teenager; that no one ever came up with a better name for a group than Gang of Four. Not some fatuous endorsement of Maoist politics but a coolly acerbic and ironically apt moniker for a post-punk group who engaged fearlessly and without awkwardness with politics. Dead witty.

And what a group. Musically, Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham's steamrolling bass and drum approximation of funk counterweighted by the abstract, irregular, splintered, incontinent, eloquent sputtering of Gill's guitar. All angles. Amid all that, Jon King delivering screeds that weren't trite sloganeering or embarrassingly didactic but presenting politics as the stuff of everyday life, an existential challenge.

This was 40 years ago but the application of politics and pop remains an example to this day. Not only un-dated but unsurpassed. Gang Of Four shouldn't just be enjoyed, and God were they enjoyable, but studied. They sort of petered out in the mid-80s, having left behind an astonishing body of work. I daresay they weren't averse to commercial success but realised that the compromises required for that would disintegrate them as an entity. Their work was done. They inspired other acts who would become far bigger than them but remain inferior to them; and those acts would almost certainly admit it.

RIP Andy Gill. The second great Andy Gill in my life to pass on within months. I'd love to think of you having a chat right now.

[hobbes]

I've never knowingly heard anything at all by Gang of Four.
(Or the Young God's, incidentally, Wingco.)

[Toby Gymshorts]

I'm pretty certain their scratchy, post-punk stylings would be right up your street.

[Jah Womble]

RIP indeed - fine and innovative musician.

Took me a few years to appreciate GOF.

[Benjm]

I saw GO4 play in 2008 and 2018. By then in classic line up terms they were GO2 and latterly GO1 but your man could still make a fine, coruscating racket.

AG produced an album for indie poppers Bis in 1999, a match up I'd put alongside John Cale and Happy Mondays for incongruity.

[Jah Womble]

Bis are/were way smarter than they’re ever given credit for - and Andy Gill could clearly see that.

[ale]

Sad news. Have ticket to see them Kubix festival in July.

[Felicity, I guess so]

He was great and their 1st album is one of those almost perfect comings together of ideas, execution and imagery that they were never likely to repeat.
As for unique- he was the first to acknowledge a huge debt to Wilko Johnson in his playing and stage strut, but of course he took the discordant element much further

[Hot Pepsi]

Condolences to people who knew him and/or care a lot about G4. I like their music, but they’re among about 50 to 100 bands that I’d like to know better but haven’t had time.

[imp]

Pertinent post from wingco - 'Entertainment!' is timeless and immense from start to finish. Can't recall why, but there was a thread a while back where I mentioned seeing them when I was 15 on a dream treble bill at Leicester Uni. in 1981, with Pere Abu and Delta 5. Bus trip on a school night organised through Sanctuary Records in Lincoln, the three of us who went probably bored people for months going on about it. They'd just brought out 'Solid Gold', an album I've always found to be hard work, and I just wanted them to play everything from the first album. Still a momentous evening in my formative years, though.

[E10 Rifle]

This is what I wrote on Wingco's Gang of Four thread on Zuckerberg's site:

"Gang of Four made political pop as it should be - full of doubt, angst and self-criticism as well as righteous anger. (That's actually one of the same reasons I'll always love the Manics). Also, GOF just seemed to *sound* like the late 70s/early 80s looked in Britain (though I was only a kid at the time)."

Mind you, though Entertainment is the groundbreaking album, my personal favourites are a couple of their later tracks, Call Me Up and We Live as We Dream Alone.

[Duncan Gardner]

Listened to Entertainment last night. Good stuff. I can't let E10 away with any hint of not being a gnarled veteran, but he's right about Britain (and Ireland) in 1980 being a tad bleak

ps at risk of namedropping/ intruding in personal grief, I was chatting to the potential Labour Mayoral candidate for the urban Midlands last week. We'll be meeting at our local for a beer and to listen to Atilla the Stockbroker

[Sporting]

Listened to Entertainment last night. Good stuff. I can't let E10 away with any hint of not being a gnarled veteran, but he's right about Britain (and Ireland) in 1980 being a tad bleak

And now it's all sunshine, eh?!

[Duncan Gardner]

Why is Britain in 2020 like veteran pop Diva Cher? Neither has been fcuking sunny for ages...

[E10 Rifle]

Dunc, I'd just turned nine when Entertainment came out; I can't pretend it spoke to me at the time, or that I heard of GOF for at least another 10 years

[Gangster Octopus]

a dream treble bill at Leicester Uni. in 1981, with Pere Abu and Delta 5

Saw that tour at Sheffield University. That was the gig where I was shouting "Squirm punks, this is funk"...