Gang Of Four.

This is Andy Gill and some scrubs. Not Gang of Four.

Still seems weird that its "Gang of Four" with only one original member Andy Gill

http://www.gigwise.com/news/97485/new-gang-of-four-track-features-alison-mosshartThe What Happens Next full tracklisting is below:

1. Where The Nightingale Sings
2. Broken Talk (feat. Alison Mosshart)
3. Isle of Dogs
4. England’s In My Bones (feat. Alison Mosshart)
5. Dying Rays (feat. Herbert Grönemeyer) English version
6. Obey The Ghost Of The Colony
7. First World Citizen
8. Stranded
9. Graven Image (feat. Robbie Furze)
10. Dead Souls (feat. Hotei)
11. Dying Rays (feat. Herbert Grönemeyer) German version

I didn't know that. Andy is arguably the most important member of GoF but yes, it feels wrong to cash in on his former band name instead of creating a new project of his own, which this is.

It made sense that apart from the guitar this didn't sound anything like GoF.

The Viet Cong album released this month sounds more like Gang of Four than Gang of Four:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUHCyhE-s9M

Andy is arguably the most important member of GoF

Go4 was Andy Gill, Jon King and some scrubs from 1983-2004, 2004-2012.

Though I think Gang of One is a perfectly cool band name.

"Bass/No Tremble" sounds like a Jon King line.

Sara Lee = No Scrub

I don't know how much the rerecordings on Return the Gift reflect Andy Gill's live sound these days, but I'll say it: most of the songs benefit from modern sonics.

― TTAGGGTTAGGG (Sanpaku), Wednesday, November 19, 2014 10:46 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I kinda love most of those rerecordings.

The return the gift versions of songs of the free cuts crush the originals IMO

Admittedly I may have heard the gift versions first but OMG that "we live as we dream alone" is so good

seeing the "new" gang of four is a really weird experience

the riffs still sound good but it's hard to shake the feeling that i'm just seeing some random band covering GoF songs

Because you more or less are?

RIP Andy Gill...

Andy Gill. pic.twitter.com/DHNCz5lAe6

— GANG OF FOUR (@gangof4official) February 1, 2020

: (

RIP

Aw. I was always bummed he kept the band going as the only member, and was further bummed by that recent interview where he threw all his old bandmates under the bus and took credit for every single element of Go4. But that band was incredible. I got to see the original lineup at Coachella, back when festivals inspired such things.

Lovely post from his wife, and I've seen numerous posts from others who said he was a charming and engaging fellow.

This pain is the price of extraordinary joy, almost three decades with the best man in the world. https://t.co/otsiVqxK36

— Catherine Mayer (@catherine_mayer) February 1, 2020

But yeah, that split between him and the rest, that was fierce. I saw Jon and Hugo -- with Dave in the audience -- do a presentation at PopCon the other year which was great and also left it clear exactly *why* Andy wasn't in the room. People are tangled, relationships just as much if not more so.

rip

They wowed me and my then fellow age 20 pals when we first saw them in DC in 81 (I had somehow missed an earlier appearance with the Buzzcocks). What an innovative and powerful guitar sound at the time. Pretty sure Guy of Fugazi was listening to those records. Alas others were as well. It's funny seeing on twitter those quotes from Anthony Keidis'memoir how Andy Gill got irritated with the Red Hot Chili Peppers when he produced them in 1984. Gill became their enemy because he didn't like their sound.

over and over:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRjjVFC-oG4

I saw them in 1982 at an outdoor show and "To Hell with Poverty" at stunning volume in the shadows of oaks and high-rise dormitories was a high point of my undergraduate education

My brother has just texted me, "Respiratory illness after touring Asia". I think I'd hold fire on that one.

Gill's performance on "Natural's Not in It" has never lost its power to enthral me. He remains almost unique in the electric guitarist fraternity in his preference for solid-state amplifiers, which provided him with the clean, trebly attack that was his calling card. RIP.

RIP

A statement from Jon King, Hugo Burnham, Dave Allen – Gang of Four. pic.twitter.com/9fRqDT12CH

— Gang Of Four 77-81 (@gangoffour77_81) February 1, 2020

I love putative sellout "Is This Love"

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

Is It Love obv

“To Hell With Poverty “ is great. Before that here they are in Zagreb in 1981. Wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUSw_2jkDjM

What a great find, that's awesome.

Jon Langford: "Just wandered round a Jamaican town looking for some WiFi and found out Andy Gill of the Gang of Four has died - such a giant force in my life over the last 43 years even when I didn’t see him or talk to him - totally stunned."

https://www.talkhouse.com/andy-gill-gang-of-four-talks-with-jon-langford-the-mekons-for-the-talkhouse-music-podcast/?fbclid=IwAR1ol0GNQvMNAIui0H4hKhTe40ZrNSEvhHa05hnqTOo6WebuDG1I4j898KU

1st 3 Gang of 4 albums were removed from Spotify US last year

There's some incredible perspective in that interview I just posted. At one point Langford asks Gill if he saw the Sex Pistols when they played Leeds, and he says no, and Langford says "me neither!" They both claim they never even bought the Pistols record, they sort of got the gist of it just from reading about it. But Langford brought up a good point, something I'd never thought about before, how the closest thing he could find to what he liked was glam, but by the later '70s Bowie had gone to America, Roxy Music had broken up, there was a void. He and Gill cite (like many others) Dr. Feelgood as one of the few groups there to fill the void. In fact, Langford says he heard the Go4 first described as "the Velvet Underground meets Dr. Feelgood."

Gill for his part cites seeing Beefheart, The Band and Bob Marley as more influential to him than the British punk rock scene; he and Jon King had apparently gone to NY in 1976 and met the usual suspects, and realized that these less flamboyant, intellectual US "punk" people like Patti Smith or Television showed there was a way forward for their own ideas.

Anyway, it's a great listen.

XP There are still several classic-era tracks up on their "This Is" playlist--they're just all sourced from a bunch of rando genre playlists.

Was also at the reformed Go4 Coachella show. They completely justified any nostalgic reverence, still vital and original, compared to some more current bands caught that weekend. Went three years in a row, caught a lot of great music.

I saw them in 1982 at an outdoor show and "To Hell with Poverty" at stunning volume in the shadows of oaks and high-rise dormitories was a high point of my undergraduate education

I saw them 23 years later at the 930 Club in DC. I've seen many great shows over the years but the single greatest *momemt* I've experienced at a live show was when Go4 played "To Hell with Poverty" there. An ecstatic surge went through the crowd unlike anything I've ever experienced. What a moment, what a song. RIP Andy.

Wow @ that Zagreb footage - shot for TV?

He and Gill cite (like many others) Dr. Feelgood as one of the few groups there to fill the void.

Andy Gill always acknowledged Dr. Feelgood as an influence, Wilko primarily, I mean just look at how he holds his guitar and moves on stage, not to mention his guitar technique.

1st 3 Gang of 4 albums were removed from Spotify US last year

That will explain why, when I attempted to download Solid Gold and Songs of the Free to listen to during my commutes this week I could only download a few tracks from each, whereas I was able to download the whole of Hard.

Anyway, I find it very difficult to cry (the last time I did was on Christmas) but I wept when I found out. Gang of Four are #3 on my list of favorite musical artists of all time and the last time any of the band members from my personal Top Five died was when Mick Karn died in January 2011, and I'm still reeling from that years and years on from that event. I also got a chance to "friend" Andy on FB and he gave me a very succinct but still heartfelt greeting on my birthday last year, which was way too kind of him to do. RIP. I'll mourn him forever.

"But yeah, that split between him and the rest, that was fierce. I saw Jon and Hugo -- with Dave in the audience -- do a presentation at PopCon the other year which was great and also left it clear exactly *why* Andy wasn't in the room. People are tangled, relationships just as much if not more so."\

care to expand on this, Msieu Raggett? or does anyone else know exactly what the problems were? cuz King and Gill did the band without Burnham and Allen for quite some time…

This is the interview I was thinking of:

https://www.loudersound.com/features/im-a-bit-of-an-awkward-bastard-an-interview-with-gang-of-fours-andy-gill

Basically dismisses Hugo and Dave as creative entities, and takes credit for writing 90% of the band's music and lyrics, which ... who knows.

Anyway, here's Andy Gill looking like ... Chris Evans?

https://www.billboard.com/files/media/andy-gill-1989-portrait-billboard-1548.jpg

Which Chris Evans?

not that one

I could have asked which Andy Gill too, of course.

The one who was friends with Mick Jones, I think.

Which Mick Jones?

The one who was a fan of Steve Martin.

LOL. Any child inheriting surnames like Evans or Jones should be named Octavius or Zebedee, etc.

huge RIP. by far the best post punk band