A lot of local music fans first heard of Gang Of Four when At the Drive-In extolled their virtues at the Big Day Out in 2001, chastising the crowd for not knowing much about the Leeds post-punk band.
It’s true – many bands are in debt to the approach Gang of Four showed from their inception.
Recently, guitarist Andy Gill said, “The Red Hot Chili Peppers have obviously based their career on Gang of Four. I bumped into their bass player Flea a few years back at a party and he said, ‘Andy, I just don’t understand why you’ve never sued us’.”
Lead singer Jon King leads with his hips on stage and his lips off it. He tells Hit that INXS are just as guilty as the Chili Peppers.
“Andy was a good mate of Michael Hutchence and, y’know, INXS lifted a few things here and there,” King says wryly.
“The feedback from INXS was that people in Australia liked what we do. But we were never a commercial band.”
Hence, this 2011 tour by Gang of Four will be their Australian debut, a mere 34 years after they formed.
Gang of Four were active from 1977 to 1984, then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill. In 2004 the original line-up reunited, but in November 2006 the rhythm section was kicked out, to be replaced by two new members.
“In 2006 when we got back together again, we were collectively persuaded to go out there (on tour). So many bands were name-checking us, so many bands were inspired by us, there seemed to be quite a lot of hunger to see us,” King explains.
“We seemed to be the source of a lot of things that were going on in guitar music. I was quite reluctant. I hadn’t seen Andy in 10 years and Hugo (Burnham) and Dave (Allen) were American citizens. Andy and I had nine bass players, eight drummers.”
Gang Of Four met the demand with a supply of new music, releasing their seventh album Content a month ago to fairly mixed reviews.
“We stripped it right down. We’re constantly taking things out rather than adding stuff in. Mainstream music is stacked, like some sort of Brandenburg cake effect,” King quips.
“We pushed our lyrics as far as we could. We’re living in such incredible times with such incredible things going on, you would think more of it would leak into popular culture.
“I mean, you’re sitting at home with your egg and chips in front of the television set and you’re watching some horrible bomb blast that’s gone off and you’re trying to square this comfortable existence with the other stuff.
“You compare it with the 1960s when everyone from Edwin Starr to Kenny Rogers was writing songs about war.”
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Punk Gang With Influence