Gang of Four

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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. We got to see them early at Wonderland Gardens, London on Saturday March 5, 1983. It was late in my Ph.D. program (I dropped out a year later) and we attended with a gang of my classmates. At that time Dave Allen had been replaced by Sara Lee on bass. Shortly thereafter Hugo Burnham quit the band. I recall they struggled to continue with drum machines and then Ginger Baker (of the Cream) for a while but they seemed to just peter out by the mid 1980's. They did, however, continue under Andy Gill with various line ups.

I was introduced to the Gang of Four in 1980 by a friend Curtis (he was a high school chum of Gord's and was attending Althouse Teachers College) who followed the NME magazine. He was really into English punk, we both loved the Clash. The Gang of Four debut album, "Entertainment!", was impressive for being radically different from anything before or since. Through out their career the signature sound has been a driving bass and drums dance beat with jarring/slashing guitar over the top. Dissonance is a description, not adequate but good enough. You either loved them or you didn't — I did.

At the time we saw them they would have been touring to support their latest "Songs of the Free" (1982) with their back catalogue of "Solid Gold" (1981) and "Entertainment!" (1979). The album "Hard" came out later that year and has Sara Lee on the cover. I had all their albums and have continued to follow the band through the years. Sadly Andy Gill passed away in 2020 and the band truly is no more.

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The band had a couple of backing singers with them on this tour and Sara Lee also sang. Between the three of them, with Jon King carrying the lead voice, they put on quite a show with really great dance music. Andy Gill, as seen in the photo at left was ultra cool while Hugo's drums with Sara's bass laid down the dance beat. The place was hopping; not as much as Jon King who really threw himself into the show. It was quite a memorable performance. Wonderland Gardens was a smallish performance hall that would have held only a couple of hundred or so. I much prefer seeing bands in small venues where you can get up close to the stage.

There is a set list of tunes played at this show, I can't vouch for the accuracy but I can say: "I was there".

I had taken some pictures of the show but they were filed away and forgotten until recently (I'm writing this in April, 2021). I have a friend Brian Busby who was also a fan of the band. We talked about these photos several times and I had hoped to find them, if only to share with Brian. He had done an interview with the band a year before we saw them and has been in contact with surviving band members. During the COVID-19 pandemic I found some color negatives in the fall of 2020, then the BW negatives in the spring of 2021. Both have been scanned and shared on Facebook. I've also shared them with Andy's widow Catherine Mayer.

We had a chance to see them a second time much later when we were in Perth Australia. At the time they were touring for the "Content" album. I'm sorry to have missed that show.

At this writing a tribute album, "The Problem with Leisure", with a reinterpretation of 20 classic Gang of Four tunes is available for preorder.

Our friend Scott from 63 Monroe tells us he was hired as security that night, which would have been a little like having the fox guard the hen house. Brian Busby recalls that one of the backing singer was Michelle Cobbs who he saw just two months later singing with Roxy Music at the Forum. I recall seeing Sara Lee playing bass with the Waitresses at a show we saw in Washington D.C. The Gang of Four Wonderland show had the "Hoi Polloi" as the front act. They were a very Canadian good band, but they were fronting for one of the best bands there ever was.

Many thanks to Brent Wootton who was also at this concert and helped to jog some of my memories.

See also Episode 21 of "My Life In Concert" by Various Artists, he too was there.

This blog posting and photo albums were composed during the COVID-19 pandemic in April, 2021. The blog entry has been filed for the date of the concert.