header
April 2020




  

Andy Gill
Of
Gang Of Four
Article By: Paul Matts

By Anna Hanks from Austin, Texas, USA - Gang of Four SXSW -5355.jpg, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86732204

By Anna Hanks from Austin, Texas, USA - Gang of Four SXSW -5355.jpg, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86732204



One of the biggest influences on the guitar sounds of the past forty years recently passed away. On February 1st, 2020, to be precise. The world will never quite be the same again.

Andy Gill was the guitar player and constant presence throughout the career of Gang of Four, the band he formed in 1977 with fellow student Jon King in Leeds, England. Their politicised, cerebral sound, though never a huge commercial success, had an impact that outweighed the band’s sales. The Velvet Underground debut album effect, you might say.

Andy was also an effective and successful producer, helping launch the career of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, amongst others. Again, influential.

However, the way Andy helped shape the alternative guitar sound from 1977 onwards is a legacy for which post-punk rock fans will always be most grateful. His discordant clangs, chimes, staccato blends and funky post-punky rhythmic runs refreshed guitar playing thoroughly. Along with the likes of Keith Levine of Public Image, Viv Albertine from The Slits, Will Sergeant from Echo and the Bunnymen and a handful of others, he pioneered a way of playing that paved the way for many an underground player to follow. You can hear the spirit of Andy’s playing from The Edge to Kurt Cobain, to Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand to John Frusciante. Frankly, as the years have moved on, it’s everywhere. Listen to Can’t Stop by the Chilli Peppers and tell me that isn’t the spirit of Andy Gill shaping the guitar part, both in tone and style.

‘Gill fed taut, funky guitar lines and screeching noise into the band’s politically charged music.’ Ben Beaumont Thomas, The Guardian February 2020.

Andrew James Dalrymple Gill was born in Manchester on New Year’s Day, 1956. He relocated and went to an exclusive, boys only school in Sevenoaks, Kent and it was here he met future Gang of four vocalist Jon King. The two benefited from the tuition of Art teacher Bob White, who insisted they examine, deconstruct and dissect the art pupils felt strongest about. As a result, Gill and King went to New York City to study the visual arts they would be going on to study at Leeds University.

The pair did indeed examine, deconstruct and dissect art in New York City. Art in musical form, in particular. CBGBs on The Bowery gave dynamic duo far more than the School of Visual Arts NYC ever could. The Velvet Underground were already well within Andy’s radar.

A further influence on the younger teenage Gill was the guitar playing of Jimi Hendrix

‘When I was young, Hendrix was a big obsession, with his flowing, soloing, colourful, expressive style.’ Andy Gill, 2017

A love of Motown, Steve Cropper and groove orientated music also fed into the young Andy, as did the pub rock staccato strut of Wilko Johnson in Doctor Feelgood. By the time they returned to England in 1976, Andy and Jon were primed and ready to start using all that they had soaked up thus far. The Ramones, Television, Patty Smith had provided the cherry on their cultural and musical cake. It was time for action.

Upon returning to Leeds King and Gill recruited bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. All four were students at Leeds University and over a two-year period they developed a funky, up-tempo style which allowed Andy’s cutting guitar be a central focal point. Swoops, sirens, staccato, energetic runs, harmonics, discordant chimes. They were all in there. Crucially, Andy and the band did not ‘reject’ disco music. They incorporated a funky, danceable, element into what they did. As they did with the left-wing pseudo intellectual lyrical content, something Andy wholeheartedly contributed to. Never preaching, mind, and thought-provoking from the inception. With a good dash of satire, to complete the mix.

Fellow Leeds University band The Mekons referred to them as the Gang of Four. Alluding to a faction within the Chinese Communist Party and the number of members in the band, obviously! The name stuck, and the band honed their live act whilst still students –

‘We’d be off doing gigs with Siouxsie and the Banshees by night, and by day I’d be writing my dissertation, painting my final show, and in between we’d be writing songs.’ Andy Gill, 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFU_1h7io0Y

This initial culminated in the release of the band’s debut extended player, Damaged Goods in October 1978 on Fat Records. A hit with the UK underground scene looking for something to grab onto following the first shout of punk rock, which had already petered out somewhat. The title track is a staccato led wonder, full of youthful adrenaline. Andy’s guitar drives the tune on, providing a blueprint for the future. Many a bedroom guitarist, looking for a fresh sound using the instrument differently, began to sit up.  The feedback and drones heralding Love Like Anthrax showed a player different to the likes of Steve Jones, Mick Jones and Johnny Ramone; individuals, whilst effective exponents all, who used traditional chords, arrangements and approaches. It was as if Andy listened to what was current, rejected a lot of it and looked for textures he could add and incorporate. He pushed six string boundaries. He was also not afraid to make good use of spaces in music and avoided aimlessly filling it up with a ‘wall of sound’ approach. Take a listen to the hum and vibration just before the final lyrics of ‘Love will get you like a case of Anthrax, and that’s something I don’t wanna catch.’ Simply awesome. Both tracks made it onto the Gang of Four debut long-player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akz2efTdJ-E

‘Instead of guitar solos, we had anti-solos, where you just stopped playing, left a hole.’ Andy Gill, speaking in Rip It Up And Start Again, by Simon Reynolds

The debut album, Entertainment was released in 1979, after Gang of Four had signed to the EMI label. Radio One’s John Peel was a fan, of course. It made the UK Top 50 but that’s all. Like the Velvet Underground’s debut, its achievement was in those it influenced, not in its sales. Incendiary lyrics were sprawled out over twisted funky, post punk rhythms.

‘A startling showcase for the band’s adrenaline fuelled post punk rock.’ Martin Strong, The Essential Rock Discography

A single, At Home He’s A Tourist, was released which scraped into the UK Top 60. Again, full of superb, innovative guitar. The drones, the ‘noises’, the spunky riffs, the feedback, the staccato stabs. It was akin to an incessant six-string assault. Rarely has the electric guitar been used as such a weapon, and it made the playing on previous punk records appear dated. Very dated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhAysq3O6c

‘On ‘At Home He’s A Tourist’, you can hear Gill’s jagged genius at its most unleashed. Over a pummelling bass and drums groove, the guitarist scatters harmonic shards like a Stone Age man frenziedly chipping out flakes of flint.’ Simon Reynolds

The foursome released a second album, Solid Gold, in 1981. A slightly smoother sound emerged. Not quite so cutting. But never-the-less a quality record. A landmark single, To Hell With Poverty, was released in the summer of 1981. In nice punk style, it wasn’t on the album. Introduced by the sound of Gill feedback, swoops, bends and dives, a funky as fuck groove jumps in which simply sounds awesome with Andy’s spikey guitar on top of it. King’s whoops and screams, the edgy, slogan-style lyrics, all combine to give a delicious crescendo which sounded as cutting edge as music ever did at that point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JVX1ExGaM

‘You could tell by listening to Gang of Four music that punk had happened. But it definitely wasn’t punk music.’ Andy Gill, Perfect Sound Forever, 2000

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+gang+of+four+i+love+a+man+in+uniform&qpvt=you+tube+gang+of+four+i+love+a+man+in+uniform&FORM=VDRE

Dave Allen left the band shortly after, to be replaced by Sara Lee. The band’s next album (Songs of the Free) had an more sanded, and soulful approach. It was still laced with incendiary and cutting lyrics, notably about the Falklands War. Indeed, I Love A Man In Uniform and Call Me Up were banned from Radio One as the conflict raged.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+gang+of+fourcall+me+up&qpvt=you+tube+gang+of+fourcall+me+up&FORM=VDRE

1983’s Hard was put together without the drumming of Hugo Burnham who had left the band after Songs of the Free. An even more soulful, almost Philly-style, was the result. Female backing vocals a-plenty. Andy’s guitar was placed well back in the mix, with a clean slick tone rather than the harsh, challenging sonic of Entertainment, being utilised. Though a more than decent record, and an unsurprising one given the range of Andy’s influences, it did not sound as thrilling, exciting or downright ground-breaking as the earlier material. Is It Love sounded more like ABC than anything from The Bowery. Gang of Four split the following year.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+gang+of+four+is+it+love&qpvt=you+tube+gang+of+four+is+it+love&FORM=VDRE

Andy relocated to the United States and began his next chapter. He produced Gang of Four’s debut record and went straight to work as he set foot on the other side of the Atlantic, piloting the first album from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Both parties being purveyors of funk, it was a natural coupling. Flea, the band’s bassist, was a fan of Gang of Four and of Andy’s guitarwork–

‘The first rock band I could truly relate to … (Andy Gill was) one of my favourite guitar players of all time.’ Flea

Further production credits included Jesus Lizard’s Blue, The Futureheads, Killing Joke and Michael Hutchence’s solo work. The latter gave a glorious description of Gang of Four –

‘Art meets the devil via James Brown.’

By the nineties interest in Gang of Four began to reinvigorate. Their appeal crossed many fanbases. Instead of being an act who attracted hordes of shoe-gazers or punk po-goers, they hauled in both of those sectors PLUS, you know, those who liked to dance. Like normal people. And they also spoke to a whole batch of extreme sounding young acts from across the rock genre, such as Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. Tom described Andy thus -

‘One of my principal influences on the instrument as his jagged plague disco raptor attack industrial funk deconstructed anti-hero sonics and fierce poetic radical intellect were formulative for me.’

Andy and Jon King reformed the band and released two albums, Mall (1991) and Shrinkwrapped (1995). In line with their earlier output, sales were low. This reunion, such as it was, was intermittent.

However, a full, indefinite reincarnation took place in 2005. With all four original members, too. The Rapture had released House of Jealous Lovers and led a new batch of dance-crazed punky sounding acts taking Gill’s abrasive template and putting it to good use. Franz Ferdinand were another example. New recordings of the band’s best output were put out under the moniker Return The Gift, a record partially designed to repay outstanding advances to EMI. How punk. However, it paved the way for three more albums of new material being released – though with a case of history repeating itself, Burnham and Allen left once again. The first of three, Content came out in 2011 to widespread critical acclaim.

Provocative and contemporary, it was to be the final Gang of Four long player to feature both Jon King and Andy Gill. The duo was the creative hub of everything the band had produced. King left the band for good in 2012, leaving Gill the sole original member. A Gang of One, maybe.

‘Me and Jon were running the show. We had the concept and we wrote the songs.’ Andy Gill

What Happens Next came out in 2015, the first record without King, and Happy Now surfaced in 2019. Both were more electronic sounding. The latter still featured the textures and rumbles that have always characterised Andy’s playing, with flint like notes sprayed throughout a beautifully dark track like One True Friend.Happy Now is a modern sounding rock record. It is stronger than its predecessor, with the new band sounding more unified and vocalist John Sterry more comfortable. Further vocals came courtesy of Alison Mosshart from The Kills. It sounds fresh, interested AND interesting, challenging and has a cutting quality. So many bands who have been making music for that length of time sound jaded and predictable. Not so here. Possibly down to the ongoing metamorphosis the band has gone through with these final two albums.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+gang+of+four+one+true+friend&view=detail&mid=F6307C6DF3F1E2E68A90F6307C6DF3F1E2E68A90&FORM=VIRE

Thomas McNiece on bass and Tobias Humble on drums complete the four-piece. There were plenty of gigs to support the new version of Gang of Four. Tragically, Andy’s sudden death from pneumonia early this year will bring an end to one of the most important acts to come post punk rock. Their razor, hard as flint like leader has left a mark in music for which we should all be thankful.

Why should we be so thankful? Easy. Kurt Cobain described Nirvana as ‘a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid rip-off.’ Michael Stipe admitted ‘Gang of Four knew how to swing – I stole a lot from them.’ Andy Gill recognised being original and innovative didn’t mean having to rip up everything that had gone before. Smooth funky grooves could be used behind a vicious, jarred landscape. Serious almost Maoist statements could blend with sharp, subtle satire and beauty. There was room for a lot in Gang of Four’s music, yet enough space to let it breathe, develop and ultimately, make a huge statement.

You doubt my word? No worries – just listen to some of the most important and biggest names in late twentieth century music. Cobain, Stipe, Hutchence, Flea, Morello … Mike Mills –

‘Gang of Four gave us a bar to try and rise to … good-bye to one of the best. R.I.P. Andy. #gangoffour.’








MY SON THE BUM, Featuring Brian Kroll – Follow Me, Like Me