Saw Gang of Four in Chicago in 1980 or so. They blew everybody's mind. One of the best bands I've ever seen and I've seen a thousand bands. 999 were another one of the best bands I saw in Chicago, late 70s I think it was.
Saw them 4 times in the "golden era" of 1980 - 1982 including meeting them after the show in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1981. They were so genuine, gracious and approachable and my wife and I were in a cloud of awe - being able to have a simple conversation with these legends. I can honestly say their music changed the way I viewed the world politically, socially and musically and I'm very grateful for their existence and influence in my life.
I was program director of my college radio station when "I love a man in uniform' was released, and it was widely misunderstood by the ROTC students and their friends. To the point that eventually the album was stolen out of our library and I heard it was being played at their house parties 🤣 This was before the internet so you had to get your music in any available hard format. I never held it against them but it always made me laugh.
Great band. Seeing them in Urgh: A Music War was a real stunner. Totally opened a very different approach to playing guitar for me and music in general. Interesting to get some insight into their process.
Love Gang of Four me mate. 'Yellow EP' is one of my top 10 favorite albums. Another brilliant little Punk EP, The Fall - 'Slates'. These two little EP's are fantastic !!!
great insight from these two, hugely influential & (in andy's case) greatly missed. but ffs, when you're shooting an interview, have a good long think about what you're pointing the camera at- why is that mains socket right in the middle of your shot?- & don't put your interviewees on creaky plastic bean bag chairs. or whatever that is they're on.
😂 Along with the Stones, Bob Dylan, MC5, Velvet Underground, the Kinks, Talking Heads, Husker Du, the Minutemen, Captain Beefheart, New York Dolls, Pere Ubu, U2 and a few others, including John Lennon, Gang of Four help prove that intellectuals make the best rock and roll. 😂
Devil's advocate: if a band spends a lot of time discussing, tuning, and 'testing' the authenticity of their music, doesn't that remove some of the authenticity?
Testing music is just to see if it connects with people. Depends what your goals are I guess. Authenticity is making music that is expressive, but if you also want to say something you have to make sure it resonates in a way. Playing music is a collaboration between the listeners and the musicians. It's an odd environment in a capitalist society being a musician, cause music becomes another "product" you have to sell. In non-capitalist societies music making isn't necessarily a performance, but a collective celebration. So it's a weird dynamic. On the one hand you wanna make whatever you believe in, on the other you want to be playing music with large groups of people. Authenticity can't be isolation from other people, so it's a give and take I think.
If internet and youtube should have existed in 1977 then we would not have had all these great late 70's bands , nowadays bands just cobble up bits and riffs or visuals they find on youtube
I feel like they were joking or full of it on that question about synth-pop. The best Human League album is the one where Phil Oakey was sent to Minnesota to sing on leftover Janet Jackson tracks? 🤨 Okay, Patrick Bateman. Hip-hop was great simply because it was revolutionary, but punk was too conservative, and synth-pop had no great songwriters? Like… how, Sway? 🤕
I've onlyrecently found out about Gang of four via Killing Joke & the work that Andy Gill had done with them. The whistle test session they did was damm good & the bass player was awesom.
