Concert: Gang of Four

Keywords

Gang of Four Concert Schedule

Chicago Gigs

Gang of Four

Album

Songs

Video

Music

Get to know the thrill of punk and funk music with Gang Of Four. Get your tickets booked for the concert now. Ticket Specialist offers you premium tickets at discounted prices. Order for the tickets without getting late.

The English punk band "Gang of Four" was initially active from 1977-1984. The four enthusiasts of the band included singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. In 2004, this band again reunited with all its original musicians with an early emergence by King and Gill in 1990s. This band always emphasized the ills of the society by their strong elements of funk music and reggae. The two very brilliant and creative musicians, Gill and King revealed many discriminating arrays, ills of society ranging from the Neo-Marxist Frankfurt School of social criticism to the increasingly clear trans-Atlantic punk consensus. The university-funded trip to New York highly influenced their work. During that tour, they saw Television and the Ramones at the famous CBGB club.

The extraordinary sound of guitar by Gill seems to have a root in the playing of Wilko Johnson, the frenetic guitarist with prototypal British pub rockers Dr. Feelgood. Together with his abrupt and aggressive guitar, Jon King's threatening on-stage dancing has proved an enduring influence. This band touched the British Top 40 with "At Home He's a Tourist" in 1979. The band refused to sing on changed lyrics when it was invited to perform on top rated BBC music show Top of the Pops. As a result they lost the support at record label E.M.I. Which later joined another band instead -- Duran Duran. In 1982, one of the singles, "I Love a Man in a Uniform", was banned by the BBC during the Falklands war. Their first single "Love Like Anthrax" is judged by Critic Stewart Mason as not only the"most notorious song" but also "one of the most unique and interesting songs of its time".

The social perspective of the band can be analyzed by this factor only that after a minute-long, droning, feedback-laced guitar intro, the rhythm section sets up a funky, churning beat, and the guitar drops out entirely. Once a "post-punk anti-love song" was sung by King comparing himself to a beetle trapped on his back and equating love with " a case of anthrax, and that's some thing I don't want to catch". Whereas on the other hand, an impassive monograph is read by Gill reads about public perception of love, and the prevalence of love songs in popular music with the words "Love crops up quite a lot as something to sing about, 'cause most groups make most of their songs about falling in love, or how happy they are to be in love, and you occasionally wonder why these groups do sing about it all the time". Sometimes the vocals seems to be disorienting when Gill tries to echo a few of King's sung lines.

During an American tour, Allen departed which was replaced by Buster Jones and then Sara Lee. After one year to this incident, following some disputes Burnham also left the band after the release of "Solid Gold". Though many of their fans and followers were political and pretentious, Gang of Four influenced a number of successful funk-tinged alternative rock acts throughout the 80s and 90s. They were stated as very influential on their early music by Michael "Flea" Balzary of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They are credited as one of the early influences on electronic music.

After their re unity and warm emergence in Nov 2004, the band has released a new LP in Oct 2005. This new LP is a compilation of their early classics like "Entertainment, Solid Gold" and "Songs of the Free" entitled "Return the Gift". Gang Of Four is also on its way to "Live at KEXP, Volume II" in 2006