{"id":11645,"date":"2016-10-26T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=11645"},"modified":"2016-10-27T08:25:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T12:25:28","slug":"gang-of-four-the-gangs-still-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/26\/gang-of-four-the-gangs-still-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Gang of Four: The Gang’s Still Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rising out of the tail-end of the late 1970s Great Britain music scene (thus earning the \u201cpostpunk\u201d label), Gang of Four<\/strong> combined dub reggae and punk, with funk undercurrents. The Leeds quartet provocatively named themselves after the cadre of Chinese Communist Party officials who wielded power in the 1960s. And while Gang of Four have often proclaimed their political point of view in their lyrics, they’ve always made sure that listeners could dance to the music.<\/p>\n

\"gang_of_four\"<\/p>\n

Save for a couple of changes in bass players, the original Gang of Four lineup held together through four excellent studio albums: their 1979 debut Entertainment!<\/i>, Solid Gold<\/i> (1981), 1982’s Song of the Free<\/i> and Hard<\/i> from 1983. The first three charted in their native UK, and all but the debut album reached the US album charts. Many of the group’s best moments from that era are collected on the 1990 best-of set A Brief History of the Twentieth Century<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Lead vocalist Jon King<\/strong> and guitarist Andy Gill<\/strong> would revive the group for nearly a decade (1987-97), releasing two more albums before splitting again. But in 2004 the duo re-formed the original quartet (with bassist Dave Allen<\/strong> and drummer Hugo Burnham<\/strong>), recording a disc of old songs for 2005’s Return the Gift<\/i>. Gang of Four subsequently changed up its rhythm section again, and after 2011’s Content<\/i>, founding member King left the group, leaving only Gill from the original lineup.<\/p>\n