The death of Andy Gill from Gang of Four on 1st Feb 2020 generated headlines around the world, and his production and guitar playing style has influenced countless major artists and fans alike. This is the first new and previously unreleased Gang of Four song to be released since his death and forms part of an EP project with all proceeds to the NHS Trust at St Thomas’ Hospital London, where Andy died. It was written by Andy Gill and Gang of Four lead singer John “Gaoler” Sterry and produced by the band’s bass player Thomas McNeice.
Gang of Four are pleased to be participating in loverecordstores day on 20th June this week. There’ll be a Ltd Ed. Orange Coloured 12″ Vinyl available for pre-order, with all proceeds going to Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The Vinyl has the ‘Anti Hero EP’ on the A side and the ‘This Heaven Gives Me Migraine EP’ on the B side, featuring the artwork for both records on each side, including Shepard Fairey’s iconic portrait of Andy.
Gang Of Four Release New Video/Single “Change The Locks” From their upcoming Album, the Pioneering post-punk band new single out on 26th March 2019. A standout cut from their forthcoming new album ‘Happy Now’ (19 April), ‘Change The Locks’ is a synth propelled, mutant funk shapeshifter.
Gang Of Four were formed in the punk rock fallout culture of late seventies Leeds – a place where art was a mirror and guitars were machine guns. Gang of Four tore up the template and made sense of the question marks thrown up by year zero.
They redesigned rock in the punk aftermath, taking the incendiary energy of the form and crisscrossing it with funk, stripping away the baggage of rock excess and creating a new stripped-down music that was full of agit energy, heavy grooves, shrapnel guitars and politically charged lyrics matching the fervour of the times. Swerving trad rock rhythms, the beats were invented from scratch and every instrument played a pivotal role in the sound in a non-hierarchical structure. In short, they came up with post punk.
As Gang Of Four prepare for the release of their latest album “Happy Now” this Friday, April 19th, 2019 via Gillmusic Ltd., they are releasing their new single and video “Change The Locks” to ramp up the excitement.
More recently, the band’s influence has become almost universal—now everybody talks about Gang of Four. From Franz Ferdinand to St Vincent, from Sleater Kinny and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem to Nine Inch Nails: today’s creators of angular rock music have GO4’s influence and imprint all over them. The band is reaching an urban audience with Frank Ocean sampling them on his latest album and Pharrell name-checking the band in his interviews.
Inevitably GO4 disbanded in 1984 but reformed later that decade, since then releasing a series of albums that emphatically demonstrate their capacity for invention and twisting energy. The line-up now includes Thomas McNeice—the bass player joined in 2008—and John ‘Gaoler’ Sterry, who has supplied vocals since 2011. The new album is full of subversive blasts of hook-heavy pop-inclined songs.
The Fat Angel Sings 