| |
Whiskyfun
Home
(Current
entries)
Concert
Review
Index
(All Reviews
Since 2004)
Leave
feedback
 |
Copyright
Nick Morgan and crew
|
|
|
Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
|
 |
 |
|
GANG
OF FOUR
Shepherds
Bush Empire
Friday January 28th
2005
by Nick Morgan
Men,
according to some marketing bloke I once met,
trade information with their friends as part of
shared exchange of social currency. So, a malt
whisky hoodie might say, “Hey Serge, have
you tasted the latest McRobbem and Pisonem’s
Hazelburn 1977, it’s ace!” |
In
music the fab factoid of the moment seems to be,
“Hey Serge, don’t you think that Franz
Ferdinand’s guitar sound is deeply influenced
by the Gang
of Four's Andy Gill? It’s ace!”
As a non-participant in such dialogues I’m
surprised. I always thought that Gill’s stuttering
and sometimes painfully spare style was a reductio
ad absurdem of the machine-gun licks of Wilko Johnson.
But obviously the PR driven princes of British pop,
darlings of the liberal media, prefer to plant their
roots in the milieu of maverick Marxism that the
Gang represented (albeit briefly), rather than with
the deeply unfashionable proletarianism of the King
of Canvey Island rhythm an blues. C’est la
vie Serge. History is always the victim of the progress
of capitalism.
Anyway, the result of all this highbrow chattering
is a renewed interest in the Gang of Four’s
early work, and an unstoppable GOF speedwagon of
consensus about their influence on today’s
coolest practitioners of rock and roll. So it is
that we find ourselves crammed into the second balcony
of the Bush for the last night of a short tour by
the original four Grumpy Old Men. Older, wiser,
greyer and fatter (and that’s just the audience)
we’re here for a no-frills economy trip to
a twenty-year time warp – ninety minutes of
sheer bliss – the majority from the Gang’s
first album, Entertainment (of which more later).
The visceral energy of Gill’s fractured and
alienating guitar; huge Hugo Burnham’s driving
rhythms (like a drum machine on steroids); Dave
Allen’s abrupt and pounding bass lines; Jon
King’s vocal wails, epileptic dancing and
Neanderthal ramblings (too much time in male-bonding
sessions?). Oh yes, and the ritual, and rhythmical,
destruction of a portable TV (or was it a microwave
– I really can’t remember if we had
them in 1978?); “Zut alors”, I muttered
to my companion, “tres intellectuel n’est
pas ?” As fresh, fierce and frenetic and the
same as it ever was. Simply nothing quite like it,
before or since. |
 |
|
Now,
if you don’t know, the Gang of Four released
their first defining and groundbreaking EP, Damaged
Goods, in 1978. Ask anyone who was there and they’ll
tell you. It blew the door open wide on the parameters
within which contemporary music operated, and showed
that the rare essence of rock and roll could be
taken to a different and sublime level, both musically
and politically. They could, and perhaps should,
have stopped there, “at the top of their game”
as the soccer pundits like to say. But there followed
the bizarre signing to EMI (less like taking over
the means of production than buying a substantial
shareholding in it) and the first album Entertainment,
notably shorn of that most seditious of songs from
the EP, ‘Armalite rifle’ (which caused
the BBC even more angst than 10CCs ‘Rubber
Bullets’) and featuring the hit single ‘At
home he’s a tourist’ (more angst from
the BBC over an unacceptable reference to ‘rubbers’
– condoms that is, not ammunition). |
| Gang
of Four's Andy Gill |
That’s
when I first saw them – in Glasgow –
and it was clear that something was already going
badly wrong. Self-delusion, acrimony, musical differences,
egos, political realignments, departures –
they did the whole thing, ending up losing their
edge, as impotent as a beetle on its back.
But tonight is a feisty flashback, not to what could
have been, but to what was. And if only half of
the bandwagoners who claim GOF as a seminal influence
are genuine, then it’s still a testament to
how much two small pieces of vinyl, and a little
bit of guerrilla war struggle, can change the face
of entertainment. Oh yes – talking of vinyl
– I note that the first GOF EP is worth around
ten quids. So to boost my Whiskyfun expense account
(current balance zero quids) I’m giving readers
the opportunity to buy my own, very special rare,
unique and quite collectible pressing, on Robert
Thorne’s Inconceivable Records. Come on Malt
Maniacs, anyone want to invest in some real damaged
goods? - Nick Morgan - 'Tickets + Lagavulin'
picture by Nick, Andy Gill's picture by idle time. |
| |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
|
|
|
|
|
There's nothing more down there... |
|
|
|
|
