Bassist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham have left Gang Of Four, once again transforming the band that recorded 1979’s Entertainment! and 1981’s Solid Gold into the band that recorded 1991’s Mall and 1995’s Shrinkwrapped. The split sound amicable enough (Burnham had already skipped out on the band’s 2007 live shows and studio work), but anyone who saw one of their searing live shows following the 2005 reunion knows what a bummer this is.
Allen says, “At the beginning of April, I decided that I could no longer continue to be a member of Gang of Four. My ability to give 100% to the band is limited and I feel that if I can’t do so, then I shouldn’t continue. As I expand my research and thinking about contemporary music distribution on Pampelmoose.com, and as I focus on online technology and social networking at Nemo Design here in Portland, I find myself conflicted about how the band’s new music should be released. To retain any credibility for Pampelmoose.com about what the future of music distribution will look like, I have to move on and not hold back Jon and Andy’s music plans.
Burnham writes, “It was a great couple of years of intermittently reminding people old and new, far and wide just how powerful the original four of us were together. Age only increased our power and focus onstage, and it was a rare pleasure to work with the original band once again. Being in a band requires handling the business side of it too, and that became boring and the constant travel became debilitating. I am soon to start my Doctorate, as well as broadening my teaching at more than one college here in Massachusetts, so my free time has become increasingly limited, making it difficult to be involved with them going forward.
I’ve been trying to find a way to explain how integral the rhythm section was to Gang Of Four’s sound, but I think a live clip would do a better job.
Allen and Burnham exit Gang Of Four [Pampelmoose]
Gang Of Four - To Hell With Poverty (TV Live) [Youtube]
I lucked out and saw them in 2005 at Coachella and was thoroughly entertained!
Gang of Two < Gang of Four.
might wanna take that clip intro out of quotes
They already recorded one album with a drum machine. Why not another?
Hell, I didn’t even realize they were still at it. I thought they did a hit and run reunion and album and were out again.
Cuz they’re not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not, not their academy.
(I actually think this is fine a la Pixies — reunite for a good, hey-we’re-even-tighter-now tour, some respectable new material, and call it a day. If Jon and Andy are smart they’ll hang it up and let people start lobbying to get them into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame.)
@Chris Molanphy: Did you know you were quoting Mission of Burma, not Gang of Four? If so, cool — just wondering. Also, I’m a geek.
Maybe the B-52’s can loan out Sara Lee again, if she’s not already moonlighting with Fripp. I saw them do “I Love A Man In Uniform” on Dance Fever, introduced by Denny Terrio, fercrissakes! Talk about non sequiters of nausea-inducing proportions:
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