(thing) by conform Mon Apr 09 2001 at 0:28:49
Seminal Leeds-based post-punk band who took their name from a '60s Chinese Communist cabal and attached it to sharply angular political rock. Their contemporaries are Joy Division, early works by the Cure, Scritti Politti, Buzzcocks, and the more rythmic bits of early Wire albums -- putting them in pretty good company. Three Leeds students (Jon King, Andy Gill, Hugo Burnham) and a bassist found through an advertisement (Dave Allen, also of Shreikback later to be replaced by Sara Lee after two albums). Early material was dark and sharp, with the main themes being the horrid relationship between media and politics, and the horrid personal relationships between people.

The band's early material was well recieved (Entertainment being named by the NME as one of the top 5 albums of 1979), but when the band gave up a spot on Top of the Pops rather than change a line from their second single, At Home He's a Tourist (the line in question being "And the rubbers you hide/In your top left pocket", with "rubbers" being the offending word), the band was relegated to obscurity for some time. Eventually, they chanced upon the beginnings of a disco-influenced formula and found mild success in I Love a Man in a Uniform, before proceeding to work the formula into a horrid bloody death on their Hard LP.

The band broke up in 1984, but Allen and King reformed in 1990 in order to make a number of remarkably mediocre records. Still, the band's early work stands as an underappreciated gem of the late '70s.

Essential listening: The Entertainment LP and it's companion, the Yellow EP, and the first Peel session. The Yellow EP is available on the CD version of Entertainment, and the first Peel session (which includes a blistering version of At Home He's a Tourist) is available on a CD with two later Peel sessions. The second LP, Solid Gold, is also decent. The band's first 7" includes nice alternate versions of the songs Damaged Goods and Anthrax, but is a little difficult to find (no suprise; it's been out of print since 1979...). E2 readers are advised to avoid the Hard LP at all costs, as it may ruin your Gang of Four appetite.

Discography (pre-1990 only):

I like it! 1 C!