Day After Day #145: To Hell With Poverty!

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4). 

To Hell With Poverty! (1981)

It's not easy to make sharp political music that you can dance to, but Gang of Four made it work. Formed in 1976 in Leeds, England, the group's original lineup was singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bassist Dave Allen (who replaced Dave Wolfson after the band's first few shows) and drummer Hugo Burnham. The band combined post-punk guitar with funk rhythms and a ferocious live show, and once the debut single "Damaged Goods" was released in December 1978, Gang of Four were signed by EMI and began drawing attention in Europe and North America.

The first Gang of Four album was 1979's Entertainment, a post-punk classic that lyrically lashes out at commercialism, politicians and traditional notions of love and sex. "At Home He's a Tourist" made it to #58 on the U.K. Singles chart, although when the band was asked to play the song on Top of the Pops, the show producers asked them to change the word "rubbers" to "rubbish." Gang of Four refused and the appearance was canceled. The single was then banned by BBC radio and TV. The album still made it to #45 on the U.K. Albums chart.

In 1981, the band released their second album Solid Gold, featuring "Cheeseburger," "Paralysed" and "A Hole in the Wallet." It was a strong effort, even if it's considered not as good as the band's first album. A non-album single released later in 1981 was the anti-capitalist anthem "To Hell With Poverty!" The song starts with Gill's feedback-driven guitar serving as an air-raid siren before the rest of the band kicks into a funky stomp for a minute before King jumps in with a howl.

"In my arms/We shall begin/With none of the rocks/Well, there's no charge/In this land right now/Some are insane, and they're in charge/To hell with poverty/We'll get drunk on cheap wine."

You can hear the inspiration for bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (musically, anyway; Kiedis isn't bringing anything weighty lyrically to that band), Rage Against the Machine, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and even Nirvana. Gill produced the first RHCP album.

"To hell with poverty/The check will arrive/It's in the post again/To hell with poverty/The check will arrive/It's in the post again."

The song was included on Another Day/Another Dollar, an EP released in 1982 in the U.S. by Warner Bros. that compiled material that hadn't been previously released Stateside. It barely cracked the Billboard 200 (#192), but "To Hell With Poverty!" hit #38 on the Billboard Club Play Singles chart, as well as #100 on the U.K. Singles chart. The 1995 reissue of Solid Gold included the songs from Another Day/Another Dollar.

After Solid Gold came out, Allen left the band; he was replaced by Busta Jones, who finished the band's North American tour and then left (he went on to play with Talking Heads, among others). Sara Lee joined the band on bass for their next album, 1982's Songs of the Free, which included the hit "I Love a Man in Uniform" (although it was banned in the U.K. after Britain went to war in the Falkland Islands). Burnham left the band after Songs of the Free came out. King, Gill and Lee continued on and released 1983's Hard, which had a softer pop sound that was poorly reviewed. 

Gang of Four then split up for several years. King and Gill reunited and released 1991's Mall, which came and went quietly. Another album came in 1995, Shrinkwrapped, and met a similar fate.

Meanwhile, after he left Gang of Four, Burnham joined Illustrated Man and then did session work with Stan Ridgway, ABC, Public Image Ltd., Nikki Sudden and Samantha Fox. He managed Shriekback (which had been formed by Dave Allen after he left Gang of Four), and then formed a management company. He got into A&R as well. Burnham moved to Gloucester, Mass. (right up the highway from me) in 1998 and continued managing bands. He's currently teaching at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. 

In addition to Shriekback, Allen played in The Elastic Purejoy and Low Pop Suicide. Later in the '90s, he was an early advocate of digital music, working as general manager of Emusic.com and then moving to Portland, Oregon, to become business director of Intel's Consumer Digital Audio Services Operation. He also worked at Overland Entertainment and Nemo Design and worked in digital brand strategy for a few agencies before joining Beats Music in 2014, which was acquired by Apple a few months later. When I was at Webnoize, we interviewed Allen a few times on digital music issues.

Gang of Four's OG lineup reunited in 2004 and toured for a few years (and also released Return the Gift in 2005, featuring re-recordings of classic Gang of Four songs) before Burnham and Allen left again to pursue other interests. The band, with new members on bass and drums, released a new album, Content, in 2011, which got good reviews. King and Gill, however, stopped working together after touring for Content. Gill continued to record and tour under the Gang of Four name, releasing three albums through 2019. Sadly, Gill died in 2020.

In 2022, King, Burnham, Sara Lee and David Pajo of Slint teamed up to tour as Gang of Four in support of a new box set. I saw them play in Somerville, Mass., and it was an inspired show. Lee has since left the band and been replaced by Linda Pardee, who has played with Orbit and the Chelsea Curve.