Gang of Two
April 6, 2025 9:38 PM Subscribe
Dave Allen, bass player for seminal post-punk band Gang Of Four and later Shriekback passes away at the age of 69.
Allen held down the bottom end of GoF from 1976 to 1981, before leaving to form Shriekback. He later went on to see significant success in the music industry, working for Intel, Beats Music and Apple. According to former bandmate Hugo Burnham, he had been living with early onset dementia for a number of years.
Please take a moment to appreciate the isolated drum and bass tracks from At Home He's a Tourist, and the band's magnum opus, Damaged Goods.
Allen held down the bottom end of GoF from 1976 to 1981, before leaving to form Shriekback. He later went on to see significant success in the music industry, working for Intel, Beats Music and Apple. According to former bandmate Hugo Burnham, he had been living with early onset dementia for a number of years.
Please take a moment to appreciate the isolated drum and bass tracks from At Home He's a Tourist, and the band's magnum opus, Damaged Goods.
.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:30 PM on April 6
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:30 PM on April 6
Oh shit.
Damn.
This is my cohort, my generation. This does hurt in an almost personal way.
Gang of Four, Peel Sessions, July 1979: Natural's Not in It; Not Great Men; Ether; Guns Before Butter.
Peel Sessions, March 1981: To Hell with Poverty; Paralyzed; History is Bunk.
Live, 1980, from Urgh: He'd Send in the Army.
And my favourites: A Hole in the Wallet ["Why work for love if it shows no profit? You'll only earn emotional losses. Wasting times's a hole in the wallet. There is only one condition: stay in bed or in the kitchen... Their commands are in your interest."]
and Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time ["He believes it's no coincidence... He's obsessed with order. Order! Nostalgia! Discipline!"]
Their two albums, Entertainment and Solid Gold, were like shields raised against the ravages of capitalism and general shit, swords that cut through bullshit, emblems of hope. Maybe it was just myself and my circle, but we held them is very, very, high esteem.
The 80s are far away, I know that. The world of my youth has crumbled, but there are still these recordings, and listening I can briefly feel the lightning that they still hold.
Maybe I'll go and listen to Songs of a Lost World again.
RIP Dave Allen. RIP Andy Gill.
posted by jokeefe at 11:31 PM on April 6 [11 favorites]
Damn.
This is my cohort, my generation. This does hurt in an almost personal way.
Gang of Four, Peel Sessions, July 1979: Natural's Not in It; Not Great Men; Ether; Guns Before Butter.
Peel Sessions, March 1981: To Hell with Poverty; Paralyzed; History is Bunk.
Live, 1980, from Urgh: He'd Send in the Army.
And my favourites: A Hole in the Wallet ["Why work for love if it shows no profit? You'll only earn emotional losses. Wasting times's a hole in the wallet. There is only one condition: stay in bed or in the kitchen... Their commands are in your interest."]
and Outside the Trains Don't Run on Time ["He believes it's no coincidence... He's obsessed with order. Order! Nostalgia! Discipline!"]
Their two albums, Entertainment and Solid Gold, were like shields raised against the ravages of capitalism and general shit, swords that cut through bullshit, emblems of hope. Maybe it was just myself and my circle, but we held them is very, very, high esteem.
The 80s are far away, I know that. The world of my youth has crumbled, but there are still these recordings, and listening I can briefly feel the lightning that they still hold.
Maybe I'll go and listen to Songs of a Lost World again.
RIP Dave Allen. RIP Andy Gill.
posted by jokeefe at 11:31 PM on April 6 [11 favorites]
.
posted by equalpants at 11:35 PM on April 6
posted by equalpants at 11:35 PM on April 6
We get it right sometimes, we shine a light sometimes
We see the fish below the ice sometimes
posted by chavenet at 11:42 PM on April 6 [4 favorites]
We see the fish below the ice sometimes
posted by chavenet at 11:42 PM on April 6 [4 favorites]
.
Health and Knowledge and Wealth and Power
posted by rongorongo at 12:12 AM on April 7 [2 favorites]
Health and Knowledge and Wealth and Power
posted by rongorongo at 12:12 AM on April 7 [2 favorites]
Awful, terrible, no good, bad news. I feel so fortunate to have seen the original Gang Of Four lineup live and up close in 2005. Huge loss :(
posted by fikri at 6:28 AM on April 7
posted by fikri at 6:28 AM on April 7
.
posted by mcdoublewide at 6:32 AM on April 7
posted by mcdoublewide at 6:32 AM on April 7
Early onset dementia is utterly brutal, a real "there is no god" diagnosis. Honestly, it's so very brutal that I'm glad, for his sake, that it was a very fast course. It can run very long.
I saw some comment about Shriekback on social media yesterday and put it down to the general timeliness of their work, but sadly no.
Gang of Four were so great. I remember buying A Brief History of the Twentieth Century when it came out, when I was in high school, and it just absolutely baffled me. The thing was that because I was a teenager and didn't have much money, if I bought a cassette and it was a total bust that was $9.99 wasted, which was if I recall correctly two weeks' allowance. I usually had a bit more money than that in pocket at any one time, because my grandparents were in poor health and I did housecleaning for them every week, but it still wasn't an amount you could throw away, so if I got a cassette I'd keep trying it and trying it to see if I could enjoy it. And so eventually I cracked Gang of Four. Now I can't really even recall the mental state that made it confusing and unappealing. (The other hard to love tape I bought and got into was Bob Mould's Workbook.)
There was a time when I got a lot of my politics from music, or at least a lot of my starting points.
posted by Frowner at 7:08 AM on April 7 [7 favorites]
I saw some comment about Shriekback on social media yesterday and put it down to the general timeliness of their work, but sadly no.
Gang of Four were so great. I remember buying A Brief History of the Twentieth Century when it came out, when I was in high school, and it just absolutely baffled me. The thing was that because I was a teenager and didn't have much money, if I bought a cassette and it was a total bust that was $9.99 wasted, which was if I recall correctly two weeks' allowance. I usually had a bit more money than that in pocket at any one time, because my grandparents were in poor health and I did housecleaning for them every week, but it still wasn't an amount you could throw away, so if I got a cassette I'd keep trying it and trying it to see if I could enjoy it. And so eventually I cracked Gang of Four. Now I can't really even recall the mental state that made it confusing and unappealing. (The other hard to love tape I bought and got into was Bob Mould's Workbook.)
There was a time when I got a lot of my politics from music, or at least a lot of my starting points.
posted by Frowner at 7:08 AM on April 7 [7 favorites]
I think I saw GoF in 1985, at First Avenue in Minneapolis, but he had already left.
Loudest show I have ever been to...
We need more Gang of Four in our lives right now.
It's what we all want...
.
posted by Windopaene at 7:55 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]
Loudest show I have ever been to...
We need more Gang of Four in our lives right now.
It's what we all want...
.
posted by Windopaene at 7:55 AM on April 7 [1 favorite]
I saw Gang of Four at the old Club Foot in Austin in the early 80's. Blew me away.
.
posted by jabo at 8:02 AM on April 7
.
posted by jabo at 8:02 AM on April 7
I know nothing about rock, so NGL, when I saw people mentioning this, I thought it was Dave Allen, the Irish comedian, except he's been dead 20 years. Condolences to those of you who were fans of the musician.
posted by briank at 8:18 AM on April 7
posted by briank at 8:18 AM on April 7
I met Dave Allen back in the 90s. A good guy, albeit frustrated. I was involved with a band he'd signed to his label, World Domination. And they really were quite good. Problem was, they weren't willing to fully commit to the slog that 'making it" required (piling into a van, extensive touring etc) as they all had pretty good jobs, careers even, and didn't really need to pay those dues. Strong as they were, it was ultimately something of a hobby for them. One of those music biz stories you don't often hear ...
.
posted by philip-random at 8:42 AM on April 7
.
posted by philip-random at 8:42 AM on April 7
.
posted by runningdogofcapitalism at 9:09 AM on April 7
posted by runningdogofcapitalism at 9:09 AM on April 7
When searching for my link, I saw that GoF, (in whatever current lineup they are running, Jon King and I think the drummer), are going to be playing in Seattle in late May. $100. Not sure if I can handle GoF without Andy Gill though. The sounds he could make...
posted by Windopaene at 10:05 AM on April 7
posted by Windopaene at 10:05 AM on April 7
.
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:45 AM on April 7
posted by ducky l'orange at 10:45 AM on April 7
Oil and Gold is an absolutely perfect album, and Allen's bass playing is a huge, huge part of that. Gonna listen to the whole thing today in his honor, i think.
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:50 AM on April 7 [4 favorites]
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:50 AM on April 7 [4 favorites]
As a rule of thumb, the more his bass was at the front of a Shriekback song the better the song was.
Here's Signs from the last album he did with them, Sacred City.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:00 AM on April 7 [3 favorites]
Here's Signs from the last album he did with them, Sacred City.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 11:00 AM on April 7 [3 favorites]
Awful, terrible, no good, bad news. I feel so fortunate to have seen the original Gang Of Four lineup live and up close in 2005. Huge loss :(
I believe that this was when I saw them, too. They shook the earth to its foundations. A day or so afterwards I was at the local burrito place and the very nice young woman who was working the counter said that she was there too, and that she had been a bit concerned that the heaving, sweaty, thrashing crowd of mostly 40 and 50 somethings were about to keel over from heart attacks. I told her we were made of sterner stuff, and then hobbled off to take my seat. What a night that was.
posted by jokeefe at 11:25 AM on April 7 [4 favorites]
I believe that this was when I saw them, too. They shook the earth to its foundations. A day or so afterwards I was at the local burrito place and the very nice young woman who was working the counter said that she was there too, and that she had been a bit concerned that the heaving, sweaty, thrashing crowd of mostly 40 and 50 somethings were about to keel over from heart attacks. I told her we were made of sterner stuff, and then hobbled off to take my seat. What a night that was.
posted by jokeefe at 11:25 AM on April 7 [4 favorites]
.
The world is a worse place today.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:29 PM on April 8 [1 favorite]
The world is a worse place today.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 4:29 PM on April 8 [1 favorite]
I first knowingly heard his work in my late teens as part of the indy scene - at that point he was running World Domination Recordings, home to bands like Sky Cries Mary, which I became fanatical about for years, Loop Guru, and Stanford Prison Experiment. He also put out an amazing album under the name The Elastic Purejoy, which I still think deserved more success than it got. One problem with it was that every song sounded a bit different, kind of like the Gotye album that confused so many fans because of a similar spread of sounds.
IIRC, he had a somewhat early personal blog in the early 2000s talking about life in Portland. While fruitlessly searching for it, I found this tribute to him that reposts an interview talking about how he pivoted into tech.
posted by Candleman at 11:34 PM on April 8 [1 favorite]
IIRC, he had a somewhat early personal blog in the early 2000s talking about life in Portland. While fruitlessly searching for it, I found this tribute to him that reposts an interview talking about how he pivoted into tech.
posted by Candleman at 11:34 PM on April 8 [1 favorite]
He was also kind enough to exchange a few e-mails with me in the 2000s, and it's always great being able to do with with an artist who was really meaningful to you.
posted by Candleman at 11:47 PM on April 8 [1 favorite]
posted by Candleman at 11:47 PM on April 8 [1 favorite]
« Older Arcade game documentary videos | Mexico's '4th transformation'--like if AOC was... Newer »
posted by potrzebie at 9:44 PM on April 6 [1 favorite]