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The 500 with Josh Adam Meyers
Listen Now — To Hell with Poverty! From Gang of Four’s Jon King
00:09:54
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- [00:01]
Josh
Next Chapter Podcasts.
- [00:06]
Karen Kilgariff
Hey Josh, here today we got something a bit different for you. We're about to hear an excerpt from a new audiobook called To Hell With Poverty by John King, legendary frontman of the post punk band Gang of Four. Seen them live, did their album on the podcast. I mean, you can't get better than me and Karen Kilgariff talking about entertainment. Migraine, migraine. It was episode 483 with the homie Karen. So check that out and you know we're all about celebrating the greatest music of our lives. And the New York Times called Gang of Four one of post punk's most influential bands. To Hell With Poverty chronicles John King's rise to success in Gang of Four. From his background in a South London slum to reaching international acclaim with the band in the 70s and 80s. From the red Hot Chili Peppers to Frank Ocean, Gang of Four have inspired musicians across generations. You'll hear jaw dropping stories like when King faced police at an anti Nazi rally to when he mingled with Hell's Angels and played with the likes of the Police and Niggy Pop. In this excerpt, John shares a funny story about how Gang of Four got their big break by begging to open for the band the Buzzcocks. All right, here's the preview. If you like what you hear, find To Hell With Poverty from Pushkin Industries at Audible, Spotify, Pushkin FM audiobooks or wherever you get your audiobooks.
- [01:30]
Josh
Dave we need a replacement bass player, so Hugo posts a flyer on a news board which reads Wanted Fast Rhythm and Blues bass player. Why rhythm and not rhythm is a mystery. Dave Allen answers. He's looking for a gig, having come to Leeds from Kendall, fleeing the dainty tourist clogged market town in in England's Lake District famous for mint cake kaggles and dreesh. He'd had troubled teen years, restless and caged in a petit bourgeois household, his mum and dad running a busy fish and chip shop in an uncultural hinterland. Although he'll never say anything about them to me, Dave had had his fill gigging with low rent show bands, knocking out pop, CW and jazz covers for foot tapping mums and dads, downing milk, stout and bitter in pubs and clubs. He says he wants to make dangerous music that's funky and furious, inspired by the bleeding edge punk, reggae and dub tracks he hears on John Peel's unique indie music radio slot. We share a love of Lee Scratch, Perry, the Meters, Dave nails, Sissy Struttle and James Brown. He's in after a short audition. He's got The Chops. He's the nuts. GoFv2 plays a single show with a new lineup and then it's the summer break. Dave's not only a fine bass player, but he's also a hustler with a pay phone in his shared house, so becomes our de facto rep, constantly on the blower to promoters and pubs and clubs for a slot. It's hard work with just a lo fi c60 tape of our material to share and not a word's written about us in a music press reluctant to review gigs north of Watford, Dave doesn't give up and blaggs the port sets. Every few weeks. When the Buzzcocks are lined up to play at Ilkley College, he hassles the events booker calling him over and over for us to open for them until he caves and says, just turn up then, but there's no fee. We drive over more in hope than expectation, unload our gear and wait, finding there's already a support act much annoyed to see us loitering about. We're about to bail when Richard Boone, the Buzzcock's manager, takes pity on us and says, okay, you can go on. When the doors are opened, just don't get in anyone's faces. We do a short set to just 20 punters, but are knocked out to see Richard watching us from the desk. Good show, he says. I like what you're doing. A week later, Dave receives a telegram. Buzzcock's European tour stop. Want Ganga 4 to be support band stop. Call ASAP to confirm. Stop Richard Boone. It's incredible. We say yes and then play two weeks with the Buzzcocks across Europe, being paid just enough money to cover our costs. Our first proper tour. It's a wonderful experience. The Buzzcocks are very good to us and we get sound checks and a dressing room with sandwiches and beer. On our return to the uk, they give us more support slots, including a show at Leeds University's Refectory with the Slits and John Cooper Clark. Our first show on a high stage, the same lineup plays Manchester's Mayflower Club Night and it's a blast. A guy shouts out at the Slits, ari up from the mosh pit. Sure, cunt. And Harry says, I saw you a cunt. And jumps into the crowd and smacks him in the face. A mass brawl breaking out. She's brilliant. Mad as a brush. A one off. I love the Slits, one of my all time favorite bands and we're lucky to share an office with them and the pop group in London as they're managed by Dick o' Dell, who's helping our new manager, Rob Waugh, shop us a deal. It's hard to get a sniff. One of many rejection letters stiffs is simply stamped in the dumper. When we were in Manchester, the Buzzcock singer Pete Shelley puts us up in his two up, two down terraced house in Galton. It's in a right state, bare earth in the kitchen, the slums being bulldozed nearby. We sleep on the sofa and floor. Richard, Pete and guitarist Steve Diggle champion us, and we learn how to warm up a cold room, bettering ourselves and our material as we go, steadily replacing formula with more challenging tunes. Richard encourages us and says we're getting somewhere with anthrax. Pete says, the trouble with you lot is there's too many chiefs and not enough Indians, which is probably true. When we're not gigging, we leave our equipment up in an empty warehouse where we've set up a rehearsal room. Mark White, Andrew Corrigan, Kevin Lysett, Ros Allen and John Langford use our kit if we're not there and start a band called the Mekons, after the Dan Dare comic strip character. They're very different to us, and where we work at being crisp and even, they revel in chaos and make a virtue of their lack of musicianship with discordant rackets overlaid by Mark's poignant vignettes of sexual and social disappointment. It's as much art as music, but thrilling and funny, and I love their routine. Although John Drums and Ros Bass have a music background, they both embrace the amateur aesthetic and the Mekongs start gigging, often supporting us or at political benefits, and leads Rock against racism. Their masterpiece Where Were youe? Will soon inject them into the national punk indie consciousness. Our women friends use our kit too, and Another band's born Delta 5, featuring Bethan Peters, a Leeds Poly 3D design student. The Mekongs. Roz, who is a Leeds University fine arts student, and Jules Sale, who come to Leeds for the crack. It's a fierce feminist outfit with dual bass players Bethan and Ros and Jules on vocals, up front with two men, Alan Riggs and Kelvin Knight on drums and guitar. Their distinctive sound has a sinuous groove and fractured guitar overlaid by Jules angry lyrics. They come up with a keeper song, Mind you'd Own Business for their debut single in 1979 that will in 2021, become the global soundtrack to Apple's ad campaign. All hail the long tale. The Mecons get noticed by Bob Last an Edinburgh businessman who started an indie label called Fast. He rates their song Never Been in a Riot, which he puts out as a 45 in 1978, saying the critical thing about his decision to sign them was that they really could not play. Mary Harron later says the Mecons are a strange combination of sophisticated theory and technical incompetence. An on the nail analysis we're proud of our mates putting out the first seven inch from the Collective, but a little jealous, especially when they land a John Peel session on the back of their Riot release, which Peel plays often on his show. When the sessions first broadcast, we all squeeze into Andy's flat to hear it. It's a big deal. We're excited, but at the same time disappointed in our lack of progress. But this changes when the Mekons big us up to last, who asks us to record an EP at Cargo Studios in Rochdale. There we record three songs for the first time Damaged Goods, Anthrax and Armalite Rifle. Soon everything will be different.
- [09:43]
Karen Kilgariff
Thanks for listening to this preview of the new audiobook, To Hell With Poverty from Gang of Four frontman John King. Fine To Hell With Poverty from Pushkin Industries at Audible, Spotify at Pushkin FM audiobooks or wherever you get your audiobooks.
- [10:01]
Josh
Next Chapter Podcast.