GANG OF FOUR

CONFIRM HEADLINE AUSTRALIAN CONTENT SHOWS
ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, CONTENT OUT JANUARY 2011

Strike the can. Liberate the contented.
The Gang of Four finally break ground in Australia… like an incision in the packet we are left to reveal.
Aisles of shelves looted, amused at the checkout. From 1979′s Entertainment!, 81′s Solid Gold, 82′s Songs of the Free and on… one of the UK’s most influential late 70s seminal rock bands returns with new Content. A trail of influence left scattered across the great march… a defiant rupture of radiant wreckage that one can’t avert attention from. Incessant human activity onstage here in 2011.

Who can steal when everything is free?
Who can lie when everything is true?

Consume presents
GANG OF FOUR Australian Content 2011

FEB 25 Brisbane THE HIFI
Plus special guests
Tickets from: www.thehifi.com.au, tel 1300‐THEHIFI (8434434), Rocking Horse Records, Butter Beats , Sunflower Pacific Fair, Disaster piece, Mosh Pit Music, Kill The Music, Gooble Warming, Rockaway Records and consume.oztix.com.au

MAR 1 Sydney THE GAELIC
Plus special guests
Tickets from: Moshtix outlets www.moshtix.com.au (132 438 849) and consume.oztix.com.au

MAR 2 Melbourne THE CORNER
Plus special guests.
Tickets from: Corner Box Office (57 Swan St Richmond 12-8 Mon-Sat), phone 9427 9198, online www.cornerhotel.com and consume.oztix.com.au

MAR 8 Perth THE BAKERY
Plus special guests.
Tickets from: Bocs, 78 records, Mills records, Planet Video and consume.oztix.com.au

Along with the previously announced Soundwaves and New Zealand performances:

FEB 24 Auckland THE POWERSTATION
Plus guests
Tickets from: www.ticketmaster.co.nz and associated outlets

FEB 26 Brisbane SOUNDWAVES
FEB 27 Sydney SOUNDWAVES
MAR 4 Melbourne SOUNDWAVES
MAR 5 Adelaide SOUNDWAVES
MAR 7 Perth SOUNDWAVES

More than entertainment… it’s Content.

TICKETS ON SALE NOV 11.
Contact consume1@ozemail.com.au for info, images etc

CONTENT out JAN 21 on Groenland/Inertia.

ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, CONTENT OUT JANUARY 2011
FIRST NEW MATERIAL IN 16 YEARS

Every bit as powerful and insightful as their classic work, CONTENT, the new album from Gang Of Four, sees founding members Jon King and Andy Gill continuing to deliver intelligent, powerful and liberating rock & roll that is both provocative and simply thrilling. “What we’re trying to do is keep it totally stripped down, where everyone in the band makes an equally intense contribution,” says King. With the simple but tough and loud sound of drums, guitar, bass and vocals on new tracks like “Who Am I?,” “You Don’t Have To Be Mad,” “I Can’t Forget Your Lonely Face” and “I Party All The Time,” the songwriting on CONTENT is just as challenging and unconventional in 2010 as it was in 1978.

“What I’ve been thrilled by over the years is that our music still seems to make sense to our audiences, however old they are, and these days they’re mostly under 30,” says King. “They tell us that our music means something, that it makes them want to go start a band. That amazes me. I would never have imagined when we started off that we would have this impact after such a long time.”

From creating one of music’s pre-eminent debut albums (1979’s ENTERTAINMENT) to influencing a wide range of punk, post-punk and indie rock bands (R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, Bloc Party, The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand and hundreds more), Gang Of Four have triumphantly defined their place in rock ‘n roll.

Set for a January release, CONTENT is the band’s first album of new material in years and was written by King and Gill, and recorded and produced by Andy Gill. The album will be available in a standard CD release and on vinyl. It will also be available in the Ultimate Content Can – this contains the new album on CD, a book version of an art piece Jon and Andy have done on ceramic tiles depicting the last 40 years of world history, a book of lyrics, a book of Rotoscoped photographs of the band’s emotions, phials of band members’ blood and a scratch and sniff booklet which reflects the key areas of human activity.  For further details, visit www.gangoffour.co.uk

Gang Of Four are Jon King (vocals & melodica), Andy Gill (guitar & vocals), Thomas McNeice (bass) and Mark Heaney (drums.)
www.gangoffour.co.uk
www.myspace.com/gangoffour
twitter.com/gangof4official
Gang of Four are one of the most radical, and radically important, rock groups of the last 30 years. Their music, starting with 1978’s Damaged Goods EP, offered a danceable solution to the problem of where four-piece guitar bands could go next after punk. They also provided the perfect answer to the question: how to be polemical without being po-faced, ponderous, banal or doctrinaire?

Four young men in their early twenties who convened in the late ‘70s in Leeds, they were the first rock group to come up with the idea that using funk rhythms would be a way forward for rock’n’roll, a way out of punk’s cul-de- sac. Gang of Four were like Dr. Feelgood jamming with Parliament-Funkadelic produced by Lee Perry as a Radio 4 newsreader intoned balefully in the background.

More than anything, Gang of Four are about visceral, high energy, maximum impact rock’n’roll. They make you dance and they make you sweat, just as they make you think. That exclamation mark at the end of the title of their 1979 debut album Entertainment! – incidentally, one of the greatest debut albums ever made; in fact, one of the greatest long-playing records, period – was no accident or sleight of design. Nor were they rent-a-gobs or rabble- rousers. They managed to inveigle complex ideas into powerful songs that were provocative yet simply thrilling. The music on that debut long-player was born out of a specific time in history, the result of a series of very specific circumstances and conditions – social, economic, emotional, political, musical – and yet it remains as true, as resonant, as relevant, as universally applicable three decades on as it was the day it was released.

The big bands of the 80s, the Chilli Peppers, INXS, REM, have all spoken of their debt to Gang of Four but in more recent years, the band’s influence has become almost universal with the emergence of post-punk influenced bands such as The Rapture and Radio 4 and then the rise of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party.Their classic songs have connected with a new generation of fans, many of whom have discovered the band through finding the source that has inspired many of the best current guitar outfits. In 2005 Gang of Four re-recorded a selection of their favourite tunes on Return the Gift, featuring Mark Heaney on drums while Hugo Burnham played live shows with the band until mid 2006, when he left to focus on his successful academic career in the USA. Mark then took over as drummer for live appearances and has played across the world with the band ever since. In April 2008 bassist Dave Allen was replaced by Thomas McNiece.

Gang Of Four, contends Jon King, are as challenging and questioning now as they were in 1978. “What I’ve been thrilled by over the last few years is that our music still seems to make sense to our audiences, whatever age they are, and these days they’re mostly under 30. They tell us that our music means something, that it makes them want to go start a band. That amazes me. I would never have imagined when we started off that we would have this impact after such a long time. We are a noisy, great rock’n’roll band. And that exclamation mark still applies: we should call ourselves Gang Of Four!”

More than anything, Jon is excited by the new material that he and Andy have been writing. “What we’re trying to do is keep it totally stripped down, where everyone in the band makes an equally intense contribution: guitar, bass, drums and vocals.” He’s as energised as ever by his old schoolfriend’s guitar playing. “I love what Andy does on guitar – it’s completely unique. How many original guitarists have there ever been, not just now? He’s one of the few living signature rock guitarists: you can recognise an Andy Gill riff a mile away and you can recognise who’s been listening to him.”

The fruit of Jon and Andy’s collaboration is a new album, the first new studio album in years. “Content.” It will be released in January 2011.
As powerful as their early material, as insightful and more, the album needs neither exclamation nor explanation. Gang of Four is back. Gang of Four is back!