Happy Birthday to me! Today marked a
rather significant one as I turn 60, but, age being just a number for me, I’ve
no plans to ease up on the gigging… So I booked this one as a 60th
Birthday Celebration, in more ways than one as it transpired, as it marked the
final UK date ever, apparently, for legendary post-punkers Gang Of Four.
After a quite brilliant showing on, disgracefully, my only other occasion in
2023 (gig 1,297) I was well up for aligning my significant birthday with their
UK “live” swansong, particularly as, featuring on bass for this tour
(ostensibly replacing previous touring bassist Sara Lee, but ultimately backfilling
for original bass man Dave Allen, sadly lost to us earlier this year after a
brave fight with dementia) was none other than Boston’s very own Gail
Greenwood! Expect some serious rock licks, then…
It being my birthday, I made a day of it up the Smoke, parking near the Forum, then going up the observation lift at Battersea Power Station (!) and shopping/ street fooding in Camden. Back at the car pre-gig to dump purchases, I greeted a passer-by clearly also going to the gig, then ran into him again in the pub beforehand! So Howard – the gent in question – and I enjoyed an extensive chat not only riffing about obscure 70s/ 80’s music but also shared life experiences. Clearly a kindred spirit then, so we hit the venue together at doors and grabbed front barrier spots house left. Also chatted to Dave, a Belly aficionado who managed to beckon GFG over from the wings, so I piggybacked onto his conversation and mentioned our mutual friend Angie to her! This took us to an early-starting support from Heartworms, on at 7.40. Led by heavily great-coated vocalist Josephine Orme (a garment she kept on throughout – has she not glands???), she offered a serious challenge to Desperate Journalist’s Jo as the ice queen of post-punk, dispassionately delivering a vocal which veered from muted mumble to scalded cat as required, whilst moving almost balletically around the stage. This augmented the eerie goth/ dreampop melange of their sonic template perfectly; “Retributions” with its staccato riffery and tumbling beat was an early highlight, “Extraordinary Wings” was bleaker, more stripped-back dreampop with a macabre looped vocal outro, and “May I Comply” featured a coruscating synth intro overlaid by some early Cure-like pinprick guitar. The otherwise taciturn Orme (aka “Kate Bush playing Elphaba” as brilliantly observed by Howard!) introduced the wobbling synth and dissonant descending riff of closer “Jacked” with, “lets go, Gang Of Four!”, rounding off a tough, menacing yet intriguing set I’d like to see in a small venue. Preferably one painted black…!
More chat down a very convivial front row, before Gang Of Four took us a little by surprise, emerging at 8.30 sharp to the cheesy “Fanfare For The Common Man”. GFG then assumed her usual low-slung Joey Ramone/ Peter Hook pose, thwacking her bass strings for the intro to opener “Ether”, angular vocalist Jon King already the focal point, barking the vocals and initiating a furious clap-along. “Natural’s Not In It” was tremendous, the militaristic drums courtesy of the rock-steady Hugo Burnham dovetailing in brilliantly with Ted Leo’s startling 4-alarm riffery and the chanted choral sloganeering from King, already in everyone’s faces and covering the stage like a tarpaulin. Then “Damaged Goods” was a careering punkish ride with a sinister yet joyous hook and that circular “goodbye” outro. Fantastic start!
“This is so wonderful! I can see some very attractive people here tonight!” quipped King as the first set, based on the seminal debut “Entertainment”, continued. Again, like my previous “live” experience, “wonderful” was the right word for it; eschewing the mood of 70’s Cold War tension and claustrophobia on the album itself, tonight was instead a joyous and inclusive celebration of the works of an influential yet overlooked band. “I Find That Essence Rare” was probably my highlight of the night, a breathless upbeat working-class anthem; “Contract” showcased the dubbier, loose-limbed funk element of their sound; and “At Home He’s A Tourist”’s barked, staccato lyrics were echoed back by this enthusiastic crowd. “Anthrax”’s sinister backbeat featured some herky-jerky, almost Jarvis Cocker-esque moves from King, before the band peeled off, one by one, the beefy Burnham then hobbling stage front to pay tribute to that album and his lost bandmates Allen and original guitarist Andy Gill, before announcing a well-earned 15-minute break.
Set two, if anything, upped the ante: “He’d Send In The Army” opened with King once again beating seven shades of shit out of an unsuspecting microwave before kicking it into the photog pit; “Outside The Trains Don’t Run On Time” followed a story from King of a member of fellow agit-punkers Mekons telling him that tonight’s venue was intended to be Hitler’s HQ (!); and the clattering discordant funk fanfare of “What We All Want” featured guest appearances from guitarist James Smith of Yard Act and backing vocalists Rhoda Dakar and Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine! Valentine then added guitar for the sleazoid bluesy/Iggy strut of “I Parade Myself”, the preening King offering his most kinetic performance of the night. “For the last time ever – it’s been a wonderful thing!” repeated the vocalist before a fantastically anthemic “To Hell With Poverty”; however, a 3-song encore followed, culminating in a second run-through of “Damaged Goods”, bringing a brilliantly played, frenetic, angular and, yes, once again absolutely bloody joyous set to a close.
Hung out awhile afterwards catching our
breath and grabbing a quick word with the esteemed drummer Burnham; then bade
farewell to my excellent new friend Howard, before a slightly difficult run back
to the ‘don (M4 J2 closed – bah!) saw me home at 1 a.m. Great night (and day,
for that matter), spent in splendid company both off and onstage; and if this is “goodbye,
goodbye, goodbye” from the Gang Of Four, then they couldn’t have had a better
sendoff…!
