Gang of Four’s ‘Entertainment!’ turns 47 on 25 September
EMI released Gang of Four’s debut “Entertainment!” on 25 September 1979, recorded at The Workhouse in London. The twelve-track album turns 47 this year.
Gang of Four, the English post-punk band from Leeds, released their debut album “Entertainment!” on 25 September 1979 through EMI, with Warner Bros. Records handling North America. The album turns 47 this year. It runs 39 minutes and 53 seconds across twelve tracks and was recorded that same year at The Workhouse on the Old Kent Road in London.
Jon King and Andy Gill produced it with the band’s then-manager Rob Warr, and Rik Walton engineered. The line-up was King on lead vocals, percussion and melodica, Gill on electric guitar and vocals, Dave Allen on bass and Hugo Burnham on drums. EMI had signed the group after its debut release, the three-track “Damaged Goods” EP, issued on 13 October 1978 by Bob Last’s Edinburgh label Fast Product and recorded at Cargo Studios in Rochdale. Two of those three tracks, “Damaged Goods” and “Love Like Anthrax”, were re-recorded for the album.
The running order is “Ether”, “Natural’s Not in It”, “Not Great Men”, “Damaged Goods”, “Return the Gift”, “Guns Before Butter”, “I Found That Essence Rare”, “Glass”, “Contract”, “At Home He’s a Tourist”, “5.45” and “Love Like Anthrax”. King wrote the lyrics under the influence of Situationism, the writing of Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan, feminism and Marx’s theory of alienation. He also designed the sleeve, which reproduces a still from a Winnetou film in three processed versions, with a text reading: “The Indian smiles, he thinks that the cowboy is his friend. The cowboy smiles, he is glad the Indian is fooled. Now he can exploit him.”
“At Home He’s a Tourist” reached number 58 in the UK Singles Chart, still the highest placing of any Gang of Four song. The band were booked to perform it on Top of the Pops, but the producers asked them to change the line “and the rubbers you hide in your top left pocket” to “rubbish”; the group refused and the appearance was cancelled. The album peaked at number 45 on the UK Albums Chart and number 35 in New Zealand. Writing in Rolling Stone in August 1980, David Fricke called it “the best debut album by a British band – punk or otherwise – since the original English release of The Clash”.
About Gang of Four
Gang of Four formed in Leeds in 1976 around guitarist Andy Gill and singer Jon King, who had met as students. Drummer Hugo Burnham and bassist Dave Wolfson completed the first line-up; after two or three gigs Wolfson was replaced by Dave Allen in 1977. Fast Product released the “Damaged Goods” EP in October 1978, and EMI signed the band the following year.
“Entertainment!” arrived in September 1979 and was followed by “Solid Gold” in March 1981 and “Songs of the Free” in 1982, the latter carrying “I Love a Man in Uniform”, which was dropped from BBC playlists during the Falklands conflict. Allen left in 1981 after two albums and went on to co-found Shriekback; Busta “Cherry” Jones filled in before Sara Lee joined as the permanent bassist. Burnham left in 1982 and Steve Goulding took over the drum stool for “Hard” (1983). The band split in 1984.
Gill and King reconvened three times in the 1990s, recording “Mall” (1991) with Gail Ann Dorsey on bass and “Shrinkwrapped” (1995). The founding four reunited in 2004 and toured the UK in 2005, releasing the re-recorded “Return the Gift” on 28 September 2005 and performing “Entertainment!” in full for the All Tomorrow’s Parties Don’t Look Back series that year; Side-Line covered the band’s later live material in Exclusive preview Gang Of Four’s ‘Live…In The Moment’ live album. Burnham departed again in late 2005 to return to teaching, and Allen was replaced by Thomas McNeice in 2008. King left in 2011 after disagreements with Gill, and John Sterry took over vocals. That line-up issued “Content” (2011), “What Happens Next” (2015) and “Happy Now” (2019).
Andy Gill died on 1 February 2020, aged 64, ending that incarnation of the band. In October 2021 King reformed Gang of Four with Burnham, Sara Lee and Slint guitarist David Pajo for a tour of 1977 to 1983 material. Lee was replaced by Linda Pardee in January 2024 and then by Gail Greenwood that July, and Pajo by Ted Leo in January 2025. Dave Allen died in April 2025, aged 69, having lived with early-onset dementia. The band played its final show in Amsterdam on 6 July 2025.
The record’s reach outlasted the band. Die Krupps recorded a version of “To Hell With Poverty” for their 2021 covers album, as reported in Die Krupps cover Gang Of Four with new single ‘To Hell With Poverty’. Michael Stipe has said of the band: “Gang of Four could really swing. I stole a lot from them.” Rolling Stone placed “Entertainment!” at number 490 on its 500 Greatest Albums list in 2003, number 483 in 2012 and number 273 in 2020, and Kevin J. H. Dettmar wrote a book on it for the 33 1/3 series in 2014. Forty-seven years on, the debut remains the album on which the Leeds four-piece set its guitar, bass and drums against lyrics about commodities, contracts and the news.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
