classic-rock

Gang Of Four’s Jon King on Fighting Fascism

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From how bass guitars make excellent weapons to why feminist artists were so inspiring, Jon King tells Elizabeth Aubrey about the things he learned bashing the fash with Gang Of Four

By Elizabeth Aubrey

To Hell With Poverty!, the new memoir from Gang Of Four singer, singer, lyricist and producer Jon King, is an account of his journey from South London slum to recording at Abbey Road with all the twists and turns of navigating the capricious music industry along the way. There are tales of band bust-ups and reconciliation, making the cover of the NME, getting chucked off Top Of The Pops, having their music censored (twice) and crashing and burning in America. At the forefront of the narrative, however, is the political stance of the band that ran at odds with the both the mainstream and far right in late 70s and early 80s Britain. Gang Of Four’s left-wing views often made them the target of The National Front, who’d crash their gigs looking for trouble – and the band made sure they got it. Bassist Dave Allen would wield his guitar at the NF thugs and the rest of the band frequently leapt in to fight them. With rather less punching involved, Gang Of Four also became one of the key voices in the Rock Against Racism movement in the north of England. The book tells stories of bust ups with the police, the racism they witnessed daily and how feminist bands like The Slits were an inspiration. “My ambition wasn’t to make money, but to change the world,” King says, reflecting on the legacy of the band. “Some of our songs are still horribly relevant but I wish they weren’t.” 

Standing up to fascism meant standing up for my friends

In the 1970s, I went to a demonstration in Leeds against the National Front while I was studying art in the city. The council had banned them from marching through Chapeltown in Leeds. My Afro-Caribbean, African and white friends all lived in Chapeltown of course and that’s where they wanted to march: it was intentionally provocative. Despite the ban, the NF managed to get a meeting inside a local hall and I don’t know whether or not they deceived the council, but they decided they wanted to walk down to the railway station together and of course what they were really doing was taking part in the march that was banned in the first place. I remember protesting and shouting ‘The National Front was The Nazi Front’.

The police were our enemy

Things got out of control at the protest: it was entirely on the National Front’s side. The moment it got out of control, the cops reacted. I was truncheoned down by a cop and whacked on the forehead: I dropped to the ground. My interactions with the police at that time were never positive. I have great sympathy with people who are trying to keep the law, but that wasn’t what they were doing. All the ones we encountered at that time were aggressive blokes who liked asserting their authority. The recent trouble in Türkiye really struck me because I was sort of like one of those people in the crowd too.

There were unlikely allies on the streets

The irony of the NF demonstration was that the NF eventually went into the middle of the railway station and met Leeds United fans coming off the train from London. This was in the middle of peak football hooliganism and Leeds United fans at that time were among the most notorious football crews. The Leeds fans just thought they were all cockneys and so attacked them, which I thought was a kind of poetic justice!

Fighting fascists is hard

It was extremely tense sometimes waiting for the next battle with fascists at gigs. There was often a lot of trouble and they’d come along just to cause bother. With Gang Of Four, The Mekons and Delta 5, we sort looked out for each other at that time: we were the first set of bands in Leeds who identified as being of the left. A very good friend of ours had life changing head injuries through the violence. They came into Leeds university at a gig and threw a fire extinguisher at his head: he nearly died and was affected for the rest of his life. It was a very dark period.

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The Weird & Wonderful World Of Tunng

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Tunng have built one of the most unique catalogues in modern British music. Folk meets electronic, their other-worldly charms are at once permanent and

Tunng have built one of the most unique catalogues in modern British music. Folk meets electronic, their other-worldly charms are at once permanent and traditional, but also questing, forever reaching to the unknown.

Debut album ‘Mother’s Daughter And Other Songs’ emerged from ad hoc shows around London, late night recording sessions in borrowed spaces, and endless conversation, with friendship at the heart of the band’s progress.

As it happens, Tunng are ready to toast 20 years of that release with something new – out now, ‘Love You All Over Again’ underlines their status as devoutly independent creators, working totally outside time and trend.

Tunng co-founders Sam Genders and Mike Lindsay map out the band’s unique universe in this special guide for CLASH readers.

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‘Tale From Black’

Sam: Mike was listening to a lot of English folk guitarists like Davy Graham and Bert Jansch as well as lots of non-vocal electronica from the record label next door to his studio – Expanding Records.

I turned up at the studio one day – which was under a ladies clothes shop in Soho… you literally had to walk through the back of the changing cubicle Narnia-style to reach the staircase down into the dark windowless box beneath… anyway… I turned up one day and he’d written ‘Tale From Black’ – everything apart from the lyrics and melody. I started playing about with these odd dark words inspired I think by The Wicker Man soundtrack which Mike had recently played me..and Mike loved them and that was that and I remember after that something clicked for us about the kinds of music we might be able to write together.

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The original, pre-crash, pre-Sandy lineup of Fairport Convention was brilliant

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Fairport Convention 1967

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig). They started out influenced by American folk rock, with a set list dominated by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell songs and a sound that earned them the nickname “the British Jefferson Airplane”.

Vocalists Judy Dyble and Iain Matthews joined them before the recording of their self-titled debut in 1968; afterwards, Dyble was replaced by Sandy Denny, with Matthews later leaving during the recording of their third album.

Denny began steering the group towards traditional British music for their next two albums, What We Did on Our Holidays and Unhalfbricking (both 1969); the latter featured fiddler Dave “Swarb” Swarbrick, most notably on the song “A Sailor’s Life”, which laid the groundwork for British folk rock by being the first time a traditional British song was combined with a rock beat.

Shortly before the album’s release, a crash on the M1 motorway killed Lamble and Jeannie Franklyn, Thompson’s girlfriend; this resulted in the group retiring most of their prior material and turning entirely towards British folk music for their seminal album Liege & Lief, released the same year. This style has been the band’s focus ever since. For this album Swarbrick joined full-time, alongside drummer Dave Mattacks. Both Denny and Hutchings left before the year’s end; the latter replaced by Dave Pegg, who has remained the group’s sole consistent member to this day; Thompson left after the recording of 1970’s Full House.