Feb 032021
 

The Change Will Do You Good
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  7 Responses to “Unreleased Gang of Four demo”

  1. Thanks. I’d never heard that. That was an exciting band right out of the gate.

  2. I’ve listened to a couple episodes of the Lost Labels Podcast interviewing two members of the Model Citizens, mainly because having opened for them and their subsequent outfit, The Dance, I was specifically interested. Now I’m listening to the episode with Chris Butler, and it’s really good. He has a LOT to say and some very interesting takes on the other Ohio folks. I’m a half hour in and they’ve just gotten up to the Akron album. He’s doing a pretty good David Thomas imitation right now. I’d recommend it if you have the time and the inclination.

    Also, sometime probably around 15 years ago, I saw Richard Lloyd at the Khyber, and he had a great, wild drummer, very Keith Moon. The guy had a hangdog face that seemed familiar. At the end of the show, he introduces Chris Butler as the drummer.

  3. That was great, also previously unheard by these ears! As I was listening, I was thinking about that question, “Who’s the artist you most regret never getting to see live?” Had I not seen Gang of Four a handful of times, they might have been my answer.

    I’ll have to look up that podcast. Butler provided some really helpful background notes for The Stiff Generation comp we put out. He was a great conversationalist.

  4. Oh does he talk! The host asks a question and Butler answers…for about twenty five minutes.

    It was pretty fascinating with a lot of information I didn’t know. For instance the Waitresses’ recording of “I Know What Boys Like” was just one of Butler’s single song recording projects. A DJ that did Chris the favor at playing it at Hurrah loved it so the DJ borrowed the acetate, and took it to Island Records to show that they should hire him for an A&R job because he could find good acts. They signed Butler for a single and he needed a band to record a flip side and he used Jody Harris, Don Christensen and Dave Hofstra.

  5. Oh does he talk! The host asks a question and Butler answers…for about twenty five minutes.

    It was pretty fascinating with a lot of information I didn’t know. For instance the Waitresses’ recording of “I Know What Boys Like” was just one of Butler’s single song recording projects. A DJ that did Chris the favor at playing it at Hurrah loved it so the DJ borrowed the acetate, and took it to Island Records to show that they should hire him for an A&R job because he could find good acts. They signed Butler for a single and he needed a band to record a flip side and he used Jody Harris, Don Christensen and Dave Hofstra.

  6. BigSteve

    I just discovered that the Gang of Four have made sixteen early live recordings available, including a recording of the first time I saw them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_WQy_YmY0s&list=OLAK5uy_nwXPJC6heGIV2wP3w-iRouH_TZTdBTLSI&ab_channel=GangOfFour-Topic&fbclid=IwAR2sm9cqurBNooeBpsL1ZH1c38FdP5njJbBdkDUSQF4mG5XCP_cSGJxgsn4

    I remember this gig as being poorly attended, but this sounds like a lot of people. This gig was good, but the next time I saw them (To Hell With Poverty era) was maybe the greatest gig I’ve ever seen.

  7. Happiness Stan

    Saw them on Hastings Pier in October 78, supporting Siouxsie and the Banshees on the Scream tour. They were the last minute replacement for Nico, who was “unwell”. They were stunning.

    Spizz Oil completed the evening’s entertainment, I was one of about a dozen people who couldn’t fit in the bar to get away from them, and possibly the only one not lobbing discarded cans and bottles at them. They were certainly brave, and even though I thought they were terrible had a great deal of sympathy. Spizz spent a lot of the battle with his t-shirt pulled up over his head, which protected him from the spittle but not the heavy stuff. He made it to the end with the air of a man who was used to it. I carried on thinking they were terrible until he turned up, again supporting the Banshees, with Athletico Spizz 80. They were great and their album is a true hidden treasure.

    A year later my band trod the same stage and attracted a similar quantity of gob, though, thankfully, not the barrage of hardware. We too were used to it, which didn’t mean it gave us any pleasure.

    Almost a year before, Marc Bell of the Voidoids got nutted by a flying bottle and played on with blood pouring down his face. He quit the band and went off to enjoy the comparative tranquility of the Ramones after that.

    Some of those gigs were quite gladiatorial, the youth of today blah blah blah, etc.

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