Discography
Gang Of Four - Entertainment! (1979)
The debut studio album by Gang of Four. Written by Gang of Four. Produced by Andy, Jon King & Rob Warr.
Critically acclaimed as one of the best and most influential debut albums, in 2020, Entertainment! was ranked at number 273 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It has been cited by numerous artists as a significant influence and inspiration.
The album was recorded at Workhouse Studios in South-East London over a five-week period in Spring 1979. The band made the decision not engage an outside producer, choosing to co-produce the album with their manager Rob Warr, who was also mixing their live sound at gigs. Written into their EMI contract, signed in March 1979, was the creative freedom to deliver finished music and artwork which meant the band could do as they pleased.
Entertainment! was released on September 25th, 1979. There have been numerous re-issues since, most notably in 1995, 2005 and 2021. The 2005 re-issue included as bonus material the Yellow EP and four previously unreleased tracks – “Guns Before Butter (alternate version)”, “Contract (alternate version)”, “Blood Free (live)” and “Sweet Jane (Lou Reed cover – live)”.
“The songs on our debut album Entertainment! took a microscope to society. 5.45 – on which I sing, “How can I sit and eat my tea with all that blood flowing from the television?” – was about the evening news. Every household had been sent a “Protect and Survive” pamphlet because of the threat of nuclear war: Guns Before Butter tapped into that paranoia. At Home He’s a Tourist came from the Jean-Paul Sartre-type idea that the defining sensation of modern life is to feel uncomfortable. Then our bandmates Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham had the hilarious idea of making it a disco song, because we all loved Chic. It charted at No 58, but because we refused to change the word “rubbers” (or condoms) to “rubbish”, the BBC wouldn’t allow us on Top of the Pops.” – Jon King, The Guardian, June 16th 2025
“We recorded Entertainment! in Workhouse studio in London, where Ian Dury had recorded New Boots and Panties!!, which we’d all loved. Between sessions we lived on a houseboat and would get pissed with a churn of people including Charlie Harper from UK Subs. I’m still amazed nobody drowned. We recorded without click tracks and didn’t do many overdubs. The studio engineer hated us and every time Dave or I made a mistake, he made us do it all again, but the finished album sounds gritty and raw, simple but funky. We never talked much about the lyrics, but we all agreed it was far more interesting to sing about H-blocks or “the working classes” than cars and girls.” – Hugo Burnham, The Guardian, June 16th 2025.
Damien Hirst interviewed by Dave Simpson for The Guardian, March 15th, 2021.
“I stole a record collection from someone’s house. Among the records was Entertainment! by Gang of Four. I loved it because it made me think. After that, I wrote ‘Gang of Four’ on my school blazer and had their button badge. I used to copy their artwork on to my school books. I got into the art world because, through Gang of Four, I realised anything was possible. I thought, ‘I’m fucking doing what I want.’”
Album reviews:
“Entertainment! destroys once and for all the old notion that rock ‘n’ roll is not a suitable medium for sophisticated political debate; while the Gang of Four live are an exhilarating refutation of the claim that ‘political’ bands can’t be entertaining” – N.M.E, Oct 13th 1979.
[NB: Gang of Four were the first unsigned band to appear on the cover of the N.M.E.]
“Gang of Four have an album, it’s called Entertainment! and could be somewhat dangerous (it makes you think). It lambasts capitalist power-control, it lambasts the happy, gullible suffrage which allows it… Entertainment! leaves a lot of questions to the listeners’ discretion. It is a furious rock ‘n’ roll record” – Chris Westwood, Record Mirror, Oct 6th 1979.
“Difficult fun – may take a few spins to sink in. 7 1/2 out of 10” – Smash Hits, Oct 18-31st 1979.
“In a time when power-pop and homogenised punk are becoming rock’s mainstream, when regression is often viewed as progress, the Gang of Four have taken off where punk 76 left off. They don’t hew to a ‘militant’ punk stance; their music isn’t the buzzsaw kept alive by bands like U.K. Subs; and they don’t embrace the politically naive rhetoric of a Sham 69. The Gang of Four’s vision is refined and sensible; and their music, awesome and fun” – New York Rocker, October 1979.
“Entertainment! isn’t just the best debut album by a British band – punk or otherwise – since the original release of The Clash in 1977. Nor is it simply a fierce, emotionally taut dramatization of youth’s loss of innocence as seen through the clouded lens of Neo-Marxist dogma and ambitiously obscure free verse. Stripped of its own pretensions and the burden of sociopolitical relevance forced on it by a knee-jerk leftist English music pass, Entertainment! is a passionate declaration of discontent by four rock ‘n’ roll agents provocateurs naive enough to believe they can move the world with words and music” – David Fricke, Rolling Stone, Aug 7th 1980.
“Although the have spoken of their rejections of guitar domination and thus decided on an equalised production wherein no instrument upstages, it is nonetheless Andy Gill’s playing that will be abstracted from Entertainment!” – Bill Graham, Hot Press 1979.
“Though the stressful zigzag rhythms sound thinner on record than from the stage where their chanted lyrics/nonmelodies become visible, the progressive atavism of these university Marxists is a formal accomplishment worth attending. By propelling punk’s amateur ethos into uncharted musical territory, they pull the kind of trick that’s eluded avant-garde primitives since the dawn of romanticism”. – Robert Christgau for The Village Voice, 1979.
“Andy kept his guitar chilly, without the blanket of fuzz provided by effects pedals and the agreeable tone of valve amps. Blues riffs do crop up but it’s as if Gill is playing against his technique, scattering them like fishes in a pond with a scrabble of notes. He rarely engages in anything like a solo, the ejaculation part of cock rock.” – Bess Harvell, Pitchfork, 2005 (for the Rhino reissue).
“..as a whole this remains a timeless record, even though it could be construed as somewhat disturbing that the political environment has changed so little that it could remain so relevant.” – Amy Britton, Louder Than War, June 29th 2014 (album re-appraisal).
“Gang of Four’s magnetic debut is…a masterpiece. Entertainment! is the quintessential post-punk record, embodying in parts everything the movement was as a whole; political, cerebral, hook-heavy, danceable, and raw. It somehow did it better than any of them, and it did it all at once” – Colin Fitzgerald, No.1 in The 50 Best Post Punk Albums Ever, Pop Matters, April 10th 2020.
Discography
Gang Of Four - Entertainment! (1979)
The debut studio album by Gang of Four. Written by Gang of Four. Produced by Andy, Jon King & Rob Warr.
Critically acclaimed as one of the best and most influential debut albums, in 2020, Entertainment! was ranked at number 273 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It has been cited by numerous artists as a significant influence and inspiration.
The album was recorded at Workhouse Studios in South-East London over a five-week period in Spring 1979. The band made the decision not engage an outside producer, choosing to co-produce the album with their manager Rob Warr, who was also mixing their live sound at gigs. Written into their EMI contract, signed in March 1979, was the creative freedom to deliver finished music and artwork which meant the band could do as they pleased.
Entertainment! was released on September 25th, 1979. There have been numerous re-issues since, most notably in 1995, 2005 and 2021. The 2005 re-issue included as bonus material the Yellow EP and four previously unreleased tracks – “Guns Before Butter (alternate version)”, “Contract (alternate version)”, “Blood Free (live)” and “Sweet Jane (Lou Reed cover – live)”.
“The songs on our debut album Entertainment! took a microscope to society. 5.45 – on which I sing, “How can I sit and eat my tea with all that blood flowing from the television?” – was about the evening news. Every household had been sent a “Protect and Survive” pamphlet because of the threat of nuclear war: Guns Before Butter tapped into that paranoia. At Home He’s a Tourist came from the Jean-Paul Sartre-type idea that the defining sensation of modern life is to feel uncomfortable. Then our bandmates Dave Allen and Hugo Burnham had the hilarious idea of making it a disco song, because we all loved Chic. It charted at No 58, but because we refused to change the word “rubbers” (or condoms) to “rubbish”, the BBC wouldn’t allow us on Top of the Pops.” – Jon King, The Guardian, June 16th 2025
“We recorded Entertainment! in Workhouse studio in London, where Ian Dury had recorded New Boots and Panties!!, which we’d all loved. Between sessions we lived on a houseboat and would get pissed with a churn of people including Charlie Harper from UK Subs. I’m still amazed nobody drowned. We recorded without click tracks and didn’t do many overdubs. The studio engineer hated us and every time Dave or I made a mistake, he made us do it all again, but the finished album sounds gritty and raw, simple but funky. We never talked much about the lyrics, but we all agreed it was far more interesting to sing about H-blocks or “the working classes” than cars and girls.” – Hugo Burnham, The Guardian, June 16th 2025.
Damien Hirst interviewed by Dave Simpson for The Guardian, March 15th, 2021.
“I stole a record collection from someone’s house. Among the records was Entertainment! by Gang of Four. I loved it because it made me think. After that, I wrote ‘Gang of Four’ on my school blazer and had their button badge. I used to copy their artwork on to my school books. I got into the art world because, through Gang of Four, I realised anything was possible. I thought, ‘I’m fucking doing what I want.’”
Album reviews:
“Entertainment! destroys once and for all the old notion that rock ‘n’ roll is not a suitable medium for sophisticated political debate; while the Gang of Four live are an exhilarating refutation of the claim that ‘political’ bands can’t be entertaining” – N.M.E, Oct 13th 1979.
[NB: Gang of Four were the first unsigned band to appear on the cover of the N.M.E.]
“Gang of Four have an album, it’s called Entertainment! and could be somewhat dangerous (it makes you think). It lambasts capitalist power-control, it lambasts the happy, gullible suffrage which allows it… Entertainment! leaves a lot of questions to the listeners’ discretion. It is a furious rock ‘n’ roll record” – Chris Westwood, Record Mirror, Oct 6th 1979.
“Difficult fun – may take a few spins to sink in. 7 1/2 out of 10” – Smash Hits, Oct 18-31st 1979.
“In a time when power-pop and homogenised punk are becoming rock’s mainstream, when regression is often viewed as progress, the Gang of Four have taken off where punk 76 left off. They don’t hew to a ‘militant’ punk stance; their music isn’t the buzzsaw kept alive by bands like U.K. Subs; and they don’t embrace the politically naive rhetoric of a Sham 69. The Gang of Four’s vision is refined and sensible; and their music, awesome and fun” – New York Rocker, October 1979.
“Entertainment! isn’t just the best debut album by a British band – punk or otherwise – since the original release of The Clash in 1977. Nor is it simply a fierce, emotionally taut dramatization of youth’s loss of innocence as seen through the clouded lens of Neo-Marxist dogma and ambitiously obscure free verse. Stripped of its own pretensions and the burden of sociopolitical relevance forced on it by a knee-jerk leftist English music pass, Entertainment! is a passionate declaration of discontent by four rock ‘n’ roll agents provocateurs naive enough to believe they can move the world with words and music” – David Fricke, Rolling Stone, Aug 7th 1980.
“Although the have spoken of their rejections of guitar domination and thus decided on an equalised production wherein no instrument upstages, it is nonetheless Andy Gill’s playing that will be abstracted from Entertainment!” – Bill Graham, Hot Press 1979.
“Though the stressful zigzag rhythms sound thinner on record than from the stage where their chanted lyrics/nonmelodies become visible, the progressive atavism of these university Marxists is a formal accomplishment worth attending. By propelling punk’s amateur ethos into uncharted musical territory, they pull the kind of trick that’s eluded avant-garde primitives since the dawn of romanticism”. – Robert Christgau for The Village Voice, 1979.
“Andy kept his guitar chilly, without the blanket of fuzz provided by effects pedals and the agreeable tone of valve amps. Blues riffs do crop up but it’s as if Gill is playing against his technique, scattering them like fishes in a pond with a scrabble of notes. He rarely engages in anything like a solo, the ejaculation part of cock rock.” – Bess Harvell, Pitchfork, 2005 (for the Rhino reissue).
“..as a whole this remains a timeless record, even though it could be construed as somewhat disturbing that the political environment has changed so little that it could remain so relevant.” – Amy Britton, Louder Than War, June 29th 2014 (album re-appraisal).
“Gang of Four’s magnetic debut is…a masterpiece. Entertainment! is the quintessential post-punk record, embodying in parts everything the movement was as a whole; political, cerebral, hook-heavy, danceable, and raw. It somehow did it better than any of them, and it did it all at once” – Colin Fitzgerald, No.1 in The 50 Best Post Punk Albums Ever, Pop Matters, April 10th 2020.