To Hell With Poverty!: A Class Act: Inside the Gang of Four

Description

‘Entertaining and revealing . . . it offers a deeply human portrait of its narrator, a creative force shaped by chaos, resilience and an unrelenting drive to make art. It is a personal and, at times, harrowing journey which provides insight into a band that contributed to the evolution of rock music and inspired generations’ Louder Than War’To Hell With Poverty! captures something of [Gang of Four’s] essence rare: fractious, discordant, thrilling’ MOJOFrom Jon King, the legendary frontman of iconic post-punk band, Gang of Four, comes a memoir to remember. To Hell With Poverty! documents Jon’s story from a south London slum and working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in acclaimed post-punk/funk band, Gang of Four. Made up of charming vignettes, the reader is taken on an episodic journey full of raucous adventures from Jon’s childhood and teenage years, to the height of Gang of Four’s success in the seventies and eighties. Thrown off of Top of the Pops, truncheoned by police at an anti-Nazi rally, being at the heart of the Leeds music scene and the UK postpunk movement, fraternising with Hell’s Angels and other undesirables, supported by bands like R.E.M. and playing with the Buzzcocks, there’s no doubt King’s time with Gang of Four is rich with jaw-dropping stories. Evocative, pacey and witty in equal measure, To Hell With Poverty! is a music memoir for the ages