Gang Of Four- At Home He’s A Tourist
I’ve only ever
owned one Gang of Four record, their first E.P. on Fast Records that had the
tracks “Damaged Goods”, “Love Like Anthrax” and “Armalite Rifle”. I toyed for a
long time with the idea of buying their first album. On more than one occasion
I got as far as taking it from the racks in the record shop and walking up to
the till but every time I thought better of it. On one occasion, when I had a
spare tenner in my pocket, I had “Entertainment!” (the said Gang of Four album)in
one hand and Madonna’s “True Blue” in the other as I approached the
counter. What a dilemma and what a cultural divide. Needless to say- because I’ve
just mentioned that I’ve only ever had the one Gang of Four record- that La
Ciccone won out over the battle of the albums with the agit-poppers. One of my
better decisions in retrospect.
All throughout
this year-more than once anyway-I think that I may have mentioned that my
listening habits during the 1980’s comprised largely in part of the likes of The
Fall, Scritti Politti and the Gang of Four. Actually, I should have said that
it was bands like the Gang of Four as
I only had heard the three tracks of the E.P. and a handful of others recorded
off the radio and “At Home He’s A Tourist” was one of them. (I’ve only being
using the Gang of Four throughout this year as a sort of metaphor for the type
of post-punk music I was listening to).
Why had I
struggled so much with buying the Gang of Four album? Why did Madonna win out
in the end? It was quite simple really. The Gang of Four were known for their
decidedly political stance, a highly developed and well-thought out post-structuralist
Marxist critique of capitalist consumerism blah blah blah. They weren’t afraid
of sticking it to “the man” and questioning all and every structure of power
and authority. They positively relished challenging accepted social constructs and
were an all male band well noted for their strident feminist stance. Now all of
what they stood up for I agreed with and I still strongly believe in but you
can see where this is heading.
They (and this
isn’t intended as a pun) pulled out of appearing on TOTP with the “At Home..”
single because the BBC didn’t want them to sing the word “rubbers” i.e condoms, as
on the released version of the song. They weren’t prepared to compromise their
art in the face of the pressure exerted by them for a programme that was broadcast on BBC1 at
7.30 p.m.on a Thursday night-Noel Edmonds,
bad jumpers and the axis of evil. This was all very understandable and
commendable in a Crass-stick-to-your-principles sort of way.
Which is why it
all was just a little bit surprising that considering when they signed for a
major label straight after their first and only indie release they plumped for
EMI. EMI, well known for their high
ethical stance on everything under the sun, seemed the perfect fit for these chaps
from Leeds. Without knowing too much about EMI, it was well known at the time
that they were in part heavily into the manufacture of armaments and missle
guided systems. It made the release of the anti-militaristic single by the boys, “I Love
a Man In a Uniform” a tad ironic.
However good the
music may have been within the “Entertainment!” album, at least I always knew
where I stood with Madonna.
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