Gang of Four-Manchester UK Concert Review

[schwenko]

from the Idealcopy (Wire) mailing list:

Gang of 4 at Manchester

After all these years, the Gang of 4 are back! And from the moment they opened with a tribal beat c/o Hugo Burnham, before Gill, standing centre stage, added his trademark slashing guitar, you knew you were in for a treat. King, stage left, then joined in with a spot of maracas before Allen added the final ingredient - a heavy throbbing bass that I could feel deep in my chest. It was a classy entrance, and a classy number. And that was just the start, because the GO4 maintained momentum throughout, putting on a real visual treat with
Gill strutting around like Chuck Berry receiving electric shock treatment, Allen adopting rock postures, whilst King danced around stage like some demented soul. King is an energetic front man for sure - my favourite move of his was when he suddenly dropped to the floor and within the blink of the eye was then singing at the mic at the side of the stage! As for Burnham, well he played in darkness at the back all night so we saw very little of him, but in many ways he was the star of the show for me - at times keeping a metronomic beat going in much the same way as Robert Gotobed. I'm not a GO4 completist by
any means, but there were lots of oldies with the highlights being King
banging that piece of metal to He'd Send In The Army (whereupon some 'wit' in the crowd shouted "You noisy f***er!"), a rousing At Home He's A Tourist (there was a lovely moment at the beginning when Allen briefly lost his studied cool and smiled as he watched the audience going crazy to that riff), and an almost wild Natural's Not In It. We got two encores - the first ending with Damaged Goods, which had a false intro due to Allen fluffing it -
whereupon he and Gill got all matey with audience as they informed us how many mistakes the others had made - this cheeriness was certainly at odds with the rest of the set. They could quite happily have ended it there for me - the "Goodbye, goodbye" refrain certainly seemed appropriate - but on they came again for I Love A Man In Uniform before Burnham wandered to the front and joined the rest of the band in lapping up the audience devotion. There's further gigs at Leeds, Bristol, Birmingham and London yet. Don't miss them.
You're in for a treat.