Gang Of Four to release guitarist Andy Gill's final recordings
Gang Of Four have announced that they will release the final recordings of late guitarist Andy Gill.
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Read more: Andy Gill – the NME obituary, 1956-2020: The guitar hero who made radical politics danceable
Gill, who was a founding member of the legendary post-punk band, died in February following a short respiratory illness.
The news was announced in a statement posted on the band’s official Twitter account. “This is so hard for us to write, but our great friend and Supreme Leader has died today,” the statement began.
It continued: “Andy’s final tour in November was the only way he was ever really going to bow out; with a Stratocaster around his neck, screaming with feedback and deafening the front row.”
Today (May 28), the remaining members of the band, along with Gill’s widow, the author and Women’s Equality party co-founder Catherine Mayer, have announced a new EP that features the guitarist’s final recordings.
Titled the ‘Anti Hero EP’, all proceeds from it will benefit Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust, to “recognise, celebrate and support” those who cared for Gill during his hospitalisation.
Speaking to The Guardian, Mayer said that her late husband was “working on this music and overseeing mixes from his hospital bed until literally the last day when they put him under.”
Mayer said that she and the rest of the band named the EP to recognise Gill’s “very healthy scepticism of the lauding of so-called great men.”
“So many – mainly men I’m afraid – seem susceptible to the idea that if you behave and dress a bit badly and break the rules, it makes you a genius,” she explained. “Andy talked about how it was becoming impossible for such populist figures to not intrude into his lyrics. He’d look at Trump’s tweets and go, ‘There’s a Gang of Four lyric right there.’”
The ‘Anti Hero EP’, which will feature art work by Shepard Fairey, the man who created Barack Obama’s Hope poster, will be released on July 17.
