From 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
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
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Reviews
To Hell With Poverty! captures something of [Gang of Four's] essence rare: fractious, discordant, thrilling
A sparkling, affectionate account of growing up with music in the 60s and 70s and, for a member of a band as intense and political as the Gang of Four, surprisingly self-knowing and immensely funny
A fast paced and exciting story, recalled in dramatic detail . . . King's prose writing voice has the kind of bolshy energy you associate with his band, propelling the story through a series of great anecdotes. A cautionary tale, maybe, but a very enjoyable one too