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Dave Allen, the founding bassist of the highly influential British post-punk band Gang of Four and the funk-inflected group Shriekback, died last Saturday, according to a post from GO4 drummer Hugo Burnham on the band’s official Instagram account. Burnham noted that Allen had been suffering from early-onset dementia for the last several years; he was 69.
Formed in Leeds in Northern England in 1976 by Allen, Burnham, singer Jon King and guitarist Andy Gill, Gang of Four were one of the most important and influential bands of the wave that followed the initial punk explosion, with a strong political bent to their lyrics and a slashing sound that combined funk rhythms with Gill’s innovative, jagged guitar playing. Their debut album, the sarcastically titled “Entertainment!,” combined socialist-leaning, anticapitalist lyrics with powerful, driving rhythms — the songs “Damaged Goods” and “I Found That Essence Rare” are classics of the era. The band’s sound grew more dense and claustrophobic with their equally sarcasatically titled follow-up, 1981’s “Solid Gold,” although it does contain the piledriving “What We All Want.”
Shortly after Gang Of Four released the single “To Hell With Poverty” in 1981, Allen departed the band to form Shriekback, a new wave-leaning project whose members included former XTC keyboardist Barry Andrews and singer Carl Marsh. The band released a series of increasingly strong albums through the mid-1980s, peaking creatively with 1985’s “Oil and Gold” and in popularity with the following year’s “Big Night Music.” However, Marsh’s departure after the former album left Andrews, a less-strong vocalist, as the lead singer, and the band split up after one more album in 1988.
Gang of Four replaced Allen with bassist Sara Lee, who ironically had played with Barry Andrews in Robert Fripp’s League of Gentlemen. The group enjoyed a hit in 1982 with “I Love a Man in Uniform,” but veered into a more R&B direction that alienated fans. The group split in 1984 but reunited later in the decade and have continued on and off ever since, including a stretch with Allen in the ’00s.
Allen later founded World Domination Recordings and performed with the label’s bands Elastic Purejoy and Low Pop Suicide, and later with the groups King Swamp and Faux Hoax; he also worked with a reformed Gang of Four in the ‘00s. However, his later life focused primarily on jobs in tech, including with Intel, Apple and the advertising firm the Overland Agency.
Gill died of a respiratory illness in February of 2020, just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gang of Four continues to tour and record with Burnham and King, along with other members.
Burnham’s post follows below in full.
It is with broken yet full hearts that we share the news that Dave Allen, our old music partner, friend, and brilliant musician, died on Saturday morning. He was at home with his family. Dave had endured the early-onset of mixed dementia for some years which has been a heartbreaking time for his wife Paddy, his children, and close friends. Our love and thoughts are with them. Jon and I [Hugo] went to see him and spent a lovely afternoon with him and the family. We talked and laughed for hours, sharing rich and vivid memories of good times together. Adventures, careers in music, raising families, our interwoven lives spanning half a century. We’ve been so very lucky to have had the Ace of Bass in our lives.
We know that Dave would have wanted nothing more than to step onstage with us again in Portland on our farewell US tour. But it’s now a bridge too far.
Goodbye, Old Friend.
