Dave Allen, the founding bassist of English post-punk greats Gang Of 4, died final Saturday at 69. His former bandmate Hugo Burnham confirmed the information in a put up in the present day on Gang Of 4’s Instagram account, noting that Allen had been dwelling with early-onset dementia for the final a number of years of his life.
Gang Of 4 shaped in Leeds in 1976 with Allen alongside vocalist Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, and drummer Burnham; their debut album Leisure! was launched in 1979. Leisure! carried out effectively each critically and commercially upon its launch, serving to to usher within the post-punk motion. Gang Of 4 had been rapidly famous for his or her distinctive method to the style, their mixture of funk, reggae, and dub underscoring lyrics that usually referenced left-wing ideology. Leisure! would go on to be thought of one of the vital vital information in punk rock.
Shortly after Gang Of 4 launched their second LP Stable Gold in 1981, Allen departed the band to type Shriekback, a brand new wave-leaning challenge whose members included former XTC keyboardist Barry Andrews. Allen additionally performed in teams together with the Elastic Purejoy and Low Pop Suicide, however he additionally had a profitable profession in enterprise. He based the report label World Domination Recordings and served because the director of Client Digital Audio Companies at Intel earlier than working in artist relations at Apple Music.
Learn Burnham’s full assertion beneath.
It’s with damaged but full hearts that we share the information that Dave Allen, our outdated music companion, good friend, and good musician, died on Saturday morning. He was at dwelling together with his household. Dave had endured the early-onset of combined dementia for some years which has been a heartbreaking time for his spouse Paddy, his youngsters, and shut pals. Our love and ideas are with them. Jon and I [Hugo] went to see him and spent a beautiful afternoon with him and the household. We talked and laughed for hours, sharing wealthy and vivid reminiscences of excellent instances collectively. Adventures, careers in music, elevating households, our interwoven lives spanning half a century. We’ve been so very fortunate to have had the Ace of Bass in our lives.
We all know that Dave would have wished nothing greater than to step onstage with us once more in Portland on our farewell US tour. But it surely’s now a bridge too far.
Goodbye, Outdated Buddy.