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To Hell With Poverty!
- Author
- Jon King
- Narrator
- Jon King
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Publish Date
- 3 April 2025
- Run Time
- 9 hours 54 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Popular music
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What to expect
'To Hell With Poverty! captures something of [Gang of Four's] essence rare: fractious, discordant, thrilling' MOJO
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
Critics Review
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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
Mark Ellen
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To Hell With Poverty! captures something of [Gang of Four's] essence rare: fractious, discordant, thrilling
MOJO
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Much like the group's music and attitude, [To Hell With Poverty] stomps on any cliché and reinvigorates the form with a mix of earthy realism and elevated sociology
Classic Rock
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King is an engaging anecdotalist
The Wire
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Entertaining and revealing . . . it offers a deeply human portrait of its narrator, a creative force shaped by chaos, resilience and an unrelenting drive to make art. It is a personal and, at times, harrowing journey which provides insight into a band that contributed to the evolution of rock music and inspired generations
Louder Than War
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Passionate, beautiful, and tragic . . . King allows his readers to experience the textures of life in postwar Britain through the story of one of its most important bands
The Battleground
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Jon's book is a treasure trove for any Gang of Four fan, offering vivid insights into the music, lyrics, performances, and spark and sparring of the band. But it's the energetic writing and detailed painting of a lost world that makes this memoir stand out - 1950s Peckham; Leeds in the 1970s with its slums and squats; the liberation and camaraderie of art school; starting up a band from nothing but anarchic intent; touring the US when it was hand-to-mouth and precarious, potentially disastrous and unpredictably, unbeatably exciting... I'm not a fan of 'rock anecdotes', but Jon's bristle with detailed observations on politics, art, street violence, 'the biz' and more, colouring the hi-jinks and the low blows with joie de vivre and righteous rage
Miki Berenyi
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Jon King
- Narrator
- Jon King
- Duration
- 9 hours 54 minutes
- Release Date
- 3 April 2025
- ISBN
- 9781405563864
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Genre
- Popular music
Synopsis
'Entertaining and revealing . . . it offers a deeply human portrait of its narrator, a creative force shaped by chaos, resilience and an unrelenting drive to make art. It is a personal and, at times, harrowing journey which provides insight into a band that contributed to the evolution of rock music and inspired generations' Louder Than War'To Hell With Poverty! captures something of [Gang of Four's] essence rare: fractious, discordant, thrilling' MOJOFrom 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
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