British post-punk pioneers Gang of Four didn't come to Japan until 2005, nearly 30 years after the band formed. If guitarist Andy Gill had his way, it would have happened a lot sooner. "I clearly remember a conversation in the '80s about going to Japan," Gill says, sitting among an array of equipment in the basement of his home studio in central London. "The agent told us to go to Australia as well to make it pay. And Jon King (original vocalist) said, 'I don't want to go to Australia.' So that was it. ... Why the f—- he said that, I don't know."
Exasperation is pretty much par for the course when Gill talks about the past. Ambitious and tunnel-visioned, Gill has been — as he doesn't miss an opportunity to state — the driving force behind Gang of Four's on-and-off four-decade career that has been variously groundbreaking, frustrating, reaffirming and bitter.
As the band celebrates the 40th anniversary of its gold-plated debut, "Entertainment!," with the release of new album "Happy Now," Gill is the band's sole original member, with King, Hugo Burnham (drums) and Dave Allen (bass) all having departed, come back and left again, all with fluctuating degrees of animosity. "If you go back to the early days, Dave left (1981), Jon sacked Hugo (1983), we carried on for decades, they both came back (2004 to 2008) and then Jon goes (2012). It's a last man standing thing." Does he prefer it this way? "I haven't got anyone to argue with," he says.