Andy Gill obituary

The post-punk period of the late 1970s and early 80s bred a number of innovative and challenging bands, of whom Gang of Four proved to be one of the most influential. Andy Gill, a founding member of the band, who has died aged 64 of pneumonia, was renowned for his driving, staccato guitar playing, and was also one of the intellectual guiding lights behind their frequently cerebral songs.

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Gang of Four never enjoyed popular success – their debut album Entertainment! (1979) was the only one to enter the UK Top 50, reaching No 45 – but their sound and attitude has been acknowledged as an influence by such artists as REM’s Michael Stipe, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, U2, Rage Against the Machine and Franz Ferdinand.

Their debut EP, Damaged Goods (1978), released on the Edinburgh independent label Fast Product, instantly identified the group as provocateurs, and topped the indie chart. The bellicose funk of (Love Like) Anthrax inverted the norms of commercial pop by likening love to a fatal disease, while the raw, military-sounding Armalite Rifle was like an information leaflet for a favourite weapon of the IRA, its lyrics blankly intoned by Gill. Damaged Goods itself, a somewhat disgusted meditation on love and lust, offered a prime specimen of Gill’s stripped-down and relentlessly thrusting guitar style.

A deal with EMI followed, and Entertainment!, its artwork referencing the situationists much admired by Gill and the band’s vocalist, Jon King – who were both art students – brought both critical acclaim and the highest selling single of their career, At Home He’s a Tourist, which went to No 58 in the UK but was banned by the BBC for its reference to condoms. The band’s mix of punk, disco, funk and Marxism had a hypnotic effect on an adoring music press, who enjoyed the way interviews with the group often turned into animated disagreements between the four of them.

The act of signing to a major record label was a source of ideological angst. “People thought we should be on Rough Trade, but we’d gone with the biggest, nastiest, arms-manufacturing company of them all,” Gill said. “But to pretend that we didn’t want to sell our product would have been dishonest.” Mega-sales would continue to elude them, but they reached No 190 in the US (and 52 in Britain) with a more considered and less polemical second album, Solid Gold (1981). However, Gill’s accusation that King was becoming more politically “liberal” did not augur well.

The following year’s Songs of the Free garnered substantial play in US clubs and college radio, as well as a UK chart position of 61. A potential hit single in Britain, I Love a Man in a Uniform, was scuppered by an airplay ban in 1982 prompted by the outbreak of the Falklands war. But by now the group had already lost their original bassist, Dave Allen, and their drummer, Hugo Burnham, and Hard (1983) was an unconvincing attempt at a more commercial sound. One critic deplored its “insufferable meaninglessness”. The band subsequently broke up.

Gang of Four originally grew out of the close friendship between Gill and King, who had first met in art lessons at Sevenoaks school in Kent. Their contemporaries in the same group included the future film-maker Paul Greengrass (of Jason Bourne and United 93 fame) and the documentary maker Adam Curtis. Their teacher Bob White made an indelible impact. “He demanded real commitment from you and treated you like an adult, which had a massive effect on his pupils,” said Gill (talking to his namesake, the Independent’s music critic, in 2009). Gill’s musical idols at the time included the Velvet Underground and Jimi Hendrix, and he acknowledged Hendrix’s death in 1970 by wearing a black armband.

Gill and King went on to study art at Leeds University, where the teaching was heavily influenced by theories of structuralism and situationism. The pair expanded their horizons further by using grants intended for studies overseas to soak up the musical new wave in New York, which included Television, the Ramones and Patti Smith. Back in Britain, Gill gained further inspiration from the guitarist Wilko Johnson of Dr Feelgood, whose ferociously metronomic style – as well as his robotic movements and piercing stare – could be clearly discerned in Gill’s performances. Gill was still in his final year at Leeds when Gang of Four were signed to EMI.

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Gill and King eventually reformed Gang of Four and released Mall (1991) and Shrinkwrapped (1995). The original lineup featuring Allen and Burnham reformed in 2004, and toured internationally in 2005. In 2011 a new incarnation of the group released Content, which won widespread critical acclaim. In 2015 they released What Happens Next, but after a split with King, Gill was now the sole original member. Happy Now appeared in 2019, though Gang of Four were now a three-piece.

Gill also enjoyed a successful career as a producer. His credits included the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ eponymous debut album (1984), the Stranglers’ Written in Red (1997), the Jesus Lizard’s Blue (1998), Killing Joke (2003) and Therapy?’s Crooked Timber (2009).

In 1999 he married the journalist Catherine Mayer, who co-founded the Women’s Equality party in the UK. She survives him, as does his brother, Martin.

• Andrew James Dalrymple Gill, guitarist, born 1 January 1956; died 1 February 2020