How Leeds’ darkest hour gave rise to Gang of Four’s masterpiece

Posted On December 7, 2025December 7, 2025

The Fenton is a lovely, unassuming, independent pub frequented by University students in Leeds, with a poker night on Mondays and a quiz on Thursdays – standard fare. One thing this pub doesn’t properly advertise, though, is its position as a landmark in both the local music scene and the overall history of British punk and post-punk.

Nearly 50 years ago now, the Fenton was the preferred hangout of a budding community of Leeds bands who played important roles in building on the energy of the London punk scene to create something more communal, more intellectual, and often a good deal funkier. This included several groups who would go on to legendary cult status well beyond the UK – The Mekons, Delta 5, and Gang of Four.

Not only did these bands drink together in the Fenton, but they also shared a rehearsal space in the building, as well. That friendly sense of community and competition was goddamn crucial to helping each group improve and find its voice, and it also provided a ray of hope and inspiration in what was otherwise a dark and miserable period for many people in the city.

“[Leeds] was an A-list place to see gigs,” Gang of Four frontman Jon King recently told The Guardian. “On the other hand, the buildings were as black as soot, the Yorkshire Ripper was around, and you could feel the tension between the National Front and the South Asian community. I saw swastikas on walls, and on an anti-NF march, I was hit with a truncheon by a mounted police officer. So I gradually came up with the modest ambition to change the world.”

It might seem counterintuitive, but in a time and place when serial killers and racist mobs are potentially crossing your path, the ability to make a positive difference might actually feel more achievable, ie, “it can’t get much worse than this.”

A lot of the Leeds musicians also felt that they had an ethos and a perspective on the punk movement that offered something different from what the Sex Pistols had introduced down South. 

As The Mekons’ Jon Langford put it in a 2019 interview, London punk was “business-oriented, major-label, and about being outrageous. But in the North, we didn’t feel a part of that. There was a licence to do what we wanted.”

In the case of Gang of Four, that meant taking ideas they’d adopted from feminist pamphlets, Marxist literature, and Sartre essays, and distilling them into a new sort of funk and disco-inflected punk sound; Andy Gill’s sharp, stabbing guitar lines running up against the almost Roxy Music-like basslines of Dave Allen. “We became a spectacular performing band, bashing into each other on stage,” drummer Hugo Burnham recalled. “All the labels were desperate to sign their version of The Clash, but we signed to EMI for the least money because they gave us full creative control.”

Gang of Four’s highly influential 1979 debut album, Entertainment!, was recorded in London, but retained everything the band had developed in Leeds, including their staunchly left-wing politics and their raw, off-the-floor sound. “Whenever we play the songs now,” King concluded. “I’m almost depressed that they’re still relevant, but I’m proud that Entertainment! has become an outsider classic. Nobody makes a record like that for the money.”

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