Wuhan band Hardcore Raver in Tears will join the likes of Gary Numan, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and witch house group Warpaint in contributing a track to an upcoming tribute album to the late Andy Gill. The record will see a host of acts cover songs by Gill’s band, the hugely influential post punk group Gang of Four.
Gill worked with members of Hardcore Raver in Tears back in 2012 when he produced the album Dynasty by the group’s predecessors AV Okubo. Gang of Four also went on a Chinese tour with the AV Okubo in 2013, before the record was released the following year.
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The 20-track tribute album, The Problem of Leisure: A Celebration of Andy Gill and Gang of Four, releases on May 14. The first single, “Natural’s Not in It” from Tom Morello, is already available on Spotify.
Conceptual artist Damien Hirst, a Gang of Four megafan, also provided artwork for the album.
Hardcore Raver in Tears’ contribution is “Last Mile,” an adaptation of latter day Gang of Four song “Broken Talk.” The Wuhan band’s cover comes with new lyrics sung in Mandarin.
Lu Di of Hardcore Raver in Tears and AV Okubo joined Gang of Four — and prominent Chinese indie musician Hua Dong of Re-TROS — to perform the song live in China back in 2013:
Gill died in February 2020 from pneumonia and multiple organ failure. He toured China in late 2019 with the latest iteration of Gang of Four, for a devoted Chinese following.
Rumors that Gill may have been an early victim of the Covid-19 outbreak began swirling in May last year, with Gill’s widow Catherine Mayer suggesting that the guitarist may have picked up the respiratory illness while on tour in China.
Work on the tribute album began in advance of the 40th anniversary of the release of Gang of Four’s hugely influential debut album Entertainment!, which was first released in 1979. Gill helped to pick the album artwork and worked on its overall concept and track-listing with the artists involved.
