To Hell With Poverty!
On sale
16th April 2026
Price: £12.99
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Reviews
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
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
King is an engaging anecdotalist
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
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
To Hell With Poverty! captures something of [Gang of Four's] essence rare: fractious, discordant, thrilling
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