Gang Of Four bassist Dave Allen has died aged 69. He had been suffering from dementia.
Allen’s death comes just weeks before he was due to begin the band’s farewell tour in the US.
Allen joined Gang Of Four in 1976 shortly after the band’s formation in Leeds.
Their first E.P. was released in 1978, featuring the signature song Damaged Goods, with Allen's bass prominently featured.
Debut album Entertainment! followed in 1979 and is widely acclaimed as one of the key albums in the first wave of post-punk.
Entertainment! was ranked at No.273 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Writing in 1980, Rolling Stone critic David Fricke hailed Entertainment! as "the best debut album by a British band – punk or otherwise – since the original English release of The Clash in 1977.”
The album was also a favourite of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Dave Allen’s death was confirmed by two of his bandmates, singer Jon King and drummer Hugo Burnham, who had played alongside him on Entertainment!
Burnham stated: “It is with broken yet full hearts that we share the news that Dave Allen, our old music partner, friend, and brilliant musician, died on Saturday morning. He was at home with his family.”
He added: “We’ve been so very lucky to have had the Ace of Bass in our lives.”
Allen founded another influential band, Shriekback, after exiting Gang Of Four in 1981.
In later years he rejoined Gang Of Four and worked with a variety of other groups including the Elastic Purejoy, Low Pop Suicide, King Swamp and Faux Hoax.
Allen’s death comes five years after Gang Of Four’s guitarist Andy Gill passed away.
Perhaps the best description of Gang Of Four’s powerful yet minimalist style came from NME writer Charles Shaar Murray in 1980:
“Their music is naked,” he wrote, “like an anatomical diagram or a watch in a transparent casing, you can see and hear every part of the machine going about its business.”
