Andy Gill, Gang of Four Guitarist Who Gave Punk Space And Groove, Dead At 64

Andy Gill, a guitarist renowned for his sharp, inverted approach to the instrument who founded the post-punk group Gang Of Four and later became a respected producer, died in a London hospital Feb. 1 from a respiratory illness, the group announced in a statement . He was 64. As a co-founder of the implacably political Gang Of Four, which formed in Leeds in the late 1970s, Gill’s influence on the silhouette of rock and roll was deep and transformative; if the prevailing winds of style zigged, Gill and his co-founding bandmates — bassist Dave Allen, drummer Hugo Burnham and singer Jon King — could already be found zagging. “Instead of guitar solos, we had anti-solos, where you just stopped playing, left a hole,” Gill says in Rip It Up and Start Again , a history of post-punk by Simon Reynolds. On its canonical 1979 debut, Entertainment! , Gang Of Four gave the frenzied sound of punk some breathing room; as Burnham and Allen provided the music’s danceable muscles, Gill’s staticky,