Jon King

Jonathan Michael "Jon" King (born 8 June 1955 in Southwark, London) is an English singer, musician and founding member of the Leeds-based post-punk band Gang of Four.

Biography

He attended Sevenoaks School, where he was a member of the 'Art Room' that produced musicians Tom Greenhalgh and Mark White of The Mekons, along with Andy Gill of Gang of Four, Adam Curtis, the award-winning British documentarian and writer, and Paul Greengrass, the film director, screenwriter and former journalist famous for the Bourne identity franchise. The band's lyricist and co-songwriter, he sings in the group as well as playing melodica and percussion such as a microwave oven or wooden block (using a baseball bat or a stick), the latter notably on the song "He'd Send in the Army." Jon Pareles in The New York Times described King's lyrics as "bitterly analytical, infused with theories from Marx, Adorno, Baudrillard and Godard, and the band was determined to puncture pop romance with the consciousness that people are manipulated by power economics, media and marketing.Why not write about ideas? Mr. King said. " – Source Jon Pareles, New York Times, 24 January 2005. Jon King co-wrote and co-produced the groundbreaking Entertainment!, Gang of Four's debut album, regularly listed as among the top 100 albums of all time and described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the best debut album by a British band – punk or otherwise – since the original English release of The Clash in 1977.