La Roux has shared the video for her cover of Gang Of Four‘s ‘Damaged Goods’ – you can watch it below.
The singer-songwriter – aka Elly Jackson – recorded her take on the 1979 track for ‘The Problem of Leisure…’, a tribute album to the late Andy Gill. Released over the summer, the project also features IDLES, Warpaint, Gary Numan and more.
- READ MORE: Andy Gill – the NME obituary, 1956-2020: The guitar hero who made radical politics danceable
Today (November 25) La Roux dropped the song as part of a new six-track EP that comprises remixes of her ‘Damaged Goods’ cover by Wuh Oh, Disgu!se and F.A.R alongside extended and instrumental cuts.
Additionally, Jackson has referenced Gang Of Four’s microwave-smashing antics from a performance of ‘He’d Send In The Army’ in new accompanying visuals. Donning Gill’s favourite orange coat, she struts around a minimal studio space before unleashing fury with a baseball bat.
The worse for wear kitchen appliance seen in the clip survived one of Gang Of Four’s last tours, while the bat was also previously used by the group.
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“When Andy asked me to participate in the album, I was delighted,” Jackson explained. “He was a huge inspiration musically and also a good friend, hilarious and kind, nothing like his granite-faced stage persona.
“It was an honour to work with him and then to be able to celebrate him with this project after his death. We all really felt his presence when we were filming the video.”
Gill’s widow, Catherine, added: “Andy would have loved the remixes as he loved Elly’s cover of ‘Damaged Goods’. Gang of Four always aimed to be danceable as well as dialectical, and Andy was passionate about pop and dance music.
“Well before he got to know Elly, he listened to ‘In For the Kill’ and ‘Bulletproof’ so often that I occasionally complained. (Sorry, Elly).”
Leo Cackett – the director of the new video and a long-time friend and collaborator of Gill – said: “For me it’s all about the performance. I remembered watching a microwave utterly destroyed on stage by Gang of Four and that got me thinking about how much we’d missed live performance – and how much we all miss Andy.
“La Roux is a really powerful performer and I wanted to see what we’d get when we combined all of those elements. What we got was incredible.”
Meanwhile, Gang Of Four are set to embark on a North American headline tour in March 2022. Their new touring line-up features David Pajo (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Slint) and returning bassist Sara Lee.