Allen was born in
Kendal,
Westmorland, England, on 23 December 1955. He was the bass guitarist for the
post-punk band
Gang of Four between 1976 and 1981, and played on their first two albums. In 1981 he formed the band
Shriekback with
Barry Andrews of
XTC. After leaving Shriekback in 1988, Allen founded
King Swamp with other former bandmates. He then founded
World Domination Recordings and participated in two bands who recorded for the label. Allen was the vocalist and primary songwriter for
The Elastic Purejoy, and played bass guitar in
Low Pop Suicide which was fronted by
Rick Boston. He appeared on several LPs and EPs with each of these bands, though his ambitious plan to release a work of 20 volumes produced only three releases,
The Harvest and the Elastic Purejoy's
The Clutter of Pop and
Talk Radio. According to Pitchfork.com, in 2006, Allen formed a "super-group" under the name Faux Hoax (supposedly pronounced 'Folks') with Danny Seim of
Menomena, John Askew of Tracker, and
Pioneers Press author
Adam Gnade. A 7" single, "Your Friends Will Carry You Home", featuring Gnade on vocals, was released by
Polyvinyl records in 2008. Subsequently, he was director of Consumer Digital Audio Services at
Intel in
Portland, Oregon. He went on to be the president of the entertainment division of the Overland Agency, an advertising firm based in Portland. Later, he founded the digital strategy firm Fight, and ran the
independent record label, Pampelmoose. In 2014, he joined
Beats Music. After
Apple Inc. acquired Beats, he stayed on with Apple Music. Allen died on 5 April 2025, at the age of 69. As stated by former bandmate
Hugo Burnham in
Stereogum, "Allen had been living with early-onset
dementia for the last several years of his life." ==References==