Named after the teenage Fripp’s band in 1964/65, the new iteration shared an enthusiasm for dance-orientated music. Consisting of keyboard player Barry Andrews, who had recently departed from XTC, bassist Sarah Lee and drummer Johnny Toobad (real name Elichaoff), both of whom had been playing in a punk group called Baby And The Black Spots, the quartet produced an energetic blend of instrumental music propelled by a driving beat and new wave textures and a generous helping of wild, off-the-leash soloing from Fripp.

The guitarist’s insistence that they were a dance band extended to a clause in the contract that the venue would clear away tables and chairs to create a dance floor if none already existed. On various live recordings, Fripp was often heard trying to get people onto the floor to dance instead of simply standing gawking at the guitarist’s technique, albeit in his own inimitable way: “The League of Gentlemen is a dance band. This floor is not for spectators. This floor is for dancers. Anyone who would like to stand and look needs to move back. Anyone who would like to stand here needs to dance.” Within the heat of a gig, they might hurtle from the dissonant and explosive to something simplistic and ethereal in seconds. With Fripp’s notes and phrases tumbling and cascading against the metronomic rigidity of the rhythm section, the melodic heavy-lifting often switching between the front and back lines, created a marvellous tension.  

The power and vivacity that was a feature of the group in concert largely failed to transfer onto the band's sole self-titled studio album. One contributing factor was the replacement of Toobad at the end of the UK tour and just days before they were due to record Toobad, sacked because of his increasing substance abuse adversely affecting the band's ability to function properly, had been replaced by Kevin Wilkinson, a member of the support act on the tour, Restaurant For Dogs. Bassist Sara Lee recalls, “It was incredible what Kevin did. He sat in that first night and played the whole show. Kevin did a stellar job right from that first show that we played together."  

On November 29th, 1980 the League of Gentlemen played their final live show having notched up a total of 77 gigs and barely pausing for breath, entered Arnie's Shack studios in Parkstone, Dorset. Despite Wilkinson's heroic and credible efforts, the band's original intensity was further dissipated by the use of external recordings overlaid onto the music such as conversational fragments, or 'indiscretions' as Fripp termed them, in much the same manner as he had done on 1997's Exposure.

However, when Lee heard the finished album, she wasn't impressed by these additions. "I was like, ‘What are all these voices? Where did come from?’ I never heard them before and I just didn't like it.” In retrospect, neither did Fripp. When the album was anthologised with Under Heavy Manners in the ‘80s on the God Save The King LP he removed them. Posthumously released in 1981, the record also featured Fripp trailing the Roland GR-300 guitar synthesiser, foreshadowing the trumpet-like sound he would use in Crimson, it nevertheless failed to convey the group's vigour.  For that, fans would have to wait until 1996 when Fripp and David Singleton compiled, Thrang Thrang Gozinbulx. Compiled from soundboard cassettes it easily transcended its lo-fi origins and delivered the punch its studio counterpart had lacked. The advent of DGMLive has meant that with many of the shows being available to download, the group's true worth has been properly established.