Gang needing a bit of lucre before starting work (4)
I believe the answer is:
crew
'gang' is the definition.
(I know that gang can be written as crew)
'a bit of lucre before starting work' is the wordplay.
'a bit of lucre' becomes 'cre' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'starting' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'work' is 'w'.
'cre'+'w'='CREW'
'needing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crew that I've seen before include "Ship/plane workers" , "A ship's workers" , "Very short haircut for the ship's complement" , "eight > was sounding shrilly" , "On board first (4)" .)