Wire live at the Barbican this Saturday

Tim

Wire were one of the earliest punk bands and can be found on an extremely early punk compliatio "Live at the Roxy WC2" along with Buzzcocks, Slaughter and the Dogs ( guitarist later formed The Cult ), X-Ray Spex, Eater etc. This was released in 1977 and I would be interested to seewhat they are like live; considering this right now....Pink Flag is supposed to be a key album.


Regards

Mike

Mike -

I think I own everything they have ever recorded, including the first three LPs on original vinyl

It's an odd feeling looking forward to a live performance by a band you've been obsessive about for the past decade.

Will report back from the front....

Tim

I've seen them live twice in the last year. They've stripped right back to basics and make an *awesome* sound (hopefully this will survive the poor acoustics at the Barbican).

Tomorrow they are playing the whole of Pink Flag - one of the greatest records of the last 30 years - with set design by Jake and Dinos Chapman, and the whole of Send, their new record. Bits of Send have been released in the last few months on two EPs, Read & Burn I and II, and it's great.

Check out their website:

http://www.pinkflag.com/

-- Ian

[This message was edited by sideshowbob on FRIDAY 25 April 2003 at 18:23.]

Typical - I choose to be away this weekend!

Sideshow - You are now the nominated Forum Wire spokesman

I too have followed Wire from The Roxy, 12XU to Read & Burn and awaiting the new album.

As stated previously. I vote for 154 as thier best material.

Have you also followed on the solo careers prior to the rejoin?

I have tried, but found the Bruce / Gilbert output difficult to track down.

Did Gotobed appear elsewhere?

Is there a comprehensive discography somewhere?

Questions, questions,

DS

OTD - Total Eclipse - Toxic Caterpillar

All this talk of Wire meant I had to dig out Pink Flag this afternoon. This album meant so much to me when I was 16/17 - it seemed so ahead of its time but completely with the times as well (que?). Anyway - still stands up as being strong, clever, funny, touching, and just plane brilliant. "Ex-Lion Tamer" is still me favourite - but that's being ultra picky!
Now where's that Wire web-site..........?

Rich

..by the way - have y'all got the Live At The Roxy CD? Its got an extra disc with loads more stuff - no Wire unfortunately but some great Buzzcocks and Adverts that had me smiling like an idjit the other night.

Rich

Roxy CD with an extra disc?

What good news!

I saw a few gigs at The Roxy; Psychadelic Furs, Members, Sham 69 etc. Amamzing place in retrospect. Went back to Neal Street a while ago; the place has now been turned into two shops, a tailors and a button shop. The button shop still had some old punk graffiti on the walls.

aaaah those really where the days.

Mike

David, too many questions!

Reasonably comprehensive Wire/Newman discography:

http://www.swimhq.com/artists/colin_discog.html

Newman non-Wire stuff has its own page:

http://www.swimhq.com/artists/Colin_discog2.html

Best Wire offshoot by far was Dome (Gilbert / Lewis). Made three albums 1980-83, all of which are excellent, lots of nice, modern-sounding electronica. Not too hard to find in s/h record shops either. Cupol (also Gilbert / Lewis) is harder to find, but if you ever see the Kluba Cupol single buy it. It's great.

Not sure what Robert Gotobed was doing in his time out, to be honest, but hey, he's just the drummer

-- Ian

I think it was the fact that Gotobed left (peeved with drum machines) that led them to split up for a while in the early nineties.

Liked Read and Burn very much - though I've only heard the first one. A long way from the lusher sounds Wire Mk2 were making on IBTABA and A Bell is a Cup etc, and if anything a return to the economies of Pink Flag.

Ian - Is 'Send' out yet?

Tim

Sideshow,

Thanks for the links,

Have got bulk of Wire, Wir, Dome 1-4, Kluba Cupol, 3R4, Muzi, all Colin Newman solos, He Said, Ab OvO, Swim releases, loads of Gilbert/Lewis, but not sure have I found all of it.

Didn't Newman marry a German woman, and produce some other music?

I will start looking a bit more.

DS

ITC - Electric Ladyland VI

David, you may not have all of it, but you seem to have done a reasonable job!

Only obvious thing missing from your list is Duet Emmo (Gilbert and Lewis with Daniel Miller), but I bet you've got that as well.

Newman and his wife run Swim records (http://www.swimhq.com/) but I haven't kept up to date with their releases TBH.

-- Ian

Some rambling thoughts of tonight's gig: not loud enough (the Barbican never is), and sitting down was not the right way to hear them, but otherwise a splendid evening. The first half, the whole of Pink Flag. The Chapman Brothers' set design wasn't any great shakes, back-projections of cheesy workout videos, but a troupe of pink-clad dancers came on for Pink Flag itself, which was fun.

The music rocked, of course, despite venue limitations.

The second half, songs from Send, the new album, was even better. Great set design by Es Devlin put each member of the band in their own gauze-fronted large white cube, onto which were projected various things (closeups of eyes, mouth and nose, magnified bacteria, sine waves, etc). The music was great, really pared down and fierce. I heard Newman interviewed on Mixing It last week when he described how Wire have finally worked out, after years of exploring various detours, that what they do best as a unit is simplicity and power. They certainly showed that tonight.

Anyone who wasn't there who could have been should go to bed without any supper.

-- Ian

Ian -

Blimey - you got home quickly!

The first half was definitely for the cognoscenti. I'd heard Wire live were very different from the recordings. In many ways they played Pink Flag note for note, word for word, even down to the beginning to 12XU ('Ere it is. Again...'), but the subtleties of the recordings were replaced by huge slabs of sound. 'Reuters' and 'Ex-Lion Tamer' felt particularly relevant in the post war age.

I liked the heckle for the second half - 'Less art, more music!', but visually it was certainly a tour de force. The projected numbers looked like heart rate monitors, but I couldn't believe their heart rates for a gig were in the 70s and 80s. Perhaps they do a bit of road cycling

In a way the best bit was the ending. A slab of sound dying to...nothing. And no encore was definitely the right thing to do. If they'd come back on it would have been very rock 'n roll.

The new-to-Wire friend who came with me was left cold by the first half, but of the second said (in a back handed compliment) 'they sound like Massive Attack on speed'.

Tim

Sideshow, Tim,

Sounds like a great gig - wish I could have been there!

I forgot Duet Emmo, I do have thier LP and singles.

Will be looking for Read & Burn II and Send in the coming week.

DS

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