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Mar 30, 2017 · Wire at 40 sees a new album and curated festivals dotted across the globe, so what will Wire at 50 look like? In a manner fitting entirely of the same group that took to the stage at the Roxy in 1977 without a conventional care in the world, Newman says: “When it comes to the 50th we might just be obstinate and just not celebrate it.”
- Album Review
Wire Silver/Lead . 8/10. Words by Daniel Dylan Wray. 40...
- Wire
Artist: Wire. Wire have made a full-fat hooky breezy pop...
- Album Review
Contents. Wire (band) Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 [ 1 ] by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), George Gill (lead guitar) and Robert Grey (aka Robert Gotobed; drums). They were originally associated with the punk rock scene, appearing on The Roxy London WC2 album ...
Colin Newman, Bruce Gilbert, Robert Grey (Gotobed), and Graham Lewis formed Wire in 1976 in London, along with guitarist George Gill, who had been kicked out of the band by the spring of 1977.
Sep 14, 2018 · With Matthew Simms having replaced original guitarist Bruce Gilbert, Wire are continuing their run of acclaimed albums with this year’s Silver/Lead, put out to celebrate the 40th anniversary of ...
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- [edit]Influence
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), and Robert Gotobed (drums). They were originally associated with the punk rock scene, appearing on The Roxy London WC2 album—a key early document of the scene—and were later central to the development of post-punk.
Inspired by the burgeoning UK punk scene, Wire are often cited as one of the more important rock groups of the 1970s and 1980s. Critic Stewart Mason wrote, "Over their brilliant first three albums, Wire expanded the sonic boundaries of not just punk, but rock music in general."
Wire's debut album, Pink Flag (1977) – "perhaps the most original debut album to come out of the first wave of British punk", according to Allmusic – contains songs which are diverse in mood and style, but most use a minimalist punk approach, unorthodox structures, "Field Day For The Sundays", for example, is only 28 seconds long.
Chairs Missing followed in 1978, and found Wire stepping back from the stark minimalism of Pink Flag, with longer, more atmospheric songs and synthesizer parts added by producer Mike Thorne. The experimentation was even more prominent on 154 (1979). Many of the songs had bassist Graham Lewis on lead vocals.
In 1979, creative differences pulled the band in different directions, leading to the Document and Eyewitness LP (1981), a recording of a live performance that featured, almost exclusively, new material, which was described as "disjointed", "unrecognizable as rock music" and "almost unlistenable". The LP came packaged with an EP of a different performance of more new material. Some of these songs, along with others performed but not included on the album, were included on Colin Newman's post-Wire solo albums (5/10, We Meet Under Tables), while others were released by Gilbert and Lewis' primary post-Wire outlet Dome (And Then..., Ritual View).
Between 1981–85 Wire ceased recording and performing in favour of solo and non-Wire collaborative projects such as Dome, Cupol, Duet Emmo, and several Colin Newman solo efforts. In 1985, the group reformed as a "beat combo" (a joking reference to early 1960s beat music), with greater use of electronic musical instruments. Wire announced that they would perform none of their older material, hiring The Ex-Lion Tamers, (a Wire cover band named after a song title from Pink Flag), as their opening act. The Ex-Lion Tamers played Wire's older material; Wire played their new material. They released IBTABA in 1989, a "live" album of mostly re-worked versions of songs from The Ideal Copy and A Bell Is a Cup, heavily re-arranged, edited, and remixed. A new song from the album, "Eardrum Buzz", became the band's biggest charting single.
Gotobed left the band in 1990, after the release of the album Manscape. After his departure, the band dropped one letter from its name, becoming "Wir" (still pronounced "wire"), and released The First Letter in 1991. There followed a further period of solo recordings, during which Newman founded the swim ~ label, and later Githead with his wife (ex-Minimal Compact bassist Malka Spigel), while Wire remained an occasional collaboration. It was not until 1999 that Wire again became a full-time entity.
With Gotobed back in the line-up (now using his birth name, Robert Grey), the group initially reworked much of their back catalogue for a performance at Royal Festival Hall on 26 February 2000. Wire's reception during a short tour in early May of the U.S., and a number of UK gigs, convinced the band to continue. Two EPs and an album, Send (2003), followed, as well as collaborations with stage designer Es Devlin and artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. In 2006, Wire's 1970s albums were re-released with original vinyl tracklistings. Rumours abounded of a renewal of activity to mark the 30th anniversary of the band's debut as a four-piece and the re-release of Pink Flag. A third Read & Burn EP was released in November 2007.
Wire's influence has outshone their comparatively modest record sales. In the 1980s and 1990s, The Urinals, Manic Street Preachers,The Minutemen, Sonic Youth, and R.E.M., expressed a fondness for the group. R.E.M. covered "Strange" on their album Document, while their song "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" (from 1994's Monster) emulates Wire's song "Feeling Called Love". Since their 2008 reunion, The Feelies have regularly covered "Outdoor Miner" during its live sets and Lush also covered the track. Robert Smith has described how, though not a Wire fan, seeing the group live influenced The Cure's sound after their first album.
Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard claimed that Wire was his favourite band, and that the fact that GBV's albums had so many songs was directly influenced by Wire's albums. One of My Bloody Valentine's last releases was a cover of "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" for a Wire tribute entitled Whore. The song was selected as a favourite cover by Flak Magazine.
More recently, Fischerspooner (who covered "The 15th" on their album #1), britpop bands like Elastica and Menswe@r and post-punk revival bands like Bloc Party, Futureheads, Blacklist, and Franz Ferdinand have cited Wire as an influence. Blur's work, along with many more minor Britpop bands, have been cited as particularly reminiscent of 1970s Wire at various points, with Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn both speaking of the band's influence on Blur. The Smiths' Johnny Marr has confirmed that he is a fan of the band and has acknowledged that seeing Wire live helped give him the confidence to release his first solo album in 2013.
The British electronic band Ladytron included Wire's "The 15th" on the mix compilation Softcore Jukebox. The Ladytron's band member Reuben Wu claimed Wire as a musical influence.
Wire were influential on hardcore punk. Fans included Ian MacKaye of the hardcore punk band Minor Threat and Henry Rollins, formerly of Black Flag. Minor Threat covered "1 2 X U" for the Dischord Records compilation Flex Your Head, as well as Boss Hog on their "I Dig You" EP. Henry Rollins, as Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Childhaters, covered "Ex Lion Tamer" on the EP Drive by Shooting. Michael Azerrad reported, in the book Our Band Could Be Your Life, that at Minor Threat's second gig, each of the seven bands on the roster performed its version of a Wire song. Big Black covered Wire's "Heartbeat" twice, once as a studio version which was released as a single (also included on The Rich Man's Eight Track Tape compilation), and also as a live version, featuring Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, that was included on the VHS version of its live album Pigpile. The slowcore band Low included an early, previously unreleased cover of "Heartbeat" on their career-spanning boxset in 2007. Ampere recorded a cover of "Mr. Suit" for its 2006 split with Das Oath. New Bomb Turks also recorded a cover of "Mr. Suit" on its 1993 album !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!. The chorus of Ministry's "Thieves" was influenced by "Mr. Suit" as well.
A plagiarism case between Wire's music publisher and Elastica, over the similarity between Wire's 1977 song "Three Girl Rhumba" and Elastica's 1995 hit "Connection", resulted in an out-of-court settlement.
Bruce Gilbert, currently resident in London, is a co-founder of Wire, and responsible for much of the band's guitar work and many of its lyrics. Having spent several years at various colleges in the late 1960s, Bruce began painting seriously—large abstracts—in his flat, before settling on a 'proper' job as a technician at Dacorum College in ...
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Wire is an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), and Robert Gotobed (drums). They were originally inspired by and associated with the burgeoning UK punk rock scene, appearing on "The Roxy London WC2 (Jan - Apr 77)" (a key document of the groups ...
