Wire | |
|---|---|
 Wire in 2013; left to right: Matthew Simms, Robert Grey, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Wir |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | |
| Works | Wire discography |
| Years active | 1976–1980, 1985–1992,1999–present |
| Labels | |
| Members | Colin Newman Graham Lewis Robert Grey Matthew Simms |
| Past members | George Gill Bruce Gilbert Margaret Fiedler McGinnis |
| Website | www |
Wire are a British rock band, formed in London in October 1976[2] byColin Newman (vocals, guitar),Graham Lewis (bass, vocals),Bruce Gilbert (guitar), George Gill (lead guitar) andRobert Grey (aka Robert Gotobed; drums). They were originally associated with thepunk rock scene, appearing onThe Roxy London WC2 album, and were instrumental to the development ofpost-punk, while their debut album,Pink Flag, was influential forhardcore punk.[3]
Wire are considered a definitive and highly influentialart punk and post-punk band, due to their richly detailed and atmospheric sound and obscure lyrical themes.[citation needed] They steadily developed from an earlynoise rock style to a more complex, structured sound involving increased use of guitar effects and synthesizers (1978'sChairs Missing and 1979's154). The band gained a reputation for experimenting with song arrangements throughout their career.[4]
Wire began as a five-piece band in October 1976. Initially, the band's main songwriter was guitarist George Gill but after he broke his leg and was unable to perform, the band moved on without him in February 1977. They dropped most of the songs written by Gill, although many of these early songs have been released as demos or on compilation albums. Wire's debut album,Pink Flag (1977) – "perhaps the most original debut album to come out of the first wave ofBritish punk", according toAllMusic[5] – contains songs that are diverse in mood and style, but most use aminimalist punk approach combined with unorthodox structures.[6] "Field Day for the Sundays", for example, is only 28 seconds long.
Their second album,Chairs Missing (1978), marked a retreat from the stark minimalism ofPink Flag, with longer, more atmospheric songs and synthesizer parts added by producerMike Thorne.[7] "Outdoor Miner" was a minor hit, peaking at number 51 in the UK singles chart.[8] The experimentation was even more prominent on154 (1979).[2]
Wire's unorthodox ideas to promote154 led to a falling out with their label. According to Newman, "We'd worked out a sales strategy for154 that EMI couldn't see at all...They couldn't understand a rock band that wanted to do a week in a theater as an event, and wanted to promote154 with videos or left-field TV adverts. We wanted to help them sell records; they thought we were simply being intransigent."[9] According to Jim Green in an interview with Newman, "personnel changes at EMI had left Wire without any support." Colin Newman's solo album, "A-Z was planned as the fourth Wire album, but EMI cancelled studio time in the wake of failed negotiations with the band, and then dropped Wire's option."[9]
Lacking a recording deal and money,[9] creative differences split the band in 1979, leading to theDocument and Eyewitness LP (1981), a recording of a live performance that featured, almost exclusively, new material. The album was described as "disjointed",[6] "unrecognizable as rock music" and "almost unlistenable".[10] The LP came packaged with anEP 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 Newman's post-Wire solo albums (5/10,We Meet Under Tables), while others were released by Gilbert's and Lewis' primary post-Wire outletDome (And Then...,Ritual View).
Between 1981 and 1985, Wire ceased recording and performing in favour of solo and collaborative projects such asDome, Cupol,Duet Emmo and several Colin Newman solo efforts.
In 1985, the group re-formed as a "beat combo" (a joking reference to early 1960sbeat music), with greater use ofelectronic musical instruments. Wire announced that they would perform none of their older material, hiring Ex-Lion Tamers (a Wirecover band fromHoboken, New Jersey, named after a song title fromPink Flag) as their opening act for a 1987 U.S. Tour. Ex-Lion Tamers played Wire's older songs, and Wire played their new material.[11]
In June 1988, Wire were part of a lineup that includedOrchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark andThomas Dolby supportingDepeche Mode at thePasadenaRose Bowl where they played to over 60,000 people.[12][13] In 1989, Wire releasedIBTABA, a "live" album of mostly reworked versions of songs fromThe Ideal Copy andA Bell Is a Cup, heavily rearranged, edited, and remixed. A new song from the album, "Eardrum Buzz", was released as a single and peaked at number 68 in the UK singles chart.[8]
Gotobed left the band in 1990, after the release of the albumManscape. After his departure, the band dropped one letter from its name, becoming "Wir" (still pronounced "wire"), and releasedThe First Letter in 1991. There followed a further period of solo recordings, during which Newman founded theswim ~ label, and laterGithead with his wife (ex-Minimal Compact bassistMalka 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 atRoyal Festival Hall in 2000. Wire's reception during a short tour in early May of the US, and a number of UK gigs, convinced the band to continue. Two EPs,Read & Burn 01 andRead & Burn 02 were released in 2002. Seven of the tracks from the two EPs were collected with four previously unreleased tracks on the 2003 album,Send. Wire collaborated with stage designerEs Devlin and artistsJake and Dinos Chapman.[14] In 2005,The Scottish Play: 2004, which contained recordings of live performances from this era, was released.
In 2006, Wire's 1970s albums were remastered and re-released with the original vinyl track listings. In 2007,Read & Burn 03 was released. According to Newman, Gilbert featured in a minimal capacity on this EP; Gilbert would no longer feature in Wire after this release. Later, in 2020, Wire would releaseSend Ultimate which added a bonus disc to theSend album.Send Ultimate collected all the tracks from the first two Read and Burn EPs along with other unreleased material and both sides of the "Twelve Times You" single. A full-length album of new material entitledObject 47 was released in July 2008 with Wire now consisting of three members.
In January 2011, Wire releasedRed Barked Tree, which according to the band's press release "rekindles a lyricism sometimes absent from Wire's previous work and reconnects with the live energy of performance, harnessed and channelled from extensive touring over the past few years".[15] The album was written and recorded by Newman, Lewis and Grey, but speaking toMarc Riley on the day of the release, Newman introduced as "a new boy" guitaristMatt Simms (from It Hugs Back), who had been a touring member with the band since April 2010.[16]
In March 2013 the band releasedChange Becomes Us, their 13th studio album, which was very well received.[17][18] Their fourteenth album, eponymously titledWire, was released in April 2015. The following year, in April 2016, the band's 15th studio album, entitledNocturnal Koreans, was released on their label Pinkflag. The album consisted of eight songs recorded during the sessions for their previous album which were as of then unreleased.Stereogum namedNocturnal Koreans the Album of the Week. Reviews for the album were mostly positive.[19] In 2017 Wire celebrated 40 years since their debut gig on 1 April 1977 by releasing their 16th studio album,Silver/Lead, and headlining the Los Angeles edition of their DRILL : FESTIVAL.
In 2018, Wire released multi-disc special editions of their first three albums. Each album was housed in a book containing lyrics and other information about the album. The three releases collected non-LP singles and the demo sessions from this era along with remastered versions of the original albums. Also in 2018, Wire released a nine-disc vinyl box set,Nine Sevens, which compiled their first eight singles and the free EP given away with154.Nine Sevens was rereleased in April 2025 as a double vinyl set as part of Record Store Day.
In January 2020, Wire releasedMind Hive[20] on their own Pinkflag label.[21] The band appeared on the front cover ofWire magazine (issue 432) published in January 2020; it featured an interview with the band about the new album and discussed the enduring nature of the group.[22]
OnRecord Store Day, June 2020, Wire released an eight-song album entitled10:20.[23] Side one of the vinyl LP consists of four tracks that were originally released as the limited editionStrays EP, which was given away with mail ordered copies ofRed Barked Trees. Side two contains four tracks that were recorded during theMind Hive sessions but not released until their appearance on10:20.[24]
In June 2021, in conjunction with Record Store Day, Wire releasedPF456 Deluxe an 18-song vinyl-only compilation of the first two Read and Burn EPs, the "Twelve Times You" single, and the four unreleased tracks fromSend. Concurrently, Wire released a CD version ofPF456 Redux, a 16-song vinyl-only compilation, originally released in 2003, of edited versions of all the songs from the first two Read and Burn EPs along with the unreleased songs onSend.
In April 2022, in conjunction with Record Store Day, Wire releasedNot About to Die which was originally released as a bootleg in the early 1980s. The album consists of recordings made for EMI as demos for the 1978 and 1979 albums,Chairs Missing and154. The songs onNot About to Die were also previously released in 2018 by Wire on the special editions of the two EMI albums.
Despite Wire being considered pioneers ofpost-punk, Newman has denied any association withpunk. He has stated: "Wire really never were a punk band... we happened to be there at the same time. You could listthe Ramones as one of our influences, but we were never interested in just doing that genre. (...) [T]here's basically two views of Wire: you either think we were not a punk band, or that we were the best punk band ever because we broke every single rule of punk."[25]
In addition to the Ramones, the band have also cited Germankrautrock andkosmische musik bands such asNeu!,Can andKraftwerk. Other influences includedRoxy Music,Brian Eno,the Velvet Underground,Captain Beefheart,Patti Smith,Television,Syd Barrett'sPink Floyd,Talking Heads,the Stooges,the New York Dolls,Jonathan Richman andTeenage Jesus and the Jerks.[26][27][28]
Wire's influence has outshone their comparatively modest record sales. In the 1980s and 1990s, Big Black,Minutemen,[29] andSonic Youth[30] all expressed a fondness for the group. Minutemen bassistMike Watt described their influence as key, saying ofPink Flag: "I don't know what we would have sounded like if we didn't hear it."[3]
"And the sound was incredible," he continues. "It was like that NYC band Richard Hell and the Voidoids without the studio gimmickry, but Wire was way more 'econo' with the instrumentation and the radical approach to song structure. And the way Wire wrote words were artistic without being elitist; some of the slang was trippy, too. All the 'old' conventions from all the other 'old' bands went out the window after we heard Wire. They were big-time liberating on us."[3]
Wire were influential on Americanhardcore punk. Fans includedIan MacKaye ofMinor Threat andHenry Rollins,[3][31] formerly ofBlack Flag.Minor Threat covered "12XU" for theFlex Your Head compilation,[32] as didBoss Hog on theirI Dig You EP. Rollins, as Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Childhaters, covered "Ex Lion Tamer" on the EPDrive by Shooting.Michael Azerrad reported, in the bookOur Band Could Be Your Life, that at Minor Threat's second gig, each of the seven bands on the roster performed a version of a Wire song.[33]
Robert Pollard once declared Wire's154 to be "the greatest album of all time",[34] and has stated that "[t]here's always some Wire influence in my stuff."[35] Numerous other bands and artists have cited Wire as an influence, includingSoundgarden,[36]Manic Street Preachers,[37]Hüsker Dü,[38]Quicksand,[39]Mission of Burma,[40]Mary Timony,[41] andA Certain Ratio.[42]
Big Black covered Wire's "Heartbeat" twice, once as a studio version that was released as a single (also included onThe Rich Man's Eight Track Tape compilation) and also as a live version, featuring Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, included on the VHS version of the live albumPigpile.R.E.M. covered "Strange" on their albumDocument.[3]My Bloody Valentine covered "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" for the Wire tribute albumWhore. Theslowcore bandLow included an early, previously unreleased cover of "Heartbeat" on their career-spanning box set in 2007.Ampere andNew Bomb Turks have both covered Wire's "Mr. Suit". The Britishelectronic bandLadytron included Wire's "The 15th" on the mix compilationSoftcore Jukebox. Ladytron memberReuben Wu claimed Wire as a musical influence.[43]
Aplagiarism case between Wire's music publisher andElastica over the similarity between Wire's 1977 song "Three Girl Rhumba" and Elastica's 1995 hit "Connection" resulted in an out-of-court settlement.[44] It has also been noted that two other songs on Elastica'sdebut album, "Line Up" and "2:1", both borrowed heavily from the Wire song "I Am The Fly".[45]
Alternative Press included Wire in their 1996 list of 100 underground inspirations of the past 20 years, stating that "as long as there are listeners equally lured by tough, intelligent riffs and fearless experimentalism, Wire will remain a crucial benchmark."[46]
Fischerspooner (who covered "The 15th" on their album#1),Britpop bands likeElastica andMenswe@r andpost-punk revival bands likeBloc Party,Futureheads,Blacklist andFranz Ferdinand have cited Wire as an influence.[citation needed]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 releasehis first solo album in 2013.[47]
The chorus of Ministry's "Thieves" was influenced by the Wire song "Mr. Suit".Helmet guitaristPage Hamilton cites Wire as one of his "top five bands"[48] and as an influence on his music.[49]
Former members
Timeline
This so-called Britpop movement, which includes Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Pulp and Supergrass, harks back to the days when Britannia ruled the airwaves: the 60's (the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who) and the New Wave late 70's (Buzzcocks, Wire, the Jam).
We started absorbing early German electronic music and early Pink Floyd into what we were doing. We were more interested in Patti Smith and the Ramones, Talking Heads, Teenage Jesus – all this stuff is far more interesting to us because it was art-based.
Going back to when we started playing together, I think we had very disparate influences, but one of the common ones was pop music from the '60s, what we were brought up on. The early music from Germany:Neu!, Can, people like that. We're big fans ofCaptain Beefheart, obviously. The very earlyRoxy Music stuff was good. At the time, when we actually started working together, we'd been doing things likePatti Smith's first album, the Ramones, that stuff, Television.
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