Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube
    Nostalgia Central
    • Home
    • Blog
      • Lists
    • Television
      • TV by Decade
        • TV – 1950s
        • TV – 1960s
        • TV – 1970s
        • TV – 1980s
        • TV – 1990s
      • Comedy
      • Drama
      • Kids TV
      • Variety
      • News & Sport
      • Advertisements
    • Music
      • Music by Decade
        • Music – 1950s
        • Music – 1960s
        • Music – 1970s
        • Music – 1980s
        • Music – 1990s
      • Artists – A to K
        • Artists – A
        • Artists – B
        • Artists – C
        • Artists – D
        • Artists – E
        • Artists – F
        • Artists – G
        • Artists – H
        • Artists – I
        • Artists – J
        • Artists – K
      • Artists – L to Z
        • Artists – L
        • Artists – M
        • Artists – N
        • Artists – O
        • Artists – P
        • Artists – Q
        • Artists – R
        • Artists – S
        • Artists – T
        • Artists – U
        • Artists – V
        • Artists – W
        • Artists – X
        • Artists – Y
        • Artists – Z
      • Artists – 0 to 9
      • Genres
      • Music on Film & TV
      • One-Hit Wonders
      • Playlists
      • Online Radio
    • Movies
      • Movies by Decade
        • Movies – 1950s
        • Movies – 1960s
        • Movies – 1970s
        • Movies – 1980s
        • Movies – 1990s
      • Movies – 0 to 9
      • Movies – A to K
        • Movies – A
        • Movies – B
        • Movies – C
        • Movies – D
        • Movies – E
        • Movies – F
        • Movies – G
        • Movies – H
        • Movies – I
        • Movies – J
        • Movies – K
      • Movies – L to Z
        • Movies – L
        • Movies – M
        • Movies – N
        • Movies – O
        • Movies – P
        • Movies – Q
        • Movies – R
        • Movies – S
        • Movies – T
        • Movies – U
        • Movies – V
        • Movies – W
        • Movies – X
        • Movies – Y
        • Movies – Z
    • Pop Culture
      • Fads
      • Toys & Games
      • Fashion
      • Decor
      • Food & Drink
      • People
      • Technology
      • Transport
    • Social History
      • 1950s Year by Year
      • 1960s Year by Year
      • 1970s Year by Year
      • 1980s Year by Year
      • 1990s Year by Year
      • Events
    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Music»Artists - L to Z»Artists - W
    Artists - W Music - 1970s 3 Mins Read

    Wire

    Share
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email

    Unashamedly middle-class, and older than most of their contemporaries, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert and Robert Gotobed (born Mark Field) – who weren’t mates – were introduced via mutual friends, formed their group in October 1976, then learned to play.

    Apart from Gotobed, Wire all came with an art-school pedigree. Bassist Graham Lewis was a fashion graduate doing freelance design for London boutiques. Guitarist Bruce Gilbert, old for a punk at 31 in 1977, was an abstract painter who worked as an audio-visual technician at Watford Art School. Singer Colin Newman, seven years his junior, studied illustration at Watford, where he’d gravitated towards the sound studio’s facilities for experimentation with tape.

    wire

    Wire had a meteoric rise. They gigged, found themselves on the Roxy live album, interested Harvest (who released the Roxy album) and got themselves a healthy deal.

    They recorded their first album a few weeks later, called it Pink Flag, released it to considerable acclaim, toured heavily, became Bob Dylan‘s favourite band, and eventually released a second album, Chairs Missing (1978).

    While Wire didn’t fully mature until that second crack at immortality in 1985, their initial incarnation provided a template for anyone who has since attempted jagged, tightly rehearsed punk with an intellectual veneer.

    Pink Flag (December 1977) was defiantly minimalist. It contained 21 tracks, one of which (Field Day For The Sundays) lasted only 28 seconds.

    wire

    They followed it in February 1978 with the single I Am The Fly – a typically spiky, subversive song, full of echo-heavy guitars and a surprisingly catchy sing-along chorus urging us to “accept the next dose of disease”. I Am The Fly appeared on Chairs Missing.

    Wire split up after their third album, 154 (1979) – which sounded like early King Crimson, The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd put through a punk filter.

    The band reformed in 1985 and got more airplay, thanks to the rise of college radio in the US and the willingness of MTV to take chances on music that had some crossover potential. But while the second phase of Wire lasted twice as long as the first, its strongest creative output was limited to between 1986 and 1989.

    wire_2To avoid having the audience ask for the old songs they didn’t want to play, Wire were supported on their 1987 US tour by The Ex-Lion Tamers – a tribute band who would play the whole of Wire’s classic Pink Flag album in sequence.

    The band called it quits again in 1992.

    In 1994 they underwent a renaissance thanks to Britpop – Elastica‘s single Connection contained a suspicious borrowing from Wire’s Three Girl Rhumba and the matter was settled out of court.

    Around 1999, a fully reformed Wire started rehearsing its ’70s material again, playing the songs in vigorous new arrangements that also harked back to the sonic fullness and dance consciousness of the ’80s. This third version of the band toured with the old songs and then recorded new ones, fusing its original punk energy with a refined sense of groove.

    Bruce Gilbert only lasted for one LP- 2003’s excellent Send – before retiring from the music industry, but the remaining three original members soldiered on, enjoying the adulation of new and old fans in concert while producing new music that largely lived up to the standard of its best work.

    Colin Newman
    Vocals, guitar
    Bruce Gilbert
    Guitar
    Graham Lewis
    Bass, vocals
    Robert Gotobed (Mark Field)
    Drums

    Related Posts

    • Tyla Gang, The
      Tyla Gang, The
      Following the breakup of Ducks Deluxe, Sean Tyla formed The Tyla Gang with guitarist Bruce Irvine, bassist Brian "Kid" Turrington and…
    • Dave Edmunds
      Dave Edmunds
      Born in April 1944, Cardiff native Dave Edmunds released a single called Morning Dew in 1967 as a member of The…
    • REO Speedwagon
      REO Speedwagon
      When their 1980 single Keep On Loving You became REO Speedwagon's first hit, the band had already spent close to ten years…
    • Outcasts, The
      Outcasts, The
      The Outcasts place in Northern Irish punk history was immortalised in the 2012 film Good Vibrations, about the infamous Belfast record…
    • Jane Aire & The Belvederes
      Jane Aire & The Belvederes
      Jane Aire (real name Jane Ashley) was another talented singer from Akron, Ohio whose career really got started outside her…
    • Thunderclap Newman
      Thunderclap Newman
      John "Speedy" Keen was an old crony of The Who (he had been Keith Moon's chauffeur and "Man Friday") and had written Armenia…
    • Television
      Television
      The inaugural house band at CBGB's in New York, and contemporaries of Patti Smith and later Blondie, The Ramones and Talking Heads, Television figure large in American punk…
    • Virgin Prunes
      Virgin Prunes
      The Prunes' arty experimental approach to their Irish proto-goth rock was alternately funny (albeit unintentionally) and harrowing. Not as aggressive…

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleWeezer
    Next Article Valadiers, The

    Comments are closed.

    Follow us
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
    You May Also Like
    • Flake
      The original Flake was first developed in 1920 and was […]
    • Red Wedge (1986)
      In a desperate attempt to prevent a third consecutive Tory […]
    • Pennies From Heaven (1981)
      Dennis Potter’s TV serial is given the Hollywood treatment […]
    • Revenge Of The Nerds (1984)
      Gilbert Lowell (a pre-TV hunk Anthony Edwards who would become […]
    • Monster Club, The (1981)
      The scariest thing about Roy Ward Baker’s tribute to […]
    • Big Idea, The
      1 9 5 2 – 1 9 5 3 (USA) This unusual show displayed new […]
    Twitter Feed
    Please note


    Nostalgia Central covers the period 1950 to 1999 and contains some words and references which reflect the attitudes of those times and which may be considered culturally sensitive, offensive or inappropriate today.
    Popular Tags
    1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 Action Figures Amicus Arcade games Australia Beach movies Beatles Blaxploitation Board games Britpop Canada Crime Disco Disney Doo-Wop Elvis Presley Girl groups Glam Goth Hammer Heavy Metal Irwin Allen Labels Merseybeat Mod revival Motown New Romantic New Wave NWOBHM Oi! One-hit wonders Power Pop Pub rock Punk Radio Scotland Ska Soul music Surf music
    Search Nostalgia Central
    Copyright © 1998, 2022 Nostalgia Central
    • About
    • Contact
    • FAQ

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.