Wire biography
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 Live at the Roxy 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 are arguably a definitive art punk or post-punk ensemble, mostly due to their richly detailed and atmospheric sound, often obscure lyrical themes, and, to a lesser extent, their Situationist political stance. The group exhibited a steady development from an early raucous punk style (1977's Pink Flag) to a more complex, structured sound involving increased use of guitar effects and synthesizers (1978's Chairs Missing and 1979's 154). The band gained a reputation for experimenting with song arrangements throughout its career.
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", 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.
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