I grabbed this late last night but haven't had a chance to listen yet, as there's so little out there from the Pink Flag era should be interesting at the very least!
Wire 1977 November the 11th or 12th ( Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, UK
(My tape labelled 14.11.77), but according to the Wire's Gigography they only played on the 11th and 12th of that month at Hammersmith Odeon - Cyrus
AUD Cassete "Got this from "Dave the punk" on Portobello Road in 1979 on a Philips C60 tape Copied from Marantz cassette deck to Sony PCM D50 Topped, tailed and normalized in EAC" - Cowtruck
Tracks separated via Audacity - Cyrus
27:24 minutes - Supporting The Tubes
1. 106 Beats That 0:46 2. Reuters 3:04 3. Three Girl Rhumba 1:23 4. Oh No, No So 1:46 5. Strange 2:46 6. Brazil 0:42 7. Lowdown 2:12 8. It`s The Motive 1:27 9. Practice Makes Perfect 3:17 10. Mannequin 2:22 11. Pink Flag 3:39 12. Sand In My Joints 2:11 13. 12XU 1:44
Truly wretched sound, but as always, worth the effort due to its historical nature... not too much out there from 1977, and as a result, not a lot of live PF material.
Of this recent batch of uploads from Cyrus on Dime, the Splash Club is the real treasure... decent sound from an era where Wire material sounds better live than the over-produced 1980s studio recordings. Also, if the Dome show is equalized (boost the bass with a slight cut to the treble), it is almost listenable and quite enlightening. Match the bass on the live Because We Must to the studio version. I wonder what the other track titles are from this concert.
"Of this recent batch of uploads from Cyrus on Dime, the Splash Club is the real treasure..."
Just been listening to that - it certainly is - the version of "Come Back In Two Halves" is bloody funny to my ears! Re the Pink Flag stuff - there is a very short (7 minute) recording of Winter Gardens Eastbourne 9th June 77 on dime - the quality is a great deal better than the Hammersmith show.
I went to that Splash club gig in Glasgow, up from London, nowhere to go after it except an extremely unpleasant attempt to sleep in a railway carriage at Glasgow Central Rail Station. It wasn't warm at the end of December. I recorded the gig and got the sound check as I was allowed in early. Must give it a listen, I wonder how it stacks up against this one?
That would be interesting to hear, uri. Again, I thought the Splash Club recording from Dime was pretty good on many levels. That guy who is posting all of these Wire shows just put up to more:
Wire: The Opening and Closing Salvos of MARK II - 1985, June 7th, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford & 1990, August 25th, Reading Festival, Berkshire shows - AUD
I don't usually do multiple shows, but this combo is just too cool to not do. This is especially for those who think the Wire MARK II period was second rate. In the studio maybe, but not live! Here we have the very first show, upon reforming, coupled with the final show, before the departure of Robert Grey and changing their name to Wir; for one LP and a half dozen shows in three years. Both shows are pips, and extremely interesting! Drastically different renditions of songs making some of them almost unrecognizable from their studio counterparts. In a couple of cases you will hear the differences of five years on the same song, "Kidney Bingos" vs. "Eardrum Bingos" and "Drill" vs. "1 2 Drill U". Think the "Manscape" LP sucked? Do not miss "Small Black Reptile". I truly believe you will enjoy this exercise!
Cheers, Cyrus
Wire 1985, June 7th Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England Audience Tape > ? > Cassette > wav > CDR > EAC Secure > FLAC Frontend 37:23 minutes Light to moderate hiss (it varies!) that is pretty much apparent only between tracks... Colin's vocals sometimes a bit buried in the mix, but not bad.
1. Ambulance Chasers 2. Drill 3. Kidney Bingos (First version) 4. Over Theirs 5. Harry Houdini 6. A Serious of Snakes 7. Up To the Sun 8. Kidney Bingos (Reworked version)
1. What Do You See? (Welcome) 2. Eardrum Bingos 3. Small Black Reptile 4. Ahead 5. Patterns Of Behavior 6. 1-2 Drill U, 7. An Advantage In Height 8. Underwater Experiences
I'm seeing her in a whole new light, the 'Wrecking Ball' hitmaker and Twerking enthusiast is also a Wire taper of note. Who knew? I wonder if she's already having some clandestine conversations with Mr Bursa over a future Bootleg Series release..now there's a thought.
I'll make an attempt to find the Splash club tape, it's somewhere in a large packing crate of tapes in the garage. I'll put up a link to it., will take some time.....
"Surely Cyrus is wrong in suggesting Robert was part of the Reading show?"
The band were still credited as Wire rather than Wir. Robert programmed the drum rhythms but quit a few days prior to this tour, so you could hear his handiwork but he wasn't on stage. There were four people onstage though - Paul Kendall was triggering the samples and mixing onstage as far as I can remember (this was definitely the case at the Hibernian Club show four days before - the one sold as part of the Legal Bootleg Series - anyway).
What a shame this is just a fragment…the quality of this is so sweet that you can only sit and salivate over what we do NOT get to hear. Oh well, at least we have this little nugget of gold. Cheers, Cyrus
Wire 1978, October the 5th Kent University, Canterbury, England, UK AUD > ? > Cassette > Cassette > Total Recall > wav > Audacity > flac 12:47 minutes, incomplete
1. Indirect Enquiries 4:14 2. Lowdown 2:34 3. Men 2nd 1:45 4. On Returning 2:13 5. Being Sucked In Again (cut) 2:02
"The University of Kent is actually at Canterbury, not Cambridge." - "blacktocomm" Thanks for the for the correction. I fixed it up up above, but of course the folder and the text file in it will still be incorrect - Cyrus
...AND...
Here we have the earliest known (to me at least) live performances of "Go Ahead, "Safe, "Ally In Exile" and "Lorries", and yes, there are a couple of nice surprises as always when these guys are introducing new material. This is a forceful show - the boys seem to be into it. The sound, other than some distorted bass and some occasional minor skip-like ticks, is really not that awful - check the sound sample below, and judge for yourself.
Regards, Cyrus
Wire 1979, June the 30th Friars Aylesbury Club, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
AUD Tape > ? > Cassette > Total Recall > wav > Audacity > flac At 39:01 minutes, I'm going to guess that this is incomplete. It's difficult to judge as the contemporaneous setlists are all over the map, but they all lasted around a short hour or so. Any thoughts?
1. Go Ahead 2. A Question of Degree 3. Relationship 4. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe 5. Underwater Experiences 6. Blessed State 7. 2 People In A Room 8. I Should Have Known Better 9. Safe 10. Ally In Exile 11. Lorries
I'm personally very pleased the Aylesbury June 30th 1979 performance has turned up as it was a couple of days after the Nottingham Tiffanys show. At which I must admit I was struggling to know what was being played! I had many "have I heard this one?" thoughts, having bought Pink Flag & Chairs Missing & the 7"s on release, I can now see why!? :)
Lots of clearing up to find this one and my tape deck died so I had to buy one of these tape to USB devices. But the results sound good. A few audible artifacts and the unfortunate turn of the cassette in the middle of Drill but that was the way it was then. The soundcheck was a nice bonus and really like the early version of Come Back in Two Halves.