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  1.  
    Colin has just announced on Marc Riley's 6 Music show that there will be a new Wire album on March 31 2017 to coincide with the band's 40th anniversary. They then played an impressive song called Diamonds And Cups (I think) which will be on said album.
  2.  
    And in typical Wire style the four song mini-gig for Riley's show consisted of NO songs from Nocturnal Koreans!

    Joust and Jostle, the new track, Split Your Ends and Blessed State.

    Class!
  3.  
    hello

    they performed the title track live at 25.00 minutes-ish, then a 4 song session from about 47 mins

    Can still be listened to on BBC iplayer
  4.  
    Was anything else recorded for playback on Gideon Coe's show later?
  5.  
    Nothing was announced at the start of the show but if he snuck a track in please tell me, if anyone knows
  6.  
    Just checked - 2:47:30 - Gideon Coe introduces the 6th track! - They recorded "Used To" - it's here.....

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0764z3l
  7.  
    Well spotted leefact25.
    The Newman /Lewis interview with Mark Radcliffe is available as a standalone item on BBC iplayer
  8.  
    Diamond and Cups was played (i think for the first time) at the gig in Lewes
  9.  
    Sorry Kevin. I didn't realise they played NK earlier in the show. Tuned in just before they played the four-song set.
  10.  
    It didn't help that when Marc Riley read the list of songs at the end of the show he left "Nocturnal Koreans" out
  11.  
    Is it just me or is this new song "Diamonds & Cups" like one of the best songs Wire mk III has done? It sounds like a mix between Map Ref and 40 Versions. Another Wire pop classic. How this band continues to produce at such a high level at the 40 year mark is beyond me.
  12.  
    Wire have spoiled us since Send.
    And everything since they reconvened in 2007 – Read and Burn 3, Object 47, Red Barked Tree, Changes Becomes Us, Wire and Nocturnal Koreans – has been little short of breath-taking.
  13.  
    No pressure then :)
  14.  
    Can anyone suggest another group who have been so consistently good, coupled with such a diverse range of music, for 40 years? I can't think of any, literally ANY.

    Only The Fall could possibly be said to approach Wire for innovation over so long a period, and Wire haven't had fifty different members to bring new ideas to the table.

    And then there's the solo work too. With my Graham obsession, I sometimes tend to forget Colin's stupendous output outside Wire. Together, it's surely unparalleled in popular music.

    I've a feeling you'd have to venture into the world of classical music, and from a very long time ago, to find comparable quality over decades.

    We've been thoroughly spoiled!
  15.  
    Well said, Sir.
    Wire really are unique and I feel the fans' loyalty has been rewarded by the records that have been released by the band since the departure of Bruce Gilbert.
    What I don't get is why so many so-called music lovers don't give Wire the attention and sales figures they clearly deserve. It's not as if the music is contrary and challenging on the ear (although the text can sometimes be a different story). Somehow the mass ranks just don't get it. Well, I don't get them.
  16.  
    The last couple of Wire releases have been uncharacteristically bland IMO, I hope they rediscover their testes in time for this alleged 40th anniversary release.
  17.  
    @Rooksby sorry the testosterone levels on recent releases were not sufficient...maybe you'd be better off getting into Metallica or Foo Fighters I've heard they RAWK man.

    @StephenHope new albums by a band of Wire's vintage are never going to set the charts alight, but the last three have done pretty well I believe and got plenty of radio play. Like most bands and artists with a solid back catalogue Wire will forever be judged by those first 3 albums but they've done better than most of their era in terms of forward momentum...I think the fact that throughout their career they have never looked back has stood them in good stead and they've set the bar in terms of how to keep going and maintain a real edge and and not fall back on crowd pleasing sets (which they never did...so nobody can complain they're not getting the real deal if they see them live) . If anything the live sets have become more intense. The last one I saw was mainly new songs, at My Bloody Valentine volume and they absolutely killed it. Can't really compare them to post punk era revivalists, nearest comparison would be a group like The Ex or of course the The Fall.
  18.  
    @RSwimmer - re "never going to set the charts alight" - didn't the last album either get into the charts - or was denied a chart placing purely because of the vinyl pressings being delayed? Still a fantastic achievement for pinkflag in any case.

    BTW - Craig Charles took over from the awful Shaun Keaveney this morning on BBC6Music for a couple of weeks whilst the unfunny one is on holiday. Craig opened his account at 7am with.....the single version of "Outdoor Miner"! Wahey!
  19.  
    Lee is in fact right. Had we had the vinyl for week of release on the "Wire" album we would have gone top 20 in the UK album charts. Granted it would have only been for 1 week but still. In actuality we made the top 40.

    Not so surprising that they play "Outdoor Miner" on 6-Music. It is, we have been told, 6 music listeners' 2nd most liked track. No idea how they know that or what the no.1 spot belongs to but I'm sure this is one statistic that contributes to Wire's continuing success at 6 Music.
  20.  
    The surprise was hearing it at 7am. Those last 15 minutes of Chris Hawkins (6:45 - 7:00) and first half hour of Shaun Keaveney (7-7:30) are not much more adventurous than several other more "mainstream" breakfast shows. I generally find though that when either of those DJs are replaced the music content becomes more interesting.