Boiling Boy Art of Persistance Diamonds in Cups Three Girl Rhumba Small Black Reptile An Alibi Red Barked Tree This Time Brio Playing Harp for the Fishes Silver/Lead Underwater Experiences Keep Exhaling Over Theirs --- Ahead Stealth of a Stork
Well this was a surprise. Sound v good, performance not chaotic at all, but the revisiting of old numbers chaos in itself. It is said that there is a hidden logic in this song selection...
Great to see them going deep catalogue on the 'oldies'. Boiling Boy though! - I can only assume it's one that's good for getting levels and easing in to a set and presumably all concerned have played it so many times they could do it their sleep.
@medulary-ray as for Drill your guess is as good as mine but I think Wire will generally play one headline set and then appear in different formations and solo projects on the other nights. The Leeds one I'm struggling to get any details about but notice that the Brudenell Social Club have unrelated gigs on the same weekend Deafheaven are playing on Friday and on Sunday the 'High Voltage' hitmakers Electric Six have (inexplicably) sold out the main room - so whatever Drill happenings are occurring that day will have to be in the smaller Games Room so I'm guessing Wire's main set will be on the Saturday but god knows - there's very little info to be had with a month to go.
There are a few extracts on YouTube of the Echoplex drill gig, including Three Girl Rhumba, Silver/Lead, Art Of Persistance and the guitar orchestra hammering along to Pink Flag. Good to see Small Black Reptile being revived from the Manscape mangle! Doesn't sound like the easiest song for Colin to sing.
I thought the same regarding the vocals. Not Colin's finest moment in that respect.
I always liked Small Black Reptile. I wonder if it's just a case of raiding the back catalogue or an intimation of a future project. Even back to the days of the Ideal Copy mailing list, when people speculated on possible future activities, along with revisiting D&E material, a 'beat combo' reworking of Manscape occasionally got a mention as a wishlist item.
I expect the 'forward propulsion' working ethos would rule this out, however, notwithstanding the triumph of the D&E/CBU project.
I would like to hear TGR but, to be honest, if they just played the 'new' stuff that would also be okay. I saw The Fall last year and, although I was unfamiliar with most of the music, I really had a great time. I saw Mark E Smith perform. It was an experience - I'm guessing this will be the same sort of thing. They are legends.
I think the question "is there plans to rework Manscape material ?" was asked to Colin after the show in Reading, and if i remember correctly the answer was something like "no way !"
I hope so. Along with The First Letter, Manscape is my gym listening of choice at present, and I've even got my step-son, who is my trainer, saying the The Third Letter is pretty much his favourite album of any sort at the moment!
He also can't understand why Wire aren't more well known.
I google translated the text and found this little interesting snippet....."Although it is not really a priority for us, I would like to re-record some of the songs from the Manscape album (1990): I find it contains good songs, like The Morning Bell, but the sound production does not do them justice."
I've been fantasising about a kickstarter to get the master tapes of manscape and make a decent album out of it. I'd settle for a re-recording, i suppose...