Wire - The Wire Legal Bootleg Series 2 - subscription

The Wire Legal Bootleg Series 2 - subscription

Wire

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The Wire Download Legal Bootleg Series 2 £66.99

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Wire - The Wire Legal Bootleg Series 2 - subscription

Wire's "Legal Bootleg Series" - 2nd Set

The Legal Bootleg series - set 1, which first became available in 2010, has proved to be a quietly popular hit. For those that don't know it, the series features selected live recordings from throughout Wire's history. The "masters", often sourced from the the original audience member who recorded it, are cleaned up (if needed) and mastered before being presented in a rolling digital series. These live recordings often show the band in a very different light to the studio recordings and are completist essentials!

This is the second series of 9 recordings which will including gigs from the 70's up to the present, including ones's mixed at swim studio, and radio recordings. Purchasers of the complete set receive two special items -

23 February 2000, Nottingham Social - (pfb 0050) - Recycling Sherwood Forest
01. Silk Skin Paws // 02. 40 Versions // 03. Boiling Boy // 04. Art of Persistence // 05. Lowdown // 06. Madman's Honey // 07. Advantage in Height // 08. He Knows // 09. Being Sucked In // 10. Strange // 11. Serious of Snakes // 12. Another The Letter // 13. 12XU

04 April 2011, WFMU - 13 April 2011, KEXP (PFB101)
01. Down To This // 02. Please Take // 03. Adapt // 04. Pink Flag // 05. Clay // 06. Bad Worn Thing // 07. Kidney Bingos // 08. Moreover

The former is a re-imagining of the set Wire played at the RFH in 2000, a combination of a rather poor 8-track recording of the Nottingham show and a lot of post-production in swim studio, which has already become a bit of a cult classic on the pinkflag forum. The latter is two radio session performances from the US tour of 2011 that really came to life with the mastering process.

The releases are available individually, as sets of three and as a complete set (obviously with the 2 bonus Items)

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Set 1

17th Feb 1978, West Runton Pavillion - (PFB 705)
01. Champs // 02. Ex-Lion Tamer // 03. Options R // 04. 106 Beats That // 05. Reuters // 06. Three Girl Rhumba // 07. I Am The Fly // 08. Oh No Not So // 09. Strange // 10. Brazil // 11. Culture Vultures // 12. Lowdown // 13. It's The Motive // 14. Practice Makes Perfect // 15. Mannequin // 16. Pink Flag // 17. Marooned // 18. Love Ain't Polite // 19. Sand In My Joints // 20. 12XU // 21. Too Late

Live recordings of any quality of this antiquity are pretty rare. This is only two months after "Pink Flag" was released and apart from "Live at The Roxy", which was professionally recorded, is the oldest live recording we know about. Two days ago it was 35 years old! The set is classic Wire, and it being so soon after the release of "Pink Flag" doesn't dim the band's enthusiasm for the new as ten of the 21 cuts were "new" at the time. From the point of view of the obscurist, this set is also interesting in that it contains the only known (so far) live versions of four songs that were only ever demoed but never officially released. Needless to say, given its antiquity, the recording quality is not stellar, but re-pitching and mastering of the original audio has improved it a lot.

12th June 1987, Maxwell's, Hoboken - (PFB 805)
01. Intro // 02. Silk Skin Paws // 03. Advantage in Height // 04. Come Back In Two Halves // 05. Cheeking Tongues // 06. Madman's Honey // 07. Ahead // 08. Kidney Bingos // 09. Over Theirs // 10. Still Shows // 11. A Serious of Snakes // 12. It's A Boy // 13. Ambitious // 14. Drill I // 15. A Vivid Riot Of Red // 16. Drill II

Another fascinating window into a different time. This was near the beginning of the first '80s tour of North America, during 1987. The gig was at the special request of the Ex Lion Tamers (this was their "home" venue) in a much smaller venue than Wire would normally play in the NYC area. The band is pretty tight and powerful and the audience pretty loud throughout! This gives a sense of intimacy not so present in recordings in larger clubs. In terms of the set, the band are already, in time honoured Wire fashion, debuting songs that would end up on "A Bell Is A Cup". The set also features a full-band version of "Still Shows" and two versions of "Drill"! A good recording that mastering has really brought to life..

21st May 1990, Hibernian, London - (PFB 901)
01. Patterns of Behaviour // 02. Kidney Bingos (Kidney / Buzz) // 03. Small Black Reptile // 04. Goodbye Ploy // 05. Sixth Sense // 06. Stampede // 07. You Hung Your Lights In The Trees // 08. Ahead // 09. What Do You See? // 10. Want To Drill You // 11. Advantage In Height // 12. Underwater Experiences // 13. Torch It

Although Robert had left the band by the time this gig took place, this is very much a Wire gig rather than a Wir gig. All the drums and percussion you hear were programmed by Robert and he had only quit a few days prior to this show. The seven shows that year were the only ever in which songs from "Manscape" were played live and the set also shows some witty re-invention: Eardrum Buzz and Kidney Bingos are mashed up into "Kidney / Buzz"; "Small Black Reptile" has the riff from "I Am The Fly" as its intro; "Ahead" turns into a kind of hip-hop; "Want To Drill You" (a precursor of "In Every City" from The Drill album) mashes up "12XU", "Drill" and an electro style baseline into something almost sexy; and "Advantage In Height" is strangely beautiful. Finally, "Underwater Experiences" was the song in which all the smoke in the smoke machine was put on the stage (you can hear it hissing out during the beginning of the song) and has an actual chorus (as opposed to just shouting).

Set 2

9th August 2009, Off Festival, Myslowiche, Poland - (PFB 006)
01 Mr Marx's Table // 02 Comet // 03 Being Sucked In // 04 Perspex Icon // 05 Mekon Headman // 06 Advantage In Height // 07 Agfers of Kodack // 08 (Let Them Dance!) // 09 Silk Skin Paws // 10 All Fours // 11 One of Us // 12 Boiling Boy // 13 The 15th // 14 106 Beats That // 15 I Don't Understand // 16 He Knows // 17 Pink Flag // 18 Lowdown // 19 Underwater Experiences // 20 12XU

A first for the bootleg series – an Object 47-era performance, for the time when Margaret Fiedler McGinnis was playing guitar. A superb quality soundboard recording.

12th July 1991, Mean Fiddler, London - (PFB 902)
01 Naked Whooping & Suchlike // 02 A Bargain At 3 and 20 Yeah! // 03 Take It // 04 Ticking Mouth // 05 It Continues // 06 Looking At Me (Stop!) // 07 The First Letter // 08 So & Slow // 09 Footsi Footsi // 10 Tailor Made // 11 Big Glue Canal // 12Drill (It's Just Noise)

A real rarity – Wir, playing a set comprised almost entirely of The First Letter material. Three-piece line-up, with Graham stage centre. Includes a real collector’s item – a Bruce Gilbert live vocal. An audience tape, but very clear.

03rd March 1979, Carre, Amsterdam - (PFB 706)
01 Another the Letter // 02 Practice Makes Perfect // 03 Two People In a Room // 04 I Feel Mysterious Today // 05 Being Sucked In Again // 06 A Blessed State // 07 A Question of Degree // 08 Mercy // 09 A Touching Display // 09 Former Airline // 10 French Film Blurred // 11 Men 2nd // 12 Heartbeat

A Roxy Music tour support show – prime ’70s Wire on fine form, playing Chairs Missing and 154 songs. It’s a similar set to the Rockpalast show, but with a much more engaged Amsterdam audience. An excellent, full-sounding recording.

Set 3 - The Document & Eyewitness sources

09th March 1979, Pavilion Montreux (PFB 708)
01. Another the Letter // 02. Practice Makes Perfect // 03. 2 People in a Room // 04. I Feel Mysterious Today // 05. Being Sucked In // 06. Blessed State // 07. A Question of Degree // 08. Mercy // 09. A Touching Display // 10. Former Airline // 11. French Film Blurred // 12. Men 2nd // 13. Heartbeat

While "Heartbeat" was on the orginal (and re-released) D&E (mainly because of the 3,000 whistling Swiss who wanted Roxy Music) and a few tracks have turned up elsewhere (most famously on the Bootleg "Take a Terrifying Trip To The Past") this is the first time, to our knowlege, the whole set has been made available.

19th July 1979, Notre Dame Hall, London (PFB 707)
01. Go Ahead // 02. Ally in Exile // 03. Being Sucked In // 04. Relationship // 05. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe // 06. Underwater Experiences // 07. Blessed State // 08. Witness to the Fact // 09. I Should Have Known Better // 10. Safe // 11. Lorries // 12. 2 People in a Room // 13. A Question of Degree // 14. Our Swimmer // 15. I Am the Fly // 16. Heartbeat // 17. Strange

The sets of the 19th & 20th of July were in fact the last "conventional" performances Wire made in the 70's. However, in typical Wire fashion - even though 154 was only recorded, not yet even released - the set only contained 3 songs from it (4 if you count "Question of Degree" which was recorded on the same sessions) whilst containing 8 "new" songs alongside 4 "oldies". Interestimgly this met none of the hostile reaction the "Electric Ballroom" received. Again this is the first time the whole set has been made available and most notably the first time any of it is at the right speed!

29th February 1980, Electric Ballroom, Document and Eyewitness Naked (PFB 806)
00. Eyewitness Accounts // 01. 5/10 // 02. Request Spot/12XU // 03. Underwater Experiences // 04. Everything's Going to Be Nice // 05. Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars) // 06. We Meet Under Tables // 07. Inventory / 08. ZEGK HOQP // 09. Eastern Standard // 10. Instrumental (Thrown Bottle) // 11. Ritual View // 12. Part of Our History // 13. Eels Sang Lino // 14. Revealing Trade Secrets // 15. And Then… Coda

Framed by a conversation between Graham and Bruce on one side and Russell Mills and Adrian Garston (the eyewitnesses) on the other side the "naked" version of the Electric Ballroom set of the 29th February 1980 (the full set with no edits or interruptions) is in many ways the missing piece of the puzzle. Ultimately, it tells a story oft repeated in Wire's hitory: four people in a fiercely creative mood but not necessarily heading in the same direction.

The prices are the same as for the previous set: the full subscription is £66.99, each three-pack is £24.99 and individual releases are £8.99.