[Announce] Pinkflag News - 20.02.13
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DRILL : LONDON
DRILL : LONDON - WIRE : MARCH is an upcoming festival curated by Wire and The Quietus. The festival will run for four days in London from March 21-24, with dates at The Lexington and Cafe Oto from March 21-23. The grand finale on March 24 will be at Heaven where Wire will perform the entirety of Change Becomes Us. The festival line-up features Toy, Comanechi, Gazelle Twin in collaboration with Scanner, hypnotic dream popstress Malka Spigel, Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs, Land Observations, Wire's Matt Simms' It Hugs Back, Klara Lewis, Wire's Edvard Graham Lewis, Stranger Son, and the noise dance of Mambas. More acts are still to be announced.
Luke Turner of the Quietus says: "When Colin asked if we'd be up for curating a Festival with Wire, we were hardly going to say no. In a way, this is a follow-up to the two dates we did at the Lexington a couple of years ago, when Wire were supported by Factory Floor and LoneLady. We see Wire not as a band of the past, but a contemporary group making some of the best music of their 'career'... To see them alongside new artists is exactly what we're about as a website."
Tickets for the Heaven show are already on sale. As well as the Wire set, the show will feature support from East India Youth and the evening's closer will be a performance of Wire's anthemic encore "Pink Flag" by Wire and the pinkflag guitar orchestra, a collection of individuals whose main connection to the band is that they are Wire fans.
Of course, if you have already bought the Special Edition of "Change Becomes Us" then you are already in the draw to become one of two mailing list guests. (If you cannot be in London at this time or can't play the guitar then you may nominate a "second".)
******** INFORMATION NOT BEING RELEASED TO ANYONE OTHER THAN THE MAILING LIST AT THIS TIME ********
Performances on the 23rd March at both Lexington and Cafe Oto will both feature Wire in some shape or form…
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Here are the shows we can announce now:
Thu 21st Mar, 2013 - The Lexington
Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs + Malka Spigel + It Hugs Back
Charlie Boyer moonlighting from Electricity In Our Homes in his new "pop" guise co/headlining with Malka Spigel's UK debut with her band featuring Wire's Colin Newman, To Roccoco Rot's Ronald Lippok and Gil Luz & Uri Frost from Mambas. The evening is rounded off with a performance by Matt Simms' It Hugs Back, who have a new album out in March.
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/210295
Fri 22nd Mar, 2013 - The Lexington
Comanechi + Stranger Son + Mambas
Comanechi have long staked their reputation as one of the fiercest bands in London, with gargantuan riffs topped with Akiko Matsuura's hectoring scream. Now joined by a drummer, they'll be celebrating the release of new album You Owe Me Nothing But Love. Support comes from the equally unhinged dance noise of Mambas and psychedelic Stranger Son.
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/210297
Fri 22nd Mar, 2013 - Cafe Oto
Gazelle Twin in collaboration with Scanner + Land Observations + Edvard Graham Lewis + Klara Lewis
Friday night at Cafe Oto unites an disparate group of artists with connection to Wire, all with a connection - of sorts - to ideas of place. Think Map Ref expanded. Klara Lewis builds her music from field recordings made in locations that range from Turkey to Germany and Russia. Mute's Land Observations (a solo project of James Brooks, ex of Appliance) uses looped guitar eddies to evoke the ghosts in the landscape left by the Roman Road network. Finally, long-time friend of Wire Robin 'Scanner' Rimbaud will perform a unique collaboration with Gazelle Twin, whose music explores dystopias of real and imagined worlds.
Sat 23rd Mar, 2013 - The Lexington
Toy + Special Secret Guests
Although their long hair suggests an early '70s cosmic rock group, young Londoners Toy share with Wire a love of melodic psychedelia and songs that build and build before knocking you down. Last year's debut album was a critical hit and their live show is something to behold. Support TBA...
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/210298
Sun 24th Mar, 2013 - Heaven
Wire + East Inda Youth + pinkflag guitar orchestra
East India Youth is the first signing to the Quietus' new record label, The Quietus Phonographic Corporation. Real name William Doyle, EIY is a solo project based around very English pop melodies over burbling, electronic noise described by the Guardian as "pleasingly mental".
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/206006
Stay in touch with updates by checking with the news on pinkflag.com & via Wire's status updates on Facebook and Twitter.
LEGAL BOOTLEG SERIES - Second Set
We added an option to pre-subscribe to the second set of the Legal Bootleg Series to the bundle options of the "Change Becomes Us" Special Edition. Last month, we already made available to those that had pre-subscribed the two bonus 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.
Now we would like to present the "proper" first three releases in the series as well as make the second set available as a standalone product (although you may still subscribe in combination with the "Special Edition" as long as stocks remain, in order to get the discount). They are, in order of antiquity:
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).
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.
23 February 2000, Nottingham Social - (pfb 005) - Recycling Sherwood Forest and 04 April 2011, WFMU - 13 April 2011, KEXP (pfb101) are only available with the full subscription. (The nine regular releases and two special ones gives you 11 in all, which works out at just over £6 a go!)
6 MUSIC - YOU CAN HELP!
Some of you may have noticed that a track from "Change Becomes Us", "Love Bends", has been picking up a few plays on BBC's 6 Music. So much so that Wire very nearly made their playlist, very narrowly missing out in a meeting earlier this week. The 6 Music way of dealing with this is that three tracks that narrowly missed being playlisted get added to something called the Rebel Playlist and can then be voted on to the actual playlist by anyone that wants to see a particular track there. The link in full is here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/steve-lamacq/features/rebel-playlist/ - and obviously only one will get through so that's why your vote will be appreciated!
Clicking on the link for your chosen song (it had better be Wire or we want to know why!) throws up an email addressed to - lamacq.6music@bbc.co.uk - with the subject of the chosen band. Send it; job done! Do not send more than one email from the same address, though, as they'll just discount it!
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UPGRADE TO JEANNETTA COCHRANE FROM LEGAL BOOTLEG SERIES SET 1
It has been our aim in the "Legal Bootleg series" to provide you with the best quality items we can. That means getting as close to the source as possible for live recordings and improving them by every means at our disposal. However, it came to our attention in the last few days that there was a better quality version of the 10 Nov 1979 Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre, London (PFB 702) out there. It is exactly the same recording but, we are reliably informed, a dub from the master recording. We were interested to check it out and discovered, in spite of the quality still being pretty lo-fi, that it is clearer and cleaner. Not only that, it starts with Colin's "An Unlikely Occurrence" for 15 or so guitars (the grandaddy of the "pinkflag guitar orchestra") before moving on to the set proper. It was the work of a couple of days to re-pitch it (like many old cassette recordings, it runs fast) and then get it mastered. And guess what? If you bought it already (either as an individual release or as part of the complete subscription), you are entitled to a free upgrade! The new version of 10 Nov 1979 Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre, London (PFB 702V2) should appear in your account shortly, ready for download.
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FAREWELL, DESMOND SIMMONS
Desmond, who was an early friend of and collborater with Colin Newman, who recorded his first solo album for Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert's Dome label, and who was quite possibly one of the guitarists you hear on the opening track of the "Jeanetta Cochrane" album, died last month. We send heartfelt condolances to his family. Colin wrote a tribute piece to him for the Quietus.
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And finally
This newsletter and the website are complimentary resources. To keep abreast of Wire and all its doings, we recommend checking Pinkflag.com regularly as well as being signed up to this mailing list.
All the best,
Pinkflag