Documentary Evidence

'They buried themselves' commented the NME's review of Wire's first concert since God-knows-when. Perhaps so - it is rare that legendary subversives, particularly from punk's artistic sibling, can reposition themselves in today's technologically-pure climate - but just try telling that to the hordes of revellers pogoing and moshing at these two vastly different performances. Fair enough, the audiences at these venues were a mix of highbrow artistic types, those who were around at the time of Wire's first coming and those who have come to Wire via the namechecking and respect proferred by copyists such as Blur and Elastica. Devotees, purists and the vaguely curious.

The choice of these venues is perhaps sufficient enough evidence to describe Wire's portfolio. The Embankment's Royal Festival Hall, whilst part of the South Bank Centre arts organisation, is pure modern theatre, more suited to opera or orchestral works than the raucous noise of this re-established quartet. But such is Wire's versatility that they can make what is, to all intents and purposes, a Wire greatest hits (minus electronics) set both a still life exhibit and an advertisement for two Wire offshoots (Immersion, Colin [Newman]'s project with wife Malka Spiegel and Graham Lewis' long-running He Said project, here complimented by [Band Of Susan's] Susan Stenger's bass and live Powerbook from Andreas Karperyd), as well as an electroacoustic sculpture of Wire soundbites by Daniel Miller and Seth Hodder [DJxDJ]. Pure art, no question.

One gets the impression of flicking through a guidebook for a gallery exhibition, despite that on this night Wire are happy to re-examine former glories - something that was shunned and brutally avoided in both the 1970s and 1980s. They even find time to throw in two new tracks, but despite the passing of over twenty years since the embryonic Wire released Pink Flag - surely punk and post-punk's defining moment, much more so than Unknown Pleasures - they still fill tracks such as 'Mercy' and '12XU' with a primal ur-noise. Simultaneously pure rock and post rock, Wire do what they do with a studied precision and cleanness despite the raw building blocks of throat-shredding vocal outbursts and overdriven bass and guitarwork, in addition to the metronome thud of Robert Gotobed and the non-playing of Bruce Gilbert. The Festival Hall's acoustics may not have been suited to the intensity of the majority of Wire's all-too-brief set, but Wire seemed to fill the over-large stage with a voluminous presence. In addition to two new tracks, they found the time to re-examine their earlier glories in a new, humorous light, by showing video clips of 'Drill' (sadly absent from tonight's performance), a very dodgy mullet-headed Graham Lewis using surely the world's largest video camera, and a late seventies performance on German TV. This exhibit-style cross-referencing to earlier (Forty) versions was completed by the art-meets-dance-meets-post-punk enigma of tonight's rendition of 'Heartbeat' (from Chairs Missing), where after playing out more or less to the bridge, the song was stripped down to a repeated kick drum pulse rhythm as the members of Wire left the stage one by one, leaving the simple played reverberations of Gotobed's kit; as Lewis, Gilbert and Newman vacated the stage, they were replaced by the avant-garde dance troupe led by a rehabilitated Michael Clark, and they in turn were replaced by Wire again to complete the crescendo of the piece. 'Piece', when describing this spectacle, seems far more appropriate than 'song'.

If Wire buried anything at all this evening, it was not themselves. It was merely the maladjusted view that they could not possibly live up to their up to their legendary status. Living, breathing, and still every bit as unique as they were twenty years before and just as uncompromising.

The set at The Garage - surely in the running for London's seediest venue - attracted the same cultural mix, although it was notable that the tweed-wearing art musos had migrated to the bar area almost as soon as the performance commenced. Early arrivals were treated to a view of the members arriving individually and meandering slowly across the dancefloor to the stage door, completely oblivious to their status, nor offering the slightest hint of the dexterity of performance that was still to come. This was an unsupported (or 'unhoned', as they put it) performance - pure Wire, none of the trappings associated with the performance at the Festival Hall. The smaller venue also allowed personality to shine through performance, the songs to fully grow and develop. This was Wire ca 1978 on stage in 2000 - older, sure, more accomplished but still bullish and defiantly unique. Still finding time to incorporate the two new tracks exhibited at the Festival Hall, the set was a fairly broad mix of the seventies Harvest material and non-electronic renditions of tracks from the later Mute Records period.

'Drill' was here given its most frenzied rendition to date, a never-ending slalom-run of a track twisted and mangled ceaselessly since its inception in the eighties. Tonight saw the addition of ex-Band Of Susans' Susan Stenger for additional speed-of-light guitarwork. Seemingly improvised and taken off the map despite the single-chord structure of 'Drill', this version started off as a simple set of sung questions before heading off in to the territory normally occupied by acts such as Sonic Youth (cf live versions of 'Expressway To Yr Skull' to see how a track can be taken into the realms of the unrecognisable). After the amplified resonance of a non-electronic Wire, the dub style experimental take of - I think - 'Go Ahead' (from 154), where Bruce Gilbert took up Lewis' bass and Lewis switched to synth, was completed by Newman's spoken word vocalisations (written on a piece of paper held in front of him) and random echo FX generated by striking a small hand-held FX unit. Gotobed's kit was also similarly treated, extending the drummer's improbable energy into the territory of a Studio One-style reverb fest. This track was delivered, as always, with Wire's normal ambivalence to the forward- looking auterism they have always modestly displayed. More a gig than a performance, this was Wire breathing deeply at the start of the new Century.

Welcome back (enter, enter).

WIRE - London, Royal Festival Hall, 26th February 2000 - setlist

1. WDR Footage
Live footage of Wire from 1978 to 1979. Mostly culled from 154, including 'The Fifteenth' and 'Two People In A Room'.

2. Immersion - Colin Newman and Malka Spigel
Four pieces, including 'Les Isles Flottantes (Not Arriving)', plus looped imagery, as well as an advert for the Swim~ Team#1 compilation. On a screen during the advert, there is an image of Colin Newman holding a white held advertising board with various marker-pen slogans, including 'Everything after Pink Flag sucks...'.

3. He Said - Graham Lewis (bass and vocals), Susan Stenger (bass), Andreas Karperyd (laptop)
Four tracks - 1. T.I.T.L.E., 2. Minging, 3. A Frequency (To Life), 4. To Whom... plus on-screen imagery, one of which was of a European train slowly approaching the camera, and then passing very slowly indeed.

4. DJxDJ - Daniel Miller and Seth Hodder
Live electroacoustic manipulation of Mute-era Wire tracks, created using laptop and CD mixers.

5. Krev - Christian Hausswolf and Leif Elggren
Royal wave from the balcony by KMW Michael 1 of Elgaland-Vargaland, over Krev National Anthem 1 (extract). Meanwhile, Wire arrive on stage.

6. Wire
From Pink Flag - Pink Flag, 12XU, Strange, Lowdown. From Chairs Missing - Another The Letter, Heartbeat, Being Sucked In Again, Mercy, I Feel Mysterious Today. From 154 - Two People In A Room, 40 Versions. From The Ideal Copy - Madman's Honey, A Serious Of Snakes, Advantage In Height. From A Bell Is A Cup Until It Is Struck - Silk Skin Paws, Kidney Bingos, The Boiling Boy. Plus one unknown new track, and 'Art Of Persistence'. Plus live TV footage of 'Drill'.