Wire Reissuing First Three LPs And Early Live Recordings

If you've heard early Wire, you'll know that Elastica wouldn't have existed without them. If you haven't, now's your chance.

The British band are taking a typically punk approach to reissuing their first three groundbreaking albums, live recordings and a box set on their Pinkflag label on April 25.

The remastered versions of Pink Flag (1977), Chairs Missing (1978) and 154 (1979) will be presented in their original vinyl running order with no "inappropriate bonus tracks" to honour the "conceptual clarity of the original statements." They'll come in digipack replicas of the original vinyl sleeves with 12-page booklets featuring photos and an explanation of the development of each album.

Each album will be sold individually or packaged together with two live albums — Wire: Live At The Roxy, London - April 1st & 2nd 1977 and Wire: Live At CBGB Theatre, New York - July 18th 1978 — in the Wire: 1977 > 1979 box set. While the reissues can be purchased through normal retail channels, the box set will only be available through the Pinkflag web store. The live albums will only be sold with the box set at this point.

Wire are often credited with introducing art punk to the world on their early albums, which featured sub-two-minute songs full of angular guitars and minimalist rhythms.

After five years apart pursuing solo projects, Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Robert Gotobed (a.k.a. Robert Grey) and Bruce Gilbert reformed in 1985 to release the Snakedrill EP (1986) and the more melodic and electronic-influenced albums, The Ideal Copy (1987) and A Bell Is A Cup... Until It Is Struck (1988).

After the 1990 release of Manscape, Wire essentially took a decade-long hiatus until releasing the back-to-their-punk-roots-influenced Read & Burn 01 and Read & Burn 02 earlier this decade.

Here are the songs on the three Wire reissues and two live albums:

Pink Flag
"Reuters"
"Field Day For The Sundays"
"Three Girl Rhumba"
"Ex-Lion Tamer"
"Lowdown"
"Start To Move"
"Brazil"
"It's So Obvious"
"Surgeon's Girl"
"Pink Flag"
"The Commercial"
"Straight Line"
"106 Beats That"
"Mr. Suit"
"Strange"
"Fragile"
"Mannequin"
"Different To Me"
"Champs"
"Feeling Called Love"
"12XU"

Chairs Missing
"Practice Makes Perfect"
"French Film Blurred"
"Another The Letter"
"Men 2nd"
"Marooned"
"Sand In My Joints"
"Being Sucked In Again"
"Heartbeat"
"Mercy"
"Outdoor Miner"
"I Am The Fly"
"I Feel Mysterious Today"
"From The Nursery"
"Used To"
"Too Late"

154
"I Should Have Known Better"
"Two People In A Room"
"The 15th"
"The Other Window"
"Single K.O."
"A Touching Display"
"On Returning"
"A Mutual Friend"
"Blessed State"
"Once is Enough"
"Map Ref. 41°N 93°W"
"Indirect Enquiries"
"40 Versions"

Live At The Roxy, London - April 1st & 2nd 1977 April 1st
"The Commercial"
"Mary Is A Dyke"
"Too True"
"Just Don't Care"
"Strange"
"Brazil"
"It's So Obvious"
"Three Girl Rhumba"
"TV"
"Straight Line"
"Lowdown"
"Feeling Called Love"
"NYC"
"After Midnight"
"12XU"
"Mr. Suit"
"Glad All Over"

April 2
"The Commercial"
"Mary Is a Dyke"
"Too True"
"Just Don't Care"
"Strange"
"Brazil"
"It's So Obvious"
"Three Girl Rhumba"
"TV"
"Straight Line"
"Lowdown"
"Feeling Called Love"
"NYC"
"After Midnight"
"12XU"
"Glad All Over"
"Mr. Suit"

Live At CBGB Theatre, New York - July 18th 1978
"Men 2nd"
"Reuters"
"106 Beats That"
"From the Nursery"
"Dot Dash"
"Another The Letter"
"Practice Makes Perfect"
"Marooned"
"I Am The Fly"
"Lowdown"
"Mercy"
"Outro"