Wire are arguably the most important British band to come out of the punk and post-punk explosion. More inquisitive than The Sex Pistols, poppier than The Au Pairs, more experimental than Gang Of Four, the art school foursome also had the talent to constantly change and evolve their sound. From 1977’s ‘Pink Flag’ through to 2007’s ‘Read And Burn 03′ EP, every release offers something different to the listener. With a new album, ‘Object 47′, released later this year, the band aren’t on some nostalgia/revival trip; this is important music pushing 21st century boundaries in the same way the band changed music so radically in the 1970’s. For a full history, with rare live videos, read on…

Video: Wire - The 15th (Live On German TV, 1979)

Wire came to be signed to EMI after being recorded for the label’s ‘Live At The Roxy, London’ compilation album (1977), the tracks ‘Lowdown’ and ‘12 X U’ appearing on the album which charted as high as 24 and is regarded now as a classic artefact of the early punk era. It’s also important because few live recordings have surfaced of Wire from this time. The band themselves have released a limited edition box set, ‘Wire: 1977-1979′ which collects the full Roxy gigs, and the DVD ‘Wire: On The Box 1979′ makes available a German TV appearance.

Video: Wire - 12 X U (from ‘Pink Flag’, 1977)

‘Pink Flag’ (1977), the band’s debut LP, expanded punk’s sonic aesthetic, bringing an experimental nature to the formula. From the 28 seconds of ‘Field Day For The Sundays’ to the ‘Saw you in a mag (smoking a fag), kissing a man’ line of ‘12 X U’, you can tell that, despite the of-it’s-time production, this album transcends punk. Still an essential purchase.

Video: Wire - Heartbeat (Live 1979)

‘Pink Flag’ was swiftly followed in 1978 by ‘Chairs Missing’, an album that saw them dubbed ‘the Pink Floyd of New Wave’. While the album moved further away from the narrow punk sound, becoming almost prog- or art- rock in places, and you can hear the challenges and the excitement on the record. The lyrics, too, go up a notch, “She pisses icy water on poetic mornings,” drawing bigger pictures along with the sound that incorporates voice loops, bells, temple blocks, flutes, tubular bells, and that great synth sound that merges with the guitars. Most importantly, it doesn’t sound like a beginning, or an end.

Video: Wire - Outdoor Miner (1978)

The next album, ‘154′, didn’t take long to arrive. It came out in 1979 and shows a band at it’s experimental peak, channelling creative tensions. The out-of-time cacophony of drums on ‘The Other Window’ the mix of anger and beauty, the cor anglais, alto flute and electric viola, everything comes together so coherently that it is the perfect example of an ‘art-punk’ album. But intense artists have intense personalities and ideas, so the members separately pursued their own projects. Before this, though, Rough Trade released ‘Document & Eyewitness’, a collection of almost exclusively new material from performances at the Electric Ballroom and Notre Dame Hall. Not a band to bang out the albums note-for-note live, the amount of new, and in some cases never recorded, songs the band were willing to try out in front of an audience, shows how restless and forward-thinking they always were.

Video: Wire - Ahead (1987)

Splitting in 1980, all four members remained active as solo artists and collaborators. A few best-ofs were released, although the best releases to document Wire’s early period remain ‘The Peel Sessions‘ album and ‘Behind The Curtain’. Reuniting in 1985, they put out the ‘Snakedrill EP’ the following year and followed that up with an album, 1987’s ‘The Ideal Copy’. Expanding the use of electronics, it signposted their experiments of the late 80’s into softer, electronic sounds. This continued through the albums ‘A Bell Is A Cup… Until It Is Struck’ (”a work of modern genius” - AllMusicGuide), ‘It’s Beginning To And Back Again’, which started off as a live album before being completely taken apart in the studio.

Video: Wire - Eardrum Buzz

This period was becoming deeply fruitful for Wire, the technology available to them opening up new avenues. ‘Manscape’, ‘The Drill’ EP and ‘The First Letter’ were all albums that built on this sound, as the band moved into the 90’s still just as frenetic as they entered the 80’s. Drummer Robert Gotobed chose to leave in 1990 as the percussion between increasingly electronic, so ‘The First Letter’ and limited EP ‘Vien’ were released under the name ‘Wir’, the band dropping the final letter from their name. This effectively saw them take another lengthy hiatus, until an invitation to curate an evening at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2000 turned into a full-blown reunion gig, with Wire playing a rare set of material drawn from the first three albums. Not for them the easy, take the money and play the classics gigs, though. They set up their own Pink Flag label, began recording at lead singer Colin Newman’s studio, and sold releases directly through PostEverything.com. ‘The Third Day‘, in 2000, documented the fruits of the band’s rehearsals of the old stuff, and ‘It’s All In The Brochure‘ serves as a document of the February 2000 event.

Even so, the return came as a surprise. ‘Read And Burn 01‘ (June 2002) was an EP of completely new material that, instead of harking back to 1977, or 1987, brought the spirit of those eras resolutely into the now. ‘Read And Burn 02‘ was released a mere four months later, and if anything is even more uncompromising, more intense, than it’s predecessor.

Audio: Wire - ‘In The Art Of Stopping’ (edit) (from Read And Burn 01) - mp3

The full-length ‘Send‘ collected the ‘Read And Burn’ 01 and 02 material along with some new tracks. Then last year the band released another EP, ‘Read And Burn 03‘, and announced that these songs were from the sessions for a full album. ‘Read And Burn 03 is an amazing document, containing possibly my favourite Wire track ever, ‘23 Years Too Late’. The opening track on the EP, clocking in at nearly ten minutes, it’s an art-punk-pop-electronic tour de force.

Audio: Wire - ‘23 Years Too Late (edit)‘ (original track from Read And Burn 03) - mp3

Visit the ‘listen‘ section of Pink Flag to get a taster of the group, and last.fm have a load of full-length tracks for you to listen to on their artist page here. All the albums are essential for any collection, but great places to start are ‘On Returning: 1977-79‘, which collects 31 tracks from their early period, ‘The A List (1985-1990)‘, a collection spanning ‘Snakedrill’ through to ‘Manscape’. ‘Send‘ collects the Read And Burn 01 and 02 material, along with some other newer tracks, and ‘Read And Burn 03‘ is well, well up there with these collections in it’s own right.