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2002 archive

This page contains edited versions of all the news pages from 2002 that appeared on this site. Please note that links to external sites may not work, but were active at the time of writing. Internal links should all still be active, but if you find a dead link please inform us by using the contact form.

Bulletin: December 6, 2002—No news

Regular site visitors will have noticed a distinct lack of site updates over the last six weeks. Don't worry—the site's not dead, but I don't have time to deal with updates at the moment. However, I aim to get everything sent to me online by the middle of January next year. (So keep sending those reviews/pics to me!)

Until then, have a great holiday season, whatever you're celebrating.

Craig Grannell

October 2002

It was way back in June when we did our previous de-facto 'update' with bulletins filling in the time in-between then and now. Since then, a fair amount of material has come our way, including a number of new live reviews, articles, and interviews.

As always, if you want to submit something to the site, or if you find something has been mis-credited, then please contact us.

New articles

Along with finally providing an update to the A List, we have a bunch of Wire emoticons (as stolen wholesale from a post on the Ideal Copy Mailing List). We also have a short missive about the kid from 41°N 93°W.

Live reviews

Reports and photos from Wire's recent USA tour continue to arrive. Here's a selection of the best:

Interviews

We have a number of new interviews, mostly reprints from other sources:

Wire

Wire will be taking part in an evening of performances to launch the TV series of Iain Sinclair's M25 London Orbital, which has a soundtrack composed by Bruce Gilbert. This takes place at the Barbican on Friday, October 25 at 7.30pm.

The Barbican Web site comments: "Based on and inspired by Iain Sinclair's London Orbital, this extraordinary performance brings together readings by Iain Sinclair, J.G.Ballard, Bill Drummond and Ken Campbell; Chris Petit's specially shot and manipulated M25 film; and new music performed live by Wire, Scanner and Jimmy Cauty."

The video for In the Art of Stopping finally surfaced online on posteverything.com and is available for download in a number of formats.

Finally, the rumour mill continues to offer up interesting tidbits of information about future Wire plans. According to sources, the band is due to play at the Aberdeen Lemon Tree early next year. Of course, confirmed dates regarding 2002's European tour can be found at posteverything.com.

With regards to recorded output, it seems that there will be more Read & Burn EPs in the near future. On a recent radio show, Newman commented that an album may be compiled from the best Read & Burn tracks, along with some unique, new material. Furthermore, if this goes ahead, there would always remain unique tracks to the EPs.

Swim

Apparently, 2003 has many potential releases for Swim Records. A new signing called Roads, described as 'an angry punk band trapped in a computer' is on the cards, perhaps echoing Newman's recent forays into Wire territory. The third Lobe album is also on the cards, and is just awaiting mixing.

Finally, Colin Newman recently remixed Dead Man Ray's Landslide, the results of which can be found on the CD or 10" release.

Bulletin: September 5, 2002

Just a couple of quick site updates: firstly, Karen Williams has supplied some photos from Wire's recent ICA gig. We're still after some reports of Wire's 2002 gigs if anyone cares to oblige. Also, the A List is now fixed. Thanks to those who wrote to say it wasn't working.

Review: Read & Burn 02

Read all about Wire's latest CD in this Wireviews review.

Bulletin: September 2, 2002

Posteverything.com reports that the much anticipated follow-up to Read & Burn 01, namely Read & Burn 02 is available for purchase as of today (despite what the Web site says). Unlike its predecessor, this CD is a Web site/tour exclusive and will not be available in any stores or via any other mail order service.

Coming in at around 25 minutes, much of the material will be familiar to attendees of Wire's recent live gigs, but has been revamped in the studio. The track listing is Read & Burn, Spent, Trash/Treasure, Nice Streets Above, Raft Ants, 99.9.

Intriguingly, all posteverything mail order customers will have the added bonus of an included special item. This takes the form of a sample Wire-designed fragrance, called 'The smell of YOU'. The mind boggles...

Of course, Wireviews will report on the new CD once it arrives, but if Read & Burn 01 was anything to go by, this will be a 'must have' item for any Wire fan.

Bulletin: August 20, 2002

Posteverything.com reports that the Wire Peel Session will be broadcast on September 17, and that the follow-up to Read and Burn 01 will shortly be available.

The European tour list continues to grow; you can find out if Wire will be anywhere near you by visiting this URL. And finally, tickets for many USA Wire gigs are now available via www.wiretickets.musictoday.com rather than just ticketmaster.

Bulletin: July 26, 2002

According to sources, Wire finally recorded the long-awaited Peel Session (as originally reported in this site's June update). The tracks are apparently 1st Fast, I Don't Understand, Spent and 99.9. The latter may be familiar to those who showed up to the Brick Lane gig, while Spent was entitled 10 Years After, and has been played at most of the recent Wire gigs.

Bulletin: July 23, 2002

Well, this was to be the July update, but as you can see, we're a bit late this month! :)

As you've no doubt noticed, the site's received a tweak or two design-wise. This should mean people using alternative platforms such as WebTV should finally be able to view the site again. Users of Internet Explorer for Windows would be advised to upgrade to version 5.5 or 6, because 5 has bugs with regards to CSS-based layouts, which this site depends on. See www.webstandards.org/upgrade/ for more information. In other site news, we now finally have a review of MZUI, thanks to Fergus Kelly.

With regards to Wire, if anyone who went to the ICA show is eager to send a report and photos, please do so via wireviews@yahoo.com or the contact form.

Readers in the USA who want to see the band live will be interested to hear that more dates have been added to the tour this autumn; the full list now reads as follows:

Saturday, September 7: San Diego, CA—Casbah
Sunday, September 8: Los Angeles, CA—El Rey Theater
Monday, September 9: San Fransisco, CA—Fillmore
Tuesday, September 10: Seattle, WA—Showbox
Friday, September 13, Minneapolis, MN—First Avenue
Saturday, September 14: Chicago, IL—Metro
Sunday, September 15: Toronto, OH—Lee's Palace
Tuesday, September 17: Cambridge, MA—Middle East (Down)
Wednesday, September 18: New York, NY—Irving Plaza
Friday, September 20: Washington DC—9:30 Club
Saturday, September 21: Atlanta, GA—Echo Lounge
Sunday, September 22: Austin, TX—La Zona Rosa

Check out posteverything.com for all the latest information about the tour.

Finally, solo news is unsurprisingly thin on the ground, but we did hear that Bruce has completed the soundtrack for the new Iain Sinclair/Chris Petit film, soon to be premiered. No doubt Channel 4 will air it at some god-forsaken unannounced hour in the new future.

Bulletin: June 11, 2002

As you may have heard, Andrew Westmeyer's Wire Page is soon to close. He recently made this post to the Ideal Copy mailing list:

"I am sad to say that the end is nigh. The Wire Page first went online in May 1995, which makes it one of the oldest pages on the Web.

"The Web page has not been updated since October 2000, which was shortly after the USA dates of the 'reunion' tour. I had decided to focus exclusively on completing my PhD. Now that I'm finished, I'll be leaving Carnegie Mellon and will lose the Web space shortly afterwards.

"The good news is that all is not lost! Craig and I have been working together for some time to integrate our Web pages. Now the Wireviews page has the lyrics, tablature, discography, etc. I'll back up the Wire Page to CDR in case of a possible rebirth.

"I don't know when the web space will be closed. Probably late in the summer. Thanks to everyone who contributed over the years."

We'd like to extend our thanks to Andrew, not only for allowing us to integrate a huge amount of his hard work and content into Wireviews, but also for providing such an excellent resource since 1995. In the meantime, take a last look at the Wire Page before it disappears from the Web at www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty/wire/ or its mirror at www.public.asu.edu/~qwerty1/wire/.

Bulletin: June 6, 2002

The following dates are now confirmed for Wire's North American tour in September:

Saturday, September 7: San Diego, CA—Casbah
Sunday, September 8: Los Angeles, CA—El Rey Theater
Tuesday, September 10: Seattle, WA—Showbox
Friday, September 13, Minneapolis, MN—First Avenue
Saturday, September 14: Chicago, IL—Metro
Wednesday, September 18: New York, NY—Irving Plaza
Saturday, September 21: Atlanta, GA—Echo Lounge

More dates, plus details of special guests are to be announced soon.

June 2002

Ooh, a 'proper' update (for once). Yup, Wire is kicking once again, so we figured that the site could do with a bit more than a bulletin this month.

New reviews

First off, we have two new reviews this month, provided by Graeme Rowland and Graeme Lamour of Bruce Gilbert's Slide remix and his collaboration with Ron West: Frequency Variation. We're still on the lookout for reviews of other releases not covered in our reviews section, so if you fancy putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) then get in touch. An alternative slant on Read and Burn has also gone online at www.jericsmith.com/Records/wirerec.htm

Site news

Along with the usual monthly update to Another the A List, Andrew Walkingshaw has sent us the guitar tab to most of the Read and Burn tracks.

Wire

Speaking of reviews, Graeme Rowland has supplied a report of Wire's gig at All Tomorrow's Parties, and if anyone wants to pen some words regarding Wire's gig at Bristol, we'd love to include them on the site. Mark McQuitty has some photos of the former online at www.tingy.co.uk/dotdash, which we may well pinch in the not-too-distant (with permission, of course!) Much earlier live Wire photos appear on Philippe Carly's site at http://www.newwavephotos.com/Wire.htm.

Anyone who missed the 2002 gigs might also like to know that Wire is going to be at the ICA on July 20. To book tickets, call +44 (0) 20 7930 3647 or email tickets@ica.org.uk. The website is www.ica.org.uk. A Peel Session is also rumoured around the same time...

Finally, Wilson Zorn has created a Wire cover, which can be grabbed via his website at www.asterick.com. It mixes A Touching Display with the Monkees' Girl I Knew Somewhere and it's directly at http://artists2.iuma.com/site-bin/streammp3.m3u?217481.

Solo

No news from Swim, but Colin Newman will be taking part in the Shouty Rock Festival that's timed to coincide with the ICA's Sonic Mook event. Colin, along with special guests New York's Liars, will present two hours of all the best fast, loud and 'absolutely now' music. This event will occur on June 7 from 7-9pm BST (6-8pm GMT) on Resonance FM (104.4FM in London). Those who want to listen online can do so at www.resonancefm.com.

Speaking of Colin, his B video is currently showing on the Beggars Banquet site at www.beggars.com/mp3/video/collinnewman_b.mov.

Meanwhile, Graham Lewis has been busy at the KREV 10th anniversary: "On the whole, it was hysterically funny, with great performances from PanSonic, Mats Gustafsson, Lotta Melin, Ocsid, Larry 7, and Mika Vainio DJ'd some stunning 50s records (Link Wray being perhaps the most recognisable). DJ Guacamole (The Portuguese Ambassador) was extremely funny—a great showman—and Mike Harding (British Ambassador) was a five-star Master of Ceremonies. It was all exhausting, but stimulating!"

Apparently, the whole thing was documented in both video and photographic form, and a website is forthcoming.

Grahams' work also appears on a new Ash International compilation to coincide with this event: X - 10th Anniversary of Elgaland-Vargaland[KREV]. It includes exclusive tracks from Ryoji Ikeda, Jim O'Rourke, Fennesz, Sten Hanson Oren Ambarchi, BJ Nilsen, Mika Vainio, DJ Guacamole, People Like Us, Bigert&Bergstrom, John Duncan, AER, Chris Watson, Stephen Travis and Graham Lewis. www.ashinternational.com

Bulletin: May 8, 2002

A very quick update. Firstly, Wire is planning a USA tour this autumn—more news as we get it. Secondly, those of you who've been asking for the Read and Burn 01 texts should click here. (These have been approved by Wire.) Finally, if any of you have a report of Wire's recent gigs in Bristol and at ATP, then please send them through!

Bulletin: April 17, 2002

Just a few brief snippets of news before we move on to our review of the new Wire CD, Read and Burn. Firstly, a new Wire track will appear on the All Tomorrows Parties CD, which is to be issued soon. Also, Graham Lewis is working on a collaboration CD with John Duncan. This is currently untitled with no release date, but we'll let you know when either surfaces. Finally, Wireviews is taking a break, as the editor prepares to move overseas. Expect the next update to be sometime in late May, which should hopefully include some live reports of Bristol and Camber Sands. Until then, take it easy, and without further ado, here's the review of the long-awaited new Wire CD. (This has now been moved to here—Ed.)

Bulletin: April 1, 2002

Despite what you might think, the following 'double whammy' of Wire news isn't an April Fools Day gag.

Firstly, Wire has now been confirmed as headlining both Saturday nights on the main stage at 'All Tomorrow's Parties' in Camber Sands. Stage times are expected to be around midnight in each case.

As if that's not enough, a warm-up gig has been announced at The Fleece, Bristol on Friday 19th April. Tickets are £8 and doors open at 8:30pm. Support is from Mclusky and more information can be gained from (0117) 945 0996 or via email at info@gigs.demon.co.uk.

Secondly, as you might have already guessed, a new Wire CD is going to appear along with the band at ATP. This six-track CD of all-new material will be on general release after that gig, although order now via posteverything.com and you should receive your copy rather earlier.

This first set of new Wire material in over ten years is likely to surprise, not least due to its totally 'in your face' sound. Wire rocks, and like never before.

In addition, in an offer exclusive to mail order customers only, the CD will be dispatched with a signed, limited edition print, featuring the band, excerpted from a forthcoming video.

Expect the Wireviews 'lowdown' in the not-too-distant... As for Wireviews itself, we rather like the 'occasional bulletin' format, so we're going to stick with it until the summer, so keep checking back regularly for new announcements!

Live report: March 7, 2002

Brick Lane, London. Scene of musical atrocity and Wire. Atrocity exhibition first: lots of 'tributes' to a bassist great, most of which would have him spinning in his grave, the nadir being nearly half an hour of prog-rock guitar masturbation. Confused faces eventually give way to impatient ones. The hall is slowly clearing to the worry of drifting Wire members, who themselves aren't sure when they're going on.

In the end, they headline. It's gone half-past eleven in the evening, and much of the crowd, who'd been hiding in the bars, returns.

Wire barely notices the audience and takes the stage.

First up: 99.9—Wire in 'soundscape mode'. Swirling guitars and Colin wryly singing from scribbled notes: "The future is uncertain", over and over. The drums appear half-way through, beating into you hard. This is already Wire at it's hardest and most 'in your face', more so than 2000's 'comeback' tours, more so than Pink Flag.

Next: the 'pop song', Wire-style. A buzzing Bruce riff, chugging Graham bass, maniacal A-Z Colin vocal and fast metronome Robert create a hypnotic, powerful piece. Wire sounds like machines, at least punk-rock machines. It makes the Wire of 12XU sound like a drippy little high-school band with its intensity. It's good. It's In the Art of Stopping.

Finally: the new Drill, Pink Flag. Even more raw and stripped to the bone, it completes Wire's 15 minutes. Warhol said you got them once; if Wire continues in this vein, it's in for many more.

March 2002

Wire continues to work towards its new album at pace. Although there isn't much news to offer (including that ever-elusive release date) there are a few tid-bits this month:

Wire

Firstly, Wire will be playing two gigs over the next couple of months. The first is a 15-minute stint on March 7 at Brick Lane in London as part of the tribute concert for This Heat's Gareth Williams. At least one new track is rumoured to make an appearance. Tickets are £12, available from leon@93feeteast.co.uk or 020 7247 6095. Also, check out the website at www.93feeteast.co.uk.

A somewhat longer outing is in the offing this April. Once again, Wire will be dugga-ing away at All Tomorrows Parties at Camber Sands. You can expect more new material to be performed, as the tracks of old are gradually laid to rest. Tickets are available via 020 7734 8932 and 0161 832 1111, or check out the website at www.wayahead.com/atp/shellac2002.htm.

Several people have also written to us about a supposed new Wire album, entitled High Time. According to research by the band, this is actually a reggae album released through a food emporium (Wire's Variety & West Indian Foods) in Toronto. While the author probably doesn't know about Wire, CD-resellers have a duty to check the veracity of the items they carry, so feel free to yell at anyone carrying this item and listing it alongside 154 and A Bell is a Cup...

Finally, if you're up for a quick hit of nostalgia, check out this Real video clip of Wire performing Practice Makes Perfect from German TV's Scene in 1978: www.homestead.com/thiefoffire/.

Swim

Wire isn't the only thing happening at Brick Lane this month. Colin Newman will be DJing the following evening at Kitty-Yo's label night. Silo also has a live performance slated, as a special one-off appearance with Godspeed You Black Emperor, at Vega in Copenhagen on the 4th of April.

Coda

Short but sweet. We'll be back in May with the next update, unless something major happens in the meantime (like the new Wire album). Well, you never know...

January 2002

We finally made it! Welcome to the new-and-improved Wireviews. Bigger and better than ever, this site now incorporates the WMO newsletter and interview archives along with the lyric archive from The Wire Page. Over the coming months, we'll be rummaging through these and making sure the words you see are the right ones!

Other changes this month include the new design. If you're using an old browser then you won't get to see this (sorry) although you will have full access to all content. The old site was becoming a pain to maintain, and all we've done is use Web standards that have mostly been around since 1996, so it's hardly a radical solution.

On the Wire front, we can finally expect to see a new album sometime in 2002. Apparently, the band is "firing repeatedly" and the results are already quite exciting. Wire is also confirmed to play at All Tomorrow's Parties in the spring, so we are guessing it might be available for that, although we hasten to add there has been no word as to this album's release date from anyone as yet. New CDs are also likely from Hox, Colin Newman and Bruce Gilbert this year, so 2002 may be pretty good for the Wire fan!

Graham also told us that the Labday was a success, particularly in numbers. 30 people were allowed per tour due to safety restrictions, which meant 290 people saw the 11 performances—not bad for a physics institute on a Sunday! Graham's contribution saw him creating 11 different 17-minute mixes of the material he'd made for the two previous works in this series plus some new pieces.

Well, that's it from me. We'll begin monthly bulletins as soon as there's something to report! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the new site. Of course, let us know if there's anything you'd like to see added, and feel free to submit reviews of releases we don't have, or any other Wire-related words. Also remember to check out posteverything.com (to buy Wire and Swim CDs and records) and the Ideal Copy mailing list for discussion about all things Wire and more besides!

Dugga and best wishes,


Craig Grannell, editor

Artwork