It's a easy listen for me ...in fact it gave me goosebumps. Ahhhh...Wire. In my view one of the only true punk bands ever and hugely underrated. Genius team. Thanks for posting. 🧡
It's funny to hear but the Pink Flag recordings sound much better. Especially the guitar amplifier sounds crappy. I will be 66 in a few months but I still play PF often. One of THE great punk albums ever.
Wow if this is all 1977, this is definitely a forerunner to hardcore punk. I knew Pink Flag was influential to that scene, but these demos clearly showcase how these guys were pushing the envelope of punk just to completely shift gears the next few years and develop post-punk.
Great addition, pure badass Wire-I am impressed that there are more Wire demos to be heard. Anyone out there heard of a band called Ex Lion Tamer? They were the opening act when I saw Wire at CBGB’s in 1977. Wire would not play their first LP so Ex Lion Tamer played the complete Pink Flag album from start to finish and did a real nice imitation of Pink Flag. Thanks for the Wire tunes from New York. Wire kicked the Ramones ass when you compared them in the early days of punk. The NY Dolls back up guitarist turned me onto Wire “they are the best music coming out of England”
I found a bootleg cassette in the late '80s that had the faster punk version of "French Film Blurred" featured at about 44:30. I've been looking for the source ever since. Thanks!
These rare tracks may be rehearsals rather than demos, because what's on the Behind the Curtain compilation sounds more hi-fi. Or could there be lower gen tapes of these?
Yeah they are rehearsals. At the time I couldn't tell the difference. There is another tape that sounds more fully formed (not Behind the curtain) I'll upload that when I have the time.
Eric Rhodes - Is that other tape titled “Not About To Die”, per chance? If so, that would be so appreciated. That is kind of the holy grail obscura of Wire bootlegs.
