I didn’t get to meet Colin when Bruce and Graham [Dome and Wire] came to MOMA but I would have liked to . . . I get the connection here
Showing posts with label Wire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wire. Show all posts
Sunday, November 02, 2025
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Dome - Red Tent 1980
Dome was an English musical duo formed in 1980, consisting of Bruce Gilbert (guitar, vocals, synthesiser) and Graham Lewis (bass, vocals, synthesiser) of Wire.
I have mentioned before about how much I enjoyed the company of Bruce and Graham with their co-collaborator artist Russell Mills during their ‘residency’ at MOMA when the made a mysterious dark installation piece in the top gallery and visited pretty much everyday until they decided to reform Wire and played the top gallery again with a concert I still have on C90! Lovely boys all!
Thursday, August 07, 2025
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Wire: Pink Flag 1977 + Chairs Missing 1978 + 154 1979 + The Ideal Copy 1987 | URBANASPIRINES
WIRE
from URBANASPIRINES
"Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), George Gill (lead guitar) and Robert Grey (aka Robert Gotobed; drums). They were originally associated with the punk rock scene, appearing on The Roxy London WC2 album, and were instrumental to the development of post-punk, while their debut album Pink Flag was influential for hardcore punk.” . . . . . we have looked at Bruce and Graham before as they came to do an installation piece at MOMA with their pal artist illustrator and fellow musician Russell Mills under the auspices of gallerist, exhibition organiser, all round art and music afficiando expert bar none . . . Marco Livingstone
profile and albums 1977 -1979 plus rarities
Thursday, April 06, 2023
VOODOO WAGON - WIRE : Demos - 1976
There’s been some fun stuff I forgot to underline lately from all over the blogosphere . . . . here’s one from HQ
This is early and I mean I hadn’t even heard any of this and can’t imagine the band would be too pleased its out there as it is far from ‘unique’ sounding which they were soon to become but rather a two bit punk band (sorry that’s not quite fair but . . . . ) I imagine that Graham would be pissed off to find this and that Bruce would think it was funny! I might be wrong but enjoyed meeting those two back in the day we had such fun! (Hic!) Nod to the very fine artist Russel Mills too, I miss them!
Monday, November 14, 2022
Song of The Day :: WIRE
'KIDNEY BINGO'
from 1988's "A Bell Is A Cup . . . . Until It Is Struck"
Natural splits sunburn jets price marks smart bets Strikers luck pitch backs heap tips pit slacks Dressed pints demon shrinks bread drunk dead drinks Stretch clubs models box draw skin black shocks Money spines paper lung kidney bingos organ fun Flag stunt rock stone dole axe crash dive Breathe thrift take speed double take weekends Skull row drugs hall colour bars sex calls Sparkle finds rented rings pretty things clipped wings Gold street spy fleet scandal food poor treat Fire run club gun rule mob burn some Bomb time pop crime stock frame steady climb Fresh name donor game fair meat all the same
I have mentioned Wire before in that Graham [Lewis) and Bruce [Gilbert] spent a winter sojourn at MOMA Oxford with an art installation through their friend and collaborator Russell Mills artist and illustrator and Eno conservator!. We all really got on and I admired them all (still do) especially spending endless evenings in the public house next door, the Royal Blenheim, where copious amounts of Guinness were consumed (what else!?) and even more so when they reformed the band and played a one off concert in the Upper Gallery some months after their doom filled and darkly haunting installation. all curated by the then Assistant Director at MOMA the legendary Marco Livingstone
Great fun! . . . . . I was/am fond of them all
Sunday, June 13, 2021
WIRE - Interview with Bruce Gilbert and Colin Newman - AQUARIUM DRUNKARD
Wire :: The AD Interview
I think (hope?) I have mentioned before what high regard I have for Wire and this stemming largely from artist/illustrator/muso extraordinaire Russell Mills bringing Bruce and Graham to MOMA in Oxford for a spell where they did an installation piece after discussing same with the then Assistant Director the legendary Marco Livingstone. The boys were a profound affect upon me as was Russell not least because of hanging out with them for such a time and taking them to the pub next-door and imbibing what felt like industrial quantities of Guinness, discussing all things art and literary from Sam Becket to their discovering Michael O'Shea playing outside Ronnie Scott's and finishing off their sabbatical with us by Wire reforming and playing live in the top gallery. I still have the tapes!
Friday, February 15, 2019
MICHAEL O'SHEA
Now I may have mentioned before but that one of the happiest times I spent at MOMA in Oxford was with Bruce Gilbert, Graham Lewis (from Wire) and the legendary artist illustrator and Eno authority, Russell Mills. Thanks to the then Asst Director at MOMAO, Marco Livingstone, he got the lads in to construct an installation piece in the top gallery and they pretty much came everyday to install it and once installed pretty much came everyday anyway to tinker with it and to hang out. They simply created the most extraordinary construction and accompanying soundtrack piece it has been my privilege to witness (imagine a post industrial landscape covered in leaves and the soundtrack to accompany 'Eraserhead'! ) and also seemingly to try to drown yours truly in Guinness! We talked about art in the pub next door, Samual Becket, Brian Eno, Russell wonderful artwork and much much more. Affable, super intelligent and always good company, the boys fascinated me. During their time with us they decided to re-form Wire and had their first concert performance in the said top gallery some months later. It was simply superb!
Now one of the things Bruce, Russell and Graham introduced me to was the work of Michael O'Shea and I still treasure my copy of this fine fine album which we learn from Bandcamp this morning has been re-pressed and re-released. I urge you to give it a listen and to get hold of a copy if you can. Michael's work is unique as indeed was he. I am sad to hear from the liner notes that after his suspected disappearance (he was always the nomad) shortly after the boys recorded him for their DOME label he was killed having being knocked down by a van in London in 1991. My heartfelt condolences to his family and to Russell and the boys from Wire too.
[Andy Swapp]
[Andy Swapp]
BANDCAMP says:
Having sold his instruments to fund a nomadic 1970s lifestyle, eccentric Irish experimentalist Michael O’Shea was forced to create his own handmade answer to the sitars and zelochords he’d become accustomed to playing on his travels around the globe.
Using an old door, 17 strings, chopsticks and combining them with phasers, echo units and amplification, the new device was to become his signature sound, mixing Irish folk influences with Asian and North African sounds in a mesmerising and soulful new way that brought him to the attention of the leading improvisers of his day - Alice Coltrane, Ravi Shankar, Don Cherry and more.
A logical follow up to AllChival’s recent reissue of Stano's debut LP, Michael O’Shea’s self titled LP was originally released on Wire's Dome Imprint in 1982.
The background to the album is as interesting and inspiring as the artist who created it - born in Northern Ireland but raised in the Republic, O’Shea was keen to travel and escape the troubles of his home.
Wandering throughout Europe and the Middle East, O’Shea found himself living and working as a relief aid in Bangladesh in the mid Seventies where he learned to play sitar while recovering from a bout of hepatitis. A later period spent busking in France accompanied on zelochord by Algerian musician Kris Hosylan Harp led to O’Shea’s idea of combining both instruments as a homebuilt instrument - Mo Chara [Irish for "My Friend"].
He later described the process on the back of the LP himself saying: "Having sold my sitar in Germany and being desperate for money to travel to Turkey, I conceived of the idea of combining both sitar and zelochord. The first Mo Cara was born, taken from the middle of a door, which was rescued from a skip in Munchen"
A combination of dulcimer, zelochord and sitar, O Shea would play it with a pair of chopsticks, striking the strings softly using Irish folk rhythms mixed with the rich, nostalgic sounds of of the many Asian artists he’d encountered on his travels.
It was a pan cultural sound standing at an unusual crossroads of folk, traditional, rock, progressive, jazz, electronic and post-punk worlds without hesitation.
Perfecting the instrument on the streets, there were further spells spent busking in the underground stations and cafes of London's West End and Covent Garden during the heady days of the 1970s when they were full of eccentric street entertainers, jazz improvisers and musical pioneers.
His work with Rick Wakeman never saw the light of day but O’Shea’s contact with the world of post-punk London ensured his name would live on.
Introduced to Wire's Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis via cartoonist Tom Johnston, O’Shea eventually acquiesced to an open invite to record at their studio. Turning up unannounced in the first half of 1981 the LP was recorded in a day in the legendary Blackwing Studios and released on Dome the year after.
The first side features the fifteen minute masterpiece "No Journeys End" with the B side featuring more input from Wire in processing the Mo Chara sound.
Lewis himself said years later of the forgotten masterpiece: “I always said it was the best job we ever did.”
After an aborted LP with The The's Matt Johnson the following year, O’Shea quietly disappeared from the formal recording world . His brief but unique contribution to the music world came to a sad end in 1991 when O’Shea was struck by a post van and died a few days later in hospital in London.
This repress on All City’s AllChival imprint has been remastered and reissued with the approval of both Dome and his surviving siblings.
Having sold his instruments to fund a nomadic 1970s lifestyle, eccentric Irish experimentalist Michael O’Shea was forced to create his own handmade answer to the sitars and zelochords he’d become accustomed to playing on his travels around the globe.
Using an old door, 17 strings, chopsticks and combining them with phasers, echo units and amplification, the new device was to become his signature sound, mixing Irish folk influences with Asian and North African sounds in a mesmerising and soulful new way that brought him to the attention of the leading improvisers of his day - Alice Coltrane, Ravi Shankar, Don Cherry and more.
A logical follow up to AllChival’s recent reissue of Stano's debut LP, Michael O’Shea’s self titled LP was originally released on Wire's Dome Imprint in 1982.
The background to the album is as interesting and inspiring as the artist who created it - born in Northern Ireland but raised in the Republic, O’Shea was keen to travel and escape the troubles of his home.
Wandering throughout Europe and the Middle East, O’Shea found himself living and working as a relief aid in Bangladesh in the mid Seventies where he learned to play sitar while recovering from a bout of hepatitis. A later period spent busking in France accompanied on zelochord by Algerian musician Kris Hosylan Harp led to O’Shea’s idea of combining both instruments as a homebuilt instrument - Mo Chara [Irish for "My Friend"].
He later described the process on the back of the LP himself saying: "Having sold my sitar in Germany and being desperate for money to travel to Turkey, I conceived of the idea of combining both sitar and zelochord. The first Mo Cara was born, taken from the middle of a door, which was rescued from a skip in Munchen"
A combination of dulcimer, zelochord and sitar, O Shea would play it with a pair of chopsticks, striking the strings softly using Irish folk rhythms mixed with the rich, nostalgic sounds of of the many Asian artists he’d encountered on his travels.
It was a pan cultural sound standing at an unusual crossroads of folk, traditional, rock, progressive, jazz, electronic and post-punk worlds without hesitation.
Perfecting the instrument on the streets, there were further spells spent busking in the underground stations and cafes of London's West End and Covent Garden during the heady days of the 1970s when they were full of eccentric street entertainers, jazz improvisers and musical pioneers.
His work with Rick Wakeman never saw the light of day but O’Shea’s contact with the world of post-punk London ensured his name would live on.
Introduced to Wire's Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis via cartoonist Tom Johnston, O’Shea eventually acquiesced to an open invite to record at their studio. Turning up unannounced in the first half of 1981 the LP was recorded in a day in the legendary Blackwing Studios and released on Dome the year after.
The first side features the fifteen minute masterpiece "No Journeys End" with the B side featuring more input from Wire in processing the Mo Chara sound.
Lewis himself said years later of the forgotten masterpiece: “I always said it was the best job we ever did.”
After an aborted LP with The The's Matt Johnson the following year, O’Shea quietly disappeared from the formal recording world . His brief but unique contribution to the music world came to a sad end in 1991 when O’Shea was struck by a post van and died a few days later in hospital in London.
This repress on All City’s AllChival imprint has been remastered and reissued with the approval of both Dome and his surviving siblings.
credits
released January 25, 2019
Wednesday, March 02, 2016
NEWS JUST IN . . . .
mostly (well alright solely) from Big O . . . . .
IGGY POP NUDE FOR ART CLASS
It's already a big deal to have a celebrity in class but what happens when it is Iggy Pop, 68, who poses nude for your art class? Twenty-one artists, aged 19 to 80, at the New York Academy of Art were greeted by a naked Iggy Pop on February 21, 2016 as the rocker was recruited by the Brooklyn Museum to serve as the class' nude model. Rolling Stone reported that conceptual artist Jeremy Deller, who was the driving force behind the Iggy Pop Life Class project, said: "For me it makes perfect sense for Iggy Pop to be the subject of a life class; his body is central to an understanding of rock music and its place within American culture. His body has witnessed much and should be documented."
Wow he'd be great too. I would love to draw Iggy!
SAD NEWS
BAKER CALLS IT QUITS
Ginger Baker has cancelled all of his upcoming tour dates. Rolling Stone reports that Baker broke the news on his blog writing, "Just seen doctor... big shock... no more gigs for this old drummer... everything is off... of all things I never thought it would be my heart..." Additionally, Baker's Facebook page reports: "To all fans; it is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of all shows. Ginger's doctors have insisted that he have complete rest due to diagnosis of serious heart problems. We hope you will all join with his family in wishing him well. God bless Ginger Baker."
RESPECTFULLY YOURS . . . .
RE-WIRED
Wire have announced they'll release a mini-album entitled Nocturnal Koreans on April 22 with material left over from recording sessions from their 2015 self-titled record. The eight-track is due out via Pinkflag. Vocalist and guitarist Colin Newman says: "The Wire album was quite respectful of the band and Nocturnal Koreans is less respectful. More accurately, it's the band being less respectful to itself - in that it's more created in the studio rather than recorded as the band played it, which was mostly the case with Wire. A general rule for this record was, any trickery is fair game, if it makes it sound better." Wire as pragmatic performers.
ENO HAS THE SHIP
Brian Eno has new album, The Ship (Warp Records), due April 29. It features a cover of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Set Free", from their self-titled third album, and a poem read by Peter Serafinowicz. Here's a bit of what Eno describes as his inspiration:
"One of the starting points was my fascination with the First World War, that extraordinary trans-cultural madness that arose out of a clash of hubris between empires. It followed immediately after the sinking of the Titanic, which to me is its analogue. The Titanic was the Unsinkable Ship, the apex of human technical power, set to be Man's greatest triumph over nature. The First World War was the war of materiel, 'over by Christmas', set to be the triumph of Will and Steel over humanity. The catastrophic failure of each set the stage for a century of dramatic experiments with the relationships between humans and the worlds they make for themselves.
"I was thinking of those vast Belgian fields where the First World War was agonisingly ground out; and the vast deep ocean where the Titanic sank; and how little difference all that human hope and disappointment made to it. They persist and we pass in a cloud of chatter."
It is worth noting here that Brian Eno was the first person to publish on disc Gavin Bryars' 'Sinking Of The Titanic' on his Discreet label
OCCASIONALLY Big O posts comments . . . .
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THE GLEN HANSARD COMMITMENT
Followed Glen Hansard since The Commitments film days and, more recently, of the wonderful film Once in 2007 with the hauntingly voiced Market Irglová. I had been out of the loop so hadn't heard Didn't He Ramble last year and, on the strength of this, better go out straight away and buy it! (See powers that be that's how it oughta be! That's what bootlegs or ROIOs are for!)
swappersvia internet
REPLY: Click here to download Glen Hansard in Munich 2015.
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