Wire – SIDE-LINE

Wire’s ‘The First Letter’ turns 35 on 14 October

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Wire’s “The First Letter” turns 35 this year. The English post-punk band released the album on 14 October 1991 through Mute Records, crediting it to Wir, a one-word rendering of the band’s name adopted after drummer Robert Gotobed left the group the previous year.

Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Bruce Gilbert, the trio recording as Wire under the Wir name, recorded “The First Letter” at Worldwide International and Swanyard Recording Studios in London. Paul Kendall produced the album with Wir and handled engineering and mixing; Pascal Gabriel added production and mixed the “So and Slow It Grows” single version, with George Holt engineering that mix. Mute Records issued the album on CD, cassette and vinyl LP, with the “So and Slow It Grows” single mix added as a bonus track on the CD and cassette editions.

Most of the album’s eleven songs are credited to Gilbert, Newman and Lewis together, with “Naked, Whooping and Such-Like (Extended On and On)” written by Lewis alone and featuring a spoken-word reading by Claude Bessey. The tracklist runs “Take It (For Greedy),” “So and Slow It Grows,” “A Bargain at 3 and 20 Yeah!,” “Footsi – Footsi,” “Ticking Mouth,” “It Continues,” “Looking at Me (Stop!) Stop!,” “Naked, Whooping and Such-Like (Extended On and On),” “Tailor Made,” “No Cows on the Ice” and “A Big Glue Canal.” Wire released a second, more abrasive set of recordings from the same period, “The Drill,” the same year under its own name.

About Wire

Wire formed in London, England, in October 1976 with Colin Newman on vocals and guitar, Graham Lewis on bass and vocals, Bruce Gilbert on guitar, George Gill on lead guitar and Robert Gotobed on drums. Gill left in February 1977 after a leg injury left him unable to perform, and the remaining four-piece became the band’s lasting line-up for over a decade. Wire signed to Harvest/EMI and released three albums in quick succession: “Pink Flag” (1977), “Chairs Missing” (1978) and “154” (1979). EMI’s discomfort with the band’s unconventional promotion of “154” led to a falling out; the label cancelled studio time for a planned fourth album and dropped Wire’s option, and the band issued the live recording “Document and Eyewitness” in 1981 before falling largely silent for several years.

Wire resurfaced on Mute Records in the mid-1980s, releasing “The Ideal Copy” (1987), “A Bell Is a Cup… Until It Is Struck” (1988) and “IBTABA” (1989), followed by “Manscape” in 1990. Gotobed left the band after “Manscape,” and Newman, Lewis and Gilbert continued as a trio under the one-letter-shorter name Wir, releasing “The First Letter” and the companion album “The Drill” in 1991. Wire’s members then spent most of the 1990s on separate projects: Newman founded the swim~ label and formed Githead with his wife, Malka Spigel, while Wire itself remained only an occasional, part-time concern.

The band reconvened as a full-time act in 1999, with Gotobed returning under his birth name, Robert Grey, and went on to release “Send” (2003), “Object 47” (2008), “Red Barked Tree” (2011), “Change Becomes Us” (2013), a self-titled album (2015), “Nocturnal Koreans” (2016) and “Silver/Lead” (2017), among later records, with guitarist Matthew Simms joining the line-up in 2010. Wire marked Record Store Day 2025 with two exclusive releases. “The First Letter” remains the only album the band released under the Wir name, a marker of the lineup change that preceded its return as a full-time group.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Bruce Gilbert, Rocheman and Finn Kennedy play The Hotel at Café OTO

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:02:21 +0000

English musician Bruce Gilbert, a founding member of Wire, plays a solo live set at Café OTO in London on Friday 9 October 2026. The night is billed as “The Hotel presents…” and also features Rocheman and performance artist Finn Kennedy. Doors are at 7:30pm, with tickets priced from £13 for Café OTO members up to £20 on the door, available through the venue.

The show is The Hotel’s third evening at Café OTO in 2026. Gilbert’s set previews a new album due from The Hotel later this year. Test pressings of the as-yet-unannounced record will be sold at the merch table.

Finn Kennedy premieres a newly commissioned piece titled “Streams.” Rocheman closes the night with a full band set, performing as a quartet with Fred Lomas on lead guitar, Tom Powell on drums and Tom Wright on keyboards. Rocheman’s second album, “Basin,” was released on vinyl by The Hotel earlier in 2026, following the EPs “Angel Storm” and “Virtua Saint” on Mindseyerecords.xyz. The self-directed feature film “Taurus,” due in 2027, is among the artist’s forthcoming work.

Tickets for The Hotel at Café OTO

Tickets cost £13 for Café OTO members, £17 in advance and £20 on the door, available through the venue’s event page.

About Bruce Gilbert

Bruce Gilbert, born Bruce Clifford Gilbert on 18 May 1946 in Watford, England, co-founded Wire in London in 1976 alongside Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Gotobed, playing guitar in the band until he left in 2004, following the release of the album “Send.”

After Wire’s first breakup in 1980, Gilbert formed a series of projects with bassist Graham Lewis, including Cupol, Dome, P’o and Duet Emmo. Side-Line covered the 2022 remastered reissue of Duet Emmo’s sole album, “Or So It Seems,” Gilbert’s trio recording with Lewis and Daniel Miller. Gilbert also worked with A.C. Marias, producing the single “Drop/So” in 1980 for the group’s Dome label and co-producing the 1989 album “One of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing),” sharing songwriting credit with Angela Conway.

Gilbert’s solo albums include “This Way” (1984), “The Shivering Man” (1987) and “Ab Ovo” (1996), all released on Mute, followed by “Ordier” (2004), “Oblivio Agitatum” (2009, Editions Mego) and “Diluvial” (2013, Touch), a collaboration with BAW. He also performs as a DJ under the name DJ Beekeeper.

Wire continued without Gilbert after his departure, releasing the mini-album “Nocturnal Koreans” in 2016. Gilbert now appears at Café OTO as part of The Hotel’s third London show of 2026, ahead of a new album the label is set to release later this year.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Memorials (members of Electrelane & Wire) announce ‘All Clouds Bring Not Rain’ on Fire Records

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:45:24 +0000

Memorials, the British experimental pop duo of Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire), will release their second album “All Clouds Bring Not Rain” on March 27 via Fire Records. The 12-track album will be available digitally, on CD, and on limited citrus orange, lemon and lime vinyl editions each with four hand-stamped art prints and a sticker sheet.

The album was written, performed, recorded and mixed by Susman and Simms. Most of the material was recorded in a barn studio in southwestern France, with additional sessions involving a harpsichord at 4AD’s London studio and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker at Press Play, the studio of Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay. The duo said they are drawn to older recording methods because it is about “capturing a moment in time and committing to that.”

Preview tracks already out from the album include “Cut Glass Hammer”, “In The Weeds”, “Wildly Remote”, and “Dropped Down The Well”.

All Clouds Bring Not Rain by MEMORIALS

Memorials tour dates 2026

March 27 – Resident Records (instore), Brighton, UK
March 28 – South Records (instore), Southend-On-Sea, UK
April 1 – Stranger Than Paradise (instore), London, UK
April 8 – Le Hasard Ludique, Paris, France
April 9 – Le Club, Évreux, France
April 10 – Variations Festival, Nantes, France
April 11 – CALM, Limoges, France
April 12 – La Petite Populaire, La Réole, France
April 14 – Le Consortium, Dijon, France
April 15 – Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France
April 22 – The Croft, Bristol, UK
April 23 – Little Bully, Oxford, UK
April 24 – The Prince Albert, Brighton, UK
April 25 – Verdant Tap Room, Falmouth, UK
April 26 – Heartbreakers, Southampton, UK
April 29 – The Lexington, London, UK
April 30 – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, UK
May 1 – Castle Hotel, Manchester, UK
May 2 – NeoAncients, Stroud, UK
May 7 – Studio 919, Victoria, BC, Canada
May 8 – The Pearl, Vancouver, BC, Canada
May 9 – Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA, USA
May 10 – Mississippi Studios, Portland, OR, USA
May 12 – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA, USA
May 13 – The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA, USA
May 14 – Casbah, San Diego, CA, USA
May 15 – Swan Dive, Las Vegas, NV, USA
May 16 – Pappy & Harriet’s, Pioneertown, CA, USA
May 17 – Club Congress, Tucson, AZ, USA
May 19 – 13th Floor, Austin, TX, USA
May 20 – Pie Shop, Washington, DC, USA
May 21 – Tubbys, Kingston, NY, USA
May 22 – O’Brien’s, Allston, MA, USA
May 31 – Nachtasyl, Hamburg, Germany
June 1 – Kantine am Berghain, Berlin, Germany
June 2 – Noch Besser Leben, Leipzig, Germany
June 3 – Kohi, Karlsruhe, Germany
June 4 – Manufaktur, Schorndorf, Germany
June 5 – Bellevue di Monaco, Munich, Germany
June 7 – Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands
June 8 – Cactus, Brugge, Belgium

About Memorials

Memorials are a British Canterbury-based duo featuring Verity Susman and Matthew Simms. Susman is best known as a founding member and frontwoman of Electrelane. Simms is best known for his work with Wire and had previously formed It Hugs Back before joining Wire in 2010.

Susman and Simms began working together during the pandemic on documentary scores, including music for “Women Against The Bomb” and “Tramps!”. Their soundtrack albums “Music For Film: Tramps!” and “Music For Film: Women Against The Bomb” were released on May 12, 2023, and later appeared together on the 2xLP “Music For Film: Tramps! & Women Against The Bomb”. Susman, Simms and Kat Duma were later nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for their work on “Tramps!”.

Fire Records released the duo’s first full-length album “Memorial Waterslides” on October 4, 2024. That record followed the 2023 soundtrack work and a Centre Pompidou commission. On December 12, 2025, Fire also issued the limited single “Cut Glass Hammer / Reasonably Invisible”.

“All Clouds Bring Not Rain” now follows as the duo’s second studio album.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Wire announces 2 new exclusive releases for Record Store Day

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:06:52 +0000

A double LP edition of Wire’s “Nine Sevens” box set and a never released on vinyl update of WIR’s 1996 release now entitled “Vien +” will be available on Record Store Day, April 12.

“Nine Sevens” is a collection of their 7” singles first released in 2018. The only thing really that these tracks have in common (besides being by Wire) is that they were released or destined to be released on 7” by Wire in the period 1977-1980. WIR’s “Vien +” on the other hand is an updated version of their 1996 release that has never been available on vinyl until now

For those who don’t understand the WIR name, that is the moniker for Wire’s second chapter. WIR was created after drummer Robert Grey left in 1990 and to fulfil the final phase of Wire’s Mute Records contract. WIR was, however, not a long-term project and besides completing their only album,”The First Letter”, their only other activities were a very small number of gigs and two multi-artist conceptual happenings under the name ‘I Saw You’.

One of these was in Clapham in April 1992 on election night and the other in Vienna in Feb 1993. On tha Vienna trip, in addition to playing the gig, the band recorded a radio session for the Austrian nationa broadcaster ORF which was organised by the late Peter Rehberg – later the person behind MEGO. This was released in 1996 by Touch on CD and consisted of two long tracks with a running time of almost 25 minutes. Once the short run of CDs had sold out, the rights technically fell to the band, and pinkflag released it – digital only – in 2007. It has never been released on vinyl before now.

Below is a video of an edited version of “The First Letter”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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Immersion joined by SUSS for new album ‘Nanocluster Vol. 3’

Bernard - Side-Line Staff — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 18:58:42 +0000

Now here is a release which you should definitely check out if you are into the more eclectic side of things. Immersion – Colin Newman from Wire and Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact – have announced a new album, “Nanocluster Vol. 3” with the ambient Americana trio SUSS. The album will be out February 14 on the swim ~ label, but a new single “State Of Motion” is available now.

According to Colin and Malka: “The title reflects the piece as it matches Immersion’s hypnotic propulsion to SUSS’ open-skies atmospherics and the video renders a visual interpretation of the stop/start nature of the music and life itself.”

“One of the challenges of a collaboration is being led into places you never could have imagined,” adds SUSS’ Pat Irwin.

This the band’s third album in their ‘Nanocluster’ series and it was first teased with the pre-release single “In The Far Away”.

The debut Nanocluster album, released in September 2021 saw the Immersion core group of Colin Newman (Wire) and Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) collaborate with Laetitia Sadier, German post-rock duo Tarwater and electronic musicians Ulrich Schnauss and Scanner. Released in June 2024, the follow up “Nanocluster Vol. 2” had guests Thor Harris – the charismatic percussion player from Swans and Cubzoa – Jack Wolter from Penelope Isles.

Immersion tour

Following the release of “Nanocluster Vol. 3”, the two bands head out on a joint tour of the U.S. The dates include performances at SXSW and Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN and will feature performances by Immersion and SUSS followed by a collaborative set

March 14 – Austin, TX @ SXSW Music Festival
March 15 – Houston, TX @ The Orange Show
March 16 – Dallas, TX @ The Texas Theatre
March 18 – Memphis, TN @ The Green Room
March 19 – Nashville, TN @ Third Man Records
March 21 – Louisville, KY @ The Whirling Tiger
March 22 – Chicago, IL @ Constellation
March 23 – Detroit, MI @ Third Man Records Cass Corridor
March 25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ The Warehouse at Tech 25
March 26 – Columbus, OH @ The Old First Presbyterian Church
March 27 – Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
March 31 – Washington, D.C. @ Pie Shop
April 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
April 3 – Boston, MA @ The Red Room at Cafe 939
April 4 – New York, NY @ Joe’s Pub

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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