chairs missing

Wire began building on their skeletal sound with the disturbed post punk experiments of this transitional textural triumph. Their brilliant debut 'Pink Flag' had already established the group as art school deviants from the pure punk ethos; and, with their followup, they ventured even further.

'Chairs Missing' was recorded with Colin Newman on vocals and guitars; Bruce Gilbert on guitars; Graham Lewis on bass guitar and vocals; Robert Gotobed on drums; and producer Mike Thorne adding keyboards and synthesizers to the mix.


Newman looks back: "The thing about 'Pink Flag' is that I wrote all the tunes and taught Bruce to play the guitar parts. I think Bruce in his own words would say he doesn’t regard himself as a particularly good technical guitarist. His favorite approach to the guitar is to tune the guitar to an open tuning and then put his finger on it. The problem with that is you can’t accommodate minor chords and subtle chordal shifts and changes, which have occurred in all my songs, going back to the opening track of Pink Flag - Reuters. The first chord you hear is a minor. The fact that minor chords were used in Wire from the outset is what distinguished us from other groups. Punk rock is not about minor chords. Punk rock is about major chords. Minor chords give it a different kind of feeling, so Bruce had to learn how to play the guitar in standard tuning for Wire...He did it, and I think he became quite good at it. But it was really obvious by the time we were getting to the second album – 'Chairs Missing' – that we needed to be two guitars. The classic example is 'Practice Makes Perfect'. That’s my riff, and I’m the only one who can really play it like that. On 'Pink Flag', Bruce was playing my guitar chords, my rhythm guitar parts – and me going back to being the rhythm guitarist allowed Bruce to find another space within the band."

'Chairs Missing' became their first album to make it to the charts, hitting number forty-nine in the UK. The album was a pivotal moment in the development of the post punk movement. Thorn considers: "Their attitude, its expression through tough, competent musical work, and the support of EMI gave them considerable territorial reach, into which they grew. They found themselves bearing the torch of a reborn progressive music fired with the spirit of punk and do-it-yourself-without-the-self-serving-experts, experimenting and exploring far beyond the contemporary pastiche of Sham 69 ('Urry up 'Arry, we're going down the pub'). Punk had quickly started to imitate itself, as with any commercially successful form, but change was the only constant for Wire. The 'new wave' was evolving from the punk revolution, although none of us bore the burden of style - Wire's moves were just developmental and with the program. As pop intellectuals will observe, 'pop will eat itself,' a saying memorable enough that a group took it for their name. People who were the real article, who lived what they were presenting and who took the genuine personal risks, tend to be swamped by the predictable flood of musical, stylistic and lifestyle imitators. Style is easier to adopt than to generate substance, and this period was one of several where the originals provoked a trendy stampede."







http://www.pinkflag.com/














1. "Practice Makes Perfect" Bruce Gilbert, Colin Newman 4:11









2. "French Film Blurred" Graham Lewis, Newman 2:34








3. "Another the Letter" Gilbert, Newman 1:07

4. "Men 2nd" Lewis 1:43









5. "Marooned" Gilbert, Lewis, Newman 2:21










6. "Sand in My Joints" Lewis 1:50









7. "Being Sucked in Again" Newman 3:14











8. "Heartbeat"  Newman 3:16

9. "Mercy" Lewis, Newman 5:46









10. "Outdoor Miner" Lewis, Newman 1:44

11. "I Am the Fly" Lewis, Newman 3:09











12. "I Feel Mysterious Today" Lewis, Newman 1:57

13. "From the Nursery" Lewis, Newman 2:58









14. "Used To" Gilbert, Lewis  2:23










15. "Too Late" Gilbert 4:14








'Chairs Missing' 
full album

Practice Makes Perfect 0:00

French Film Blurred 4:11

Another The Letter 6:45

Men 2nd 7:52

Marooned 9:36

Sand in My Joints 11:57

Being Sucked In Again 13:48

Heartbeat 17:02

Mercy 20:18

Outdoor Miner 26:05

I Am the Fly 27:49

I Feel Mysterious Today 30:58

From the Nursery 32:56

Used To 35:55

Too Late 38:19

(bonus tracks 42:33)

the edge of the world

The Mekons found their solid core when they added the shivering blues of Sally Timms' voice to the glorious, drunken cocktail of bellowing rocker Jon Langford and world weary crooner Tom Greenhalgh: a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and a healthy dose of bile and bitters. 'The Edge Of The World' is the more rocking pop twin to the countrified punk of 'Fear and Whiskey'. The band had expanded to include violinist Susie Honeyman, multi-instrumentalist Lu Edmonds, accordianist Rico Bell, and drummer Steve Goulding, among others; and their rambling carnival was a blur of swagger dancing on the edge of the class struggle.









www.mekons.de/mekonhom.htm

'Hello Cruel World' somehow finds its way through the despair, darkness, and doubt.

"Walking through the barbed wire

Sinking in the mud

I heard you singing

you sounded brave

Stepping over broken bodies

ignore my trembling hands

don`t think of this as blood

I know it is

Just pretend it doesnt hurt"

'Oblivion' embraces excess in an attempt to forget the gloom, anger, lies, and betrayal.

"You've always known and always remember

Then you forget you've always known"

'Big Zombie' takes the punkabilly roar of 'Hard To Be Human' and revs it up a notch.

"Start up in low, and watch them go

With a growl like lions in the zoo

Pardon merci, je suis le grande zombie

I'm just not human tonight"

'Slightly South Of The Border' feels more like an escape than a vacation moving on to another old town marching, coughing and croaking through stories that make us feel fine.

"The land stretches out

You can feel with your hands and under your feet

Run your fingers through valleys and streams

Snapping fences and warm pools of blood

That's the history of all our dreams

Paid for with words and tended with love"

'Garage D'or' is a sequel to the dramatic performance piece 'Psycho Cupid (Danceband on the Edge of Time)' from 'Fear And Whiskey'.

"lt was a bit funny being back in the kitchen again. Staring through the double glazing and feeling warm. Looking at the grey sky and snow just about to fall. I decided to ignore the smashed crockery and put the broken teapot in the corner still full of warm, steaming teabags. My sister had finally gone out. She'd given up on dad, like I had years ago. Poor kid, I suppose she'll learn sometime. But it's nice to be warm when you're feeling cold. lt had happened anyway. She knew it would. She was afraid for ages, but now her fear had grown gigantic. She tried to tell him, you think I want more than I do, but I don't -I onlywant to see you. But if I never see you again I'il die. Shit. But she saw that he hated her for making a scene and that his caution and distance... Is this too personal or natural!? She fell back into the water and drowned. The dream ended and she didn't care any more. She would never care again. She ran away from the flat taking his...

where she had gone. Oh well, anyway I never sang no beginning because you never want - ow! - find no beginning. lt's already gone and past. Whatever you're after, you'Il never find the beginning of it. And that's why you'll always be too late. The only thing you'll ever find is the end of things Whatever happens, it'll be what you didn't want to happen. Whatever doesn't happen will be the thing you want. Take your choosing how you like - you always get what you don't want. Now you're talking just like me. lt's an eye for an eye as we move over the darkness."

'Shanty' casts a leery eye on the wayward course charted by those in charge and gives the album its title.

"With a Yo and a Ho and there's one thing I know

We're not in the same boat at all

With a Yo and a Ho and the wind starts to blow

As we float off the edge of the world"

'King Arthur' describes a broken people scattered all over, talking of unity crippled by fate, divided and lonely, too weak and too late, hiding in the shadows, with eyes as cold as the grave.

"No one ever says good bye these days

We're all too busy running scared

With eyes of broken ice I watched you go

We're falling like leaves from the trees"

'The Edge Of The World'  full album:



▸ A1  Hello Cruel World 3:15
▸ A2  Bastard 2:59
▸ A3  Oblivion 3:11
▸ A4  King Arthur 4:44
▸ A5  Ugly Band 2:55
▸ A6  Shanty 3:29
▸ A7  Garage d'Or 1:49
▸ B1  Big Zombie 3:22
▸ B2  Sweet Dreams 2:31
▸ B3  Dream, Dream, Dream 2:35
▸ B4  Slightly South of the Border 3:48
▸ B5  Alone & Forsaken 1:49
▸ B6  The Letter 3:48