From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V1 #166 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Wednesday, November 25 1998 Volume 01 : Number 166 Today's Subjects: ----------------- introductions [Howard Spencer ] Re: introductions [Andrew N Westmeyer ] Re: introductions ["tube disaster" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 18:46:28 +0000 From: Howard Spencer Subject: introductions It continues... My name is Howard Spencer. My introduction to Wire was a peculiar one: at the age of 15 or 16 ( I am now 32) I purchased the `Dome2' album on the strength of a review/picture in `Smash Hits' magazine (which had an indie page in those days). To be absolutely honest, it was all part of a juvenile competition to see who could buy the most wilfully obscure record. I was winning - only to lose in the final lap to a record by a Swiss band called the `Corrosive crowd', which had a deliberate jump pressed into it. Arty or what? But I ended up actually liking some of the Dome stuff - `Ritual View' in particular. Later, in about 1985/6, I heard `Wire play pop', a rip-off compilation aimed at anorak wearing indie kids. I liked this, but what really got me involved was `Madman's honey', which I heard on the radio. Since then I have gradually caught up with history, and now have pretty much everything on general release. I don't want to name favourites or `top tens' at the moment, but I do think that `Manscape' and `The first letter' are very much underrated. I think it is a great shame that the Wir project did not go further: while I like some of the solo stuff (He Said, HALO, the earlier Newman material and the odd Swim production) I still think that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. I don't know if they have any plans to record together, but I imagine not. I never got to see Wire, but saw Wir at Kilburn in `91 and at the Clapham Grand in `92. Both very powerful and moving gigs - I remember the intense atmosphere of foreboding at Clapham, which was amply justified when the Tories got returned to power a couple of hours after it ended. One question: does anyone know if the songs there performed (titles may have been `Give me just a little more time' and `I hope you're feeling better') ever saw the light of day on CD/bootleg? Are they on the Hafler Trio collaboration? My other main musical interests - krautrock and tinny electronic pop. I already subscribe to the Telex mailing list. One more thing: I once met Bruce Gilbert at the back of a (rather rockist) gig in Islington, c. 1990. I thought he was absolutely charming, particularly considering that I had sunk four or five pints and probably wasn't making much sense. STOP! end ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 14:11:40 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew N Westmeyer Subject: Re: introductions Did somebody mention bootlegs? I was just dozing off on this list when I swear I heard someone mention bootlegs... :) Excerpts from mail: 24-Nov-98 introductions by Howard Spencer@oup.co.uk > I never got to see Wire, but saw Wir at Kilburn in `91 and at the > Clapham Grand in `92. ... > One question: does anyone know if the songs there performed > (titles may have been `Give me just a little more time' and `I hope > you're feeling better') ever saw the light of day on CD/bootleg? Are > they on the Hafler Trio collaboration? I didn't know about the Clapham Grand gig in '92. I had thought that Wir was (were?) dead by that point, but apparently not. "I hope you're feeling better" is a lyric in the live version of "The First Letter". There are at least 3 versions of this song (Vien, the Hafler Trio remix, and the live version), which are quite different from each other. I don't know where "Give me just a little more time" comes from. Maybe if you could remember some other lyrics? Anyhow, the Kilburn gig is on Uri's videotape and there is a bootleg tape of it as well. The track listing is: Naked Whooping And Such-Like, A Bargain At 3 And 20 Yeah!, Take It (For Greedy), The First Letter, So And Slow It Grows, A Big Glue Canal. The mystery song is likely one of these. (A)ndrew Westmeyer qwerty@cmu.edu www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~qwerty "What a blessing that so much of humanity is able to be alive at the same time as myself." -Cecil Adams ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 18:09:52 -0800 From: "tube disaster" Subject: Re: introductions >I don't know where "Give me just a little more time" comes from. Maybe >if you could remember some other lyrics? > I prefer to live in a fantasy world in which they were covering the Chairmen of the Board's hit single of that name from 1970. Dan ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V1 #166 *******************************