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Without London band Wire, punk rock might never have developed beyond primitive three-chord thrash and cliched songs about tower blocks and dole queues. Arguably the first art-punks, the four musicians - Colin Newman on vocals and guitar, Graham Lewis on bass and vocals, Bruce Gilbert on guitar and Robert Gotobed (nee Grey) on drums - evolved fast from their groundbreaking 1977 debut album "Pink Flag", with its 21 short, sharp, minimalist bursts of noise and melody. They were catalysts in the shift from punk to post-punk, paving the way for the likes of Magazine, Gang of Four, Public Image Limited and Joy Division. Paul Lester's book will tell the story of this crucial transitional band, from their early days dodging hostile crowds at punk venues like the Roxy, through their attempts to inject some arthouse experimentation and Situationist subversion into an increasingly conservative punk scene, up to their split in 1981 and beyond their mid-80s return and their various solo projects.It will take you behind the scenes and feature interviews with the original members, following them up to the present, poised as they are to come back with a brand new album and filled with a renewed sense of vigour as one of the most important bands in the last thirty years.
I don't have access to the same channels as the previous reviewer, but I thought the book was well-written and seemed like a pretty thorough history of the band. I did spot a few inaccuracies (Bruce Gilbert narrates "The Other Window," Metal Machine Music was a double, not triple album) but not enough to make me doubt the contents. Overall I found it a highly satisfactory history of one of my favorite bands; I read it cover to cover in just a couple of hours. I think it tackles the subject well and can't imagine why the band would be unhappy with it. Perhaps it takes some of the "enigma" out of their history, but history is meant to be written.