Document & Eyewitness 1979-1980

Wire: Colin Newman (vocals, guitar); Graham Lewis (vocals, bass); Bruce Gilbert (guitar); Robert Gotobed (drums).
Additional personnel includes: David Quinn (saxophone).
Producers include: Wire.
This release contains the entire 2-LP set on 1 disc and 2 additional 3" CDs which feature 2 live cuts and several remixes. The 3" CDs come with adaptors.
Personnel: B.C. Gilbert (guitar).
Liner Note Author: Wilson Neate.
Recording information: Le Pavillon, Montreux (02/29/1980); Notre Dame Hall, London (02/29/1980); The Electric Ballroom, London (02/29/1980); Le Pavillon, Montreux (03/09/1979); Notre Dame Hall, London (03/09/1979); The Electric Ballroom, London (03/09/1979); Le Pavillon, Montreux (07/19/1979); Notre Dame Hall, London (07/19/1979); The Electric Ballroom, London (07/19/1979).
Photographer: Annette Green.
Following its watershed album 154, Wire found itself in an odd predicament. Unhappy with its record company and wanting to experiment musically, it was somewhat hamstrung by its success. In an attempt to break with its past the band performed an event in 1980 that was part concert and part performance art.
DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS, which also features tracks from two other live shows and a pair of studio tracks, contains the majority of that concert, recorded at London's Electric Ballroom. It's an interesting audio document of a band trying sonically and visually to change both itself and its audience. The other live material collected here is more straightforward. Recorded a year earlier and under less aggressive circumstances, the band seems comfortable with itself, playing the kind of blistering art/punk for which it was best known. Perhaps the best of these tracks is "Ally In Exile," a brittle slice of punk featuring clanging guitars and a grinding, fuzzed-out bass. The two studio tracks are both from a 1981 single.