Wire: Live 1977 & 1978 on 2 CDs

Very few deliberate live recordings of Wire exist from the 1970s. Board recordings and bootlegs aside, only three full live sets were put to tape in the early years with any aim other than archival use. The first, Live At The Roxy was recorded over two consecutive nights at London's Roxy Club in early April, 1977. The CBGB set was captured at the New York club_s auxiliary theater in 1978 for a radio broadcast. These recordings were released only once before, on the limited WIRE: 1977-1979 boxset, available mailorder-only from the group's website. A third performance, taped at WDR_s Studios in Germany in 1979 for the Rockpalast TV show, can be heard as part of the CD+DVD package On The Box: 1979. The 1977 shows presented on disc one feature the 'classic' fourpiece lineup making their debut in front of the world or at least the half dozen or so who turned up to see the opening act of a 'Punk Festival' in a club that held a hundred people max. The 1978 recording on the other hand depicts a band hardened from extensive touring to promote their first album Pink Flag and fresh from the studio, having just finished their second Chairs Missing. Recorded for the now defunct WPIX, the songs on disc two document one of the handful of gigs they played on their first and only trip to the US in the 1970s. Essential prequels to the classic Pink Flag and Chairs Missing albums The group's live debut at London's Roxy Club in 1977 plus their first US appearance at the CBGB Theatre in '78Previously available only as part of the band's 5xCD limited, web-only box set