Wire in January 1977 at Watford Art School

16mm footage shot for an art school project on 20 January 1977 (I got my dates mixed up when I put 1976 on the title). I don't know what songs they were actually performing, but I've used the Roxy Club version of 12XU.

[@paulharris6886]

This 60 year old has just experienced being 17 again. Thanks for that

[@privatesnowball3032]

rock on

[@loiszaremba9582]

Oh yeah yeah yeah!!! Stoked!

[@peterlawson777]

62 and I’m so with you there!

[@paulharris6886]

@@peterlawson777 👍

[@NBM3]

Sooo koool !!! Similar slightly slower but maybe even groovier than the Lp much like Bad Brains Pink tape / Black Dots earliest release .

[@user-ql4rv8sn7z]

I was at Watford Art School when they made this video, in fact Colin (aka Clive Nice then) introduced himself to me and my friend Pete who just started at the Art School. Before becoming Wire they were known as Overload which featured George Gill (Wire's guitarist) and Ron West who went on to form The Bears and then The Tea Set. This looks like it was filmed in the downstairs Foundation room and partly in Ron's Tech Room

[@derekbainbridge55]

Was that the Ridge Street building or Queens Road?

[@patricklink8527]

This is absolutely brilliant. Great footage, excellent sound. Finding live Wire that you can actually hear the mix in is nearly impossible. Well done.! Thank you for posting!

[@aaronmarko]

phenomenal use of archival video. it feels like something that hasn't aged a day

[@stevemorgan9244]

Always painting the same picture differently. An absolute inspiration.

[@playbyplaypodcastwithdc7117]

this is the best sounding audio I've ever heard on this website

[@peetyweety]

it's insane how clean the footage is

[@JamesDeanBrown]

Not insane but 16mm standard.

[@rockinribcat]

I thought that.... i felt like i was there.... if only x

[@callumsutherland2954]

Man, it doesnt even matter that the video and audio aren't from the same source -- it's an incredible video for the song, full of the power and the cool.

[@spensert4933]

Scratches even add somthing.

[@beckoning-chasm]

Nicely done. In true Wire tradition, it kind of doesn't matter what song they were actually doing.

[@RonnieOwens-kv4oe]

My first laugh today. Thank you!😊

[@puzzleoyster]

That's New footage to me personally it's genuine 76 / 77 clear as day footage Excellent find who ever found it THANK YOU

[@faoh5238]

Wonderful Wire !😎

[@derekgibbs7271]

Absolutely Brill 😎

[@TerminalGeometry]

Absolutely incredible.

[@myfragilelilac]

Saw them live in '11. With my dad. In Stockholm. I was considerably the youngest in the crowd (20 at the time) My dad thought the electronic system was about to collapse.

[@wormman1772]

1911?

[@kelechi_77]

@@wormman1772 2011

[@offspringer28]

long live Wire!

[@startervisions]

Is this music, ahead of it's time?

[@agaga5886]

yes

[@whatevershebrings]

In what way, exactly? It sounds completely contemporary for its time. Now '154', maybe...

[@startervisions]

@@whatevershebrings idk...

[@margiepolitzer895]

@@whatevershebrings As someone who was ingesting all the punk that came out at the time, the Pink Flag album sounded fresh and different. It was precise, unsentimental, and foretold hardcore. Considering what came after it, I definitely saw this as ahead of its time.

[@dissonantprotean5495]

Yes already in '77 punk was just starting but there was already post-punk.

[@GreedLeedsToNothing]

EPIC PERFORMANCE

[@brunoBEGARANI-kx2ey]

❤For us LOULOU❤WIRE FOREVER❤

[@casonfriseal1551]

F@cking amazing.

[@woody5831]

Only saw them once a joint headline with the Cure in Aylesbury

[@celiaayneto9232]

great footage !!

[@Artaud1957]

Every time I hear this song I want to smash through the front windshield of my car while it's going 90 miles an hour and dance on the hood.

[@mellowrockmusic]

LIKE BEING BIRTHED AGAIN

[@MrStefm2]

12XU.

[@ShaunJackson-fy4xx]

Punk rock at its crudest, primeval,most exhilarating and exciting best!!

[@litigatedparadox8946]

First heard this song when minor threat covered it hearing the original for the first time

[@patricklink8527]

the album version is a little faster. Not Minor Threat fast. But much more uptempo then this live version. If you never heard 12XU then I'm going to assume you have not heard the album pink flag. I highly suggest searching it out. Especially mannequin, ex lion tamer. Both favorites of mine along with 12XU.

[@litigatedparadox8946]

@@patricklink8527 Thanks for the recommendation

[@squeekydoors]

oooof I love this

[@kelechi_77]

This looks like an underground soviet movie

[@Shikta-poobah67]

Da comrade, da.

[@robjamessolo]

Fucking magic

[@spensert4933]

Little known fact that cocteau twins used to be called cocteau bear.

[@spensert4933]

Amazing. Whoh dude.

[@RonnieOwens-kv4oe]

12 years later Fugazi appears...

[@ripflorence]

ama-zing!

[@brunoBEGARANI-kx2ey]

❤FOR P4 TOO😂😂❤

[@theelderpinot9438]

Inspirational. Really captures the whole punk ethos. who gives a f*ck if you can't play that well, just get out there and make noise.

[@mickeyjupp1]

The sound is from another recording but still fun

[@markkochristiansen9811]

♥♥

[@pontypoolcleaning8730]

Fucking Brilliant 1st Hearing this banging

[@mikeholdstock9618]

Shame the sound track is not of the gig, it’s from another recording and doesn’t marry up. Nevertheless the footage is great and Wire remain a seminal mover in the early days and are brilliant.

[@synthmalicious7541]

This is awesome, wish I could know what songs they were performing …

[@Shikta-poobah67]

“Lost in Love”

[@synthmalicious7541]

@@Shikta-poobah67 how’d you figure that out?

[@startervisions]

Sounds like a lot of people heard the Ramones album, including these fellas

[@patricklink8527]

You know that's a tough one. The Ramones were very influential. However they were just revisiting the past However I'm not sure I could say they ever put out a record as groundbreaking as Pink flag. Their first album came out sooner. And everybody picks up influences from what they hear. But in my opinion, as I said. I don't think the Ramones made an album that changed music. Wire did.

[@Shikta-poobah67]

@@patricklink8527Um, the first Ramones album was *VERY MUCH* “groundbreaking” upon its release in the spring of 1976. No one else sounded even remotely like that at the time. It was completely against all that was popular in music in those days, and influenced an entire new musical movement. It’s pretty much the original blueprint for punk. “Ground zero”, so to speak. All of the first-wave punk bands took a cue from it. Perhaps not as arty or experimental as Pink Flag, but every bit as ‘groundbreaking’.

[@irdial]

Impossible.

[@PIERRECLARY]

Merci

[@croiners4166]

Nice!

[@kelb6073]

talk about ahead of your time

[@Unfunny_Username_389]

this one's for Luke an' Ada

[@AlexanderLaurence]

hot

[@skumsters2323]

Fuck yes, thanks!!!

[@rogercageot-prod]

Sound quality extra, unfortunately, images are about something else

[@sanpatricio9490]

I personally don't think this piece is "a head of it's time." I think it came exactly when it should have, thus proving there was more to music in the mid 70's than Olivia Newton John, the BeeGee's, and Linda Ronstadt.

[@ShadSimm]

San Patricio definitely a precursor of sorts in the uk at least. Discordant, minimalist. Other artists had done similar stuff but Wire fucking nailed it...

[@whatevershebrings]

@@ShadSimm Swell Maps, and half a dozen Rough Trade acts from this time period. I think where Wire stood apart was how disparate their first three albums sounded, each one pushing the punk/post-punk genre further. Not too many of their peers were like that (except maybe Joy Division?).

[@iloveNathalie1]

@@whatevershebrings PIL and The Fall were certainly continually evolving.

[@bobgreen623]

@@iloveNathalie1 Slits, too.

[@iloveNathalie1]

@@bobgreen623 A band I saw and liked a lot, although they didn't have the longevity of the other groups mentioned.

[@chazmcbride216]

Ta

[@willieluncheonette5843]

now go hear Minor Threat's hardcore version for a greai comparison

[@pontypoolcleaning8730]

So punk 1000%

[@karenmacintosh7138]

saw you in mag kissing a man

[@tamehamehaprints3604]

12XU

[@brunoBEGARANI-kx2ey]

❤FOR P4 TOO😂😂❤