Music Towers speaks to Colin Newman of 70's post punkers Wire anout the 70's Swim Records and new project Githead and his magic ability to predict the future of music
How did Wire come together. This was very early days of punk, were you self consciously aware of being a punk band?The culture round popular music, especially at its cutting edge, has always been incredibly nuanced. Although the earliest incarnation of the band that became Wire was in 1976, it was not until 1977 that you could really say that Wire, on achieving its “classic” line-up, was born. So Wire is in essence a band born in 1977. This means that it was too late to be a “proper” punk band. This we were very much aware of. What we also realised very early on was that punk had opened up a space where new possibilities were emerging and a matrix within which ideas could be framed. The main trick for a consciously aware 1977 band was to be simultaneously “punk” and “not punk” at the same time! The nuances about how you did that were of course of absolute importance!
There was an article recently about punk starting in France, which was a surprise to me, did you know about this?Punk, like hardcore, is one of those music terms which totally changes it’s meaning dependent on who is using it and when it is being used. I tend towards the term “Brit-punk” to describe the UK generation focussed on the Pistols et al. In the UK punk was a style and a desire to be new which preceded there being any bands by at least a year (as far as I can remember) I distinctly remember me and my mate Desmond getting our hair cut and adopting straight leg trousers and snotty rock music in around 1975. I have no idea why we felt it was necessary, especially as all the bands we liked had long hair! There was a small cult of Iggy in France from what I remember and a band called the Stinky Toys.
