Cargo Records

Live At The Roxy / Live At CBGB Theatre

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 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 'Wire: 1977-1979', the limited box set available only from the band'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 '77 shows presented on disc one feature the "classic" four piece line up 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 '78 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 USA in the 1970s. These essential preludes to the seminal studio recordings of 'Pink Flag' and 'Chairs Missing' provide an illuminating context to any fan of those records, and at the same time show just how tight and angular the band were as a live proposition during a period when wilful amateurism masquerading as chaos and anarchy were the rather tired order of the day.

Track Listing

DISC ONE : LIVE AT THE ROXY
1. The Commercial
2. Mary Is A Dyke
3. Too True
4. Just Dont Care
5. Strange
6. Brazil
7. Its So Obvious
8. Three Girl Rhumba
9. TV
10. Straight Line
11. Lowdown
12. Feeling Called Love
13. NYC
14. After Midnight
15. 12XU
16. Mr. Suit
17. Glad All Over

DISC TWO : LIVE AT CBGB
1. The Commercial
2. Mary Is A Dyke
3. Too True
4. Just Dont Care
5. Strange
6. Brazil
7. Its So Obvious
8. Three Girl Rhumba
9. TV
10. Straight Line
11. Lowdown
12. Feeling Called Love
13. NYC
14. After Midnight
15. 12XU
16. Glad All Over
17. Mr. Suit