The number of groups surviving punk's first blast still able to ply their trade with heads aloft and consciences clear can be counted on the fingers of one hand, with three digits to spare. WIRE is one of them. Send is their first full length album of new music in over a decade, and contains eleven examples of their most caustic and brutally compelling output in twice that time. 2002 saw the four original members return to the shot-blasted immediacy and stylistic minimalism of their very first material with the release of the six-track Read & Burn Ø1 primer, a critically lauded set received with many effusive verdicts that continues to sell strongly. Roof-raising tours of the UK, Europe and the USA have won over a whole new audience, culminating in a series of strong showings in the end-of-year lists—a Top 25 record on CMJ radio chart; appearances in Mojo's 2002 Top 40, John Peel's Festive 50, The Wire, the L.A. Times Top 10; and a prestigious debut in Artforum (picked twice in music and once in fine art!).  Send contains four completely unheard new pieces, four taken from the mailorder-only Read & Burn Ø2, and three from Read & Burn Ø1. It will be supported in Europe by Wire's first large-scale performance in London in over three years, headlining the Barbican Art Centre's Only Connect Festival in April (where they plan to play consecutive sets of their seminal Pink Flag album in its entirety followed by Send in track-by-track order), and selected festival appearances and radio sessions for John Peel & XFM. In the USA, Wire will grace All Tomorrow's Parties at UCLA in June, plus further special performances in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.  * Compelling new record from one of the most influential and respected alternative rock acts of the last 30 years  * USA dates in June at All Tomorrow's Parties Los Angeles, and in Chicago, San Francisco, and NYC  On Wire live:  "Inarguably one of the greatest bands ever [whose] awesome über-punk pyrotechnics [and] monstrous jackhammer chug … effortlessly put the countless sad comebacks of many late peers to shame." — Careless Talk Costs Lives  On Read & Burn Ø1:  "Wire's most direct and focussed performance since Pink Flag." — The Independent  "A blueprint for future combat.… It's hard to imagine a more perfectly realized Wire artifact." — Mojo  On Read & Burn Ø2:  It blazes with tight fire. -Rolling Stone  A mingling of mayhem and erudition. — Washington Post  On The Band Itself:  "One of the stones in the fortress we live in." — JW Bellbottoms