Wire

Very few deliberate live recordings of Wire exist from the '70s. 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 '78 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 '79 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 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 '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 US in 1978.