Post-punk warriors Wire have announced plans to enter the studio next month to begin work on the band’s 17th album, as well as early explorations into making “a film about Wire by Wire” — a documentary that may ultimately be funded by fans through Kickstarter.
In an email to fans, the band discloses that it will start recording its follow-up to 2017’s Silver/Lead in September, with an eye toward an early 2020 release. That will be followed by a European tour that opens Oct. 3 in the U.K. and runs through a Dec. 1 show in Spain (see full tour dates below).
The band — which features original members Colin Newman, Graham Lewis and Robert Grey, plus guitarist Matthew Simms, who joined a few years after Bruce Gilbert left — cautions fans, though, that “there will doubtless be more dates in 2019, but don’t expect any touring in the U.K. or North America until 2020.”
In the meantime, Wire also has begun exploring the idea of creating a documentary about its storied history. In that same email, the group tells fans: “Our feelings are that there is so much bad and inaccurate music-based documentary out there that it makes sense to have something more in tune with the multi-stranded reality of Wire, past and present, than an these affairs tend to be.”
The band, with financing from its Pink Flag label, hopes to create a short trailer that can can be used to help attract further funding for the project: “While we know we will be able to find investors in this project, it occurs to us that our own fan-base will be extremely interested, and one idea would be to mount a Kickstarter campaign.” Filming on the project begins next month, but the band indicates the film likely will be in the works “over the next couple of years.”
Wire tour dates:
Oct. 3: Music Hall, Ramsgate, UK
Oct. 4: Spazio 211, Torino, Italy
Oct. 5: Covo Club, Bologna, Italy
Oct. 6: Auditorium, Avellino, Italy
Oct. 7: Largo, Rome, Italy
Nov. 23: Hard Club, Porto, Portugal
Nov. 24: RCA Club, Lisbon, Portugal
Nov. 26: Aulario De La Bomba, Cadiz, Spain
Nov. 28: Cool Stage, Madrid, Spain
Nov. 29: Dabadaba Club, San Sebastian, Spain
Nov. 30: Sala Albeniz, Gijon, Spain
Dec. 1: Clavicémbalo, Lugo, Spain
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