Pink Flag (reissue)

REISSUE. Usually contextualised against a backdrop of 2 years of the growing cultural importance of punk rock-- Wire's debut Pink Flag, released in December 1977 on EMI's progressive label "Harvest" was in fact was something "other". To the keen cultural commentator the timing and label of its release will register two essential facts about it. Firstly, too late (a year after the Pistol's debut release) to be part of UK punk's first flush and secondly that the band were signalling something beyond punk by their choice of label. Further investigation would reveal 21 tracks, some of them clocking in at well under a minute and covering a range of tempii well beyond the buzzsaw rockabilly that had become, even by the 2nd half of 1977, punk's staple.