Added: 4 years ago
From: JDickshot
Views: 57,221
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:

All Comments (161)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • The mind boggles as to what the average viewer in Pigfuck, Iowa thought when this came on.

  • @NormanArches Living 20 miles north of Pigfuck, IA, I probably would have shit my pants. I almost certainly did when I heard it in Carlos.

  • One real person & one kewpie doll, both trying to out-droll each other...

  • Saw Wire again recently, I'd wager that they look better 26 years later than Suzanne does. And they are still way cooler. Saw they do this song at Metro in Chicago, they had the live recording on the next album.

    The lead in does not do it justice- they had reverb and echo that made graham Lewis' bass sound like a thunderstorm. Too bad they did not record that.

  • Comment removed

  • just noticed that at the end she says "and I'm gonna sing too so don't come back"

    heh

  • bruce's interview answers are the BEST

  • Ohmyfuckinggawd!! Suzanne Somers????

  • Check out the video of Wire performing on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon from this week (4/5/11). If you listen carefully when they finish, you can hear Fallon make an excellent passing reference to the disaster in this video!

  • Could it be a drill?

    Totally, utterly, completely meta.

  • This is not a real emergency. It is just a drill.

  • I had this song on HEAVY rotation on my old college radio station KQAL, as well as their songs Ahead, and A Bell is a Cup. Looking forward to seeing them in Mpls. in April.

  • suzanne somers gets drilled on national television

  • graham lewis has a very long mullet.

  • @earinsound I noticed it.  I thought i was seeing things - but you're correct. It's a fucking mullet!

  • I love that they played Drill on this show... what an assault.

  • @mutepg58

    "Assault" This, is the right word :D

  • i see colin is still using the breadwinner from the rockpalast concert before they split.

  • such a stupid doll!

    grahams hairdo is terrific.

  • Saw them live in Portland OR in the day. Wow, funny video, Cool to see them live. Corporate TV is so goofy.

  • @Pistakeerick Listen to "pink flag" and you'll change your mind.

  • Wire = amazing. Suzanne = warped.

  • I had seen them at Chicago Metro theater a couple days before. They were awesome! (which is a biased opinion). I saw this on my little TV in Chicago in my kitchen at night. I won't forget it. It was pretty amazing to see Wire on TV. In my opinion they are one of the great rock bands of all time..

  • @agbz

    Saw them at metro in 87. I was center, just behind the kids moshing, where were you?

    Very good. Squeeze them and they ooze art. Freaking poet laureats of pop.

    Poor suzanne, she was so outclassed, she had no idea .

  • I don't give a shit. i think this is great! I"d could never even imagine Suzanne somers ever even being in a situation where she would be interviewing Wire and it's totally uncomfortable and embarrasing but she laughs her way through it like it's no big deal and she's really funny too. The song is very good too by the way. I hear they are getting great reviews.

  • Jaw-droppingly surreal video of one of the best groups since the Big Bang.

  • Fantastic, super tight.

  • a hi-hat and bass drum. that's all you need.

  • @serpikris Robert Grey is awesome.

  • Hilarious! Love this track, but that bimbo hasn't a clue!

  • @TheFeministing

    i am still in awe as to how i can access so many of these formerly rare videos...

    isn't it great ??

  • @indieclock

    .

    Yes, yes it is. Some of these I knew about but I was working that night, others I heard about years later. Like the Joy Division videos that have 3+million views and The Avengers and all of the very VERY early CBGB's videos from 1974 and The Ramones rehearsal video from January 1975.

  • Hilarious!!! Kind of like Art Linkletter introducing Iggy Pop.

  • magnum fucking force

  • Graham is sporting a 'serious' mullet here. Surreal. Suzanne Somers and Wire...

  • @TheFeministing @inputmodule yea, I admit it. I am a spoiled 90's kid. It's just a shame all the good music (in my opinion) happened predominantly before I was born.

  • yeah, you're right ash. I was being curmudgenly the day i said that. expanded possibilities of experience these days means you will be both more enlightened and disappointed.

  • hard to believe this got on TV!

    absolutely would never happen now...

    anybody else noticed how the world sucks these days?

  • Very true.

  • yea, you might not see anything like this on TV any more.. but your watching it from a choice of practically EVERything on youtube... the world does suck for many reasons, but lack of multimedia entertainment is not one of them.

  • I thought Suzanne Somers did a fine job. Wire are a pretty far out group.

  • Suzanne Somers: "You're sort of a far-out group, you know?"

    Bruce: "I doubt it."

    CLASSIC!

  • Who is that host?

  • Lewis has the most amazing Euro-mullet I've ever seen here. The funny thing is that Summers looks way stranger than them with that crazy getup she has going. WTF! I don't think she really came off like a total bimbo that much (clueless yes). Her final comment was kinda funny. However, she talks about the "reviews" the band was getting like they were a new band - new if you don't count the '77 to '80 years before the first split.

  • Hahaha! The Thighmaster Queen is TOTALLY baffled by them!

  • idd shoot the host!!

  • Awesome. Annoying fucking host, but awesome all the same.

  • love the drum set

    and Graham's hair

  • sounds like its recorded in a big dustbin pitty

  • Did she interview BC Gilbert only because he looked the least scary? Wrooong choice! This is one of the funniest pieces of television, ever. Just look at Lewis's face when she claims they're a "far-out group"!

  • I think BC may have looked the most "approachable" or willing to talk. Colin stepped back and looked down, Graham had the camera, and Richard was behind his drums. Yes, I too loved Graham's "what the fuck?" expression, and I loved how Richard gave a glazed glance at the camera when he was introduced as their "anthropological expert".

  • Graham Lewis is the 'anthropological expert' and it's Robert Gotobed on drums :-)

  • Ahhh... Sorry, I meant to say that Robert was on the drums and I loved when he looked at the camera after he was introduced as their "agricultural consultant".

  • OMG, the thighmaster queen introducing Drill? Too surreal! :)

  • Yes, a very surreal scene that makes for great TV. Wish there was more of these moments these days.

  • Wow! This a really intense live performance up there with the likes of Killing joke and Sonic Youth.Better than the studio version tho I love that too.Go and buy the "A-List" peeps it's got the best tracks from the latter part of Wire's career on it.

  • i think there is only one: Americans. I'm proud to be one.

  • I didn't know christian baile was in WIRE ;)

  • "You're sort of sort of a far out kinda group ya' know" that is hilarious! - and yeah, go see Wire any night now, they are even more intense!!

  • Suzi was not so much a bimbo as she was totally outclassed and out of her league.

    Poor girl. perhaps there will be a social program for her.

    22 year ago and they could just have easily played this tonight .

    Wire are awesome!

  • suzanne sommers??? what a BIMBO. gad, how incongruous.

  • When the hell did Suzanne Sommers have her own talk show? Dumb annoying bitch.

  • what;s that guitar newman's playing?

  • Looks like an Ovation Breadwinner.

  • A Deacon, by Ovation.

  • Fuck me. The yanks must have over loaded when faced with that! Genius!

  • What "Yanks" are you referring to?

  • One of the last combinations I would ever expect to see in the world. Haha.

  • I want to give each member of Wire hugs and say 'thanks for the 47 objects'.

  • I 'm really trying to imagine what the audience is thinking..jajaja and the host!

  • ha ha ha ha! that's great! from another world!

  • Fucking brilliant and totally original - both the band and this particular track.I have "The A List" comp and this song's on it.

  • BEST. GROUP. EVER.

  • poor Susan, she's out of her depth on this one... She is a real sweet gal, and a great host. But WIRE is just so above and beyond, you can't pidgeonhole them into anything.

    Anthropology and agriculture, you have got to love this band, they are real mind candy.

  • Yeah, she does her best. I'm sure half the audience was totally confused, but I love picturing the producers in the control room fuming and saying, "What the fuck is this???"

  • Heh,heh,heh...Witchypoo didn't have a clue what she experienced! A classic performance - and I don't just mean the music. Obtuse Elucidation at it's best.

  • Great never seen this before!

  • this incredible innovative performance is so cool, i see that it's been selected by NYC Punk Rock Evolution Foundation blog recently. way to go.

  • this band brings me back to my first love, in 1986, who introduced me to their music. Ah, the memories;(

  • I am an american living in modern times looking for creative music that is current (not past their prime.) I enjoy the stylings of post/proto punk, glam, min. rock and old school rock and roll. Do these things still exist? Please help me.

  • Have you ever seen Roxy Music's video of Ladytron? I think they created Glam. Check it out and get hypnotized about half way through during the instrumental.

  • America wasn't ready for this back then

    ('87?) and it will never be. I guess they should have done "ahead" instead.

  • Drill drill drill (Dugga dugga dugga)

  • Very good indeed, if not.... a little Art School.

  • Oh my fooking god.That's as surreal as Patti Smith on Kids Are People Too.

  • I was in the audience when Patti Smith was on Kids Are People Too. I was 10years old and I already knew and loved Patti since I read Creem magazine the way my peers read TigerBeat. It was total coincidence that I went - i shudder to think that i almost didn't go.

  • That's great,what a lucky(and precocious,discerning)kid.I'm sure you know that episode's on youtube? I didn't see her live till the 80's.First show I saw as a kid was the Germs.

  • ? "I'm going to sing too, so don't back back"......funny

  • Suzanne Sommers is smokin!!!!!.... and, oh ya, the band is cool, she's cool too, geometry and all...

  • what the hell were wire doing on that

    and when they first played this at the astoria

    has anyone got my shoe

    had to get back to reading on one leg?

  • Does she say...

    'And i'm gonna sing too, so don't come back!'

  • Yes, she DID say that!! Amazing!!!

  • I remember watching this and everything I knew about music at this point changed. I still have a hard time watching the chat afterwards. Thank you so much for posting this. I'm glad to see that nostalgia hasn't completely colored my memory of this performance. It really was (and still is) quite brilliant. It's a shame that they got crapped on by the show's producers otherwise we would've gotten two songs instead of the one.

  • Too bad Colin Newman couldn't have worked a Thigh-Master into the performance somehow in salute to Suzanne Sommers. What a weird celebrity combination.

  • NO fuck off

  • I bet the audience crapped themselves on hearing this

  • 'one of the hottest British rock groups in the world today'? I love Wire, but that statement is such a joke. I'm sure that lady hadn't even heard of Wire before that evening.

  • @jeannec1 Actually, this vid is from a parallel dimension where the popularity of music was based on quality rather than how good a band looks on MTV. In that dimension, Wire outsold Hall & Oates.

  • Couldn't agree more. Typical Yankie showbiz bullshit.

    I saw Wire in 77, had first single on promo etc etc. Although roped in with the early UK punk scene, they were always a band apart. There first 3 albums are as good as any band I know. After their split in the early 80's, they were never quote as cutting edge when they reformed 3 or 4 years later, albeit they had minor chart success.

    Check out Ex Lion Tamer, Outdoor Miner, Mercy and Map Reference.

  • @jeannec1 "that lady" is Suzanne Summers. Of course she didn't have a clue what was going on. Did you see her dress? HA ha ha ha ha...have you seen her work? Seriously. Ten thousand Thigh Masters sold. But anyway, none of this takes from the fact that this performance by Wire was awesome.

  • This is great!

  • haha what a drumset !!!

  • what the fuck???? i missed this

  • Wow. Suzanne Sommers and WIRE. How unlucky for Colin and the lads. Suzanne knows about dark British bands about as much as a jackrabbit knows geometry. Good thing Matt Johnson didn't play with THE THE, Rosie O'Donnell might have guest hosted.

  • This is an odd choice for american YV. IIRC was only available on the CD as a bonus and on an ep.

    This was the Fox show, right?

  • You know what? I was wrong, the bass is made by "Westone" but it is still obviously inspired by the Steinberg.

  • westone came first didn't it?

  • didn't know peter cook was in wire! amazing peter cook and christian bale in the same band...

  • Close, it is a Steinberg bass called "the Rail"

  • The look on Graham's face at 5:27 is priceless.

    I just love the idea that Wire and Suzanne Sommers were in the same room at the same time. I don't know how I missed this in '87.

  • Easily the most hilarious interview I've ever seen. She's sooo annoying and they're trea

  • Great version of the song and a hilarious interview by Suzanne. Wonderful.

  • Holy shit, I've been looking for this song...

  • "no guys on my neighbourhood"

  • Good lord, at the end she says, "I'm gonna sing, so don't come back."

  • Four of the most sarcastic UK eggheads meeting one of the dumbest USA blondes under the glare of TV lights. I heart pre-9/11.

  • I don't know if Suzanne is particularly dumb. However, she was trying very hard to keep the show and interview lighthearted, and since she didn't get their act, she resorted to patronizing the band.

  • i love the wire

  • You gotta love the "WTF" look on Graham's face during the after-performance "interview". Talk about frigging clueless...

  • Graham's hair is so wrong.

  • Yeah, Wire isn't really a mullet-y kind of band, huh? LOL

  • Never mind the hair, what the hell's he wearing? Huge collar and polo mint medallion(ok, probably a stopwatch) and that, haha.

  • Holy crap, i never expected to see footage of Wire from this period, never mind on The Late Show....what were the producers thinking? Haha

    Awesome stuff

  • I taped this as well when it was originally broadcast.

    I remember being amazed at the time that Wire were going to be on national network TV.

    It still amazes me.

    Don't know what ever became of the tape. Glad to find it here.

    BTW- The host of the show is Suzanne Somers. This was during her short run as host of The Late Show. Too funny...

  • Wow. I didn't know they play an American talk show. Strange to see that host interacting with them. Good stuff all around.

  • Hope to see one day what Graham recored ? ;-)

  • you can tell they don't want to talk to her.

  • you can tell they don't want to talk to her.

  • Great stuff. Don't know how they do it and never miss a beat. So many facets to WIRE. Awesome.

    Dugga, dugga, dugga....

  • Yes, I thought the same at first.

    So repetitive and simple ... but fascinating.

  • This has actually turned out to be the definitive version of this song for me (I bought the album to track it down, wasn't impressed! IBTABA is the only album I rate from this era of wire, but it is a bit of a classic!!!)

  • There are also interesting versions on The Drill album, notably the technoid one.

    I discovered WIRE by IBTABA, and always been found of the so cold, deep and far "It's a boy", almost like a pop version of Zoviet*France

  • This is from 87, Robert left in 1990...

  • 3 years isn't a very long time! (I couldn't even grown a beard in that time)

    But pedantics aside....banging on a kick and hat isn't the highest point of Gotobed's otherwise stellar work! Although the intro to "I should have known better".....play that at 11 and it really hits hard! (loop the first 5 seconds of that song and you have Drill!! ;)

  • Sorry, you didn't seem to get the point... Wire reunited in 85, WIR was disbanded in 91, so this is a rather long time...

    Robert wasn't dissatisfied with banging on a kick and hi-hat, but he was fed up with, in his own words,'...writing the drum patterns on a drum machine.' That's why he left. ;-)

  • I get ya buddy, don't worry :)

    Funnily enough, most of Send sounds very much like a drum machine...although this was Robert's return do you know if he programmed the drums for this release? (its a great album but I sometime wish it could have the production of 154!)

  • Send isn't drum machines, but it's heavily treated drums, cut and pasted in ProTools, based on loops of live Rob performances recorded in the studio.

  • Wait....what? Wire promoting 'An Ideal Copy'? On US TV? Only time I've seen a Westone Rail Bass used in anger.

  • Thank you for posting this! I haven't seen this since the show aired. Thank you thank you thank you!

  • Way way ahead of their time. Thanks so much for posting this.

  • Thanks for posting this. Lewis with The Rail.

  • Holy Cow! I watched this the night it originally aired!

  • This is the best thing I've ever seen on youtube. Thanks so much!

Loading...
Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more