Pink Flag

Description
Wire's debut Pink Flag, was originally released in December 1977 on EMI's progressive label 'Harvest' - perhaps an unlikely label for a release that effectively prefigured both post-punk & art-punk. With its 21 stripped down tracks and iconic stark sleeve.

In Pink Flag Wire proposed a form of expression which drew on formal structures taken from historic styles of rock and pop (including punk) but somehow subverted those structures by maintaining a sense of controlled distance from the form. A kind of modernist deconstructed rock made in what seemed at the time to be an almost mechanically precise way.

Reviewers from the contemporary to the present day have praised the album "The album has a scale and feel of its own - totally unique. I can't recommend it enough. It's not like anything you've heard and it'll leave it's mark for a long time" wrote Dave Fudger in Sounds in December 1977.

The album has been influentual on US hardcore, Britpop and 21stC art & post punk. Tracks from it (especially "3 Girl Rumba") remain amongst Wire's most popular songs (if the Wire page on Last FM is to be believed) and the album is generally rated as the most popular album amongst people who aren't Wire fans (154 tends to hold that distinction amongst Wire fans).

Tracklist
[CD1: Original Album]
1. Reuters
2. Field Day For The Sundays
3. Three Girl Rhumba
4. Ex Lion Tamer
5. Lowdown
6. Start To Move
7. Brazil
8. It's So Obvious
9. Surgeon's Girl
10. Pink Flag
11. The Commercial
12. Straight Line
13. 106 Beats That
14. Mr Suit
15. Strange
16. Fragile
17. Mannequin
18. Different To Me
19. Champs
20. Feeling Called Love
21. 1 2 X U

[CD2: Bonus Tracks]
1. The Commercial (First Demo Sessions)
2. Mr Suit (First Demo Sessions)
3. Pink Flag (First Demo Sessions)
4. Surgeon's Girl (Second Demo Sessions)
5. Field Day For The Sundays (Second Demo Sessions)
6. 106 Beats That (Second Demo Sessions)
7. Fragile (Second Demo Sessions)
8. Reuters (Third Demo Sessions)
9. Different To Me (Third Demo Sessions)
10. Ex Lion Tamer (Third Demo Sessions)
11. Mannequin (Third Demo Sessions)
12. Champs (Third Demo Sessions)
13. Start To Move (Third Demo Sessions)
14. Ex Lion Tamer - Alt Mix
15. 12XU - Mono Mix
16. Mannequin - Mono Mix
17. It’s So Obvious - Alt Mix

2CD Special Edition (shown above)
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BLJ76R3/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BLJ76R3/?tag=imwan-21

1CD Standard Edition
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C8Q5FKF/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C8Q5FKF/?tag=imwan-21

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Chairs Missing

Description
Wire's three Harvest released albums in the 70's are often referred to as a kind of "accelerated development triptych". The differences between the reductive minimalism of 1977's Pink Flag and the layered baroque (albeit still minimalistic) of 1979's 154 show a staggering turn over of ideas, yet each album remains iconic.

1978's Chairs Missing represented perhaps the biggest conceptual leap made during this period of Wire and was widely misunderstood at the time yet it remains to the band and production crew, Wire's favourite 70's album. The clarity of vision of the band at the time has been rewarded with a large appreciation in it's standing in hindsight the album also having been awarded (alonside Pink Flag) the distinction of a 10.0 rating by Pitchfork Media amongst many other plaudits.

Chairs Missing has been influential on the British wave of the late 70's & early 80's, Britpop and 21stC art & post punk and provided Wire's biggest "nearly hit" in "Outdoor Miner".

Tracklist
[CD1: Original Album]
1. Practice Makes Perfect
2. French Film Blurred
3. Another The Letter
4. Men 2nd
5. Marooned
6. Sand In My Joints
7. Being Sucked In Again
8. Heartbeat
9. Mercy
10. Outdoor Miner
11. I Am The Fly
12. I Feel Mysterious Today
13. From The Nursery
14. Used To
15. Too Late

[CD2: Bonus Tracks - Singles, B-Sides, Outtakes]
1. I Am The Fly (Single Version)
2. Dot Dash
3. Options R
4. Outdoor Miner (Single Version)
5. Practice Makes Perfect (Single Version)
6. Underwater Experiences (Advision Version)

[CD3: Demos]
1. Practice Makes Perfect (Fourth Demo Sessions)
2. Oh No Not So (Fourth Demo Sessions)
3. Culture Vultures (Fourth Demo Sessions)
4. It’s The Motive (Fourth Demo Sessions)
5. Love Ain’t Polite (Fourth Demo Sessions)
6. French Film Blurred (Version 1) (Fourth Demo Sessions)
7. Sand In My Joints (Fourth Demo Sessions)
8. Too Late (Fourth Demo Sessions)
9. I Am The Fly (Fourth Demo Sessions)
10. Heartbeat (Fourth Demo Sessions)
11. Underwater Experiences (Fourth Demo Sessions)
12. Stalemate (Fourth Demo Sessions)
13. I Feel Mysterious Today (Fourth Demo Sessions)
14. Dot Dash (Fifth Demo Sessions)
15. French Film Blurred (Version 2) (Fifth Demo Sessions)
16. Options R (Fifth Demo Sessions)
17. Finistaire (Mercy) (Fifth Demo Sessions)
18. Marooned (Fifth Demo Sessions)
19. From The Nursery (Fifth Demo Sessions)
20. Indirect Enquiries (Version 1) (Fifth Demo Sessions)
21. Outdoor Miner (Fifth Demo Sessions)
22. Chairs Missing (Used To) (Fifth Demo Sessions)
23. Being Sucked In Again (Fifth Demo Sessions)
24. Men 2nd (Fifth Demo Sessions)
25. Another The Letter (Fifth Demo Sessions)
26. No Romans (Fifth Demo Sessions)

3CD Special Edition (shown above)
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C8FCLQ1/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C8FCLQ1/?tag=imwan-21

1CD Standard Edition
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BLJ1P91/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BLJ1P91/?tag=imwan-21

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154

Description
1979's 154 represented the final tableau in Wire's Harvest released 70's triptych and was the first Wire album to be released to a universal set of five star reviews from the British rock weeklies.

Thus it represented the point when the British 'pop culture establishment' publicly recognised Wire's primacy. "154 makes 95 percent of the competition look feeble," wrote Nick Kent in the NME, "Wire are achieving a lot of things other - and more recognised - names have been striving for" wrote Chris Westwood in Record Mirror. "The album is a musical Tour de Force" wrote Jon Savage in Melody Maker.

154 is the Wire album that is the most popular from the 70's albums amongst Wire fans (perhaps perversely Wire fans tend to be the least enamoured with Pink Flag) and has had the most diverse influence, across many genres, of the 3 ...and despite the only slightly less stellar Pitchfork Media rating of 9.1 ("good" Pitchfork reviews rend to get a 7.5 to 8.5 rating) 154 manages to hold it's own - rating a respectable #11 in Rate Your Music's chart of 1979 (voted for by real people rather than music journalists). Chairs Missing made #3 in 1978's chart Pink Flag #9 in 1977's.

Tracklist
[CD1: Original Album]
1. I Should Have Known Better
2. Two People In a Room
3. The 15th
4. The Other Window
5. Single K.O.
6. A Touching Display
7. On Returning
8. A Mutual Friend
9. Blessed State
10. Once Is Enough
11. Map Ref 41 Degrees N 93 Degrees W
12. Indirect Enquiries
13. 40 Versions

[CD2: Bonus Tracks - Singles, B-Sides, Outtakes]
1. A Question Of Degree (Single)
2. Former Airline (Single)
3. Go Ahead (Single)
4. Our Swimmer (Single)
5. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe (Single)
6. Our Swimmer [2nd Length] (Single)
7. Catapult 30 (Single)
8. Song 1 (154 EP)
9. Get Down 1 + 2 (154 EP)
10. Let's Panic Later (154 EP)
11. Small Electric Piece (154 EP)

[CD3: Demos]
1. 40 Versions (Sixth Demo Sessions)
2. Ignorance No Plea (I Should Have Known Better) (Sixth Demo Sessions)
3. Blessed State (Sixth Demo Sessions)
4. A Touching Display (Sixth Demo Sessions)
5. The 15th (Sixth Demo Sessions)
6. A Mutual Friend (Sixth Demo Sessions)
7. Once Is Enough (Sixth Demo Sessions)
8. The Other Window (Sixth Demo Sessions)
9. Stepping Off Too Quick (Sixth Demo Sessions)
10. Indirect Enquiries v2 (Sixth Demo Sessions)
11. Map Ref. 41°N 93°W (Sixth Demo Sessions)
12. Single K.O. (Sixth Demo Sessions)
13. On Returning (Sixth Demo Sessions)
14. A Question Of Degree (Sixth Demo Sessions)
15. Former Airline (Sixth Demo Sessions)
16. Two People In A Room (Sixth Demo Sessions)

3CD Special Edition (shown above)
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BLGL9JJ/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BLGL9JJ/?tag=imwan-21

1CD Standard Edition
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BLJCTGZ/?tag=imwan-20
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BLJCTGZ/?tag=imwan-21

Pre-order links are now in the first post. I've also added information from Wire's own press release, including the official descriptions and more extensive/detailed tracklists. If these sound as good as they look, they'll be big contenders for reissues of the year.

I am extremely interested in these and wonderfully surprised!

Bump: The 3CD Special Editions remain on schedule for May 18th, but the plain 1CD versions have been pushed back to June 22nd.

Wire have shared the audio from one of the demos which will appear on the expanded Chairs Missing:

Nice morsel to confirm my interest.
Really hoping for a price drop, because right now it's bit too much.

Here's one of the demos on the expanded 154:

Now, also from Wire's official YouTube channel, here's the audio for the single version of "Outdoor Miner" which appears on CD2 of the expanded Chairs Missing. The single version is actually longer than the album track, as the band tried to flesh it out to create a "hit pop song":

I just received my "Chair Missing" reissue. Wow, what beautiful packaging, a shelf standout for sure. I can't wait to dive into this this W/E.

Also patiently awaiting the others but I am not worried, Dean has a reservation in the poor house for me, right Dean?

Chairs Missing was so impressive, I went and ordered the other two (all through 3rd party on Amazon US site)
154 hasn't arrived yet. But be warned, I just discovered the US link for Pink Flag isn't really accurate, as I received a single disc version yesterday. At first I thought the seller messed up, but upon closer inspection I see the US posting is bad for this one.

Wow, you need to return that one. I just checked my order to see if I did the same thing but I was correct, mine is the 2 cd set (Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition presented in a 7" by 7" hardback book package.)

Bought mine from Zoverstock in the UK.

Yeah, but they won't pay for shipping. I'll be out something, but at least I'll get the cost of CD back

Can anyone let me know how these remasters are?

The price is off-putting but I’d like to get them down the line.

The price was an initial deterrent to me, but I finally got them. I think the mastering is great. No complaints from me, but I may be more forgiving than others.
The bonus tracks are all top notch. I hate deluxe editions that have substandard sounding songs just for historical perspective. To me, there is no fluff in the bonus discs.
Also, the packaging and liner notes are perfection. Sure, the size is not like most of my discs, but I truly love the packages.

One thing to note, if you buy on US Amazon site, I had a hard time finding the deluxe edition of Pink Flag there. I wasn't paying attention and ended up with an older Japanese single disc. Ended up getting it on UK site.

The Amazon.com link for Pink Flag is in the first post of this thread (as are all the remasters).

Like GodsComic I bought all three. His remarks are spot on. Even having the previous re-masters I know I made the right move here.

Yes, but if you look at the listing for the US 2 CD edition, there are contradicting details. It just shows 21 tracks as "(2006 Remastered Version)". I bought mine from 3rd party seller, which sold me 21 track CD.