Document and Eyewitness [Import] [Live]

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
The Early 80's Live Album from the Postpunk Quartet was Recorded in 1979 at the Notre Dame Hall and in Montreux, Most of the Recordings Come from an Appearance at the Electric Ballroom in 1980. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Document and Eyewitness
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • "...makes the Stooges' METALLIC K.O. seem like a Phish jam."
  • Not recommendable
  • Dissapointing
  • An electric soup of mangled memories and submerged vision.
 Document and Eyewitness
Wire
Manufacturer: Grey Area
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000026ZJF
Release Date: 2007-02-24

Tracks:

  1. Go Ahead
  2. Ally In Exile
  3. Relationship
  4. Underwater Experiences
  5. Witness To The Fact
  6. 2 People In A Room
  7. Our Swimmer
  8. Heartbeat
  9. 5/10
  10. 12XU (Fragment)
  11. Underwater Experiences
  12. Everything's Going To Be Nice
  13. Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)
  14. We Meet Under Tables
  15. Zegk Hoqp
  16. Eastern Standard
  17. Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)
  18. Eels Sang Lino
  19. Revealing Trade Secrets
  20. And Then.....
  21. Our Swimmer
  22. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe

Album Details

The Early 80's Live Album from the Postpunk Quartet was Recorded in 1979 at the Notre Dame Hall and in Montreux, Most of the Recordings Come from an Appearance at the Electric Ballroom in 1980.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars "...makes the Stooges' METALLIC K.O. seem like a Phish jam.".......2001-11-24

The single best line ever written about Wire's DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS comes from an article A.D. Amorosi wrote for MAGNET magazine (August/September 2000 issue): "...a violent live album that makes the Stooges' METALLIC KO seem like a Phish jam." And while one can hear the bottles being thrown on this album as well (literally: on "Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)"), unfortunately Flipper tactics had not yet come into their own so Wire chose to throw dada instead at their dense and impatient audience. Amid screams for PINK FLAG material, the audience never once allow Wire to demonstrate their amazing chameleon-like capability to never do exactly the same thing twice (like Coil and Madonna after them). Read: they never got it. This CD is split into four parts: part one is a relatively calm excerpt recorded live in London in July 1979 performing tracks from what ultimately would have been the follow-up to 154 but which never happened. The opening sonic slaughter of "Go Ahead" (which absolutely destroys the studio version) has to be heard to be believed, drumming mistakes and all. Part two is an excellent version of "Heartbeat" performed in Montreux when Wire opened for Roxy Music (sort of like when Prince opened for The Rolling Stones), much to the chagrin of Roxy's audience. Listen for the whistling. Part three is an excerpt of Wire's last concert for five years: The Electric Ballroom in London on 29/2/80, opened by D.A.F. (and documented by them on DIE KLEINEN UND DIE BOSEN, also on Mute) who were at a starvation-amphetamine meltdown peak. Wire perform an avante-garde/dada performance perfectique, goading the audience with their music and sarcasm, not really indicating if they mean any of it or not. An examination of this document by headphones reveals the absolute apall of the audience, who came to hear "12XU" (which Wire gratefully disembowel) and not the outre art-attack of such pieces as "ZEGK HOQP". By the end, the concert boils down to merely being one big pissing contest. Brilliant and exceptional. Part four is the band's last, posthumous single ("Our Swimmer" b/w the exceptional "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe") added as a bonus and near pre-cursor to what was to come in 1986 with SNAKEDRILL (see "A Serious of Snakes" for the link, "Drill" for the mood). A worthwhile purchase for the casual fan and an absolute must for the die-hard.

2 out of 5 stars Not recommendable.......1999-08-04

Though I appreciate all of Wire's studio-albums from the late 70's to the early 90's, I never liked their live-performances. This is because they often turned their great pop-songs into a dissonant, chaotic goulash of sound. This CD-compilation, recorded at three various locations, Notre Dome Hall, Montreux and Electric Ballroom, is completely unlistenable for "normal" people. If any unknown band had served this, nobody would have noticed, but here the critics said:"Oh Wire, this is fabulous art-school-punk!" You may call the performances on this album "experimental", but I really don't know why this gig made such waves. I only give two points, because there are two good studio-recordings thrown in at the end, they're called "Our swimmer" and "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe". But they're not worth buying this album.

2 out of 5 stars Dissapointing.......1999-03-25

I'd read so much about the "Electric Ballroom" gig before I ever heard it that I was very excited when I finally got this CD and popped it in my stereo. I wanted to hear what was it that made this gig really famous. I couldn't really hear anything at all, as it turns out. Seriously, I've heard 4th generation bootlegs that sound better than this, and I can't help asking myself "Why did they bother?". Not to rip on Wire or the individual members, mind you, as they are, quite simply, one the best bands that ever existed. This particular album, however, is for completists and/or masochists only.

2 out of 5 stars An electric soup of mangled memories and submerged vision........1998-09-12

This curiosity, the only live entry in the Wire canon, is the antipathy of the stadium live opus despised by these art school graduates on a punk rock mission. Sounding almost wholly improvised, this smorgasbord of decaying power pop and art gallery installations is at best chaotic, at worst narcissistic in its own sense of post punk artrock indulgence. Impossible to single out songs, but titles include: "Eels Sang Lino", a Burroughsesque barrel roll and "Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)", a bedlamatic strip of shouty pop. These two disparate items are indicative of the album's psychotic appeal. An overview would recommend this strongly to existing Wire fans but the unconverted should begin with "154" or "Chairs Missing".
Document and Eyewitness
Average customer rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
  • Harsh
  • "...makes the Stooges' METALLIC K.O. seem like a Phish jam."
  • Into the frying pan
 Document and Eyewitness
Wire
Manufacturer: Mute U.S.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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PunkPunk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
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Similar Items:
  1. It's Beginning to and Back Again

ASIN: B00004SH9P
Release Date: 2000-04-04

Tracks:

  1. Go Ahead
  2. Ally In Exile
  3. Relationship
  4. Underwater Experiences
  5. Wintess To The Fact
  6. 2 People In A Room
  7. Our Swimmer
  8. Heartbeat
  9. 5/10
  10. 12Xu (Fragment)
  11. Underwater Experiences
  12. Everythings Going To Be Nice
  13. Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)
  14. We Meet Under Tables
  15. Zegk Hoop
  16. Eastern Standard
  17. Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)
  18. Eels Sang Lino
  19. Revealing Trade Secrets
  20. And Then.... Coda
  21. Our Swimmer
  22. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Harsh.......2003-07-14

This album is harsh, no bones about it. You need to be an extreme Wire fan or a record collector to have any need for this album. As mentioned the 12XU is all cut up, I think Wire was having the [heart] out of all the louder, faster, harder wankers that can't digest anything less than a overplayed anthem - which I thought was brilliant. "Eel Sang Lino", "Our Swimmer" & "Witness to the Fact" seem to have had the makings of solid songs. Unfortunatly the recording & performance is too [messed] to save the cuts - it's too bad they never did those songs in the studio. The 'Heartbeat' cut is brilliant, but the studio version on Chairs Missing still wins out.

Overall this album is a tosser, unless your a Wire nut pass it up.

4 out of 5 stars "...makes the Stooges' METALLIC K.O. seem like a Phish jam.".......2000-08-21

The single best line ever written about Wire's DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS comes from an article A.D. Amorosi wrote for MAGNET magazine (August/September 2000 issue): "...a violent live album that makes the Stooges' METALLIC KO seem like a Phish jam." And while one can hear the bottles being thrown on this album as well (literally: on "Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)"), unfortunately Flipper tactics had not yet come into their own so Wire chose to throw dada instead at their dense and impatient audience. Amid screams for PINK FLAG material, the audience never once allow Wire to demonstrate their amazing chameleon-like capability to never do exactly the same thing twice (like Coil and Madonna after them). Read: they never got it. This CD is split into four parts: part one is a relatively calm excerpt recorded live in London in July 1979 performing tracks from what ultimately would have been the follow-up to 154 but which never happened. The opening sonic slaughter of "Go Ahead" (which absolutely destroys the studio version) has to be heard to be believed, drumming mistakes and all. Part two is an excellent version of "Heartbeat" performed in Montreux when Wire opened for Roxy Music (sort of like when Prince opened for The Rolling Stones), much to the chagrin of Roxy's audience. Listen for the whistling. Part three is an excerpt of Wire's last concert for five years: The Electric Ballroom in London on 29/2/80, opened by D.A.F. (and documented by them on DIE KLEINEN UND DIE BOSEN, also on Mute) who were at a starvation-amphetamine meltdown peak. Wire perform an avante-garde/dada performance perfectique, goading the audience with their music and sarcasm, not really indicating if they mean any of it or not. An examination of this document by headphones reveals the absolute apall of the audience, who came to hear "12XU" (which Wire gratefully disembowel) and not the outre art-attack of such pieces as "ZEGK HOQP". By the end, the concert boils down to merely being one big pissing contest. Brilliant and exceptional. Part four is the band's last, posthumous single ("Our Swimmer" b/w the exceptional "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe") added as a bonus and near pre-cursor to what was to come in 1986 with SNAKEDRILL (see "A Serious of Snakes" for the link, "Drill" for the mood). A worthwhile purchase for the casual fan and an absolute must for the die-hard.

2 out of 5 stars Into the frying pan.......2000-08-16

Although I appreciate all of Wire's studio albums from the late-'70s to the early-'90s, I've never liked their live performances. This is because they mostly turned their great pop-punk songs into a dissonant, chaotic goulash of sound. This compilation features four sections which were recorded at different locations; Notre Dame Hall, Montreux (when Wire supported Roxy Music), Electric Ballroom, and Magritte Studio. The performances at Notre Dame Hall and Montreux are half-way palatable, but the show at Electric Ballroom is probably the worst live concert I've ever listened to. There's not a single decent melody in the bunch, and the band isn't capable of playing a normal song. Instead, there are endless noodlings ("And then..coda" lingers for almost 9 minutes) and improvisations which are simply unlistenable and extremely dull. Even Wire's classic "12XU" is completely mutilated and interrupted by fragments from an interview with the band members. The sound quality is horrible, there's a lot of distortion. The second star in my rating is for the studio tracks "Our swimmer" and "Midnight.." at the end of this CD. What a mess!
Document and Eyewitness
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • A live album with a difference
 Document and Eyewitness
Wire
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

PunkPunk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
British PunkBritish Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Hardcore & PunkHardcore & Punk | Live Albums | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Post-PunkPost-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Live Albums | Rock | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000008MEC
Release Date: 1991-04-02

Tracks:

  1. Go Ahead
  2. Ally in Exile
  3. Relationship
  4. Underwater Experiences
  5. Wintess to the Fact
  6. Two People in a Room
  7. Our Swimmer
  8. Heartbeat
  9. 5/10
  10. 12XU
  11. Underwater Experiences
  12. Everythings Going to Be Nice
  13. Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)
  14. We Meet Under Tables
  15. Zegk Hoqp
  16. Eastern Standard
  17. Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)
  18. Eels Sang Lino
  19. Revealing Trade Secrets
  20. And Then... Coda
  21. Our Swimmer
  22. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars A live album with a difference.......2003-11-10

Live albums are usually nothing more than cheap giveaways that you already have heard in their studio life and are usually much better. Everybody knows that you'll get the same tracks with the crowds cheering the performer on for more more MORE. So why should you buy this? Well the fact of the matter is that it's everything a usual live album is NOT. Yes that's right - this is NOT your usual live album. First of all many of the tracks here are new. Secondly the band are practically hated mainly because there isn't 12XU which eventually comes up in fractured form ( not a bad thing ). Their MC is the one that helps the fans get what they want because it's his " request spot " despite being called a fat.....well you know - can't say it here for obvious reasons. And in the mix there's a few snippets of conversations from an interview. And at the end there's two studio tracks which are OK but dilute the whole experience of the concert(s) completely

I guess it's one for the diehards but everyone should try this live album for the chaos within because if not you'll be missing out. Oh and you can't resist the bottle being thrown in the middle of a song with the reply " Who's a clever boy then! "
Document and Eyewitness
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • "...makes the Stooges' METALLIC K.O. seem like a Phish jam."
  • Not recommendable
  • Dissapointing
  • An electric soup of mangled memories and submerged vision.
 Document and Eyewitness
Wire
Manufacturer: Grey Area
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

GeneralGeneral | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
PunkPunk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
British PunkBritish Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Hardcore & PunkHardcore & Punk | Live Albums | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Live Albums | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Post-PunkPost-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
GeneralGeneral | Live Albums | Rock | Styles | Music
Alternative RockAlternative Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
RockRock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B000000II3
Release Date: 1995-08-29

Tracks:

  1. Notre Dame Hall-Live: Go Ahead
  2. Notre Dame Hall-Live: Ally In Exile
  3. Notre Dame Hall-Live: Relationship
  4. Notre Dame Hall-Live: Underwater Experiences
  5. Notre Dame Hall-Live: Wintess To The Fact
  6. Notre Dame Hall-Live: 2 People In A Room
  7. Notre Dame Hall-Live: Our Swimmer
  8. Montreux-Live: Heartbeat
  9. Electric Ballroom-Live: 5/10
  10. Electric Ballroom-Live: 12XU (Fragment)
  11. Electric Ballroom-Live: Underwater Experiences
  12. Electric Ballroom-Live: Everythings Going To Be Nice
  13. Electric Ballroom-Live: Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)
  14. Electric Ballroom-Live: We Meet Under Tables
  15. Electric Ballroom-Live: Zegk Hoqp
  16. Electric Ballroom-Live: Eastern Standard
  17. Electric Ballroom-Live: Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)
  18. Electric Ballroom-Live: Eels Sang Lino
  19. Electric Ballroom-Live: Revealing Trade Secrets
  20. Electric Ballroom-Live: And Then.../Coda
  21. Magritte Studio: Our Swimmer
  22. Magritte Studio: Midnight Bahnhof Cafe

Album Details

The Early 80's Live Album from the Postpunk Quartet was Recorded in 1979 at the Notre Dame Hall and in Montreux, Most of the Recordings Come from an Appearance at the Electric Ballroom in 1980.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars "...makes the Stooges' METALLIC K.O. seem like a Phish jam.".......2001-11-24

The single best line ever written about Wire's DOCUMENT AND EYEWITNESS comes from an article A.D. Amorosi wrote for MAGNET magazine (August/September 2000 issue): "...a violent live album that makes the Stooges' METALLIC KO seem like a Phish jam." And while one can hear the bottles being thrown on this album as well (literally: on "Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)"), unfortunately Flipper tactics had not yet come into their own so Wire chose to throw dada instead at their dense and impatient audience. Amid screams for PINK FLAG material, the audience never once allow Wire to demonstrate their amazing chameleon-like capability to never do exactly the same thing twice (like Coil and Madonna after them). Read: they never got it. This CD is split into four parts: part one is a relatively calm excerpt recorded live in London in July 1979 performing tracks from what ultimately would have been the follow-up to 154 but which never happened. The opening sonic slaughter of "Go Ahead" (which absolutely destroys the studio version) has to be heard to be believed, drumming mistakes and all. Part two is an excellent version of "Heartbeat" performed in Montreux when Wire opened for Roxy Music (sort of like when Prince opened for The Rolling Stones), much to the chagrin of Roxy's audience. Listen for the whistling. Part three is an excerpt of Wire's last concert for five years: The Electric Ballroom in London on 29/2/80, opened by D.A.F. (and documented by them on DIE KLEINEN UND DIE BOSEN, also on Mute) who were at a starvation-amphetamine meltdown peak. Wire perform an avante-garde/dada performance perfectique, goading the audience with their music and sarcasm, not really indicating if they mean any of it or not. An examination of this document by headphones reveals the absolute apall of the audience, who came to hear "12XU" (which Wire gratefully disembowel) and not the outre art-attack of such pieces as "ZEGK HOQP". By the end, the concert boils down to merely being one big pissing contest. Brilliant and exceptional. Part four is the band's last, posthumous single ("Our Swimmer" b/w the exceptional "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe") added as a bonus and near pre-cursor to what was to come in 1986 with SNAKEDRILL (see "A Serious of Snakes" for the link, "Drill" for the mood). A worthwhile purchase for the casual fan and an absolute must for the die-hard.

2 out of 5 stars Not recommendable.......1999-08-04

Though I appreciate all of Wire's studio-albums from the late 70's to the early 90's, I never liked their live-performances. This is because they often turned their great pop-songs into a dissonant, chaotic goulash of sound. This CD-compilation, recorded at three various locations, Notre Dome Hall, Montreux and Electric Ballroom, is completely unlistenable for "normal" people. If any unknown band had served this, nobody would have noticed, but here the critics said:"Oh Wire, this is fabulous art-school-punk!" You may call the performances on this album "experimental", but I really don't know why this gig made such waves. I only give two points, because there are two good studio-recordings thrown in at the end, they're called "Our swimmer" and "Midnight Bahnhof Cafe". But they're not worth buying this album.

2 out of 5 stars Dissapointing.......1999-03-25

I'd read so much about the "Electric Ballroom" gig before I ever heard it that I was very excited when I finally got this CD and popped it in my stereo. I wanted to hear what was it that made this gig really famous. I couldn't really hear anything at all, as it turns out. Seriously, I've heard 4th generation bootlegs that sound better than this, and I can't help asking myself "Why did they bother?". Not to rip on Wire or the individual members, mind you, as they are, quite simply, one the best bands that ever existed. This particular album, however, is for completists and/or masochists only.

2 out of 5 stars An electric soup of mangled memories and submerged vision........1998-09-12

This curiosity, the only live entry in the Wire canon, is the antipathy of the stadium live opus despised by these art school graduates on a punk rock mission. Sounding almost wholly improvised, this smorgasbord of decaying power pop and art gallery installations is at best chaotic, at worst narcissistic in its own sense of post punk artrock indulgence. Impossible to single out songs, but titles include: "Eels Sang Lino", a Burroughsesque barrel roll and "Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)", a bedlamatic strip of shouty pop. These two disparate items are indicative of the album's psychotic appeal. An overview would recommend this strongly to existing Wire fans but the unconverted should begin with "154" or "Chairs Missing".
Document and Eyewitness
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		Document and Eyewitness
    Wire
    Manufacturer: Restless Records
    ProductGroup: Music
    Binding: Audio CD

    PunkPunk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    British PunkBritish Punk | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    Hardcore & PunkHardcore & Punk | Live Albums | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    Post-PunkPost-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Rock | Styles | Music
    GeneralGeneral | Live Albums | Rock | Styles | Music
    ASIN: B000008MEB
    Release Date: 1993-07-01

    Tracks:

    1. Go Ahead
    2. Ally in Exile
    3. Relationship
    4. Underwater Experiences
    5. Wintess to the Fact
    6. Two People in a Room
    7. Our Swimmer
    8. Heartbeat
    9. 5/10
    10. 12XU
    11. Underwater Experiences
    12. Everythings Going to Be Nice
    13. Piano Tuner (Keep Strumming Those Guitars)
    14. We Meet Under Tables
    15. Zegk Hoqp
    16. Eastern Standard
    17. Instrumental (Thrown Bottle)
    18. Eels Sang Lino
    19. Revealing Trade Secrets
    20. And Then... Coda
    21. Our Swimmer
    22. Midnight Bahnhof Cafe

    Music:

    1. Don't Believe the Truth [Import]
    2. Don't Miss the Train
    3. Dream Macchine
    4. Dry
    5. Eat to the Beat
    6. Empty Souls, Pt. 2 [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
    7. End Weight Loss Self-Sabotage
    8. Flowers of Love and Delusion
    9. Further
    10. Go 2

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    The Women in My Life: A Passionate Serenade to Opera's Leading Ladies

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    The Pupils of Beethoven

    Top Tunes Karaoke CDG Frank Sinatra Hall Of Fame Vol. 2 TT-029

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