Wire have proved to be a band who have come and gone from active duty many times over their nearing fifty year history. Often with several years of inactivity between each period, something seemingly compels the complex magnetism that exists between the band members, flipping poles to re-attract and re-form. The ‘Ahead’ single is from the period of Wire’s first reactivation (Wire (Mark 2) aka the ‘beat combo’ and partnership with Mute Records for their recordings) following their split in 1980 and their departure from existiing label, EMI/Harvest records.
It was quite the year, 1980, the short while it lasted for the band. They had a second attempt at recording their ‘Our Swimmer’ single (first recorded late 1979) with an aim to release it as the calling card for their post-EMI existence, including a possible release on Charisma Records – see Side by side: Wire – ‘Our Swimmer’ and ‘Second Length’ versions, for further details. More famously, February 1980 witnessed an infamously self-immolating live appearance at the Electric Ballroom in London. By standard logic, a band that had freed itself from a label (and Wire were at pains to point out that they had walked away from EMI) might be more inclined to make use of such a gig as something of a commercial shopfront to woo a new a label. But no such intent from Wire. Its outright commercial suicide note of a performance put light to Wire (Mark 1) and torched it. But that gig is another story and will be documented before too long on VersionCrazy.
‘Ahead’ was released early in 1987 as a single in 7″ and 12″ formats and preceded the parent album it was peeled from, ‘The Ideal Copy’. Late 1986 had witnessed the release of the ‘Snakedrill’ 12″ EP, something that only a few years earlier would have seemed unimaginable – the first new release from the band following the tumultuous events of 1980. It was a strong opening resumption of duty that EP and when ‘Ahead’ appeared, its sound was clear evidence of Wire having absorbed, assimilated and updated it sound with contemporary practice and influences – a somewhat sleeker, beat-heavy and – whisper it – dance-friendly sound would draw comparisons with New Order, perhaps unsurprisingly,
On 7″ and 12″ formats, the A side includes a 3’40” edit that is exclusive to vinyl as yet, while the 12″ mix is the same as found on ‘The Ideal Copy’. The B sides were culled from a live show in Berlin.
7″ (7 MUTE 57):
Side A:
- ‘Ahead’ (Edit) (3’40”)
Side B:
- ‘Feed Me’ (Live) (4’27”)
12″ (12 MUTE 57):
Side A:
- ‘Ahead’ (4’58”)
Side B:
- ‘Ambulance Chasers’ (Live) (3’02”)
- ‘Feed Me’ (Live) (4’27”)
- ‘Vivid Riot Of Red’ (Live) (2’28”)
Of note, that 7″ edit of ‘Ahead’ is very subtly different compared to the regular album mix, even if it sounds pretty much like it is the same but faded out at the 3’40” mark – there are slight differences in the mix before the end, for example some a higher register guitar line that is only heard on instrumental parts of the album mix is mixed in with the vocals on the 7″ edit.
The live tracks on the B side were recorded at the Metropol in Berlin, West Germany on 19 October 1987. All three were included on the CD edition of ‘The Ideal Copy’.
Of those B sides, a studio take of ‘Ambulance Chasers’ did eventually see light of day on the Wire compilation album ‘Coatings’ that the industrious WMO label used as a very useful means to gather together all kinds of odds and ends of Wire (Mark 2) version craziness. ‘Feed Me’ is found in a much slower take with far a far harsher precision to its machinery on ‘The Ideal Copy’, while ‘Vivid Riot Of Red’ is a live take on what is otherwise known as ‘Up To The Sun’ from the preceding ‘Snakedrill’ EP.