wire, school friends and cool parents

the parents of all my friends at school seemed to be of a different generation to my folks.
my mum and dad were in their 30's when i was born.
on top of that, though my mum had gone to concerts (cliff richard & tom jones being one) in the 60's, pop culture completely passed my old man by, and he was the musical driving force
in the family.
he'd been in brass bands and was a professional singer (baritone) and music teacher
and my mum was in his choir.
as a result there was always choral and classical music drifitng through the house - lovely to listen to but not especially cool when friends came over.
on the other hand the parents of my best friend at school were in their late 20's and liked the tubes, PiL, cream and wire.

at fourteen, and with music having well and truly
taken it's place as THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD (except sometimes perhaps for girls) i really liked going over to my friends house.
we'd play on either his or my ZX spectrum and i would listen out for his dad putting records on.
i knew who PiL were - my next door neighbour had introduced me and their "this is not a love song" had become a favourite in school and at the house parties of school friends.
the tubes didn't really interest me and cream were just another rock band that i knew from my days as a teeny metaller.

BUT "PINK FLAG"!

now there was something i'd never heard before.
the songs were so SHORT.
the guitars were so CLEAN.

i had to buy the album.
i loved it and loved it and loved it.



after playing my copy of "pink flag" to death i was round at my friend's house and his dad put on "chairs missing".

i'm ashamed to say it left me cold.

i wanted more of the same.
not long songs and keyboards and stuff.



it took me a long time to come round to the fact that wire were always good.
partly it was "play pop", the mini album compilation released by pink records.
partly it was just growing up and realising my mistakes.

nowadays if asked, i would have to list wire in the top 5 or 10 bands that have meant most to me in my life.

mind you, i'd probably also have to have the Hadley & District Orpheus Male Voice Choir in there too.