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Baker's Dozen

The Ideal Copies: Graham Lewis Of Wire's Favourite Albums
Luke Turner , April 15th, 2015 13:44

As Wire continue their five-night London residency as part of the tQ co-curated DRILL:LEXINGTON festival, their bassist and lyricist gives Luke Turner a tour of his top 13 records

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Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Magic. Weird, wilful. They obviously didn't know quite what they were doing. It's splendid. I saw them twice in '72, once when they first came on tour and it was dark, the audience didn't even applaud until the DJ put 'Virginia Plain' on at the end, it was astonishing. The second time with the whole outfits, the choreography and a celebration of success. Fantastic record, great lyrics. All of these things have great lyrics, of course... apart from 'Hallogallo'. When Wire supported Roxy Music later it wasn't quite what we thought we'd signed up to. I loved what they did with Eno, it was the combination, the clash... the power of Paul Thompson, all of it, the imagination. It's understanding, and putting it into practice. It's so wilful, it's quite sexy really.