Biography
Colin Newman maintains his closest public link to Wire, yet he shares with fellow members Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis an extensive history of separate artistic pursuits. Through assorted endeavors the band's guitarist and vocalist has repeatedly altered his musical direction, moving away from post-punk art pop toward ambient and electronic domains while also producing other acts and founding an independent label of his own.
Born in Salisbury, England, during 1954, Newman studied under Peter Schmidt at Watford School of Art. There he joined Bruce Gilbert to establish Wire in 1976, and the group rapidly distinguished itself as one of British punk's most inventive and thoughtful outfits. After advancing at remarkable speed across three albums widely regarded as among the era's most significant releases—Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154—the quartet entered a hiatus at the start of 1980.
Newman next joined Wire producer Mike Thorne to complete the solo album A-Z, much of whose material originated during sessions for 154. Newman's U.S. label recognized the record's market potential and proposed extensive touring to promote it, but he declined, having already experienced limited commercial results from similar efforts with Wire. The A-Z song "Alone" later reached millions of listeners via its placement on the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs.
Newman and Thorne ended their partnership for the next release, Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish. Although Thorne believed Newman possessed chart prospects, Newman declined to focus solely on commercial material. Partly inspired by Dome experiments from Lewis and Gilbert, The Singing Fish became a restrained ambient work recalling Brian Eno. Newman returned to a more conventional rock format with a band for 1982's Not To, yet growing dissatisfaction with the music industry led him, after producing the Virgin Prunes' If I Die, I Die, to spend a year in India.
Upon returning to Britain in 1984, Newman rejoined Wire for renewed activity that produced The Ideal Copy in 1986. The subsequent five years proved especially active, with Newman balancing Wire performances and recordings alongside independent work. After producing Minimal Compact's Raging Souls he relocated to Brussels, where he created two further albums with the group's Malka Spigel: Commercial Suicide in 1986 and the synthesizer-driven It Seems in 1988. Throughout this time both Wire and Newman's solo output grew more reliant on computer technology. Advances in digital tools contributed to Wire drummer Robert Gotobed's exit and a temporary halt to the band as a quartet, yet they also opened a fresh chapter in Newman's creative output.
With Spigel he settled in London during the early 1990s, launched the Swim label, and issued recordings by an eclectic roster of electronic artists that included Ronnie & Clyde, Lobe, dol-lop, and Pablo's Eye. Energized by the rising techno and electronica movements, Newman worked with Spigel throughout the decade on her Rosh Ballata in 1993 and on projects under the names Oracle, Immersion, Earth, Oscillating, and Intens.
As Immersion the pair supplied a sound installation for a group exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 1996. The next year brought Bastard, an album of instrumental melodic electronica and Newman's first release under his own name since It Seems. While assisting with Spigel's second album My Pet Fish, co-producing Silo's Instar, and remixing Bowery Electric, Hawkwind, and Gentle Giant, Newman resumed live performance in 1998-1999, appearing with Spigel across Europe and America. A second Immersion album, the abstract ambient Low Impact, appeared, and in 2000 Newman and Spigel again performed as Immersion, this time incorporating greater multimedia elements.
Just as the founding of Swim had allowed Newman to recapture some of punk's original D.I.Y. ethos, he extended that approach in 2001 by establishing PostEverything.com, an online store dedicated to distributing independently released music.
Amid this wave of activity at the turn of the millennium, Newman also reunited with Wire for concerts in the U.K. and the U.S. in 2000, after which the band resumed recording. The first entirely new Wire material in more than a decade surfaced on 2002's Read & Burn 01. Send, a full-length collection of brand-new songs together with tracks from the Read & Burn series, appeared in May 2003.
Wire continued as an active unit through the 2000s and 2010s while Newman split his efforts between the band and additional projects. These included Githead, formed with Spigel, Scanner's Robin Rimbaud, and Max Franken. The group issued the Headgit EP in 2004 and full-length albums such as Profile in 2005, Art Pop in 2007, Landing in 2009, and Waiting for a Sign in 2014. Newman additionally contributed to Spigel's solo albums Every Day Is Like the First Day in 2012 and Gliding in 2014. Notable Wire releases during these years encompassed 2008's Object 47, the first album without Gilbert; 2013's Change Becomes Us, which reworked previously unrecorded songs from just before the band's initial hiatus; and the moody, streamlined pop of the self-titled 2015 album. Late in 2016 Newman reissued A-Z, Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish, and Not To on his own Sentient Sonics imprint.
Born in Salisbury, England, during 1954, Newman studied under Peter Schmidt at Watford School of Art. There he joined Bruce Gilbert to establish Wire in 1976, and the group rapidly distinguished itself as one of British punk's most inventive and thoughtful outfits. After advancing at remarkable speed across three albums widely regarded as among the era's most significant releases—Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154—the quartet entered a hiatus at the start of 1980.
Newman next joined Wire producer Mike Thorne to complete the solo album A-Z, much of whose material originated during sessions for 154. Newman's U.S. label recognized the record's market potential and proposed extensive touring to promote it, but he declined, having already experienced limited commercial results from similar efforts with Wire. The A-Z song "Alone" later reached millions of listeners via its placement on the soundtrack to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs.
Newman and Thorne ended their partnership for the next release, Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish. Although Thorne believed Newman possessed chart prospects, Newman declined to focus solely on commercial material. Partly inspired by Dome experiments from Lewis and Gilbert, The Singing Fish became a restrained ambient work recalling Brian Eno. Newman returned to a more conventional rock format with a band for 1982's Not To, yet growing dissatisfaction with the music industry led him, after producing the Virgin Prunes' If I Die, I Die, to spend a year in India.
Upon returning to Britain in 1984, Newman rejoined Wire for renewed activity that produced The Ideal Copy in 1986. The subsequent five years proved especially active, with Newman balancing Wire performances and recordings alongside independent work. After producing Minimal Compact's Raging Souls he relocated to Brussels, where he created two further albums with the group's Malka Spigel: Commercial Suicide in 1986 and the synthesizer-driven It Seems in 1988. Throughout this time both Wire and Newman's solo output grew more reliant on computer technology. Advances in digital tools contributed to Wire drummer Robert Gotobed's exit and a temporary halt to the band as a quartet, yet they also opened a fresh chapter in Newman's creative output.
With Spigel he settled in London during the early 1990s, launched the Swim label, and issued recordings by an eclectic roster of electronic artists that included Ronnie & Clyde, Lobe, dol-lop, and Pablo's Eye. Energized by the rising techno and electronica movements, Newman worked with Spigel throughout the decade on her Rosh Ballata in 1993 and on projects under the names Oracle, Immersion, Earth, Oscillating, and Intens.
As Immersion the pair supplied a sound installation for a group exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin in 1996. The next year brought Bastard, an album of instrumental melodic electronica and Newman's first release under his own name since It Seems. While assisting with Spigel's second album My Pet Fish, co-producing Silo's Instar, and remixing Bowery Electric, Hawkwind, and Gentle Giant, Newman resumed live performance in 1998-1999, appearing with Spigel across Europe and America. A second Immersion album, the abstract ambient Low Impact, appeared, and in 2000 Newman and Spigel again performed as Immersion, this time incorporating greater multimedia elements.
Just as the founding of Swim had allowed Newman to recapture some of punk's original D.I.Y. ethos, he extended that approach in 2001 by establishing PostEverything.com, an online store dedicated to distributing independently released music.
Amid this wave of activity at the turn of the millennium, Newman also reunited with Wire for concerts in the U.K. and the U.S. in 2000, after which the band resumed recording. The first entirely new Wire material in more than a decade surfaced on 2002's Read & Burn 01. Send, a full-length collection of brand-new songs together with tracks from the Read & Burn series, appeared in May 2003.
Wire continued as an active unit through the 2000s and 2010s while Newman split his efforts between the band and additional projects. These included Githead, formed with Spigel, Scanner's Robin Rimbaud, and Max Franken. The group issued the Headgit EP in 2004 and full-length albums such as Profile in 2005, Art Pop in 2007, Landing in 2009, and Waiting for a Sign in 2014. Newman additionally contributed to Spigel's solo albums Every Day Is Like the First Day in 2012 and Gliding in 2014. Notable Wire releases during these years encompassed 2008's Object 47, the first album without Gilbert; 2013's Change Becomes Us, which reworked previously unrecorded songs from just before the band's initial hiatus; and the moody, streamlined pop of the self-titled 2015 album. Late in 2016 Newman reissued A-Z, Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish, and Not To on his own Sentient Sonics imprint.
Albums
Bastard
2024
Voice
1995
It Seems
1988
Commercial Suicide
1986
Not To
1982
Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish
1981
CN1
1981
A-Z
1980
Singles
