3:01 Pick Me Up: Wire

Let’s face it: 3 p.m. is the cruellest time of the workday. The morning latte has worn off, and the post-lunch crash has you staggering around like an extra from a George A. Romero flick. That’s why, each weekday at 3:01 p.m., we present you with a video hand-picked to kick-start your heart. If the following clip doesn’t bring you temporarily back to life and help get you through the rest of the afternoon, chances are you’re dead inside.

Today’s offering:

In a way it’s strange to pair the words “pick me up” with the words “Colin Newman”, who has to rank as one of the surliest figures to emerge from ’70s punk and new wave. The frontman of the brilliant Wire has occasionally outdone noted bile jar John Lydon when it comes to heaping contempt on admirers.

That said, Wire was on a landmark-album-per-year pace when the clip below was recorded: Pink Flag (1977), Chairs Missing (1978), and then 154 (1979), on which the following song, “Two People in a Room”, showed up as the second track.

Arty without a whiff of farty, the band had no problem setting off through musical fields that many punks of the day didn’t even know were there. And they’ve had massive influence ever since—no matter how annoying that's been to anyone in the group.