U.K. Post-Punk Heroes Wire Plot a Proper Release for an Infamous Bootleg

British post-punk greats Wire are plotting a proper wide release for their bootleg, Not About to Die, which will be released June 24 via Pinkflag. 

To accompany the announcement, the band has shared one of the album cuts, “Stepping Off Too Quick,” which Wire singer Colin Newman says boasts “the best intro to any song ever.” After that tension-building beginning, ”Stepping Off Too Quick” settles into a rambunctious sprint of jittery guitars, restless drums, and Newman’s voice bellowing, “Stepping off too quick/Not about to die.”

The original Not About to Die bootleg was released in the early Eighties by Amnesia Records, and it contained a smattering of demos Wire recorded for their second and third albums, Chairs Missing and 154. The band had recorded the demos for their label at the time, EMI, and while the cassettes were just meant to circulate internally, recordings-of-recordings were eventually leaked out as Not About to Die (a release speculates the low-quality audio on the original bootleg came from second or third generation cassettes).

For the official release of Not About to Die, Wire have properly remastered the original demos. The album artwork also appropriately features a slightly more refined take on the original bootleg’s cover art. 

Not About to Die was first released on vinyl last month as a limited Record Store Day exclusive. “The LP version was initially a Record Store Day release and we do like to support independent record shops,” Newman said in a statement. “We also appreciate that RSD does not cover all retail, not everyone wants to consume the music on vinyl and that indeed not everyone can get to a record shop. So this release is for everyone else!”