Colin Newman

About

Best known as the voice and main songwriter of Wire, Colin Newman has been one of the more restless figures in post punk since the late 1970s. Wire started out in London's punk scene but quickly outgrew it, shaping what became post punk, new wave and alternative rock in ways that still echo today. When the band split in 1980, Newman wasted no time, releasing the solo album A Z that same year, a record that swung between oddball pop and something a few people compared to Gary Numan. His instrumental follow up, Provisionally Entitled the Singing Fish, named every track after a numbered fish, which tells you something about his sense of humour. Newman has kept busy across an impressive range of projects ever since. He produces and mixes for other artists, runs the Pinkflag label for Wire, and has collaborated extensively with his wife Malka Spigel, both under their own names and as Immersion. His song "Alone" even turned up in The Silence of the Lambs. Since 2004 he has also played in the quartet Githead, and Immersion continues to release new material well into the 2020s.