Chairs Missing  by Wire

In 1978, Wire presented their second album, which is titled Chairs Missing, with Mike Thorne once again handling production. The album's title is an English expression that describes a person with a mental disorder.

In Chairs Missing, Wire continue in the musical style of their debut, meaning the compositions move in minimalist punk-rock, but this time they borrow elements from the world of art-rock, and the album ends up being an avant-pop music record. The fifteen songs on the album are mostly compositions by Colin Newman and Graham Lewis. Of the three singles from the album, the one that managed to have some notable success on the UK charts was Outdoor Miner, which reached No. 48.

Chairs Missing did not have commercial success. The importance of the album—as with all of Wire's early albums—was that they showed the way in transitioning from punk-rock to post-punk.