biiiig wip
WARNING: This page contains mentions of suicide, self harm and eating disorders. background Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band formed in 1986. The Manics, as they are often called, take influence from a variety of bands - notably The Clash, Guns N' Roses and Public Enemy - and their lyrics are both well-educated and confrontational, typically discussing mental health issues and promoting left-wing politics and philosophies. While they have an enduring cult following outside of their hits who enjoy the band's abrasive personality and androgynous-glam image, they are best known for the chart-topping singles Motorcycle Emptiness, A Design For Life and If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, as well as the still-unsolved disappearance of guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards. members James Dean Bradfield - vocals, guitar (1986-)
Nicky Wire - guitar, lyrics (1986-1988) bass, lyrics (1988-)
Sean Moore - drums (1986-)
Miles 'Flicker' Woodward - bass (1986-1988)
Richey James Edwards - guitar, lyrics (1989-1995)
history Formation and early releases
The Manics all come from Blackwood, a small mining town in the south valleys of Wales, and all attended Oakdale Comprehensive School. They were close friends from a young age and James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore are cousins who lived together for much of their childhoods. The band have discussed spending most of their youth in each others' bedrooms, listening to music, watching television and reading magazines and books, eventually forming the Manics (whose name allegedly comes from a homeless man shouting, "What are you, some kind of manic street preacher?" at James while he was busking) out of boredom more than anything in 1986. James and Sean wrote most of the music while Nicky wrote the lyrics. Original bassist Flicker left the band in early 1988 and Nicky took over on the bass.
In June 1988, the Manics released their first single, Suicide Alley
. Only 300 copies were made and only a third of those had actual covers - handmade with photos and newspaper cuttings by friend of the band and future member Richey Edwards. Suicide Alley is reminicent of classic punk and the influence of The Clash especially is clear. They sent the single off to everyone they could, accompanied by long, handwritten letters filled with slogans and hate for other bands. It didn't recieve much attention, but in August 1989, it was the single of the week in the music magazine NME, with Steven Wells writing, "Retrogressive, exciting and inspired. You'll probably hate it." A re-recording of the b-side Tennessee later features on Generation Terrorists. A review of their first London show was published in October 1989 in the Melody Maker, another music magazine, which suggested "they could become champions".
Soon after the release of Suicide Alley, Richey joined the band as a second guitarist (despite having reportedly never played guitar before) and also joined Nicky with writing lyrics. While they started off in leather jackets, the Manics' first distinctive fashion started to develop here - a uniform of white jeans paired with shirts sporting spray-painted slogans like "picturesque ruin", "terminal young thing" and "rock n' roll suicide".
The Manics signed to Damaged Goods Records in 1990 and released the 4 track EP New Art Riot
in June of that year. This earned them a few interviews, in which they began to make their attitude clear outside of their songs - in a Melody Maker interview in August 1990, Richey stated, "We've got to play ordinary venues at the moment but we dream of playing the rubble of London's palaces".
4REAL and Generation Terrorists
After New Art Riot, the Manics signed to Heavenly Records and came under the management of Phillip Hall, who the Manics also lived with for a while in 1991. They were apparently ideal housemates and often cooked, cleaned and helped wherever possible. Their first single for Heavenly was January 1991's Motown Junk
, a highly cynical and confrontational glam-punk song with iconoclastic lyrics such as "I laughed when Lennon got shot" and a sense of nihilism in lines like "The only thing you gave me was the boredom I suffocate in". The cover features a watch found in Hiroshima that stopped the moment the bomb hit. It's the earliest Manics song that remains a staple in live sets. Next came You Love Us
in May 1991; an incredibly hostile song that criticises inauthenticity and arrogance in rock, parliament and the band's own fast-growing fanbase. The Manics' first music video was produced for You Love Us, a fairly typical rock n' roll video with the band performing in various places - except it starts with Nicky in drag and there's a fair amount of groping each other going on.
The Manics achieved their first cover story in Sounds magazine in January 1991, but their most iconic was for an NME issue in May 1991. The cover features Nicky and Richey in leopard print and mesh on a gold foil backdrop. "Culture Slut" is written in lipstick on Nicky's chest and "VIH" (originally "HIV", it was done in a mirror) is cut into Richey's with a school compass. The actual article starts with Nicky stating he's had herpes since age 15 and continues in a similar vein - they come across as trashy, glamourous, sex-crazed, endlessly ambitious and proud to be hated more than loved with plenty of caustic comments directed at bands they don't like, their boring hometown and the NME. While James and Sean were the driving force behind the Manics' sound, Nicky and Richey were responsible for most interviews (and controversies) and were often referred to as the "Glamour Twins". This was where the leopard print and self-destruction image for Generation Terrorists really began, as well as their ambition to write a double album, sell more than Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction, and then break up dramatically at the height of their fame. They were on a mission to irritate everyone they didn't like; shown best when they played support for the notoriously homophobic band First Offense and immediately kissed each other onstage. While performing around this time, James would often invite fans - specifically male fans - to come backstage for sex.
Richey was interviewed by NME writer Steve Lamacq shortly after the release of You Love Us, and after growing tired of constant questions about the band's authenticity, he cut "4REAL" into his arm with a razor blade while talking to Lamacq after the interview. This required seventeen stitches and took over the British music press for several months after arguments about whether the graphic photos of the incident could be published (a recording of one such debate would later become Sleeping With The NME, a b-side for future single Suicide Is Painless). Richey later described after he was taken to hospital, he refused treatment until people with accidental injuries had been seen and a while later called the hospital to ask for the most convenient time to come in to have the stitches removed. The other Manics' response was positive despite serious questions about the band's intentions and Richey's mental health - Nicky later said "It was the highlight of my year".
In July 1991, the Manics released Stay Beautiful
. Originally titled Generation Terrorists, this track had been a live staple for a while, featuring the line, "Why don't you just... fuck off!" in the chorus, likely lifted from It's So Easy by Guns N' Roses. The actual release, however, saw producer Steve Brown swapping this line with a guitar lick, and Manics gigs from then on have included audiences shouting, "Fuck off!" in the empty space. This was likely to make the song playable on radio, which worked, and it became the Manics' first to reach the Top 40 charts - granted, at number 40. Stay Beautiful, like You Love Us, remains a fan-favourite and features in modern setlists just as frequently as in older ones. The music video for Stay Beautiful has the band performing in a sparkly and contorted house while multicoloured paint pours on them. Love's Sweet Exile / Repeat
was released in October 1991. Both are political songs, which is not particularly obvious from the homoerotic near-nude music video that came with Love's Sweet Exile. Repeat, on the other hand, is a fast-paced call and response with lyrics like, "Repeat after me, fuck queen and country!". A re-recorded version of You Love Us
was released in January 1992, which is the version to appear on Generation Terrorists. It charted at number 16 - the most successful single from this period. The rerecording also came with a new music video which is highly sexual and similar to Love's Sweet Exile. The next single was Slash N' Burn
in March 1992, another fan-favourite and the future opening track for Generation Terrorists.
After four singles (with two still to come), a lot of publicity and endless promises of "The greatest rock album ever made", the Manics' debut album, Generation Terrorists
was released in February 1992. It's an all-out and incredibly intelligent attack on capitalism, consumerism, the monarchy, arrogance, religion, power, pop culture and anyone and anything that had ever annoyed lyricists Nicky and Richey set to 70 minutes of big guitars, and while it didn't outsell Appetite For Destruction and peaked at a disappointing number 13 on the UK albums charts, it was recieved very well. Its sheer length is the most common complaint; while the good songs are incredible, plenty of the album blends into one after a while. The band have since wished they had left a lot of the less interesting tracks out. Alongside the original Repeat (UK version), Generation Terrorists notably features a remix of this track by Public Enemy's production team (Stars And Stripes version), who had originally refused because they thought the line "Dumb flag scum" was instead "Dumb fag scum".
After Generation Terrorists, the Manics released Motorcycle Emptiness
as a single, a gloriously long and very classic rock sounding song against consumerism. It's likely their most recognisable from this period and appears in countless driving playlists. As part of a collaborative charity single, the Manics released a cover of the theme from the 1970 film M*A*S*H, Suicide Is Painless
in September 1992. This was their first top 10 and peaked at number 7 in the charts. Suicide Is Painless birthed another particularly iconic magazine cover, featuring Richey holding a crucifix statue, shirtless and covered in Marilyn Monroe stamps. This was voted the best NME cover in a 2015 poll - with the May 1991 cover taking second place. The final single from Generation Terrorists was November 1992's Little Baby Nothing
, a feminist anthem that features vocals from singer and actor Traci Lords, known for her career in pornography starting when she was 15. They originally wanted to work with singer Kylie Minogue, who the band are, surprisingly or not, massive fans of. However, Traci's history made her a perfect fit - the song criticises the oversexualisation of women and destroyed innocence. Little Baby Nothing features the lyric "Culture, alienation, boredom and despair" which has later come to summarise the Manics' whole career (and was a working title for the album at one point).
More controversy and Gold Against the Soul
While performing at Reading festival in August 1992, the Manics drew criticism (again) when Nicky threw his smashed-up bass towards the crowd and injured two security guards. More controversy came in December 1992 during a show when Nicky announced, "In this season of giving, let us hope Michael Stipe goes the same way as Freddie Mercury", referencing the R.E.M. singer's rumoured diagnosis of AIDS. He explained later that while this was another deliberately outrageous statement designed to draw attention that he has gone on to regret in recent years, it had some real weight as a criticism of the reverence people have towards entertainers - "Place your hand on your heart. If we'd wished for the immediate death of Prince Edward, John Major or Margaret Thatcher, would you have been offended? Or would you have laughed?".
After Generation Terrorists, the Manics' future as a band was uncertain. They had promised to say everything they had ever wanted and needed to say on one massive double album then split, but several interviews throughout 1992 seemed to suggest they had enjoyed recording Generation Terrorists too much to give it all up now. They wrote much of the "hypocritical second album" Gold Against the Soul during 1992 and recorded it in the winter of 1992 and 1993. And then, in June 1993, From Despair to Where
was released. This would become the first single from Gold Against the Soul. It does show a considerable change in their musical style and the lyrics are a little more on-the-nose melancholic in lines like "There's nothing nice in my head / The adult world took it all away", but it remains a classic of the Manics' "early era" thirty years on.
The Manics' second album, Gold Against the Soul
, was released shortly afterwards in June 1993. It is quite different to the glam-punk of Generation Terrorists, leaning more towards grunge and radio-friendly soft rock, and reviews were mixed - even the Manics themselves often call it their least favourite of their albums. However, several of its tracks - mainly the singles - remain popular, and it was fairly successful commercially (it peaked at number 8 in the UK albums charts). In terms of the lyrics, it focusses more on personal and melancholic themes, though the political elements of the very early years remain in songs like Drug Drug Druggy and the title track Gold Against the Soul - which Richey described in a Melody Maker interview in June 1993 as "an apocalyptic vision of Britain from the Thatcher years to the caring Nineties".
La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)
was released as a single in July 1993. The title and chorus comes from the last words of Vincent Van Gogh, meaning "the sadness will last forever", and the song criticises the lack of respect people give to war veterans. Richey says, "It's always a beautiful image every year when the war veterans turn out at the Cenotaph, and everyone pretends to care about them - but then they're shuffled off again and forgotten". Notably, this is one of only two songs that Richey actually plays rhythm guitar on. Next, one of the darkest songs from this period, Roses in the Hospital
, was released in September 1993. It discusses "something beautiful in a decaying place" and "people who hurt themselves in order to concentrate, or just to feel something", according to Richey. While it is often thought to come from Richey's hospital stay after the "4REAL" incident, Nicky wrote the majority of the lyrics.
Phillip Hall, Bangkok and The Holy Bible
(workin' on it)
...
essentials
my thoughts
closing
WARNING: This page contains mentions of suicide, self harm and eating disorders. background Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band formed in 1986. The Manics, as they are often called, take influence from a variety of bands - notably The Clash, Guns N' Roses and Public Enemy - and their lyrics are both well-educated and confrontational, typically discussing mental health issues and promoting left-wing politics and philosophies. While they have an enduring cult following outside of their hits who enjoy the band's abrasive personality and androgynous-glam image, they are best known for the chart-topping singles Motorcycle Emptiness, A Design For Life and If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, as well as the still-unsolved disappearance of guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards. members James Dean Bradfield - vocals, guitar (1986-)
Nicky Wire - guitar, lyrics (1986-1988) bass, lyrics (1988-)
Sean Moore - drums (1986-)
Miles 'Flicker' Woodward - bass (1986-1988)
Richey James Edwards - guitar, lyrics (1989-1995)
history Formation and early releases
The Manics all come from Blackwood, a small mining town in the south valleys of Wales, and all attended Oakdale Comprehensive School. They were close friends from a young age and James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore are cousins who lived together for much of their childhoods. The band have discussed spending most of their youth in each others' bedrooms, listening to music, watching television and reading magazines and books, eventually forming the Manics (whose name allegedly comes from a homeless man shouting, "What are you, some kind of manic street preacher?" at James while he was busking) out of boredom more than anything in 1986. James and Sean wrote most of the music while Nicky wrote the lyrics. Original bassist Flicker left the band in early 1988 and Nicky took over on the bass.
In June 1988, the Manics released their first single, Suicide Alley
. Only 300 copies were made and only a third of those had actual covers - handmade with photos and newspaper cuttings by friend of the band and future member Richey Edwards. Suicide Alley is reminicent of classic punk and the influence of The Clash especially is clear. They sent the single off to everyone they could, accompanied by long, handwritten letters filled with slogans and hate for other bands. It didn't recieve much attention, but in August 1989, it was the single of the week in the music magazine NME, with Steven Wells writing, "Retrogressive, exciting and inspired. You'll probably hate it." A re-recording of the b-side Tennessee later features on Generation Terrorists. A review of their first London show was published in October 1989 in the Melody Maker, another music magazine, which suggested "they could become champions".Soon after the release of Suicide Alley, Richey joined the band as a second guitarist (despite having reportedly never played guitar before) and also joined Nicky with writing lyrics. While they started off in leather jackets, the Manics' first distinctive fashion started to develop here - a uniform of white jeans paired with shirts sporting spray-painted slogans like "picturesque ruin", "terminal young thing" and "rock n' roll suicide".
The Manics signed to Damaged Goods Records in 1990 and released the 4 track EP New Art Riot
in June of that year. This earned them a few interviews, in which they began to make their attitude clear outside of their songs - in a Melody Maker interview in August 1990, Richey stated, "We've got to play ordinary venues at the moment but we dream of playing the rubble of London's palaces".4REAL and Generation Terrorists
After New Art Riot, the Manics signed to Heavenly Records and came under the management of Phillip Hall, who the Manics also lived with for a while in 1991. They were apparently ideal housemates and often cooked, cleaned and helped wherever possible. Their first single for Heavenly was January 1991's Motown Junk
, a highly cynical and confrontational glam-punk song with iconoclastic lyrics such as "I laughed when Lennon got shot" and a sense of nihilism in lines like "The only thing you gave me was the boredom I suffocate in". The cover features a watch found in Hiroshima that stopped the moment the bomb hit. It's the earliest Manics song that remains a staple in live sets. Next came You Love Us in May 1991; an incredibly hostile song that criticises inauthenticity and arrogance in rock, parliament and the band's own fast-growing fanbase. The Manics' first music video was produced for You Love Us, a fairly typical rock n' roll video with the band performing in various places - except it starts with Nicky in drag and there's a fair amount of groping each other going on.The Manics achieved their first cover story in Sounds magazine in January 1991, but their most iconic was for an NME issue in May 1991. The cover features Nicky and Richey in leopard print and mesh on a gold foil backdrop. "Culture Slut" is written in lipstick on Nicky's chest and "VIH" (originally "HIV", it was done in a mirror) is cut into Richey's with a school compass. The actual article starts with Nicky stating he's had herpes since age 15 and continues in a similar vein - they come across as trashy, glamourous, sex-crazed, endlessly ambitious and proud to be hated more than loved with plenty of caustic comments directed at bands they don't like, their boring hometown and the NME. While James and Sean were the driving force behind the Manics' sound, Nicky and Richey were responsible for most interviews (and controversies) and were often referred to as the "Glamour Twins". This was where the leopard print and self-destruction image for Generation Terrorists really began, as well as their ambition to write a double album, sell more than Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction, and then break up dramatically at the height of their fame. They were on a mission to irritate everyone they didn't like; shown best when they played support for the notoriously homophobic band First Offense and immediately kissed each other onstage. While performing around this time, James would often invite fans - specifically male fans - to come backstage for sex.
Richey was interviewed by NME writer Steve Lamacq shortly after the release of You Love Us, and after growing tired of constant questions about the band's authenticity, he cut "4REAL" into his arm with a razor blade while talking to Lamacq after the interview. This required seventeen stitches and took over the British music press for several months after arguments about whether the graphic photos of the incident could be published (a recording of one such debate would later become Sleeping With The NME, a b-side for future single Suicide Is Painless). Richey later described after he was taken to hospital, he refused treatment until people with accidental injuries had been seen and a while later called the hospital to ask for the most convenient time to come in to have the stitches removed. The other Manics' response was positive despite serious questions about the band's intentions and Richey's mental health - Nicky later said "It was the highlight of my year".
In July 1991, the Manics released Stay Beautiful
. Originally titled Generation Terrorists, this track had been a live staple for a while, featuring the line, "Why don't you just... fuck off!" in the chorus, likely lifted from It's So Easy by Guns N' Roses. The actual release, however, saw producer Steve Brown swapping this line with a guitar lick, and Manics gigs from then on have included audiences shouting, "Fuck off!" in the empty space. This was likely to make the song playable on radio, which worked, and it became the Manics' first to reach the Top 40 charts - granted, at number 40. Stay Beautiful, like You Love Us, remains a fan-favourite and features in modern setlists just as frequently as in older ones. The music video for Stay Beautiful has the band performing in a sparkly and contorted house while multicoloured paint pours on them. Love's Sweet Exile / Repeat was released in October 1991. Both are political songs, which is not particularly obvious from the homoerotic near-nude music video that came with Love's Sweet Exile. Repeat, on the other hand, is a fast-paced call and response with lyrics like, "Repeat after me, fuck queen and country!". A re-recorded version of You Love Us was released in January 1992, which is the version to appear on Generation Terrorists. It charted at number 16 - the most successful single from this period. The rerecording also came with a new music video which is highly sexual and similar to Love's Sweet Exile. The next single was Slash N' Burn in March 1992, another fan-favourite and the future opening track for Generation Terrorists.After four singles (with two still to come), a lot of publicity and endless promises of "The greatest rock album ever made", the Manics' debut album, Generation Terrorists
was released in February 1992. It's an all-out and incredibly intelligent attack on capitalism, consumerism, the monarchy, arrogance, religion, power, pop culture and anyone and anything that had ever annoyed lyricists Nicky and Richey set to 70 minutes of big guitars, and while it didn't outsell Appetite For Destruction and peaked at a disappointing number 13 on the UK albums charts, it was recieved very well. Its sheer length is the most common complaint; while the good songs are incredible, plenty of the album blends into one after a while. The band have since wished they had left a lot of the less interesting tracks out. Alongside the original Repeat (UK version), Generation Terrorists notably features a remix of this track by Public Enemy's production team (Stars And Stripes version), who had originally refused because they thought the line "Dumb flag scum" was instead "Dumb fag scum".After Generation Terrorists, the Manics released Motorcycle Emptiness
as a single, a gloriously long and very classic rock sounding song against consumerism. It's likely their most recognisable from this period and appears in countless driving playlists. As part of a collaborative charity single, the Manics released a cover of the theme from the 1970 film M*A*S*H, Suicide Is Painless in September 1992. This was their first top 10 and peaked at number 7 in the charts. Suicide Is Painless birthed another particularly iconic magazine cover, featuring Richey holding a crucifix statue, shirtless and covered in Marilyn Monroe stamps. This was voted the best NME cover in a 2015 poll - with the May 1991 cover taking second place. The final single from Generation Terrorists was November 1992's Little Baby Nothing, a feminist anthem that features vocals from singer and actor Traci Lords, known for her career in pornography starting when she was 15. They originally wanted to work with singer Kylie Minogue, who the band are, surprisingly or not, massive fans of. However, Traci's history made her a perfect fit - the song criticises the oversexualisation of women and destroyed innocence. Little Baby Nothing features the lyric "Culture, alienation, boredom and despair" which has later come to summarise the Manics' whole career (and was a working title for the album at one point).More controversy and Gold Against the Soul
While performing at Reading festival in August 1992, the Manics drew criticism (again) when Nicky threw his smashed-up bass towards the crowd and injured two security guards. More controversy came in December 1992 during a show when Nicky announced, "In this season of giving, let us hope Michael Stipe goes the same way as Freddie Mercury", referencing the R.E.M. singer's rumoured diagnosis of AIDS. He explained later that while this was another deliberately outrageous statement designed to draw attention that he has gone on to regret in recent years, it had some real weight as a criticism of the reverence people have towards entertainers - "Place your hand on your heart. If we'd wished for the immediate death of Prince Edward, John Major or Margaret Thatcher, would you have been offended? Or would you have laughed?".
After Generation Terrorists, the Manics' future as a band was uncertain. They had promised to say everything they had ever wanted and needed to say on one massive double album then split, but several interviews throughout 1992 seemed to suggest they had enjoyed recording Generation Terrorists too much to give it all up now. They wrote much of the "hypocritical second album" Gold Against the Soul during 1992 and recorded it in the winter of 1992 and 1993. And then, in June 1993, From Despair to Where
was released. This would become the first single from Gold Against the Soul. It does show a considerable change in their musical style and the lyrics are a little more on-the-nose melancholic in lines like "There's nothing nice in my head / The adult world took it all away", but it remains a classic of the Manics' "early era" thirty years on.The Manics' second album, Gold Against the Soul
, was released shortly afterwards in June 1993. It is quite different to the glam-punk of Generation Terrorists, leaning more towards grunge and radio-friendly soft rock, and reviews were mixed - even the Manics themselves often call it their least favourite of their albums. However, several of its tracks - mainly the singles - remain popular, and it was fairly successful commercially (it peaked at number 8 in the UK albums charts). In terms of the lyrics, it focusses more on personal and melancholic themes, though the political elements of the very early years remain in songs like Drug Drug Druggy and the title track Gold Against the Soul - which Richey described in a Melody Maker interview in June 1993 as "an apocalyptic vision of Britain from the Thatcher years to the caring Nineties".La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)
was released as a single in July 1993. The title and chorus comes from the last words of Vincent Van Gogh, meaning "the sadness will last forever", and the song criticises the lack of respect people give to war veterans. Richey says, "It's always a beautiful image every year when the war veterans turn out at the Cenotaph, and everyone pretends to care about them - but then they're shuffled off again and forgotten". Notably, this is one of only two songs that Richey actually plays rhythm guitar on. Next, one of the darkest songs from this period, Roses in the Hospital, was released in September 1993. It discusses "something beautiful in a decaying place" and "people who hurt themselves in order to concentrate, or just to feel something", according to Richey. While it is often thought to come from Richey's hospital stay after the "4REAL" incident, Nicky wrote the majority of the lyrics.Phillip Hall, Bangkok and The Holy Bible
(workin' on it)
...
essentials
my thoughts
closing