Manic Street Preachers - Funtime Tour of The Holy Bible

[Si Hunt]

That's a great song, love the choir!

Si.

[Paul Monk]

Nicky's vocal excitement doesn't arrive until later...

Its certainly distinctive!

The album has been growing on me. Its certainly not their best but its not their worst either. The strings and gospel choir sound nice but both are a bit of cliche now. I'd really like their next album to just be guitars and drums, fuzzed up and rocking out!

[Awesome Wells]

I want their last album - whenever that comes - to have a song at the end which features, as a fadeout, the "revolutionrevolutionrevolution" bit from 'Motown Junk' repeating and repeating and repeating until fadeout. The song should be called "The End of the Revolution". I'll call Nicky and tell him now...

I'll also tell him that his performance on the new album isn't a patch on 'Wattsville Blues'...

[Dino]

That was a pretty good gig, last night at Liverpool. Suprised I haven't seen the band live for ages.
As far as I know there are still box offices for the rest of their dates so I really would catch them on this tour if you can. For each venue they have one song from all their albums they will only do at that venue.
I've no idea what song was chosen for Liverpool, but Ian McCullough joined them on stage for "Some Kind Of Nothingness" and later during James's acoustic spot, Ian returned to sing The Killing Moon!
This "last ditch at mass communication" is providing their most intriging setlist wise.
But was gutted they never played "Sleepflower".

[Awesome Wells]

As far as I know there are still box offices for the rest of their dates so I really would catch them on this tour if you can. For each venue they have one song from all their albums they will only do at that venue.

I feel sorry for the poor gig-goers that get Crucifix Kiss and Nostalgic Pushead.

[Dino]

I'll try and find a link, but tonights Brixton shows are off.
Lead singer has laryngitis. Shows being rescheduled for January.
How they are going to break it to the Japanese and Australian tour promoters however...
Sorry for those who were going to go. This isn't the first time it's happened either.

[Si Hunt]

No concert for me tonight then!

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Having gotten a hold of 'Postcards of A Young Man' at the weekend, I gave it a spin in my MP3 player on the way to work this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised. It seems to be the best thing they've done since 'Everything Must Go'. They've ditched the dreariness that made affected some of their releases, but neither is it too pompous or silly. It seems a rather lush and accesible albums with some good tunes on it!

[Dino]

It's really good, but they should either fire whoever chooses their singles or let someone else (I'm not doing anything, they could ask me!) to pick them.

It's Not War (Just The End Of Love) is a great album opener, just not that great a single.
Some Kind Of Nothingness, I can see how happy they were over it. But it's not a good a duet as Your Love Alone Is Not Enough or even Little Baby Nothing with Traci Lords!
Postcards From A Young Man isn't that bad a choice, but it was released far too late.

I would have picked "Golden Platitudes". Great use of choir, a lyric that fits the mood of the Tories back in charge and everything that screamed "Comeback single". But no...

And also "All We Make Is Entertainment" would have been a good single choice as well. Still, they made some good extra tracks for the singles if you ever get to track them down.

[Dino]

I'll try and find a link, but photographer Kevin Cummings has said at the end of an interview he's not only working on a book about them with the band, the Manics are also planning on bringing out another greatest hits (Fair enough, their last one was 2002, and it's only been one, Morrissey!) and a tour for around the end of the year.
Given the trouble James had on the last winter tour, it might be best to see them as early as possible...

[Awesome Wells]

Dino: I thought It's Not War was a STORMING single; Nothingness was - and is - alas, a bit of an aimless dirge.

Mr McCow: It *is* a good album, but - I reckons - not as good as This Is My Truth or Journal For Plague Lovers. I haven't listened to it since buying it, although it's on my iPod and in my CD collection.

[Dino]

Been out of the loop a bit, but I'm glad their second greatest hits has entered at number 10.
Much more interesting for me, The Guardian had a competition where you had to write a review about a Manics album. Hardly anybody seemed to enter, so there was little contest for me to win... "Death Of A Polariod" a Manics book filled with hundreds of pictures of the band from the start and onwards taken by Polaroid fan Nicky and the rest of the band. (Although they probably held the camera and shot, Nicky seems to be the one who hearts polaroid cameras. Even to the stage of saying the newly made polaroids are rubbish when they were on Something For The Weekend the Sunday before!)

[Rob McCow]

Ooo - that's really cool, Dino!

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

There was an article on BBC Breakfast this morning about missing people and one of those mentioned was Richey Edwards of the Manics.
I can remember hearing about the lost member of the band years ago and somehow I always thought the fact the he's actually missing presumed dead was an urban legend and he'd just shunned fame and disappeared from public view. Very sad to think something terrible may have befallen him.

Btw on Breakfast they had Design for Life playing in the background which even I know is well past the Richey era. I suppose Faster and P.C.P. wouldn't cut if for an early morning TV audience.

[Si Hunt]

Absolutely true. He went off one day, they found his car abandoned and nobody ever saw him again. He was declared officially dead a few years ago.

It makes you think - of all the crimes we hear about, how many DON'T ever get resolved? An awful lot of murderers must just get away with it. What happened to all the lost people? Richey could be living it up somewhere, and if he is then he might just be happier that way and we may NEVER know. Or, he could come back, and it would be the most infamous headline story of all time.

But it's far more likely, I guess, that he killed himself in such a way for there to be no trace left behind, troubled and self-harming soul that he was. It's shocking that nobody may ever know the truth.

Si.

[Dino]

"Generation Terrorists" wins Q Classic Album. As their luck would have it, this album is getting a 20th Anniversary edition 4th November! What are rhe chances of that linking up for them?
All the band were there, but this is an interview with Nicky. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gadp...hannel&list=UL

[Rob McCow]

20 Years of Generation Terrorists!

Incredible. Damn fine album though.

[Si Hunt]

20th Anniversary edition for "Generation Terrorists" but not "Like A Prayer" or "Everybody Knows" by Sonia. Life is a cruel mistress sometimes.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

So... a few years later and we have Rewind The Film, which seems to be an album moaning about being middle-aged. Nice. g

Is that Neil Hannon doing guest vocals on the title track?

[Dino]

And that looks like out of the Top 40 album chart in three weeks then! Even The Holy Bible was on the charts originally for three weeks in 1994.
It's a pity it hasn't stuck around, because the worst choice they could ever have for a lead single aside, Rewind The Film is actually a good listen.
If all you've heard from the album is "Show Me The Wonder" and "Rewind The Film", then it's worth having a Spotify listen if you have that.
It's more acoustic than any other album they've made and the duets with Richard Hawley and Lucy Rose are wonderful.
The only blight on the horizon is the final song "Thirty Year War" it's main chorus is "The Old Etonian Scum are in power again". It references Thatcherism, a brief touch on Hillsborough and the Coalition.
It's a lot better end song than "S.Y.M.M." but it sounds like James (who despite the guest taking over, is actually at his best vocals for an album that their last three albums) is trying to cram as many words in as possible, and not in a cute way like it used to be on their first three albums.

Anyway, the final song is a link to their next album (When asked about "Why not bring out a double album?" they said people haven't got the patience for double albums these days) which is said to be more harder, European sounding (?) and recorded in the Berlin studios Bowie made famous.

There's nothing wrong with the Manic Street Preachers management apart from whoever is choosing the singles!

I would have had "4 Lonely Roads" a duet with only a female guest singer. It sounds like a different band and is worth tracking down on You Tube for that. (Try and get the album version)

Despite "3 Ways To See Despair" having a White Album/"Day We Caught The Train" vibe and being another of my favourites, "Anthem For A Lost Cause" (music and lyrics by James ) is the next single and at least sounds Christmassy and will be good to hear on the radio at times.

And my favourite guitar part is the acoustic folky hammer on before James Dean Bradfield oarts the clouds of Richard Hawley on the title track.

Builder Of Routines is Slade's "Far, Far Away" with Slade's chorus lopped off!

[Dino]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iYe...ature=youtu.be
"Europa Geht Durch Mich"

And terrible mobile phone recording but "Futurology" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgPCNMjDdS0

Both from last night's first UK 2014 thing I never bothered to get any tickets for.
Do I wish I did now!!!

[Dino]

When you finally hear the new single "Walk Me To The Bridge" you might want to change the thread title to Manics release "80's Throwback New Album". But here's the tracklisting for what sounds like it could be a bigger comeback of sorts as Everything Must Go.

Futurology
Walk me to the bridge
Lets go to war
The next jet to leave
Europa
Divine youth
Sex, power, love and money
Dreaming a city
Black square
Between the clock and the bed
Misguided missile
The view from stow hill
Mayakovsky

Bonus tracks:
Blistered Mirrors
Empty Motorcade
The Last Time I Saw Paris

[Dino]

Album cover. Album pushed back to... July.

[Rob McCow]

Woah sexy lady on the cover! Haven't had one of those since The Holy Bible.

[Dino]

Woah sexy lady on the cover! Haven't had one of those since The Holy Bible.

Well the two fancy dress angels on Send Away The Tiger were quite glam. (And cheap looking!) This cover looks like they've spent a bit more money on it. (Even though it's tht artwork of a European artist I've forgotten the name of already...)