Manic Street Preachers

[burningmonk]

See' date=' the problem is that bands that are not publicized and over-hyped have no chance today. I think that the best bet for a new band would be to release some more radio-friendly hits at first, then, after 1 or 2 albums, once they have the power, slowly switch it into what [i']they[/i] first intended to be as a musical group. Bands who don't take this shortcut have to wait it out and hope for a growing fanbase, which grows too slowly to fund a working band. That is why music today feels so crappy and overproduced, because it's all we're hearing. If we were to start playing music on radio or Music Television that was actually different and interesting, people wouldn't be happy. They want their pop, their hip hop and fake idols. Speaking of Idols, American Idol is an insult to bands and people who have had to take the long road. These people pop up out of nowhere and steal sales from the bands who have chosen a different path.

 

It's not that all music these days is horrible, it's that we're only listening to the horrible music, because it's all that's being played.

 

When Crazy Frog can sell more than Our Lady Peace, you know how bad it is.

 

Good post.

[Jewel]

wow, never knew they'd release another 10th anniversary album :o

 

another album i have to buy this year... bah :P

[Black Rose]

Send Away The Tigers...

 

28/05/2007

 

According to Play.com

 

From those two new songs they played, it sounds like they are going back to the start.

[Plug_in_coldplaying]

i like this band

[busybeeburns]

PRACTISE WHAT WE PREACH

 

MANIC Street Preachers bass player Nicky Wire has blasted Coldplay and Snow Patrol, claiming they are not bright enough to write hit songs about politics.

 

TheWelsh rocker is proud of his band's impressive back catalogue of politically motivated rock tunes. But he claims Coldplay frontman Chris Martin and Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody have jumped on the bandwagon by supporting political causes - while being too timid to educate their fans through their lyrics.

 

Nicky said: "Looking back over our career, I'm really proud of our track record because there are so many bandwagon jumpers around now who'll write an anti-Bush song. It's just the easiest thing in the world to do.

 

"I kind of wonder where these f***wits have been living for the last 20 years because America has been doing the same thing non-stop going back to the Seventies in South America.

 

"It's never been any different. I do find it odd that they need such a disaster of a war to make them think,'Oh, America's got some bad foreign policy'.

 

 

"I find it strange that their songs are never about those things though.

 

 

"Whether it's Snow Patrol or Coldplay, I have nothing against those bands, but I just think that if you want to do those concerts and say you think about those things, don't you want to write a song about it? I find it weird."

 

 

Nicky, 38, added:"I have nothing against them as people and I don't think it is insincerity on their part. I just think it is a lack of intelligence. Political songs tend to p*** people off so they are probably being very career minded."

 

 

The Manics - Nicky, Sean Moore and James Dean Bradfield - travelled to Cuba in 2001 where they met the communist country's leader Fidel Castro.They have constantly criticised the US in songs, such as Let Robeson Sing, a tribute to the civil rights campaigner who was banned from travelling outside the US because he had criticised the treatment of blacks in the country.

 

Now they are back with their eighth studio album, Send Away TheTigers, out on May 7, and oozing confidence again.

 

The band's first single from the album, Your Love Is Not Enough, has been released this week and features Cardigans singer Nina Persson as guest vocalist.

 

It's their best in years and sees them reverting to the clever rock anthems that have been their hallmark for 15 years.

 

But Nicky admits there have been occasions when he has felt like a rock dinosaur.

 

"I feel like a relic sometimes," he told me."I feel so alone in the fact that I still feel engaged with political issues. I watch Newsnight every night just because I enjoy it. People look at me blankly and ask why I'm not watching YouTube or MySpace and I tell them it's because I prefer watching Jeremy Paxman. I went to university and did a degree in politics. It would be a complete lie for me to write an album of love songs or songs about nightclubs or drugs because it's something I have never been interested in. It's something innate in me, something I can't get rid of. I grew up during the years of desperate Thatcherism when theTories used Wales and Scotland as guinea-pigs which gave us something to react against. Now everything is a grey morass and it's harder to rebel."

 

Scots will be able to hear the new songs live at Glasgow's Barrowland on May 14 before the trio return to play the Rock Ness music festival on the banks of Loch Ness on June 10.

 

But while Scots fans will go crazy for rock anthems such as Motorcycle Emptiness and IfYouTolerate ThisYour ChildrenWill Be Next at Rock Ness, Nicky believes our cousins across the Atlantic will never forgive the band for repeatedly criticising US foreign policy in song.

 

"The thing that f****d us up in America was having the Cuban visa on our passport," he admitted."We've avoided the full body search but we do get pulled over rather a lot. We have sold records everywhere in the world, including Canada, but never in America. Unlike those bands I mentioned earlier, we've criticised America and that's the death knell for a band. That's probably why we've never made it there. They don't like it. In fact, there was a time after Cuba and having been photographed with Fidel that I started to feel like George Galloway. I got a bit suspicious and paranoid. We're really looking forward to getting up to Rock Ness. Everybody tells me how beautiful a setting it is. We haven't been up that far for a long time and I've been told such good things about it that I can't wait.

 

 

"I'm a bit scared of the midgie attacks. I remember we played with Oasis at Loch Lomond what must have been 10 years ago and it was beautiful. We had to get to the gig by going on a little boat across the loch. I woke up with quite a few bites the next morning. Rock Ness sounds like it will be worth it. We've been very lucky. Scotland has always been really good to us from the reall early days of playing little clubs in the likes of Dundee. It genuinely i always a pleasure to com back up."

 

The title of the new album comes from legendary British comedian Tony Hancock who used to utter the line,"Send away the tigers when he suffered a bout of depression.

 

"It was more about sending away the doubts and trying to stop worrying about reinventing ourselves," Nicky explained. "You sell millions of albu and start doing stadium gigs and as yourself what the logical path is. You have to choose whether to destroy yourself or become U2 and we ended up destroying ourselves. You get more cynical and feel the criticism more. Send Away TheTigers was about not worrying about that and just doing what we do best."

 

He admits the band's self-confidence took a dent following the release of the previous album, Lifeblood. Cming fromWales there is a natural tendency, whether best actors or bands, to turn into fraught, nervous, alcoholic f***-ups," said Nicky."From Richard Burton to Anthony Hopkins to the Manics, there is a stream of self-doubt that reeks through us. It's healthy. We're very realistic. There's nothing sadder than actors or a rock bands who still think they've got it when patently they haven't. That's what keeps us on our toes.

 

"We have been pretty close to being Welsh alcoholic f***-ups. We reached a point where we had used up all our indulgences and our vanities with solo albums, even going back to Lifeblood, which is a record we are really proud of, but it didn't connect with the people who loved us way back when.

 

"We wanted to make a quintessential Manics record by mixing the euphoric splendour of Everything Must Go, the naive punk idealism of Generation Terrorists, our ability to write brilliant rock anthems and hopefully some intelligent lyrics which stimulate the body and the mind as well. We wanted to make an album we can play live because Lifeblood was such a sedate, beautiful record that we struggled. We're very physical and are one of these bands who treat live music as an art form. We wanted to get that physical energy back. We came back wanting to transfer all the energy we possess as people and as a live band into making a classic rock record which we probably haven't done since Everything Must Go.

 

"All the signposts were there. It was really a matter of us getting focused and disciplined again. You get to the point that you end up putting so many songs on an album that it gets diluted and we just wanted a short and perfectly formed rock record."

 

'I have nothing against Coldplay and Snow Patrol. I think it's a lack of intelligence. Political songs p** people off so they are probably being career minded.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_headline=practise-what-we-preach--&method=full&objectid=19042853&siteid=66633-name_page.html

[Fixed]

I don't really get what his point is. Good band, but he's a bit of an idiot really. Case of pot calling the kettle black, what makes it ok for him to jump on the political bandwagon but when others do it it aint cool? Oh well, every idiot must have his day.

[Black Rose]

Nicky Wire says his mind.

 

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, their new single is heading to a top 3 finish according to the sun today.

[RA-D]

what makes it ok for him to jump on the political bandwagon but when others do it it aint cool?

 

The point he's making is that there are Manics songs which make the audience have an active participation in finding out what he's talking about. There's an educating quality to songs like Baby Elian and IfWhiteAmerica........, rather than the 'something all of your audience is already aware of and likely to agree with' aspect regarding songs criticising George Bush or wars. The same goes for many of their other topics.

 

 

Anyone got any opinions on Send Away The Tigers? Apologies if there's a seperate thread for this.

 

I'm really keen on some of the tracks at the minute and, aside from I'm Just A Patsy, I think the album is really strong. I'm particularly liking Send Away The Tigers, Indian Summer, Imperial Bodybags, Underdogs and Rendition at the moment, but it is a really good album to just press play and listen to all the way through. Seeing them on Wednesday at their penultimate venue from the last tour, Leeds Uni - can't wait (don't really have to!).

[Jiminy Cricket]

*small bump*

 

Just discovered them recently (bought Send Away the Tigers at the weekend) and I really like what I'm hearing.

 

Standout tracks from ...Tigers would be:

 

Send Away the Tigers

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

Second Great Depression

Autumnsong

Imperial Bodybags

 

The rest is pretty good too.

[Lamposts]

I think the album was a bit of let down to be honest, after hearing Underdogs and Your Love Alone Is Not Enough I was expecting another holy bible but that wasn't the case :(

 

Send Away the Tigers

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough

Second Great Depression

Autumnsong

Imperial Bodybags

Underdogs

Indian Summer

[busybeeburns]

Manics lost their bite?

 

 

THINK Nicky Wire (pictured), think mascara, bombastic stadium rock, leopard print fur and heavy politics. The very last thing CityLife imagined him to be was the kind of rock star that likes a good laugh with a hack.

 

But, as we chew the fat with the Manic Street Preachers bassist and wordsmith, we're howling with laughter and firmly belted in to an expectations-bending rollercoaster.

 

"I'm still of the old school that enjoys a good natter with a journalist," he chirps, his broad Welsh accent as pronounced as ever. "Every band you meet, all they do is slag off journalists, 'Oh, they said this about me or that about me.' "

 

In truth, despite the major global success of the Manics and a string of hit albums, Nicky has never embraced the trappings of stardom.

 

He still lives 10 miles down the road from the tiny south Wales town of Blackwood where he grew up and went to school with bandmates James Dean Bradfield (vocals, guitar), Sean Moore (drums) and missing rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards.

 

It's a shopping town now, with little in the way of new employment or new blood, after its economy was destroyed by the miners' strike when Wales was a "guinea pig for Thatcher to test her worst policies out on... you did feel like you had an enemy".

 

It's little wonder he's loathe to leave, because the town was the band's raison d'être - the image, a homage to the glamour of Guns N' Roses and antidote to the drabness of their surroundings, and the music, angry and politically astute.

 

"Sometimes I wonder why I'm so angry and bitter," Nicky recalls, laughing, "because I had such a brilliant childhood. My dad loved books, and I'd sit up on my mum's bed nicking her hairspray and make-up and she was really happy for me to do that.

 

The Clash

 

"My brother got me into Jack Kerouac and then the four of us found each other through listening to The Clash - we were the ultimate bedroom boys, music obsessives."

 

The home-made shirts bearing bold revolutionary slogans and the teenage energy of Motown Junk got them noticed, but Richey's self-harming and Nicky's tendency to publicly air his controversial opinions on celebs of the day also grabbed the band a few headlines.

 

In his time, he's taken pot shots at Blur, The Stereophonics, The Beastie Boys, Gomez and Terrorvision. He called Morrissey a "bitter man who just likes irritating people" and wished a gruesome death of REM's frontman Michael Stipe (which he later retracted).

 

Lately, though, rumours have abounded that Nicky has been watching who he punches. But CityLife isn't ready to wave goodbye to Wire's vitriolic alter ego. We're saddened Nicky - tell us it's not true!

 

"Oh God," he titters "Maybe in public I'm not so outspoken, but in private I'm still...," he pauses, sensing hot water. "I dunno, it's the old Johnny Rotten thing, you know, 'Anger is an energy', and I do believe that we've learned to channel anger in a much more constructive way.

 

"Maybe in the past we were just too nihilistic and you get stuck in that trap of saying something just for the sake of it. Lots of what I said was absolute rubbish, but we were 19-year-olds talking in interviews like we did in our bedrooms."

 

With all thoughts of juicy snipes banished from our minds, conversation turns to the new album, Send Away The Tigers. Widely hailed as a return to form, positioned somewhere between their masterpiece The Holy Bible and their commercial breakthrough Everything Must Go, it's scored the Manics their sixth Top 10 album and a number one single.

 

Generation Terrorists

 

"We looked back at Generation Terrorists and we thought we'd lost our sense of colour, our stupid ambition, the kinda dreams we had, the naivety, the idealism, and I just thought perhaps we'd become too cynical.

 

"We just wanted to get across that idea of the fabulous disaster; sometimes you have to make an idiot of yourself to get a point across, especially if you're dealing with politics."

 

CityLife nods in agreement, and just as we're resigning ourselves to the fact that diplomacy is pulling Nicky Wire's strings these days, out come the knives. "It's pretty hard not to be political in the times we live in. I can't really understand bands that write songs about how bad the bouncers are in Sheffield, it's just like, 'Who cares?'

 

"Those same bands then will do some charity event for some cause but they never actually write songs about it, and that's the weird thing for me. You never hear Chris Martin (Coldplay) write a political song, but he's quite happy to get on stage and endorse something, and he'll never do an anti-American song because he doesn't want to annoy his main audience."

 

The Manics' post-punk ethics and bookish lyrics have never really stood in their way, though; The Holy Bible regularly features in the upper echelons of greatest albums polls, despite its dark, introspective sense of social disillusionment.

 

"I actually still believe in politics but I don't believe you have to relate to your politicians or they have to have a MySpace page. No one related to Clement Atlee and he was the greatest prime minister we've ever had. I don't particularly wanna see him down the pub, I just wanna know they do a really good job.

 

Miserable

 

"Politics is the most miserable, horrible job. You just cannot say anything wrong, and with a gob like mine, you'd just be in trouble all the time."

 

Swiftly changing the topic, CityLife turns attention back to the album - the first LP in 10 years to sound menaced by Richey's mysterious disappearance in 1995. Twelve years on, does Richie's absence still haunt the band?

 

"Because I played football and rugby with him from the age of 12, it's easier for me just to remember him as my best friend. I cherish memories of tackling him from behind," Nicky laughs fondly, "when he was playing football, as well as writing, and just going down the pub together, getting smashed on cheap snakebite.

 

"People forget that he's a son and he's a friend, he's not just an icon for other people."

 

The album has been about reconnecting with the energy the band had before Richie's departure.

 

"Apart from The Holy Bible which I think is just a genius state of mind album, all our best records are kind of euphoric but have a bit of sadness, a bit of intelligence, they are anthemic and we perhaps lost that idea of being natural.

 

"If you've done eight albums you're always gonna make some **** ups on the way. But when we get it right, we give each other goose bumps."

 

The middle-aged spread of 2005's Lifeblood LP left many wondering if it was time to come good on that Manics manifesto to `release an album better than Appetite For Destruction, tour the world, play Wembley for three nights in a row and burn out'. Is Tigers the Manics' swansong?

 

"I think we were in danger of maybe a fizzle out, like the drizzle in Wales sometimes. We'd reached a point on our seventh album where we weren't sure who we were - you kinda reinvent yourself and you confuse yourself.

 

"But, I think that's changed. I dunno where it come from, but we really are reenergised."

 

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/music/rock_and_pop/s/1007/1007625_manics_lost_their_bite.html

[Black Rose]

My tickets came today :D

[Black Rose]

Hi David,

 

So many tour and festival dates - so little time! Lots of things happening in the world of the Manic Street Preachers right now, including:

 

- Look out for James and Sean (on keyboards) who will doing a radio session for Jonathan Ross's Radio 2 show on 21st July. They should be ready at about midday, so tune in.

 

- James will also be doing an AOL chat next week - we'll bring you details of when that is live as soon as we can so keep checking the website or your Inbox for more information on that...

 

- The band are also performing ‘Autumnsong’ on Saving Planet Earth BBC 1 tonight. Do not miss.

 

 

Autumnsong

 

The physical release of the three fantastic single formats is July 23rd. But you can preorder your copies now. Not only that but if you preorder all 3 formats for £5 from Recordstore you will get an exclusive poster of handwritten lyrics by The Wire and which is also signed by the band.

 

CLICK HERE TO PREORDER

 

Look out too for exclusive downloads from iTunes and other Download Service Providers. We'll bring you details when they are all live..

The alternative version to the Autumnsong video...

 

Soon we can show you the new video to Autumnsong - but if you really can't wait there IS a second version which NME.com are currently showing. This version features the two girls from the 'Send Away The Tigers' album cover lip-synching the song and doing a bit of air guitar while they're at it! It was shot by Valerie Phillips who took said photo and the current press shots of the band.

 

You can see it on the NME.com player now . Go check it out.

 

Source: David's Mailbox :laugh3:

[Guest REManic]

Only recently I realised MSP were back in harness, which makes me happy. Their new song 'YLAINE' is just great! It's somehow a different song - it's fun indeed.:P

[Black Rose]

Manic Street Preachers to record Christmas single

 

Manic Street Preachers are planning to record a Christmas song to release this December.

 

The single will coincide with the band's forthcoming UK tour.

 

Frontman James Dean Bradfield told BBC 6 Music that the band were in the early stages of writing the song.

 

"I think we've got more of a sense of humour than people realise," he said. "We regard it [the Christmas single concept] as a great, great tradition."

 

Explaining more about the songwriting process, Bradfield added: "The way it reads is a bit funny at the moment. We've got to decide what we're going to do with it. We've always got lots of little plans and dreams - one of is to do a Christmas single."

 

The UK tour calls at:

 

Aberdeen Music Hall (December 2)

Edinburgh Corn Exchange (3)

Manchester Central (5)

Cardiff International Arena (6)

Birmingham NIA (8)

Bournemouth BIC (9)

London Brixton Carling Academy (11/12)

Brighton Centre (14)

[Plug_in_coldplaying]

Manic Street Preachers Christmas single, 'Ghosts of Christmas' - free download 01/12/

 

Here we go a Manics Christmas tour is upon us. A fine and worthy tradition

 

- To celebrate this season of goodwill we will be giving away our Christmas single 'The Ghosts of Christmas' on our website, and newsletter, from 1 December completely free. So to anyone who has bought our records, seen our gigs, read our reviews, joined our website or given us awards Thank You for a special year.

 

The song is old school Christmas, the anti X Factor, for us it's actual fun. Hope you enjoy the song and the tour.

 

Merry Christmas

Nicky Wire, James and Sean

[GazeboflossUK]

get it free now from here http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/07/index

[Black Rose]

Good Good :)

[RA-D]

the ZIP on their page seems to be corrupted though - a pity, but i'm sure it'll be sorted soon enough.

[Black Rose]

A more direct linkage:

http://ftp.sonybmgmusic.co.uk/msp_christmas_ghost.zip

[MrMagpie]

Good song, downloaded it this afternoon.

[Plug_in_coldplaying]

Manic Street Preachers: Radiohead Ruining Music

 

Manic Street Preachers have controversially slammed Radiohead for “demeaning” the music by releasing their album ‘In Rainbows’ as a ‘pay what you want’ download.

 

The ever outspoken Nicky Wire from the Welsh trio believes that by allowing fans to decide their own price, such a move could have serious reverberations in the music industry.

 

Wire said: “Fair play to Radiohead for doing something different. It’s certainly great publicity but I think it kind of demeans music. “Music used to be a market, now it’s all gone digital. It’s worrying and it seems to be the way of the world at the moment. Sales are doing well everywhere else. Cinema is doing well, video games are doing well but music isn’t. The free download phenomenon is ruining the industry.”

 

Continuing his rant, and totally unrelated to Radiohead, Wire turned is attention the way in which reality TV is saturating society. He told the Daily Star: “I can’t bare the X Factor judges and the shit they put out every year. It’s just a load of untalented fuckwits that destroy the music industry.” [thx gigwise]

 

saying that after giving out a free download song :laugh4:

[Plug_in_coldplaying]

double post sorry

[RA-D]

Rubbish song but good fun indeed.

[MrMagpie]

I bought their latest album the other day, its pretty good.