tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63195690134727770412024-03-14T02:03:59.682-07:00From Despair to HereA journey through the back catalogue, assorted memories and memorabilia of the Manic Street PreachersPyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-43124595955078285152014-11-22T10:51:00.000-08:002014-11-22T10:51:22.637-08:00Motorcycle EmptinessLiterally a day after the release of 'Slash 'N' Burn', the 17th March 1992 was obviously a busy day in providing things for my collection. The latest song on 'Lipstick Traces' was an acoustic rendition of 'Little Baby Nothing' for Radio 1. Nothing out of the ordinary now (apart from the Radio 1 part) you might think, James has done countless solo acoustic slots over the years. But those dodgy glam/punk Manics? Acoustic? On Radio 1? What's going on?!! Obviously the song is performed magnificently to general encouragement from Steve Wright and that housewives market they previously referred to was now well within their grasp.<br />
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Another live gig featured on the Reading 97 video had the same standard 'Generation Terrorists' set as the two gigs mentioned on the previous blog. So, despite what we now know was coming as the next single, there was still no room for 'Motorcycle Emptiness' yet 'Democracy Coma' and 'Damn Dog' were hanging on in the setlist. After quite a lengthy Public Enemy intro tape, the gig itself is solid early Manics. A decent vantage point with decent footage and an enthusiastic crowd, it is slightly marred by Richey's guitar being too loud in places. The 'You Love Us' outro again is exhilarating stuff.<br />
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Fast-forward two months and we have an acoustic rendition of 'RP McMurphy' from Club Citta, Kawasaki, Japan, which appears on the 'Unplugged' bootleg. So there's at least one change to the setlist we've been seeing in the other live performances featured on this blog. It's a fairly faithful version, unremarkable, apart from the additional minute at the end which if I'm perfectly honest I was surprised to hear this early on in their career. Amid high-pitched, heavily accented screams of "Richeyyyy!" and "Nickyyyy!" we get the first recorded instance in my collection of the James band intro. Not sure I believe that Sean is 5'6" though....and who on earth is Richey Rocks?!!<br />
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In the NME from the 30th May 1992 we get another chance to catch up with our boys in interview form, this time from somewhere which seemed as though it may suit them but from the general tone almost definitely didn't, Los Angeles. In the midst of the LA riots they plumped for a photo in front of Disneyland, all looking mean and moody hiding behind their shades.<br />
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If their career to date was actually 'Generation Terrorists' and they started with the youthful enthusiasm of "You need your stars...", then this interview is 'Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll', "There's nothing I want to see, there's nowhere I want to go". Starting off at an album launch party at the Rainbow, Sunset Strip, you would think that this would be exactly where they wanted to be, but no. Nicky says "It's made me much more inward. I haven't gone out at all. I've been reading more than I've done in the last three years...I've gone back to the days when I used to love Morrissey." Richey meanwhile observes that "Everything just seems for sale." Might be a good idea for a song, that.....<br />
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The piece tells of a gig at the Whiskey, with Gilby Clarke of Guns 'N' Roses in attendance, again something that you might expect to be a dream come true, the next step on their path to world domination and 18 million album sales. But the Manics don't get America and America doesn't get them, we're told that 'Slash 'N' Burn' was played by KROQ to commemorate the LA riots. Nicky: "It just puts it all into perspective, being poxy British white kids in the heart of this grim nation of corporatism."<br />
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There's a sense of things falling apart a little, even Sean gets his own section of the article, stating that "the other Manics seem a little put out by his hermit style". We're also told that after making the top 20 Sean got a letter from his dad asking to meet up which coincided with plenty of drink and Sean smashing his room up with a pool cue. The interviewer also notes Richey's right arm (not the 4 Real one) - "burns, scrapes, slices, lesions - a lurid pink testimony to a sustained programme of self-mutilation" which Richey dismisses as " just my war wounds".<br />
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As things take a slightly darker tone what better way to raise spirits than with another hit single? It was finally time for 'Motorcycle Emptiness' to take centre stage, as the NME single review gushes "OK, doubting Thomases, prepare to push quivering fingers into the wounds of Christ. OK, mockers and deriders - prepare to eat hat, to gobble shit sandwich." Never before played live (to my knowledge) and now the fifth song to be taken from 'Generation Terrorists', it was the one that in theory would propel them to super-stardom.<br />
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After buying the 'You Love Us' cassette and then the 'Slash 'N' Burn' seven-inch, it was back to the trusty old cassette format again this time. The CD and additional B-sides followed when all of the GT-era singles were re-released, the 12" picture disc followed a few years later in my ebay gap-filling period and the German promo CD is actually one of my newest additions, bought because it is apparently the only place that the particular edit of the song appears (and I must admit it is a new one on me, fading out at only 3 minutes and 40 seconds).<br />
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Main B-side 'Bored Out Of My Mind' was another new studio song, the next in a long line of quiet, introspective, largely acoustic numbers. In terms of subject matter and the languid pace it seems to fit the mood of the aforementioned interview perfectly. It has always slightly bothered me that James doesn't really seem to be pressing the strings down quite enough in places though. The next B-side (on the CD and 12") is a cover of Alice Cooper's 'Under My Wheels' from a Friday Rock Show session a few months earlier. Along similar lines to 'Damn Dog' and 'It's So Easy' it's a three minute romp to the finish line, as with the others a bit of fun but not up to the standard of their own originals here. Also included on the CD is a live version of 'Crucifix Kiss' from the Astoria in February, a gig covered in the last blog. Needless to say it's ace.<br />
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The cover of the single shows a photo of each band member making themselves at home in hotel rooms, James strumming away on his guitar, Sean looking rather pensive and Richey and Nicky doing their best bored out of my mind poses. In terms of quotes, the original cassette goes with Marlon Brando's "The more sensitive you are, the more certain you are to be brutalized, develop scabs, never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything, because you always feel too much." Quite an apt Richey quote. The CD again reverts back to the quote from the album sleeve. An interesting curio on the 12" is that it is actually 'Bored Out Of My Mind' that is credited to M.Bruce/D.Dunaway/B.Ezrin and not 'Under My Wheels'.<br />
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And so to the video. It's definitely iconic, wandering the Japanese streets as the true rock stars that they are.....but please, someone sack the stylist. Nicky is passable although I'm not sure about the black hair, Sean's coat is too big, the less said about Richey's haircut the better and James? The designer stubble is probably working but the suit makes him look like a little boy dressing in his dad's best clothes. Full marks for one of the greatest moments of any Manics video with Richey on the bridge though. Although that clock on the big wheel going back in time has always bothered me. Maybe it's ART.<br />
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It was inevitable that a song like this was going to allow them to return to Top of the Pops, although it was surprisingly not their biggest hit to date ('You Love Us' pipping it by one place). The performance turns up on disc 1 of 'Televised Propaganda'. With James not learning and dressing the same way as in the video and Nicky appearing to have leopard print drawn onto his arms, they play along on a stage strewn with what appear to be rose petals. Nicky in particular seems to be enjoying another triumphant moment, even though the crowd clapping along is particularly irritating.<br />
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So was the 'Generation Terrorists' era coming to a close? Was the end going to be nigh with the 18 million album sales nowhere near achieved? The answer to the first question for now was a no. I think we all know the answer to the second....<br />
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Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-4725415264406000402014-07-19T06:56:00.001-07:002014-07-19T06:56:31.389-07:00Slash 'N' BurnAround about the same time that 'Generation Terrorists' was arriving in our shops, the Manics were featured in long-forgotten magazine Siren, with an article by John Robb. John has subsequently confirmed to me via Twitter that he wasn't responsible for the headline!<br />
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The most prominent interviewee as usual is Richey, the feature focussing predominantly on the intelligence of the band, with an almost apologetic tone towards the music on the new album, a fairly common stance at the time. The practicalities of touring rear their head, with talk of Sonic the Hedgehog and getting "really drunk" and "hanging around with groupies". References to "3 or 400 letters a week" show that the fan devotion had already well and truly set in too.<br />
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They almost sound as if they're uncharacteristically praising another current band, Nirvana, at one point, before pulling it round with a sneer when asked if they feel an empathy with them: "They are at least not singing about Harley Davidsons cruising down sunset strip". Interesting quote of the piece goes to Nicky - "...if someone dies in this band I'd write a book about it".<br />
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The 15th February 1992 edition of NME delves further into the Manics' world in the immediate aftermath of 'Generation Terrorists' and hints for the first time (to the general surprise of no one) that the 'release-one-double-album-and-split-up-in-a-blaze-of-glory' claim may not actually be true. It's also Carter's turn to come in for some stick, or rather their fans, ironic given that my first ever gig was Carter and my second was the Manics.<br />
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One part in particular interested me reading back, about how "...Richey plays a solo which is five minutes long and goes KRDAGANGGRRRRAH!!". Now we all know he was never really one for solos, and as for that sound unless it was a break from the norm his live guitar sound was never really much louder than someone itching their back. Richey does let himself down in my eyes though - "I was really surprised that in the NME Readers Poll, Bottom came second in the Favourite TV Show list. For me, someone like Tony Hancock is way up there and Vic Reeves is with the scum down the bottom." Richey, you wouldn't let it lie....and may I say that's a smashing blouse you're wearing?<br />
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Talking of Tony Hancock, Richey's labelling of his suicide note ("Things just went wrong too many times") as "..one of the most beautiful things I've ever read" shows a haunting echo of what's to come. For all the initial bluster and propaganda, the melancholia is definitely gradually starting to come to the fore, both through the music and in interviews at this stage.<br />
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Back to the music. Tucked away on a bootleg video of two 1996 gigs that I picked up on ebay a while back is "London Astoria 20.2.92 - Full set inc. lots of old songs they no longer play". It's not quite a full set, as it turns out two and a half songs are missing, but even with the presumably fan-filmed footage it's a corker. Coming in halfway through 'Democracy Coma', it leads us through 'Born to End', 'Love's Sweet Exile', 'Repeat', 'It's So Easy', 'Slash 'N' Burn', 'Crucifix Kiss', 'Sorrow 16', 'Little Baby Nothing', 'Stay Beautiful' and 'Motown Junk'. It's the gig that the footage from the 'Slash N' Burn' video is taken from (with 'Crucifix Kiss' also turning up as a B-side to that single), James looking far cooler than should be possible in a frilly blouse, Sean boiling his brains with his Russian hat and Nicky in his iconic black mask makeup.<br />
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The choice of songs is interesting, B-sides still included in the set, but no room for 'Motorcycle Emptiness', and 'Love's Sweet Exile' is still played more in the style of its earlier incarnations than the album version less than two weeks after its release. Nicky is warming up into his full-on motormouth period informing some audience members, presumably in the balcony, that they look like they'd be better suited to being at an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The general feeling is that despite the gloss of the album, the live arena still shows that the early spirit is still there, albeit with renewed musical prowess (James I'm looking at you).<br />
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The missing songs from the above gig, 'You Love Us' and 'Nat West...' turn up on Disc 2 of the 'Televised Propaganda' DVD seemingly recorded for MTV, along with 'Love's Sweet Exile', 'Slash 'N' Burn' (or 'Lash & Burn' as it is on the sleeve), 'Crucifix Kiss' (labelled wrongly as 'Sorrow 16'), 'Little Baby Nothing' and 'Motown Junk'. They obviously have the added bonus of decent footage and improved sound as well as the infamous Nicky-smacking-a-photographer-with-his-bass incident. It must have hurt Nicky just as much as he had to carry on the rest of the gig with a different guitar.<br />
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Some of the songs from this gig also turn up on a couple of bootlegs, 'If You Want Blood...' listed as "Live at the Astoria, London, 1993 Japanese TV broadcast, stereo" and on 'Where Are You Goin' Now!?' as "live in U.K. 1991". Come on bootleggers, get your facts right! Both of these bootlegs were picked up around the same time from ebay in around 2002.<br />
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Keeping up the pace in the press, the NME featured a live review by Stuart Maconie on 29th February 1992 with another of those Welsh pun headlines that were all the rage at the time (let's face it, I'd have probably done it too). The line "in theory, the Manic Street Preachers have always been my favourite group. It's just the practice I've had a little problem with" was pretty much the norm for most journalists then. It's probably all you need to know from this review. That and "the Manics are Japanese rice crackers in a world of Hula Hoops".<br />
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The third and final interview on the 'Mouthing Off With the Manics' interview CD (mentioned in previous blogs) is labelled as "March 1992 Here we hear Richey and bassist Nicky Wire talking openly in a face-to-face interview about life in this rapidly rising band. 37 minutes 39 seconds". When listening, it becomes clear that it's taking place just before the album has been released though (oops wrong blog!) and it's also clear that the two of them are eating pretty much the whole of the way through the interview!<br />
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Tasty information includes Traci Lords taking a few takes before she got the right feel for 'Little Baby Nothing', Nicky claiming she initially sounded like Joey Ramone! In terms of lyrics, we find out that 'Crucifix Kiss' is about religion (shock!), 'Nat-West...' is about banks (horror!) and 'Repeat' is anti-monarchy (scoop!). And apparently producer Steve Brown said while recording that James was 10 times the guitar player that Billy Duffy is, despite only being 22.<br />
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We also find out that future plans include touring America and Japan, we're reminded that up to now they've only played one gig outside the UK in Paris. Apparently American reviewers of the album are describing it as "Nine Inch Nails meets Cheap Trick" and Richey in particular almost spat the words "Smashing Pumpkins" in relation to another comparison. When asked about singles we're told that 'Another Invented Disease' will be next (really?) and maybe either 'Motorcycle Emptiness' or 'Little Baby Nothing' after that to cross over "into the housewives' market" (Nicky). Highlight of the interview again goes to Richey for the way he says The Who.<br />
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Proof that the Manics were moving out of the indie-land that they had predominantly inhabited up to this point came with a great feature on Headbanger's Ball, captured on Disc 2 of the 'Televised Propaganda' DVD. Featuring an extremely bashful Richey and Nicky talking through the usual stuff between clips of all their promo videos and a quick snippet of 'Nat West...' live, it's a perfect summation of their career to date. Nicky for one expresses pride at the album hitting number one in the rock charts, something which he didn't particularly feel about the indie charts.<br />
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Another bootleg video in my collection, which leads with the Reading 1997 gig, features a performance from Brighton East Wing from 14th March 1992. Essentially the same gig as the one described earlier, the only differences are the opener and closer are exchanged, with an absolutely storming 'You Love Us' even featuring the ending played at lightning fast speed, and 'Damn Dog' (credited as "Unknown Song ?") replacing 'Sorrow 16'.</div>
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Shot from the side of the stage, it's quite a Richey-centric video given that he's stood in front of the camera, but James is again the star of the show. The highlight comes before 'Little Baby Nothing' when one heckler clearly shouts "Hey Richey, are you plugged in?!", with a mouthed "Nah" and a shake of the head the response. Great gig.<br />
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And so to the next official release. The next single to come from 'Generation Terrorists' was 'Slash 'N' Burn', and after buying 'You Love Us' on cassette last time out I went for the 7" option on this occasion. A very wise purchase given the B-side was 'Motown Junk', so I finally had the chance to hear that properly after the fleeting glimpses before fandom really took hold. It was single purchase number 33 in my collection, and as it was bought on release was in my possession before 'Generation Terrorists' itself, which as mentioned on the last blog arrived on my 14th birthday two months later. <br />
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Carrying on the tradition of including older songs, ticking the boxes of allowing newer fans to hear them and not having to record any new songs, 'Motown Junk' was joined by its B-side 'Sorrow 16', although on the re-release CD I picked up later on 'Motown Junk' was omitted, preventing me from owning it on CD for a while longer. Tucked away as the only new song was the superbly understated one-man-and-his-guitar of 'Ain't Going Down'. To throw this away as the B-side of single number four from an album shows an embarrassment of riches in terms of material that would carry on for most of their career.<br />
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The quote on the sleeve of the 7", "Only the man who says no is free" - Melville, was replaced by the quote inside 'Generation Terrorists' for the re-release.<br />
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The accompanying video is basically a James Dean Bradfield appreciation-fest. Comprised of footage from the aforementioned Astoria gig, along with backstage footage it's a PROPER ROCK video. James pulling out all his best guitar god moves, looking as cool as he ever has, even managing to pull off wearing the brightest pink fur coat you'll ever see. My favourite moment was always the play-fighting scene where he looks like he's just slightly overdoing it, but no one would dare tell him he was. We've all been on the receiving end right?<br />
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So, after four major label singles and a double album, what next? 1992 still had plenty more Manics memories to come.<br />
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Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-4052264205215968692014-03-25T11:57:00.000-07:002014-03-25T11:57:34.346-07:00Generation TerroristsI remember getting 'Generation Terrorists' on cassette for my 14th birthday, which would mean I got it around 3 months after its release. As it was 1992 that must have been the birthday where I also got the white vinyl 12" of Pearl Jam's 'Even Flow' and winded myself trying to recreate Eddie Vedder's dive into the crowd from the video for one of my friends (just a bit of context there!).<br />
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Cassette is a pretty underwhelming format to own, it isn't the size of vinyl and it doesn't have the smarter looking booklets and shiny discs of CDs, but it's how I owned the majority of my collection up until the mid 90s. For this blog I dug out my old paper record of my early record collection and 'Generation Terrorists' was actually my 15th album and only my 3rd cassette (do I hear gasps at the back?). For a little bit more context it appeared in between 'Boing!' by Airhead and 'Pretty Hate Machine' by Nine Inch Nails.<br />
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Given the smaller scale of cassettes, the sleeve for 'Generation Terrorists' was particularly big and foldy, plenty to get your teeth into with the quotes against every song, photo collages, the lyrics - this was obviously Richey's contribution. Also at this point he has decided to call himself Richey James, maybe he just wanted a stage name like Nicky Wire, maybe both of them just wanted to sound less Welsh. Whatever the reason, to me he was and always will be Richey Edwards, even though I seem to remember Jeremy Paxman giving an incorrect answer on University Challenge to someone who answered Richey Edwards to a Manics question (or was it the other way round?!).<br />
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When I started writing proper songs myself around 95/96, in a way I stopped hearing fully formed songs and instead heard a combination of vocals, guitars, bass, drums, maybe keyboards. You might be thinking "what is he talking about?!", but there is a difference. 'Generation Terrorists' falls into that pre-songwriting period and so wasn't subject to having the instruments picked apart, the genres and sub-genres analysed and so was basically judged on whether it was good or bad. Listening to it with fresh ears for the first time now I might hear all sorts of references, but it's too late....it's 'Generation Terrorists', it's one of my favourite albums of all time and I love it. So there. And so to the songs.....<br />
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18 songs - 4 already released as singles, 4 older songs resurrected or re-recorded, 1 remix, 1 cover and 8 brand new songs. It's the monster album that they promised. Starting off with one of those new songs, 'Slash N' Burn', it's like guitar riff, GUITAR RIFF, BOOM! Welcome to 'Generation Terrorists'. Note to journalists: it doesn't sound like the Clash. It's a great choice for opening track, it's simple, it's immediate, it's fantastic. "You need your stars, even killers have prestige"....sorry I'm babbling, did I turn 14 again?!<br />
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The production is immediately noticable as being very shiny, very slick, which is a sure-fire way of annoying the inkies, but they had plenty of warning!! James has suddenly transformed into a guitar god, I mean he was always good, but this raises the stakes even more, and the drums sound massive. Another thing that hits you is how ready for mass appeal they sound, up until this point it wasn't really something that people had taken seriously but it's just the perfect pop-rock song with a riff that stays in your head for weeks. Have always loved Simon Price's take on it as well, being "the first rock song about the living hell that is cystitis".<br />
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'Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds' carries on where 'Slash N' Burn' left off, but in a slightly more understated way. It certainly proves that they can do good chorus, even though when you think about it it does sound faintly ridiculous now. Like I said, I never used to think about what I was hearing or singing along to at the time, so it never really dawns on you that you're actually screaming along to a list of banks! Nice sensitive piano outro too....<br />
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'Born to End' bounces into view next and was a little underrated by me previously, although lately (while doing my Manics Top 50!) it has been stuck in my head for days at a time. It is beautifully melodic and I especially like the line "Can't afford it so I hate it all" for some reason. James again shows his guitar prowess with the new-found shiny, crystal-clear production.<br />
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After the early demo of 'Go Buzz Baby Go', that song had never reared its head again until now. Maybe they didn't think they could do it justice, maybe it didn't fit with the image they wanted to portray in the early days, but whatever the reason 'Motorcycle Emptiness' had finally arrived. The Manics had steadily been blowing people's preconceptions out of the water as they progressed, but I don't think anyone saw this one coming. It doesn't sound at all dated even over 20 years on, and despite clocking in at over 6 minutes you still never want it to end. <br />
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'You Love Us' then cartwheels by in its own inimitable fashion, almost like a footnote to the preceding track - "You hear what we just did THERE?! You MUST love us now!!!" - before 'Love's Sweet Exile' (with the addition of an acoustic Patrick Jones-narrated intro) graces us with its presence. You get the feeling that, following the all-new songs kicking the album off, these two are giving us a bit of familiarity, putting a bit of fun back into the album.<br />
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As 'Little Baby Nothing' begins, like 'Motorcycle Emptiness', it's another blow to the head of anyone who still had them down as punk chancers. Is this the most feminine song ever performed by an all male band? Yes, it features Traci Lords, but you know what I mean. We all know the story about them wanting to have Kylie on this song, but I definitely agree that it worked out for the best in the end. I've seen this described as fairly clumsy lyrically, like in a "boys trying to understand girls" kind of way but I've always really liked it. There are some classic lines in here - "Paper made out of broken, twisted trees" and possibly THE most Manics-like lyric ever, "Culture, alienation, boredom and despair". <br />
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So, the original statement that Public Enemy's production team were going to produce the debut album didn't come true, however we did get a glimpse of how it could have been with 'Repeat (Stars and Stripes). We'll let them off for their love of Public Enemy, they must have been really proud at the time, but now it just seems a little bit out of place. I always did like it, but it seems to get in the way a bit now. There are a few songs which could have been relegated to B-side status if they weren't insistent on it being a double album...this was one of them. <br />
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'Tennessee' had already been a B side, so presumably in the absence of any more new material they brushed it down, rocked it up and stuck it at the end of the first side (back when we had 'sides'). Maybe they thought the American reference would work on the American market? Unlikely, and although it's not exactly one of my favourites it's a blast all the same! <br />
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My old stereo always used to dislike cassettes, it had a particular loathing for the first song on the B side, making the sound go all swirly and up and down. This is kind of how I hear 'Another Invented Disease', even now on a CD. This is quite possibly the most ROCK song on the album, custom-built for stadiums and 3 female backing singers swaying in unison. Was this really four awkward, androgynous Welsh boys?! Are they supposed to sound this huge?!<br />
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'Stay Beautiful' returns like an old friend and does its stuff, not quite the same sheen as the others, but all the better for it. For anyone that was into the band before the release of 'GT', I love how the pre-album singles break everything up and make it all seem more fun, this one in particular.<br />
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'So Dead' is a very good song, but maybe one of those that would have been better suited to B-side status if they hadn't insisted on opening with a double album. Bonus points to James for managing to invent a new word, "su-ee-uck", though. With 'Repeat' already having appeared in remixed form, it now gets itself a slightly amended title of 'Repeat (UK)', but see my previous comments about the singles, this has exactly the same effect. The contrast in style between this and the likes of 'Motorcycle Emptiness' and 'Little Baby Nothing' was clear though, if they didn't split up as they promised, would the new material still contain the same mixture or would it head in the direction of the newer songs?<br />
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After all the bluster, energy and bad language of 'Repeat', we come down to the most mellow song on the album, a re-working of 'Spectators of Suicide'. Breaking my usual rule of preferring the first version I hear of a song, I heard this before I went back over and discovered the Heavenly version. While it's good, it's not as good as the Heavenly version, it just seems a little weak compared to the songs that surround it on the album and the general tempo, especially when you put it next to the shuffling original and take into account the apparent lack of bass. Love the jagged, watery guitar sound though.<br />
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A formal intro and a Nicky Wire count-in heralds the start of 'Damn Dog', the only cover on the album, which is entertaining enough, but like 'Repeat (Stars and Stripes)' seems a little bit out of place. With retrospect another one that would have been more suited to B-side status, although its length means it certainly doesn't outstay its welcome.<br />
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And so to the last triumvirate, the final furlong. Whenever I used to get this far into the album I think I would get bored by this point as I never used to particularly like 'Crucifix Kiss' and 'Methadone Pretty'. Why?! Am I an idiot?! I have now seen the error of my ways. 'Crucifix Kiss' is probably THE most 'Generation Terrorists' song on the album if that makes sense, it seems to be all the songs rolled up into one. 'Methadone Pretty' is almost unchanged from its previous outing within the 'Lipstick Traces' demos, a rarity in itself given the changes many of the other early songs went through before their final release.<br />
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With an album this big, this bold and this brash, we needed a scorcher to finish it off. "Lumberer" may be a more apt word, but 'Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll' fits the bill perfectly, although I'm aware that others aren't overly keen on this song. This was my favourite Manics song back in the day, maybe because my tastes were getting heavier, maybe not. Regardless, loads of other songs have overtaken it in the pecking order now, even from this album alone, but it's still an amazing album closer. From the main part of the song itself with one of my favourite lines, the incredibly bleak but perfectly written "The past is so beautiful, the future like a corpse in snow", to James leaving us in no doubt that he has now turned into a bona fide guitar god during the last couple of minutes, the album eventually comes to a close with "There's nothing I wanna see, there's nowhere I wanna go'. It's like that moment at the end of a horror film where everything has seemingly resolved itself only for the viewer (listener) to catch a glimpse that it hasn't quite gone away yet, there's still more to come....but in the words of Bob Mortimer's 'Detective in a Wheelbarrow', this time it's personal.<br />
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Given that Richey contributed nothing to the musical side of things, he was probably responsible for overseeing the packaging. From the iconic cover with the doctored tattoo to the collage of pictures of the band posing and playing, from the lyrics to the quotes tailored to every song, there was obviously a lot of thought put into it (although not on everyone's part if the story about getting the colour of the cover wrong is to be believed). Image-wise it's probably the point where they had the most classic look of that era of the band, the images in the booklet framing each member perfectly - the pouting, preening Richey, Nicky having to put a bit more effort into his glamour, the slightly dishevelled but still cool James and the dark mystery(!) of Sean.<br />
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A bit later on, in my Ebay period of the early 2000s, I managed to pick up one of the vinyl picture disc copies of 'Generation Terrorists' (limited to 5000), one disc presumably showing what the colour of the original cover was meant to look like. I also picked up a regular CD to give my old cassette a rest and allow me to hear the likes of 'Another Invented Disease' as it was intended.<br />
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So what of the reviews, how was it received? NME decided to go with "Rocket to Blusher" and centred around the fact that yes, what they're doing may be unfashionable, but they're daring to do it so good luck to them - "..the Manics have not compromised their abrasive, agit-pop, scratch-mix slogan-choked lyrical style one iota despite having realised (presumably) that the Yanks won't understand one word of what they're saying". Barbara Ellen concluded that the album was a "10 and stuff the marking system".<br />
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It obviously wouldn't all be plain sailing though, it never was. Select gave the album 3 out of 5, describing 'Little Baby Nothing' as "Tiffany making a record with REO Speedwagon" and coming to the same conclusion as many journalists at the time that they had vastly overstretched themselves.<br />
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But let's give the last word to Simon Price shall we. Despite the headline "Guns N' Daffodils", it's everything you would expect a Simon Price Manics review to be - it speaks in their language even as far as having a classic put-down of an indie band of the time, "The sleeve alone...has more aesthetic merit than the entire recorded output of Kingmaker". The final words sum the album (and the band) up perfectly and are a fitting end to this piece - "a damaged diamond".<br />
<br />Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-47359759590131868362013-06-15T12:37:00.000-07:002013-06-15T12:37:02.472-07:00You (Still) Love UsThe Manics started out life being very measured, rehearsed but nervous interviewees. But as the scorn poured out of their mouths over the subsequent months, they perfected the art of the interview, calm and articulate but with vitriolic soundbites aplenty. The interview with the NME from 2nd November 1991 is one where they're in top form.<br />
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Interviewer Andrew Collins puts everything into perspective first of all - "1991 might have been the year of Carter, Blur, Oceanic, Bryan Adams and Right Said Fred, but what got namechecked the most in other people's interviews? None of the above". You don't need to ask who he was referring to. He also defends them against accusations of hype - "Steven Wells never managed to sell anyone Revolting Cocks or Lard; Philip Hall (their PR) also represents the Southernaires and Flood (no front covers there); and Columbia Records have yet to successfully 'get' Fishbone or the Real People into the Top 40". The simple conclusion is the Manics do hype themselves to death, but you don't get this much prolonged attention without the music to back it up.</div>
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It's classic quote time too, from Richey - "You know how Catholics always hate every other religion, or Baptists hate Methodists more than they hate the devil? Well, we will always hate Slowdive more than we hate Adolf Hitler". Absolute journalistic gold.<br />
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An interesting little quote with hindsight is that amidst all of Richey's talk of Wales being "..like a museum, everything is closed, it's like a long walk down a graveyard", the interviewer asks if they ever get hiraeth (a "peculiarly Welsh sense of homesickness"). Mr Mouth himself, Nicky Wire, is the one that pipes up to say "I do sometimes". Anyone who may have thought that the sudden championing of Wales later on in their careers was bandwagon jumping, can see that in Nicky at least it has always been hiding in the background.<br />
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You can't beat a good picture disc. No matter what's on it a 12" slab of coloured vinyl just looks amazing doesn't it? As far as the more obscure items in my collection go, this is one of my favourites, a 12" picture disc featuring an interview for Spiral Scratch magazine. I have seen a few CDs knocking around Ebay, but I have also seen from a few sources that the vinyl version is quite rare, although don't know how accurate this is. This is one of the earlier rare items I picked up from one of my previous favourite pastimes of looking at the record shop adverts in the back of Melody Maker, NME, Select etc. My two favourite shops were Track Attack and Opal, they always seemed to have loads of Manics stuff that I could either use to plug holes in my collection or total up the current prices of everything I owned!! Pre-Ebay they tended to be a lot more expensive, probably as they were more difficult to track down.<br />
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The interview itself starts off mid-conversation talking about bands who try their luck in Japan and moves on to their history where Nicky claims they only formed about 18 months ago??!! There are demos to prove otherwise Mr Wire! With the sound of people making tea in the background they discuss early gigs, the first singles (they didn't even keep a copy of 'Suicide Alley' for themselves apparently!)' and how their fans aren't ex-Smiths fans or whichever band's fans, they seem like the Manics were the first band they've ever been into. True for me, although more through age than anything else. Special mention must also go to the way Richey says "punk", I can't even begin to do it justice by trying to write it down in print.</div>
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As we move into '92 (still in a room without a view, sorry couldn't resist it RATM fans) the NME is following our heroes with a live review at Cambridge The Junction. It's Steven Wells again, so obviously not really going to tell you anything other than the fact that "The Manic Street Preachers are a kamikaze divebomber flown by Andy Pandy and his transsexual friends" and James, whilst singing, looks like "a puppy dog straining on its first solid dump". Cheers Swells. Comedy is also provided by Nicky apparently handing his bass to someone else to smash as he hasn't figured out how to do it yet!</div>
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What would the new album be if it didn't contain 'You Love Us'? The decision to re-record it can't have been a difficult one, with such a shiny new production now the old version would have stood out like a sore thumb, never mind it being recorded for another label. So, big guitars and drums are in, some of the peripheral stuff like the whooping in the verses and the extra guitar in the chorus are out (shame) and the outro is different, now being a showcase for James' ever improving guitar skills. I'm not going to go into any more depth on this song as the original has already been covered in a previous blog. It's 'You Love Us', what more is there to say?!</div>
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This was my first Manics purchase, going for the cassette single, I later bought the reissued CD for the additional tracks. The artwork is different to the original, more toned down in silver and black, and the quotes used are also different across the two formats - "False Media. We don't need it do we?", Public Enemy (cassette) and "Regard all art critics as useless and dangerous", Manifesto of the Futurists (reissued CD).<br />
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The video? Well if you thought 'Love's Sweet Exile' was a bit raunchy, you ain't seen nothing yet! Nicky and Richey camp it up for all they're worth, Richey in particular stealing the show while kissing a giant picture of himself, then suddenly turning his head to look in a mirror. It's quite hilarious, no wonder they used to bring it out as a backdrop at later gigs. It has to be said James has finally decided to make an effort in the image stakes, this is probably the point in time where all four of them actually look the part (usually someone would let the side down). It's another triumphant video in the sense that whatever feeling you had for them before, love or hate, you can now double it.<br />
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After releasing no less than four songs from their upcoming album (before it has been released!) across three singles, and with it being a double album, the Manics were clearly struggling for new songs to use as B-sides. They had used up their store of old songs, presumably all the new ones were going on the album, so they had to find something to give to their fans. 'A Vision of Dead Desire' was a new title but not a new song, although they could be forgiven as its original incarnation of 'UK Channel Boredom' was released before most people knew of their existence. It's faithful to the original recording, apart from the obvious change in lyrics, but comes across as a definite B-side, good stuff but nothing special.<br />
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Also recognising that new fans may not have been around at the time of 'Motown Junk', the inclusion of 'We Her Majesty's Prisoners' both fills in a gap for fans and buys more time before new material is available. It definitely sounds more dated in this context, still a good song but without the trimmings that major label life now brought. Bringing up the rear is a live version of Guns 'n' Roses 'It's So Easy' recorded at the Band Explosion a few months before. If the new sound wasn't enough, this was basically just ramming down everyone's throats who their current influence was and as with the live footage of this gig they sound like they're on fire, Nicky sneering along with James on many parts as the song careers to a close.<br />
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After the relative chart success of the last single, surely 'You Love Us' had the legs to go even higher? Of course it did, earning the Manics their first shot at Top of the Pops, which features on the 'Televised Propaganda' DVD. With James bare-chested and ignoring his guitar for the first minute or so, Richey and Nicky pull all their best poses while the crowd stand motionless, some might say stunned. Sean meanwhile packs in about a minute before the end treating us to the hilarious sight of pyro going off all around his drum riser while he's sat completely still in a sulk! A big moment for them, no matter what some people may want they really aren't going to go away (apart from when they split up after the album of course....yeah, right).<br />
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An advert from the inside cover of the March 1992 issue of Siren shows the cover of the new album due out on 10th February 1992, proudly bearing the line "18 Tracks including the Hit Singles..." ('Stay Beautiful' was pushing it a bit as a hit!). Underneath that a list of tour dates taunt me, specifically the one reading "Friday 7th February Middlesbrough Town Hall". I was a few months short of my 14th birthday and despite wanting to go, I wasn't allowed. Eighteen months later I would go to my first gig at the same venue, but despite being good, Carter and the Sultans of Ping wasn't the same. Imagine if I could have actually said that my first gig was the Manics on the 'Generation Terrorists' tour!!!<br />
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Two TV interviews in the run up to the album's release turn up on the 'Televised Propaganda' DVD. The first for Rapido has the obligatory introduction from the mildly irritating Antoine de Caunes and starts off with some great old footage from what looks like a rehearsal around the time of 'Motown Junk'. It moves on to the band going back home, wandering around Pontllanfraith in the snow, Richey in his fur coat genuinely looking like he is freezing to death, but like a true pro carrying on regardless. We are also informed about Traci Lords' appearance on the new album on a song called 'Little Baby Nothing' and Nicky gives his famous quote about her being the "most intelligent American we've ever met" with a massive grin on his face.<br />
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The next piece for Vivid TV (who?) begins with the reporter saying "They've been described as the sexiest rock band in the entire world, they've also been described as utter crap". Clips from videos are interspersed with Nicky and Richey, again in their fur coats, talking on some stairs. The highlight is Richey responding to an unheard question, presumably along the lines of "What do you want from the album/life", saying what sounds like "I want someone who could love me" with a massive smile on his face, while Nicky, also laughing, replies "I love you Rich...I just want to have a number one album in America and then retire to a big concrete bunker.."<br />
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With singles released, TV and music paper interviews given and EVERYONE waiting for the album that was going to change the world, it wouldn't be long before it was upon us.....Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-91986535006200071012013-06-09T11:17:00.000-07:002013-06-09T11:17:58.502-07:00Love's Sweet Exile/RepeatThe Manics are captured in the studio environment for an interview with Rage magazine around the time of the release of 'Stay Beautiful' and it's another one of those interviews which mis-spells 'Richie', 'Shaun' and 'Nicki'. It immediately paints a picture of rock 'n' roll excess as James welcomes the interviewer wearing a blouse bearing 'I AM A SLUT' while Sean "is sullenly working out with video golf" and Richey "passes round a plate of Mr Kipling apple pies". <br />
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It's more of the same about the one and only album, trying not to slag off bands ("The interviews we were doing were, like, two or three hours long and we'd talked about loads of different things. We'd illustrate a point by mentioning a band and they'd be the only quotes that ever got used") and how they seem to inspire their fair share of hatred ("We are weak, puny little people. We always knew that. Anybody could beat us up. But then, it happens to a lot of people in everyday life anyway. So many bands forget that").</div>
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Select were next on the agenda, in which the band seem to strangely be mostly wearing the same clothes playing live as they were in the studio in the previous article. This time they manage to tag "Ricky Edwards" in the caption on the main photo, which I seem to find more funny than it actually is. And they also appear to be playing on the set of an old Flash floor cleaner commercial.<br />
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It starts off telling it like it is - "So far, they've released three properly distributed singles but only one, the latest 'Stay Beautiful', has gone anywhere near the Top 40. Their concerts mostly attract audiences of between 100 and 200 people. Their records have had measly airplay. Fact is, most people have never heard Manic Street Preachers, they're a phenomenon that only really exists on the pages of the music press, where they've caused one hell of a stink with their blatantly sensation-seeking interviews and divided critical opinion more starkly than any group in years".<br />
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It's an on the road feature and goes on to introduce each member, highlights as follows: quiet, shy, jittery, trying to run a four minute mile (James), addicted to fruit machines, drinks Babycham, former captain of Wales under-16 football team (Nicky), charming, pretty boy, doesn't play on the records (Richey), cousin of James, youngest trumpet player ever in the South Wales jazz orchestra, has childhood sweetheart of 8 years (Sean). All of these are probably well-known to fans now but for some this may have been the first appearance of the more personal information.<br />
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Apart from a bit of a band history and tales of table tennis, computer games and Babycham, a large chunk of the interview is made up of a letter sent to the magazine by the band and printed word for word. It basically complains about how they've been portrayed in the magazine and is a plea for a fair crack of the whip (which this interview is). They do this in the style of their early manifestos, also littered with lines which would eventually crop up all over 'Generation Terrorists'.</div>
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An interesting little curio is credited on the trusty 'Tortured Genius' bootleg as 'Sorrow 16 Riot - Reading After Dark 10.8.91'. It consists of about a minute of 'Sorrow 16', during which Nicky sounds a bit distracted, missing notes, then Nicky and James stop, leaving Richey and Sean merrily playing away. James then lashes out at someone "Don't hit him, right, if you want to hit anyone hit me, I'm not gonna hit back all right?!". He might be short, but don't mess with him or his friends! The incident is referred to in Simon Price's book 'Everything', where a mixture of sound failure, Nicky baiting the crowd and no security obviously led to a confrontation that perhaps only James actually relished (once Nicky had established there was no security).</div>
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A slightly different kind of feature appears in the 24th August 1991 edition of NME, a Q&A article headed 'Material World'. It reads like a written interview rather than face to face, asking random questions like "Key films in your life", "Desert Island Discs", "Great writers" etc. A lot of the questions are either answered in list form or by quotes from Lenin to Bret Easton Ellis to Marlene Dietrich. It's pretty much the Manics' reason for being in a handy two page guide. Slightly worrying at this point (and a pointer for images to come) is that "Best Dressed Person in Rock" is answered as Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. I like the Black Crowes, but not for their fashion sense.....</div>
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In September the Manics were part of Band Explosion, a series of showcase gigs recorded by both Radio 1 and BBC2. Included on the 'Televised Propaganda' DVD were two televised performances of 'Stay Beautiful' and 'Motown Junk', with a short interview by early 90's wish-you-could-have-forgotten-him presenter Gary Crowley. His interview contains my all time favourite question - "So you guys come from, what, Blackwood? So what have you made of all of that?". Richey answers patiently, Nicky chips in his views, before the band are called to the stage.<br />
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I remember watching this at the time, I think my brother recorded it on one of our 'Tusic Mapes' (music tapes, videos, no?) and seeing it now I can believe that this may have been the catalyst for me changing my opinion of them from being a band with good songs to being a proper fan. It definitely seems like "an event", the band playing out of their skins, although Nicky messes up as usual, and that early 90's seal of approval, the constant stream of stagedivers livening things up even more. As a display is destroyed and thrown around the venue during 'Stay Beautiful', James encourages the crowd to "rip it apart" - that moment stuck in my head so much that I always hear James say it in my head at that part of the song every time I listen to the album version!!<br />
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As 'Motown Junk' brings everything to a climactic close, the glitter rains down on band and crowd and you get the feeling that after all the column inches they've finally arrived, they're finally receiving some sort of acclaim. The credits rolling over this scene hit this home even more with the roll call of some of the bands also appearing - Catherine Wheel (good, but hardly exciting), Intastella (interesting hair, but ditto) and Slowdive (do you really have to ask?!). A definite turning point.<br />
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The second interview from the 'Mouthing Off with the Manics' CD mentioned in a previous blog is described as follows: "October 1991. Featuring Richey, again, in a phone interview, this time you can hear him talking about the artists and musicians that influenced the Manics in those early years and what they meant to him. From Public Enemy to Guns 'n' Roses, Richey sheds new light on what inspired the band to pick up guitars in the first place. 17 minutes 21 seconds".<br />
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It does exactly what it says on the tin minus the awkward introductions from last time, the start and end being edited out. We hear about Public Enemy, Richey shaming himself by saying that 'She Watch Channel Zero' has guitar from an Anthrax song. Richey, Richey, Richey, it's obviously 'Angel of Death' by Slayer! He tells us how he's hardly seen any bands live, just read about them, before moving on to Guns 'n' Roses (exciting, much more interesting than boring indie bands) and The Clash (the Tony Wilson Channel 4 documentary from 1986 gets another mention) at which point it carries on for a minute or two as a conversation between two obvious Clash fans. Next to be discussed are the Sex Pistols, quote of the whole interview coming from interviewer James Sherry - "The best thing was they never reformed and they never will". Are you sure about that James?! And finally the Rolling Stones, where we learn that James learnt to play 'Exile on Main Street'. A different interview for the band at this stage, about what they like rather than what they hate!<br />
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And so to the Manics' first double A side, probably because they wanted to release 'Repeat' as a single but the use of the 'F' word kind of made that a bit difficult. This single is almost like they are clearing the decks of their old material before pressing on with the new, with the exception of 'Methadone Pretty' there weren't many other older songs that would resurface. Like with 'Stay Beautiful', the first time I owned this single was as part of the 97 CD re-releases, also going back to Ebay later on to pick up the 12" with the additional live track and gatefold sleeve.<br />
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There are actually two different quotes on the sleeves of the different formats, the 12" containing "Then came human beings, they wanted to cling but there was nothing to cling to" (Camus) and the reissued CD going with "Modern capitalism, organising the reduction of all social life to a spectacle, cannot offer any other spectacle than that of our own alienation" (Kotanyi, Vaneigem: IS NO.6 1961). The artwork for each was the same, a simple target painted on a sculpted torso, but with different colours. The gatefold opened up to a blurry live image with the lyrics printed down one side, for a band that was very conscious of their lyrics it was an opportunity for some to get past some of James', er, interesting phrasings and read what they were singing about!<br />
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'Love's Sweet Exile' is the final incarnation of a song previously known as 'Just Can't be Happy' and 'Faceless Sense of Void' and the production qualities of the upcoming album show a marked change to those previous versions. Huge sounding drums kick the song off, with James' guitars increasing the rock factor from the last single ten-fold. I have honestly never noticed this before, but where is Nicky?! Did they just not bother putting him on it or was it another Jason Newsted on '...And Justice For All' scandal?!! Given that Sean does pretty much the same drumbeat all the way through, it may as well be a James solo single. As the last drumbeats come to a halt, you can almost hear the sound of those journalists that had them down as Clash copyists sharpening their pencils (do journalists use pencils?). Well, they did warn us with all those Guns 'n' Roses references!<br />
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The accompanying video was a strange one, camping it up doesn't quite seem enough, homo-erotic seems closer to the mark. You can picture the discussions as Richey and Nicky try to persuade Sean, who turns up later in the video wearing his best "I'm not even taking off my T-shirt" look. The idea that 'Repeat' was always the one they wanted as the single is backed up by Nicky spraying the song title onto a pane of glass.<br />
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'Repeat' had always previously been incredibly energetic and controversial.....but usually a bit of a shambles. Now they have finally got the right version. At the time I seem to remember this being one of my favourite Manics songs and quite possibly one of the best uses of a siren in music alongside EMF's cover of 'Search and Destroy'. One thing I don't seem to have (although it's probably buried on a video somewhere) is the version of 'Repeat' played on The Word, another one of those rebellious acts having rehearsed 'Love's Sweet Exile' before the live programme went out.<br />
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'Democracy Coma' is the B-side on the regular versions, another contender for best ever B-side, it could almost be a triple A-side!! It really seems to suit the new sound perfectly and begs the question that if this is a B-side what treats are waiting for us on this multi-million selling debut album in waiting?! The 12" actually has 'Repeat' and 'Democracy Coma' on the A side and 'Love's Sweet Exile' on the B-side with a live version of 'Stay Beautiful' from the Band Explosion referred to earlier. It even has old Goodybags himself, Mark Goodier, at the end, telling us that it was from "London's Mar-klee Club" and is another one of those live recordings where Richey is clearly audible in your right ear.</div>
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While 'Stay Beautiful' had only just scraped into the top 40, this was the single that made a slightly larger dent, peaking at number 26. So, they're starting to make further inroads to the general public consciousness, but if only they could make an extra leap....Top of the Pops maybe?Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-48095945631044456762013-06-01T05:27:00.002-07:002013-06-01T05:52:45.642-07:00Stay BeautifulThe 25th May 1991 edition of NME was supposed to have contained your run of the mill live review of the Manics at Norwich Arts Centre. They got more than they bargained for as the infamous '4 Real' incident changed everything. A separate news story reports how Richey needed "17 stitches in horrific, self-inflicted wounds to his arm" prompting the cancellation of the next night's gig in Birmingham (I'm sure that wasn't strictly necessary). <br />
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I remember seeing the full gory picture at the time, and being a boy on the verge of my 13th birthday it was obviously one of those images you just can't help being fascinated by. I think I'm with Nicky on this one - it obviously wasn't big or clever, especially with hindsight and the cult of Richey that it started, but it was pretty impressive. He obviously planned it and I would believe the band if they say they knew nothing about it. If they said previously that they didn't want to be in the likes of the NME, they just wanted to go straight for the tabloids, they were going the right way about it. Life for the Manics would never be quite the same again.</div>
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The actual live review by Steve Lamacq starts with a description of the incident, heard by everyone reading this a million times before I expect, followed by what is actually a pretty frank, accurate summary of the Manics' career to date, honest and gracious but still written by someone who doesn't quite believe....but you kind of get the feeling that he wants to. "The Manics seemed to be unwittingly standing in a caricature of rock 'n' roll rebellion. Amidst all this they released the chunky, surprisingly good 'Motown Junk' and threw things into confusion.....And agreed, what wouldn't we give for a new political pop band back in the charts? Someone who'd go further than just being 'worthy'. But I'm not convinced the Manics have everything under control at the moment". On the contrary, I expect it was more that, Richey in particular, they had EVERYTHING under control.</div>
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Days after the '4 Real' incident the Manics signed with Sony, doing a deal with someone who looks eerily like JFK. Richey can be seen with a bandage still covering his wounds. What a hilarious picture (found near the back of NME Originals), James in particular looking particularly pleased with himself. Suddenly, from humble beginnings, the expectation and the publicity was going big league.</div>
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You know you're getting old when your own newspaper cuttings are yellowing. An article from Melody Maker from 1st June 1991 was first on the scene following the major label deal and '4 Real'. Aside from the lazy journalist spelling 3 of the 4 band members' names wrong throughout the interview (Ritchie, Nicki and Shaun), it's another one of those classic early interviews. Remembering how nervous they seemed in the Snub interview, they seem absolutely unstoppable here, especially Nicki, sorry Nicky.<br />
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Quotes include:<br />
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"You can't create year zero again. We're completely conscious of that....We don't respect punk. We don't respect rock. We don't respect Elvis. We're just the best rock 'n' roll band there's ever been. When our next single comes out, everyone will realise that."<br />
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Nicky - "Every concert or interview we've done, I've wanted people to beat us up because I know I'm prettier and more intelligent than they'll ever be...If Shaun Ryder walked up to me and started beating the f*** out of me, I wouldn't fight back. I'd just stand there and take it. Anyway, my father was in the army for four years. If anyone came near me, they'd be dead".<br />
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Richey - "Personally, like, I only lost my virginity six months ago. I never looked at girls and just stayed in my bedroom all day. I never even kissed a girl. Then the band started...."<br />
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Sean - "Those two girls I was with last night...all I did was help them out. They had spent a lot of money travelling up to see us and they were only students. So I took them back to the bedroom, showed them the beds, then I went to sleep on the bathroom floor with a single sheet around me. The floor wasn't even carpeted. It was made of vinyl. Basically, I think we're all pretty romantic".<br />
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Sean doesn't say much but when he does it's pure gold. You also get the back story of sitting in their bedrooms, waiting for the music papers, reading everything they could get their hands on, how Hanoi Rocks win over Morrissey every time, how they're "just a hopeless mass of contradictions". If you were into the music by now, they were probably fast becoming your favourite band.<br />
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Later that month the Manics hit the news again after storming off stage at the Downing College Ball at Cambridge University. After Nicky starts kicking a mic stand around the stage, the PA company pull the plug at which point Nicky and Sean start generally destroying things before James punches a member of the college rugby team. Perfect, even more publicity. </div>
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Another picture from NME Originals around this time shows the band in James' bedroom, Public Enemy and Guns 'n' Roses records casually laid on the floor, Slash poster on the wall. Apparently James had the top bunk and Sean the bottom if you're interested.</div>
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July 1991 saw 'Feminine is Beautiful' seeing the light of day (already covered in a previous blog) and another feature in Melody Maker, which incidentally is where the backdrop to this blog was taken from. This one contains more of the same stories of being bored back home in Wales, how they hate all other bands around at the moment, how they're going to have their one big album and disappear at the top of their game etc, etc. You get the impression, though, that this time everyone isn't quite laughing so hard. They're obviously going to fail, but maybe not quite as spectacularly as first thought. The introduction also reminds us of something - this is a band who haven't yet had a hit record. Imagine what it will be like when they DO.<br />
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The interview also gives a couple of unintentionally hilarious moments when saying that they interview Richey and Nicky because "singer James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore are hard at it a couple of floors below" and, when discussing the merits of being in love, Nicky says "I think I'll always be happier with my mother anyway". Childish? Yes. Funny? Obviously. Nicky also shows that Mr Carbohydrate has always been there, "I'm always happiest just living with my mum and dad and my dog. Watching telly and stuff like that. That is my perfect scenario, when I can reach some kind of peace." Says the man on the opposite page holding a gun....<br />
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It remained to be seen whether signing to a major label would change the Manics, but we were about to find out with the release of 'Stay Beautiful'. Again, I still wasn't yet at the stage of buying the records, I actually bought the CD single (along with all the others) when they were re-released in 1997. All those B-side titles that I had previously only read about in the 5 years before immediately came to life with those reissues. We're talking pre-downloading and Ebay here kids (or at least very much in its infancy). But 'Stay Beautiful' is still one of my favourites...writing this blog just makes me think what an amazing trio of singles 'Motown Junk', 'You Love Us' and 'Stay Beautiful' actually were!!<br />
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To answer the question of whether signing to a major would change the Manics, the answer is fundamentally no. The money behind the band meant that the production was much slicker, crystal clear compared to before, and James' playing in particular had gone up several notches to match it. Not to mention the title of the song had changed, presumably they had decided at this point that 'Generation Terrorists' would be better as the album title. The only other concession to major label life was the replacement of two key words at the end of the chorus by James' guitar, I'm guessing keeping it as it was would not have been great for radio play!<br />
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With the benefit of hindsight you could say that it was perfectly written to appeal to what was fast becoming their fanbase - 'Love your masks and adore your failure', 'We're a mess of eyeliner and spraypaint', 'All we love is lonely wreckage' all being classic lines, but also starting to paint a picture of a stereotypical early Manics fan. If 'You Love Us' was a taunt to critics, 'Stay Beautiful' was almost an anthem for the converted.<br />
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Even the artwork could have been seen to fit in with this - the band's name written in lipstick, a glamorous girl and a quote that starts out as sounding a bit morbid but ends up fitting the song perfectly:<br />
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"I saw some piglets suckling their dead mother. After a short while they shuddered and went away. They had sensed that she could no longer see them and she wasn't like them any more. What they loved in their mother wasn't her body, but whatever it was that made her body live." Confucius.<br />
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They were now at a stage where they could start pulling out songs from their arsenal to use as B-sides - previously an early demo with the full band, 'R.P. McMurphy' was converted into a quieter vocals, guitar and tambourine combination. Another one of those which has been changed at some point but still works both ways, it's a gorgeously melodic reminder that we're not just dealing with Clash copyists here. And a bonus point for turning the word "drugs" into "dru-he-ugs", a favourite James tactic for fitting some of the impossible-to-sing lyrics into the music. Another older song, 'Soul Contamination', is next which, while still being a decent Manics B-side, actually highlights how much they've moved on with the newer songs.<br />
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As far as videos for major label debut singles go, this was an odd one. The band inside a strange house performing the song, getting covered with multi-coloured paint, before the house falls in on itself and becomes a strange spider/octopus hybrid. Given the Manics' control over most aspects of their band's output it doesn't seem like one of their ideas. Nicky and Richey are looking pretty deadly in this video, although James still hasn't got his act together visually. My favourite part of this video is where James gets a face and a mouth full of blue paint, or whatever it was they were using! I actually used to have an A4 poster of what must have been the aftermath of the filming, probably from Select, all four of them covered head to toe in various colours of dripping paint. But I wasn't allowed to put it on my wall because my mum said it made her feel sick!! She is now a fan, although mostly from 'Gold Against the Soul' onwards.<br />
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The single review in the NME from 27th July 1991 wasn't as glowing, although you sense it's more of a backlash at their major label deal than anything else. 'Stay Beautiful', with one foot in their past and the production values of their future was almost a bridge between the two Manics eras. The Sony era had begun.Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-28588169644151624882013-05-26T08:52:00.000-07:002013-05-26T08:52:08.194-07:00You Love UsIt's February 1991 and, apart from the 'Motown Junk' video, it's the first sighting in my collection of the Manics in the live arena. The performance in question is found on the 'Televised Propaganda' DVD, listed as 'Live Oxford Venue 7:2:91 Damaged Goods B&W Promo Film'. What kind of promotional purpose this could have served is questionable, unless you're happy with the picture quality of a black and white thermal imaging camera and the sound quality of standing outside a gig. If I didn't already know the songs and what the band looked like, I'd be none the wiser by the end.<br />
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But it all adds to the charm doesn't it? The set list features no surprises and is very similar to the demos recorded not long before, featured on 'Lipstick Traces' - You Love Us, Democracy Coma, Methadone Pretty, Strip it Down, Motown Junk, Sorrow 16, Generation Terrorists, Faceless Sense of Void. The latter two songs ('Stay Beautiful' and 'Love's Sweet Exile) are still in their previous incarnations, only a matter of months before they turn up in their final recorded guise.<br />
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'Repeat' is uncredited at the end, perhaps because it never really goes anywhere. After technical problems during the set, it appears as if James' strap breaks and he eventually abandons his guitar to play with the mic stand, Nicky sods off all together, while Sean soldiers on regardless and Richey has a half-hearted stab at breaking his guitar.<br />
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Apart from the finale they don't yet come across as the exciting live band the press might have you believe, but compared to the majority of bands around at the time they do actually move and possess a decent amount of energy. Add that to the unconventional image and you can see the early appeal. The roles appear to be set already - Nicky does most of the talking and awkwardly strides round the stage a lot with his long legs, James is the musical focal point, Richey is pulling all the right shapes, while Sean is holding everything together anonymously at the back. There will be better gigs to come in terms of performance and recording, but it's a nice little curio to have in your collection.<br />
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As is a CD of interviews I picked up from Ebay, 'Mouthing off with the Manics', sold by music journalist and one-time drummer of Done Lying Down, James Sherry. I guess selling your own interviews on Ebay isn't really the norm but it got me an interesting little Manics oddity. The first interview is from February 1991 with Richey, described on the CD as follows:<br />
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"Kicking off with a phone interview with Richey recorded back in the early nineties when their debut album 'Generation Terrorists' was still just a collective twinkle in these four Welsh lads eyes, here is the evidence that they really did intend to release one, glorious life-affirming rock n'roll album and split up. Here is their early uncompromising attitude fully intact, with Richey passionately claiming that the band would never get fat, get complacent and have their music turn into self indulgent wank. Ironic, that. 12 minutes 50 seconds"<br />
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The first thing you notice after reading countless music press interviews is how awkward it all seems. As the interviewer introduces himself, he tells Richey he's met him a few times, how 'I've got like orange-y hair and I've got like a green coat', Richey's response is '...yeah?...' followed by an awkward silence. 'I've talked to you a few times?'. Made me laugh anyway. Questions range from "What kind of audience reaction are you into?" to "Do you enjoy touring all the time?" (response: "It's got to be done hasn't it?"), there are a few more awkward silences until they get into a rhythm,<br />
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Richey talks about how there is going to be a new major label record deal, a new album and how they will probably be gone by this time next year. He explains their original master plan of getting gigs in London and just phoning loads of music journalists, inviting them to attend. How there will be another couple of singles after 'You Love Us', being 'Generation Terrorists' and 'Repeat', which will be produced by the Bomb Squad. They will then go to America, play a few gigs, come back and split up. It ends by confirming addresses to send the next edition of Metal Hammer (where it will be featured), before Richey makes sure he asks if they have some pictures too, very important (apparently Heavenly are going to bike some over). It's interesting to hear something like this that isn't edited or in a very formal TV setting. And obviously Richey fans will be happy to hear such a long conversation with their hero...I guess that's why it was on Ebay in the first place.<br />
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A one page interview in Select from around this time I think is the first Manics article I ever saw. Given that there was no caption saying who was who, I played the 'match the band member to the lineup game'. The one at the front must be the singer so that's James (WRONG), the little bowl-cut one doesn't look that interesting, so he's probably the drummer (Correct!), which leaves the other two. The tall one at the back looks more rock and roll so he must be a guitarist, therefore Richey (WRONG), which leaves the one on the left as Nicky (inevitably WRONG). Still quite a fun game to play, especially with metal bands - the one with less hair wearing shorts is usually the drummer.<br />
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But I digress...the interview itself is the first one I have in print that starts mentioning the idea of the HUGE first album that will set them up for life. "We're not signing unless it's a contract for just one double album...then we'll make enough money from that to last forever" (Nicky). When pushed on their idea of handing the album over to Public Enemy's production team to create a hybrid of 'Fear of a Black Planet' and 'Appetite for Destruction' Nicky has to reveal "we haven't asked them yet. We want to get a lot bigger before we do it. But we've always thought out of proportion to our means".<br />
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They are certainly getting into their role of (pun intended) Public Enemy Number 1. Starting off with "We've been accused of slagging off every band there is, and we've been told to stop. But our statement is we hate every other band" (Nicky). Despite the value for money they provide as interviewees the interviewer is still suspicious though, talking about "tinny chords half-inched from The Clash's first LP and a squeaky voice snarling out lyrics intended to shake the world well off the end of the Richter scale".<br />
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Already mentioned in a previous blog, 'UK Channel Boredom' finally saw the light of day, being reviewed in the 30th March edition of NME as 'a truly dreadful recording', but 'once again proves the point that musically the Manic Street Preachers are a better band than The Clash ever were'. I bet James was chuffed with that one.<br />
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Three weeks later they were back in the NME, with a live review at the Marquee in London. Accompanied by a photo of Nicky in leopard print, as with the last single review it was written by Steven Wells and therefore almost nothing to do with reality. I think he liked it though - 'Like to write more but the Manics are a star band and we've run out of space'.<br />
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The hype has been building gradually as the Manics worm their way into the press and the hearts and minds of the UK's music fans, but on 7th May 1991 the arrival of 'You Love Us' is like flicking a switch. From this point on everything goes into overdrive. 'Motown Junk' was an excellent choice for first proper single, but 'You Love Us' is just so much more obvious, provocative and memorable in a more universal way. From the record cover featuring a huge heart over a collage of Manics icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Travis Bickle, Bob Marley etc. to the extra effort made in terms of image, the Manics obviously also saw this as the right time and their way in.<br />
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'You Love Us' was the first song that properly got me into the Manics, probably taped from the Evening Session, as mentioned on the previous blog I had heard 'Motown Junk' but only really in passing. I wasn't yet a prolific buyer of records at this point however, just a small random collection, so my 12" came later on, bought from Ebay. I already had the two main B-sides after they turned up on later releases, but before then I was missing the live track.<br />
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It's a tough question trying to work out which version of 'You Love Us' I prefer. Generally speaking, more often than not I would go for the first one I heard, which if pushed I would also say on this occasion. If I can take the liberty of having the original with the album version's outro then even better. It actually sounds like they're having fun recording it, still a bit loose round the edges sound-wise, but with all the whooping going on in the background they must have been enjoying themselves. The song basically sums up everything the Manics stood for at the time - if you were a fan then you really did love them, if you weren't a fan then you probably hated them, so having them sing 'You Love Us' in your face probably wasn't going to change your mind.<br />
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Given that the video for 'Motown Junk' was just from a live gig this gives them the opportunity to star in their first 'proper' video. 'Star' is probably the right word. It starts with some of the images from the record cover, before cutting between a glammed-up Manics performing the song and perfectly edited live footage of instrument smashing. I say perfectly edited because it looks exciting in the video, whereas at the Oxford gig mentioned previously it all looked a little contrived. James, on the other hand, looks hilarious, like the little boy shown in the Holy Bible booklet wearing a fur coat!! James, for one, needed to work on his image, even Sean had grown his hair a bit to look a bit more presentable.<br />
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'Spectators of Suicide' is an odd choice of B-side given what you've just heard. It's another side to the Manics, maybe another calculated move at this point to say 'you thought you knew who we were, but listen to this'. And still they knew they had 'Motorcycle Emptiness' up their sleeve. James sounds incredibly restrained with his vocals, shy even, and they have the addition of piano courtesy of a certain Mr Dave Eringa. I first heard this as the B-side to the 12" of 'From Despair to Where' and just to contradict myself from earlier, I actually think this is better than the album version I'd heard a year or so before. It's different in the way that 'Faceless Sense of Void' was from 'Love's Sweet Exile', more organic, more stripped down, more real.<br />
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'Starlover' was one of the last early B-sides I actually heard, I didn't have the CD of 'From Despair to Where' where it resurfaced and eventually picked it up as a filler on a compilation tape made by my brother's girlfriend before finally getting the original 12". It's back to the punky, early Manics we love and I think it would be fair to say if you wanted a song that summed up the pre-'Generation Terrorists'-era quickly then this may be the one. They seem keen on including samples on this single, the squall of strings at the start of 'You Love Us', the voice at the beginning of 'Spectators..' and their beloved Flavor Flav of Public Enemy on this. A live version of 'Strip it Down' rounds it off, a quality recording given the video I mentioned earlier, and another song to indulge yourself in listening out for audible Richey guitar (just about audible in the left ear if you're wearing headphones).<br />
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Carrying on the Manics tradition, the quote on the sleeve is layered over a picture of Marilyn Monroe (so was presumably hers?):<br />
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"I knew I belonged to the public and to the world not because I was talented or even beautiful but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone ever".<br />
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A more perfect Manics quote you're never likely to hear.<br />
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The single's release is accompanied by a feature in the NME from 11th May and this definitely ups the ante in the glam stakes. Richey and Nicky are glammed up to the nines, eye make-up aplenty, blouses and white jeans as per usual, Richey with the classic 'oops I shouldn't have done this in a mirror' VIH carved into his chest (a sign of things to come....) and Nicky chickening out with 'Culture Slut' on his, but only done in lipstick. To top it all off they're all laid in gold lame (yeah it says 'lame', like me because I can't be bothered to find out how to get the accent on it).</div>
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It's another interview from a slightly suspicious journalist, James Brown, who can't help but print all of their lurid stories and grand plans, but to coin a phrase maybe still doesn't think they're for real - "They're confused, intolerant, jealous, angst-ridden snots whose only hope is their lust for life at the top, and their peculiar androgynous sex appeal". They end up having a 'row' (I expect this is slightly over the top given the Manics' usually laid back interview technique), which with hindsight could have prompted 4 Real, which was just around the corner. James makes a brilliant point with "We get compared to the greatest bands ever and are accused of being crap, if you start comparing the music journalists to the greatest writers ever you soon see how shit they are too". Ouch.<br />
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It's a classic interview, Nicky's attempts at creating some kind of 'wild man of rock' reputation with his exploits are dashed with the description of him with his blouse, "a tube of Pritt stick, some scissors and an Irish pop magazine". For every declaration of intent there's something like James and Sean still sharing bunk beds at home to bring it home that they're still just one of us. By the closing line our writer seems won over to a certain extent - "Every man must know his limitations, Manic Street Preachers don't. And they're better for it. Love them or laugh".<br />
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A week later 'You Love Us' is reviewed in the NME by Simon Dudfield, so bound to get a good review then. The last line sums it up nicely: "The Manics are still the most daring band in Britain. Official." If only there was some grand gesture that would capture EVERYONE's attention, not just the converted.......Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-20715177740992176122013-03-24T08:58:00.000-07:002020-01-21T11:12:50.911-08:00Motown Junk<br />
So you've stirred up the press, played a few gigs and got yourself a bit of attention - what next? Ideally release a single that would live up to everything you've been saying and completely blow everybody away. It didn't quite work out like that yet, but if anything could be that single it's 'Motown Junk'. I'm really not exaggerating by saying this may be my favourite song of all time, top 5 definitely. This also happens to be where I join the Manics story. <br />
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My older brother used to watch Snub on BBC2 regularly, so I would watch it occasionally too, and I'm fairly certain that I saw the brief interview and performance, although I didn't think too much about it amongst the multitude of other bands that would be on. What I remember more was seeing a 10 second clip at number 9 in the Indie Charts on the Chart Show, mainly because they seemed pretty funny next to the usual shoegazers, baggy bands and transit van merchants. At 12 years old I was only just leaving behind my early record collection of Aha, Rick Astley and Wet Wet Wet (unfortunately true), during the course of 1991 they would be replaced by the likes of The Farm, EMF and Flowered Up.<br />
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So I'd been introduced but not yet converted. For 10 years I only owned 'Motown Junk' on record, as the B-side to 'Slash and Burn', and I think it's perfectly suited to listening on record. The intro and outro, the generally tinny feel - maybe this was what Eddie Vedder was listening to when he wrote 'Spin the Black Circle' (I doubt it). I picked up the 12" later on, in my early Ebay period, even though I had the B-sides elsewhere it was a gap in my collection that was relatively cheap to fill. I also picked up the 20th anniversary 7" from Ebay more recently, as well as gaining another identical 7" inside the National Treasures boxset!<br />
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As with the other releases so far the artwork is fairly underwhelming compared to their image and press, although obviously a powerful image. The mostly black back cover contains the lyrics from the chorus as well as an incendiary William Burroughs quote:<br />
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"Rock and Roll adolescents storm into the streets of all nations. They rush into the Louvre and throw acid in the Mona Lisa's face. They open zoos, insane asylums, prisons, burst water mains with air hammers, chop the floor out of passenger plane lavatories, shoot out lighthouses, turn sewers into the water supply, administer injections with bicycle pumps, they shit on the floor of the United Nations and wipe their ass with treaties, pacts, alliances."<br />
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The music and lyrics certainly matched the sentiment of that quote. As the echoes of 'Revolution, Revolution...' first spring to life it's like all their small town boredom and resentment is being slowly condensed until that little crackle of feedback starts a chain reaction (no pun intended, Diana Ross fans) and it finally goes supernova as the band kicks in. <br />
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As far as opening lines go, "Never ever wanted to be with you, the only thing you gave me was the boredom I suffocated in" isn't a bad one, it fits the early Manics mood perfectly (interestingly, I linked the 'Motown Junk' video once to an American friend of mine who was previously oblivious to their existence, she has since always referred to them as the 'Whoo-hoos' after the sound following that opening line).<br />
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As good as their output had been to date, I don't think anyone would have expected THIS. No one around at the time was playing music this wired, this exciting and with the closing line of "we live in urban hell, we destroy rock and roll" you may have just started to believe them. I have to mention the fact that, even though they have avoided it for quite some time now, I still like the 'I laughed when Lennon got shot' line. Not because I think it's funny when people die (obviously) but because it was just their way at the time to get up as many people's noses as possible. Although maybe that was taken a bit too far later on....<br />
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One of the older songs, 'Sorrow 16', is the first B-side and shows they can do melody just as well as adrenalin-fuelled rock/punk/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. I would go as far as saying this may be the best B-side of any band on any single, with the possible exception of 'Just a Day' by fellow Welshmen Feeder, although that can be ruled out of the running as they came to their senses and put it in its rightful place later on.<br />
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So, following the best song of all time and the best B-side of all time must be an anti-climax, right? Yes and no. 'We Her Majesty's Prisoners' is the weakest track of the three but is still a great song. Much more understated than the previous tracks, Nicky certainly wasn't stretched recording it, with a mostly one note bassline for a lot of the song. Piano made an appearance on the chorus too, along with the controversy seeking line of 'Ceremonial Rape Machine', which didn't quite make it as the final title. It all ends with a big rock outro with a brief vocal appearance from a Mr N.Wire to round things off.<br />
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The single was reviewed in the 26th January 1991 edition of NME, described as "the wildest sounding record this week by several universes". They seem to get the idea, going on to claim it "makes you want to punch some poor bastard out or storm the Winter Palace". The hype was obviously working on the press.<br />
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The Snub appearance I referred to earlier can be found on a DVD compilation (yes, you guessed it, picked up from Ebay) called Televised Propaganda. It's another one I'll be coming back to over and again as time goes on as it contains pretty much all the Manics' television appearances up until the 'Everything Must Go' era over 3 discs.<br />
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It starts off with an interview, talking about topics such as youth culture, with quotes like "we just want to mix politics and sex and look good onstage and say brilliant things" and "we're the most original band of the last 15 years" rolling off Richey's tongue as if he has been rehearsing (he probably had). But in print it sounds like some brash, loud, arrogant band making wild statements to grab attention. In reality Richey is talking quietly and self-consciously, making minimal eye contact while the rest of the band stand awkwardly, eyes darting around the room. Nicky in particular is almost rocking backwards and forwards waiting for his moment before contributing "we'll never write a love song ever, full stop. We'll be dead before we have to do that anyway". They then try and alienate themselves further from their peers by claiming they only want to appear in the likes of the Sun, the Star and the Mirror rather than the NME. Talk about biting the hand that feeds...<br />
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It finishes with what will later become the 'Motown Junk' video. Essentially a live performance with the studio version dubbed over the top it showcases the Manics in full 'stencilled shirts and white jeans' mode, although Sean is letting the side down a bit with his bright blue and yellow top. The lads give it their all, throwing all their best rock star shapes to match the thrill of the music. The slow motion ending sums it all up though at this stage, as Nicky flails around with his bass, James does his first recorded spin on one leg....while the crowd just stands there staring. Still some way to go then before the public is won over, but they have the attention of the press and now, without any shadow of a doubt, the songs to back it up.Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-33487106465716880882012-09-26T05:47:00.001-07:002020-05-08T08:16:05.080-07:00Early PressAfter a few recordings under their belt people had a chance to hear what the Manics were all about....but how would they hear about them in the first place to know they even existed? 'Campaign' is probably the best word to describe the early Manics assault on the music press, targeting specific journalists who they felt would fall for their charms.<br />
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The first press in a major publication that I'm aware of is a feature in the NME from 4th August 1990. As with much of the press that I'll be referring to in this blog, if you didn't happen to buy and/or keep the music papers over the years, you can find them in the NME Originals magazine which came out around the time of 'Forever Delayed' and contains the major articles and reviews about the Manics in the NME over the years. I didn't pick this up at the time, so ended up with a slightly dog-eared copy bought from Ebay a few years ago.<br />
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The first thing to say about the feature is that the picture is hilarious....basically four music fans sat looking at the camera, James looking nervous with what appears to be a blonde bowl cut and Richey pulling down the neck of his shirt to reveal 'Riot'. The opening line of 'We are the scum factor of the Mondays meets the guitar overload of Five Thirty/Ride while killing Birdland with politics' highlights their slightly lower aspirations before they decided to move on to the likes of Guns 'n' Roses and Public Enemy as reference points.<br />
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The article is written in an interview style but seems to be just one of their 'manifestos' cut up, with 'questions' inserted in between to make them sound a bit silly. The quotes range from the slightly snotty 'We've spray painted our school shirts to wipe out the brainwash and the boredom' to the classic 'When we jump on stage it is not rock 'n' roll cliche but the geometry of contempt'. Speaking as a maths graduate I'm highly impressed that anyone can manage to get the word 'geometry' into a rock interview. Manic Street Protractors anyone?<br />
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The article is a positive one though, Steven Wells commenting 'They still sound too much like The Clash but by the end of the year they will be releasing songs that match the beautiful, stark, gibbering genius of their prose. Then they will be the most important rock band in the world.' The timescales weren't exactly correct, but an impression had certainly been made.<br />
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The same edition of the NME also contained a brief review of 'New Art Riot', being described as 'Sham 69 with balls and brains' by the resident reviewer before guest reviewers the Pixies decided it 'sounds pretty good...but it just didn't suck me in.'<br />
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After a brief feature and a single review, in the 11th October edition of the NME there was now a live review at the Camden Falcon, a chance for the Manics to really let the press sit up and take notice. With a photo of Nicky kneeling, shirt adorned with the words 'Rock 'n' Roll Suicide' and a picture of Sid Vicious, it certainly put across a more exciting visual message than the photo attached to the previous feature. Reviewer Simon Dudfield, later of Fabulous, has obviously been converted to the cause gushing forth 'I love their tight white trousers that make them walk funny, I love their spray painted T-shirts with 'Destroy Work' on them....and I love the way they look so alienated and misunderstood.' It also touches on another common feature of the Manics early career - the fact that they seem to polarise opinion so completely. Already it seemed you either love them or hate them.<br />
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Another live review in the NME followed in the 1st December edition, this time at Manchester International, home of the burgeoning baggy scene. Accompanied by a photo of a screaming (and no longer blonde) James with Richey in the background, the review concentrates on the difference between the Manics and the 'glazed hordes of basin-cut lovemuppets.' The Manics were getting themselves out there, with bands that were nothing like them (let's face it, who was?) and converting the few while irritating the rest - 'I'd be scared to come down the front if I was you as well!'. Presumably a Nicky quote.<br />
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It was time to get back in the studio again, and another set of demos marked 'Winter 1990' turned up on 'Lipstick Traces'. Disregarding those songs recorded on the first singles, this presumably represents their entire arsenal at this point in time, although despite having existed since the early days 'Motorcycle Emptiness' is conspicuous by its absence.<br />
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I have to admit to being slightly dubious as to whether these songs are the 'ten songs for two singles' requested following their recent signing to Heavenly, as referred to by Simon Price in 'Everything'. There are 7 songs included, which minus the 3 songs on 'Motown Junk' does add up, however 'You Love Us' sounds slightly different and its B-sides (not included here) would push it over to 12.<br />
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'Repeat' kicks things off with a whimper, for what is an obviously energetic rallying cry live the band are definitely struggling to capture it on tape, this version seeming slow and lethargic with a strange echoey quality to it. The first appearance of 'Methadone Pretty' shows more of a classic rock feel, definitely less punk than the other early songs. This is effectively the same song that would turn up later on, just a little rough around the edges but with no real change to the lyrics or music.<br />
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'Faceless Sense of Void' (later to become 'Love's Sweet Exile') is next turning up like an old friend, and it is definitely starting to sound more like old material. Shuffling along it certainly doesn't seem like it would have fitted in on 'Generation Terrorists' in this form. However, it is another great version with a fantastic performance from Sean on the drum stool. A new song 'You Love Us' follows, apart from a few bits here and there this is essentially the Heavenly version with an inferior production job. Compared to their recorded output so far this is the first song that seems genuinely exciting, that meets the expectations you would get from reading one of those early manifestos. Listening to this version actually reignited my love for the song after hearing all the more recent bouncy, cabaret live versions. James still says 'fake like saver' though. <br />
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Speaking of exciting, 'Generation Terrorists', later to become 'Stay Beautiful', continues the new material. In terms of differences to the final version there are maybe 50% different lyrics, additional back up vocals, and the final two words of the chorus are actually spoken rather than being replaced by a squall of guitar (sorry this is a family blog). Between this and 'You Love Us' there is most definitely more attitude in the new songs. 'Soul Contamination' then gets a recording, being a song that dates back to the Horse & Groom gig a year or so earlier, although compared to the rest of the material it sounds like it is destined to be a B side, which it ultimately was. The last song, 'Democracy Coma', is another new one that, like 'Methadone Pretty', shows more of a rock leaning than the punkier songs, and that's not to say that either type is starting to get diluted, the songs are definitely getting better. It seems like there are three types of song now - early songs still hanging around, the exciting, energetic punk songs and the more mature rock songs, definitely not the one-trick ponies that the music press might like to have painted them as.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture from NME Originals - look closely and you can see the scar on Nicky<span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">'</span>s neck</td></tr>
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Something I didn't have when I wrote this blog the first time around was the 'Generation Terrorists' 20th Anniversary box. In there were a few more demos which may have also been from around this time, although I suspect some were earlier. I've inserted them here as it fits with the other demos and rounds off the pre-Heavenly recorded output quite nicely.<br />
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'Poleaxed' had that early Manics shuffle and sounds decent enough but looking back it wasn't particularly surprising that it didn't ultimately turn up anywhere else, the "la la la-la-la" in particular makes it sound rather unfinished. 'Colt 45' is immediately recognisable to fans as an early form of 'Spectators of Suicide', different again to those other types of song mentioned above and adding another string to their bow. It's similar to the Heavenly version, although with different lyrics as hinted at by the change of title. James seems a lot more restrained or self-conscious vocally, which makes me think this may pre-date the other demos discussed above.<br />
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'Spent All Summer' is a strange scratchy song with odd drum programming, much more in the old indie style than the punky songs that dominated their early output, again making me think that this is an earlier demo. 'Behave Yourself Baby' also turns up again, a different version to the one featured on a previous blog but essentially the same song. I am intrigued as to who is doing the backing singing though, it certainly doesn't sound like James or Nicky which leaves Sean as prime suspect.<br />
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Lastly a 'Motown Junk' demo is also featured in the anniversary box which probably does bring us more into line with the demos featured here. To be honest, given it's arguably my favourite song of all time, it's slightly painful to listen to given its slower pace and the lack of life that is yet to be breathed into it. It wouldn't be too long before it was given a rocket up its proverbial......<br />
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Now that the music was out of the way it's back to the business of stirring up the press. An interview with the NME in the 5th January 1991 edition could quite possibly be the one that started it all. Filled with loads of the quotes that you've heard over and over again this was the Manics translating the content of their manifestos into an interview situation (although it's debatable how much of an interview there actually was as the feature contains a lot of references to live gigs and letters to journalists). 'Smash Hits is more effective in polluting minds than Goebbels ever was', 'Parliament is more ugly than a gas chamber', not to mention starting as they mean to go on by trashing other bands, the 'bald-fat-ugly-glutton-filth' Inspiral Carpets coming in for some pretty heavy criticism this time around (they make them vomit apparently, although I've always liked them).<br />
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Headed 'Manic on the Streets of London' I have the feature both in the NME Originals magazine and a 1997 reproduction under the banner of 'Rock of Ages - Classic NME Interviews' (which incidentally feature different photos). The photos show the band looking less like rabbits caught in the headlights and with the music and written bravado now starting to converge the image wasn't far behind, Richey in particular stealing the photos with his spraypainted 'London Death Sentence Heritage' top complete with a page of the A to Z while stood in front of Buckingham Palace.<br />
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<img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4ErBvx5ewgtNFl1BZ65un9ILyVrqg5A6zrDjoDnz9oK4ys50lC7VwGG2IQSH8ejxk5dlgO6ps2OjerzAgjgD0Rtf8hyN85C5gE2YtFI2gn5UklfOAwyliz2p5CZ17kg7EJsmxzzEE2iG/s400/DSC00164.JPG" width="300" /><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASMJCvAu77hVf8gccpZgE13F-NDMUR3L4a7QXRx0YXyh3A0Ua2G11ERC7Wf5n4Bsn93lT4uOlHRL41FhIqt2p_rQIWS9UHMgPn7Qjyh3khGqIwhYtfptyaBMDm3SIoa3Hl-TXb56Tt5SU/s400/DSC00165.JPG" width="300" /></div>
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If nothing else this feature would have taken the feeling of love them or hate them to a wider audience. If they happened to slag off one of your favourite bands you'd probably hate them, if you were put off by blokes in eye makeup and big girls' blouses you'd probably hate them, if you generally thought that four white Welsh boys poncing around outside Buckingham Palace talking about Public Enemy and Kylie was a bad thing you'd probably hate them. If you managed to make it past those, I imagine at this point the remaining hardy souls were <i>curious</i> at best. If only they had some actual new material to release that could satisfy that curiosity.....<br />
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Live Review NME 19th January 1991</div>
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Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-91164059182328170892012-09-08T13:00:00.001-07:002020-01-30T16:19:47.234-08:00New Art RiotAfter the release of their first proper single the Manics were to develop their studio tans over the coming months, being in and out of the studio recording songs for various releases.<br />
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Even though they didn't see the light of day for about 18 months, on the 'Feminine is Beautiful' 7", the next songs to be recorded were credited on the invaluable bootleg 'Tortured Genius' as being recorded in Xmas 89. As I mentioned in the last blog, 'Feminine is Beautiful' is one of the Manics releases that has eluded me, simply because of its rarity and ridiculous price tag. Maybe I should have bought it before I had a mortgage, then I might have felt less guilty about the expense!<br />
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This is where bootlegs come in handy, as you can hear the songs for a fraction of the price! The two songs featured, 'Repeat After Me' and 'New Art Riot', sound like they were recorded in a hurry as the sound quality and performance sounds like a slight step backwards. The stop-start nature of the early version of 'Repeat' seems to cause havoc with them all failing to come in at the same time, so it all sounds a little shambolic. Well, in the case of 'Repeat' that should be <i>more</i> shambolic given that it's practically falling apart even when played well!<br />
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'New Art Riot' sounds slightly fast compared to the more familiar version, in actual fact if someone told me this was recorded live it wouldn't surprise me as that's how it sounds. Sean in particular shines on this one, holding everything together with precision, a big difference to the previous track!<br />
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Again, in the spirit of 'going in the studio, bashing out songs and then giving them away' comes 'UK Channel Boredom' from April 1990. This was given away as half of a flexi disc, to quote the inside of the sleeve 'This flexi proberbly (sic) got to you with Hopelessly Devoted or Coldmining FANZINE'. Also appearing on the disc are The Laurens with the song 'I Don't Know What the Trouble is' - me neither, I think I probably listened to the song once when I got it and erased it from my memory (I obviously couldn't even be bothered to listen to it as part of this blog).<br />
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Everyone of a certain age knows that flexi discs are absolutely hopeless - if you put them on as normal then they jump constantly and if you try and weigh the needle down to stop it happening it virtually grinds to a halt. Thankfully 'Tortured Genius' comes up trumps again so I can listen to it without the trauma (although the version on here is cut off at the end).<br />
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B-side connoisseurs will also know this song as 'A Vision of Dead Desire' from the second 'You Love Us' single. In fact I remember when I finally got around to hearing this fabled rare track from the flexi disc, I was slightly shocked to find I already knew it well! It's essentially the same song with a different chorus minus all the rock trimmings of the 'Generation Terrorists' era, however having said that it still has more of a rock 'n' roll feel to it than the Manics other material so far.<br />
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The cover of the flexi shows all four of them, the first sleeve to feature Richey who is trying to look cool with a cigarette in his mouth, while James nonchalantly turns away. The rest of the artwork is typical cut and paste fanzine fare, with the lyrics printed and what appears to be Richey's address this time. This would appear to be around the time where Richey takes over his role as master of propaganda and the lyrics are also taking on a more familiar format, lines like 'Underclass coma zone' and 'Mainline on a death fix' developing that classic Manics syntax.<br />
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For some reason I had ignored the existence of 'New Art Riot' until I finally bought the 12" around 1996. Long free periods whilst at university wandering around Middlesbrough's record shops finally led to me picking up the record from Alan Fearnley's, a record shop known for its dance 12"s but also a good source of cheap indie and rock LPs or singles (it has since closed). Many a time I would spend an hour browsing the whole shop and then wander up to the counter with a 50p CD single! Even then the chaotic filing system behind the counter meant there was no guarantee they could actually find the record or CD to fit in the sleeve in your hand.<br />
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The 12" I actually bought was a little warped, so to this day I hear all 4 songs in my head swirling around even when I listen to them on CD (they are included on the 'Turning Rebellion into Money' bootleg)! The last few chords of 'Teenage 20/20' were always particularly vulnerable to that. My record is just a bog-standard version - blue cover, black vinyl with a green and silver label. I can be a sucker for a bit of fancy packaging or a picture disc, but different coloured sleeves and labels don't really make me want to go hunting the different variations down.<br />
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Oh, the music? Yes, there's some of that too. I actually think that 'New Art Riot' itself was previously one of my most underrated Manics songs. I have no idea why but for a while I didn't rate it particularly highly, now I think it would earn its place among their most important songs. Then again this is coming from me, the idiot who really wasn't keen on 'A Design for Life' after a first listen (to this day I never trust my first listen to any song now).<br />
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After the dry run on 'Feminine is Beautiful', the sound quality is much better this time around, however on the whole EP the energy and the buzz of the early Manics that was evident on some of the live recordings at the time has been sucked out of them a bit in the sterile confines of the studio. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh there because it still sounds great. The song is unchanged from the earlier version in content, with the lyrics definitely continuing to take shape. In fact, in terms of pure impact, I think 'New Art Riot' contains some of my favourite ever lines in the likes of the infamous 'Hospital closures kill more than car bombs ever will' and 'Revolution soon dies, sold out for a pay rise'. It's a shame James still sounds a little on the polite side to fully do the lyrics justice.<br />
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'Strip it Down' is almost like a double A side, another strong song, punk with melodies with its clash (no pun intended) between punky and jangly guitar (almost as if James is trying to emulate Richey's onstage guitar sound!). It's also difficult to avoid drawing a comparison with a certain chord progression in Mr Carbohydrate later on in the song. It's interesting to wonder about the thinking behind the track selection for this EP - of the songs included in the Horse and Groom gig from just under a year earlier did they feel that 'Suicide Alley', 'New Art Riot' and 'Strip it Down' were their strongest songs and should be the first to be released properly? Or were they holding back what they thought were their better songs for future use, 'Faceless Sense of Void' or 'Sorrow 16' perhaps?<br />
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No matter what the intention, the B-side definitely contained more appropriate B-side songs. Not to say they're bad or even average, Manics B-sides very rarely are, but they don't quite reach the heights of the previous two songs. 'Last Exit on Yesterday' motors along with a shuffling beat, James showcasing his increasing grasp on his triple role of lead and rhythm guitar to go alongside his singing duties, while 'Teenage 20/20' and its Johnny B. Goode style intro and unorthodox drumbeat completes the lineup. For some reason the latter has always made me feel like I'm somehow hearing the verses wrong, like I'm hearing the beat backwards or something. Incidentally has anyone got any idea what James is singing on the chorus? I know a lyric sheet is required at the best of times but this one certainly beats me!<br />
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The quotes on the sleeve are both ones that would be taken either completely or in part and used in future lyrics - "I am nothing and should be everything" - Karl Marx (later used in 'Methadone Pretty' of course) and "You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All Cokes are the same and all Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it." "NATIONALISM IS A CREATED PRODUCT" (shortened thankfully in 'Slash and Burn', although Madonna was obviously far more appealing to the Manics than Liz Taylor).<br />
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The cover itself seems fairly bland in comparison to the lyrical content, artwork was obviously not as high up in their agenda at this point in time as it was later on. But onwards and upwards, another few releases under their belts and the press were now starting to sit up and take notice....Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-30300717180438450242012-06-05T06:48:00.001-07:002020-01-27T16:20:44.446-08:00Suicide AlleySo this is it. The big one. The first release proper, the first 7". I've had CDs produced before and know the feeling of holding a copy in your hand for the first time (I liked mine so much that I kept almost all the copies that were pressed...or was it that no one wanted one?). So in 1989, when vinyl and cassette would still have ruled, the feeling of having pressed a record would be multiplied, the feeling of achievement magnified. Like something a 'proper' band would do.<br />
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And the Manics were on the way to becoming a proper band. They had moved on since the early demos, having their first (and second) lineup change with the introduction (and subsequent ejection) of Flicker on bass, and they had started playing gigs locally. This was where it all started to get serious.<br />
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I have to admit straight away that this is not one of the original 300, as you can probably tell by the pristine condition of the sleeve. I certainly don't claim to have been a fan at the time (I had just turned 11) and even though I have spent some silly money on Manics memorabilia in the past I draw the line at £1000-plus for a 7" record containing songs I already have elsewhere. So, off the top of my head, 'Suicide Alley' and 'Feminine is Beautiful' (coming up in the next blog) remain the only proper Manics releases I don't own, although as I mentioned the songs crop up elsewhere.</div>
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This particular 7" is one of those that used to crop up on Ebay where the buyer was offered the choice of either black or red vinyl. So I was under no illusions that it was a re-press as we all know that the originals were never printed on red vinyl. I obviously went for the black to keep up the pretence. It's numbered as 063/480 which is another give-away as there were only 300 made - whether this number has any bearing on how many were re-pressed or if it was just a random number added for attempted authenticity is open to debate. As an aside I now have another copy through the National Treasures box-set in a strange sepia-like shade, but that's for a much later blog.</div>
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No matter what anyone says you have to admit the cover is pretty hilarious, Nicky pouting at the front, Sean trying to look hard (it's never going to happen Sean) and James actually living up to his name with his best James Dean pose. But it's probably the uniform white shirts and trousers and black leather jackets that do it, a million miles from their imminent switch to panda eyes and big girls' blouses.</div>
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The sleeve also features the first of many quotes (I love how this started from the very beginning), not credited to anyone in this case so may even be their own (I'm sure someone will correct me on this):</div>
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"Young people pose the only effective challenge to established authority. Established authority is well aware of the challenge. Established authority is moving against young people everywhere, it is now virtually a crime to be young ! !"</div>
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This is highly likely to have been the first Richey input to the band. Also printed down one side is an address in Pontllanfraith, presumably James' house. I wonder how many fans have been to this address!</div>
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Oh yeah, there's some music on it too....I love 'Suicide Alley', it's not likely to come in anyone's top 10 Manics songs, but I'd have it on any best of album any day, it's just two and a half minutes of energy. I first heard it, as I expect many fans did, on the B-side of 'Little Baby Nothing' and it seemed like this funny little tinny punk song (which I suppose it is). My brother once met James in HMV in Middlesbrough before the first Manics gig I went to on the 'Life Becoming a Landslide' tour, and I'm sure I remember him telling me that he told James that 'Motown Junk' and 'Suicide Alley' were his favourite songs. How to endear yourself to a musician, lesson number 1 - tell them that their earliest and most primitive material is the best when they are going through a bit of a muso phase!</div>
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Compared with the demos discussed in previous blogs the music has improved immeasurably, Sean in particular keeps things much tighter. Your band really is as good as your drummer - have a crap drummer and you can write the best songs in the world and they'll still sound awful. And while it's by no means particularly flashy I've always loved James' lead part at the end - it shows that all their rehearsing and their live outings were starting to pay off.</div>
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The flip side, 'Tennessee (I Get Low)', was never really one of my favourite 'Generation Terrorists' tracks, although it immediately sounds more mature than 'Suicide Alley'. On the whole it is very similar to the album version, although with different lyrics and the production making it sound a lot more jangly. Picking up on the earlier point about musicianship there is an amazing outro led by Sean, which could easily fall apart and sounds even more impressive given the limited recording time and therefore limited number of takes.</div>
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Both songs also turned up on the 'Underground Rockers Volume 2' compilation, a record I bought a few years ago mainly to complete my Senseless Things collection rather than for the two Manics songs, but two birds, one stone and all that. Other highlights include The AB's with 'Englebert Humperdink's Racing Pigeon' - that's highlights in spelling and grammar rather than music (note the mis-spelling of Tennessee also). It seems like a strange title and cover for what essentially seems to be a punk compilation.<br />
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Around the same time that 'Suicide Alley' was coming out in August 1989 the Manics ventured out for their first London gig.at the Horse and Groom, which is captured for posterity on the trusty old 'Tortured Genius' bootleg.<br />
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Kicking off with 'New Art Riot' they sound really good and really together given their inexperience. Something tells me that if there were pictures to go alongside the music they might tell a different story, the bravado of the music balanced out by the slightly awkward, self-conscious soundbites between songs, such as 'Every time we turn to have a drink it isn't rock and roll, it's just we need one'. Delivered in a classic Wire sneer that might just about work, but it comes from James like a mouse reading from a piece of paper...if mice could talk obviously. And read.<br />
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As the first song ends there's a burst of what sounds to me like genuine applause, on this evidence I'd have to disagree with Simon Price's description of it being 'polite - if bemused'. The bemused looks may have greeted them as they set foot on the stage, but they do seem to be going down well. 'Ta, that's the most applause we've ever had' replies James genuinely as all readers inwardly sigh and say 'Bless'.<br />
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Next up are a couple of future B-sides - 'Soul Contamination' and 'Dead Yankee Drawl'. Unlike some other early songs which turned up later on they're pretty much the same as the recorded versions and I can't help being surprised by how good they sound. If some journalists were put off by their image at first, then hearing them without this distraction it's clear that they're already on form.<br />
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The next song 'Anti-Love' never turned up anywhere else other than this recording (apart from this same version on the 'Lipstick Traces' bootleg), however I expect it would have made a decent B-side, something the Manics would never be short of. <br />
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'Strip it Down' follows and this seems to be the first example of your classic clash between the Manics and an over-enthusiastic soundman - audible Richey guitar! Listening out for it is always a fun sport to play, especially on live tracks where James momentarily stops playing. The same thing happens again on the next song 'Destroy the Dancefloor', where you can hear Richey scratching away behind James' solo. Another track which doesn't turn up anywhere else (again, apart from the 'Lipstick Traces' bootleg) it's preceded by James' claim of 'Can't sing this one'. Like 'Anti-Love' it would have made a decent B-side and allows James to showcase his improved guitar playing with plenty of widdly bits.<br />
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'Sorrow 16' is next and makes you think what good songs they had even at that early stage. In the early days of a band it's surprising how many good songs can get lost as a B-side just because the song was used too early, in the absence of anything else. The Manics were obviously aware of that as a few of them ended up being re-used further down the line.<br />
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'Faceless Sense of Void' is the stepping stone between 'Just Can't be Happy' and 'Love's Sweet Exile'. It's much faster than both of those songs, with Sean absolutely on fire, and the lyrics have changed completely from the former, much closer now to the latter, although without the chorus from which it took its final title. It's an excellent version, making you wonder what prompted them to hold it back before recording it properly in its new state.<br />
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The show closes with 'Suicide Alley', a fitting set closer being the single and all, and oh look I think I can hear Richey again! The song ends pretty abruptly, presumably before the Manics actually left the stage, but you imagine the applause from throughout carried on. All in all it's a cracking set, which is even more impressive given that it's predominantly made up of future B-sides and is their first London gig. The Manics now had one foot in the door and with a 7" in the bag and an energetic and a very listenable live set were well on the way to making people sit up and take notice.Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-52149870376210340762012-05-25T11:49:00.001-07:002020-01-23T15:10:36.012-08:00More Demos....plus First Appearance of 'Motorcycle Emptiness'After the first tentative steps into demo-land the Manics pressed on with another song included on the 'Tortured Genius' collection, a song familiar to many Manics die-hards as the B-side to Stay Beautiful' - 'R.P. McMurphy'. This version is labelled as 'demo circa 1987/88' and is quite different to the one we all know as it features the full band (by full band I'm guessing that meant James, Nicky and Sean i.e. pre-Flicker and Richey, but correct me if I'm wrong).<br />
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The sound is still obviously demo quality and with the drums falling over themselves a bit you get the feeling that either Sean is being over-ambitious and pushing himself to play something he maybe couldn't quite manage at the time or maybe just that they recorded everything first take, warts and all. As it's also slightly faster James has real trouble trying to keep his 'na-na-na's on the chorus in time with the music! Aside from the slightly shambolic feel I think this is a really good version, and it's always interesting to hear songs that you're familiar with turned into something different (even if this was in fact the original). This song certainly seems to me as though it marks the turning point from bedroom band into the pre-'Generation Terrorists' sound and feel.<br />
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The actual timing for the next set of songs isn't clear from the sleeve notes of the releases they feature on but I believe that the next set of demos are the ones featured on the 'Lipstick Traces' bootleg, which saw the light of day on LP through Media Slut productions in 1993. I think it's a safe bet to say that these songs came before 'Suicide Alley' was released and they are similar in sound to 'R.P. McMurphy', so I'd place them around 1988.<br />
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I first picked up 'Lipstick Traces' on a simple copied CD with hand-written insert from Ebay around the same time as 'Tortured Genius' (how easy it is to fleece a Manics fan desperate to get their hands on early material), but then managed to pick up the genuine article on vinyl.<br />
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It starts off with the song most Manics fans would be interested in from the early material, marked on the sleeve as 'Motorcycle Emptiness' but I suspect at the time it was actually called 'Go Buzz Baby Go'. It's easily recognisable as an early version of the anthem we all know and love, although with very different lyrics that hint at the song they would turn into - one of the 'Each day living out a lie etc.' sections contains the words 'Motorcycle emptiness, motorcycle empti....ness'. The chorus is simply a repetition of the words 'Go Buzz Baby Go' and alongside 'R.P. McMurphy' it becomes quite clear that the Manics were already well capable of writing a catchy chorus that will stick in your brain for the next week or two.<br />
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The delivery of the song in particular is also improved from previous recordings, the Manics using acoustic guitar and tambourine to offset the usual guitar, bass, drums, making it sound less like a recording of a rehearsal and suggesting that more thought was now going into the writing process.<br />
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The next song is another early version of a 'Generation Terrorists'-era tune, probably the Manics song bearing the most different titles over the course of time - 'Just Can't be Happy', which would eventually turn into 'Love's Sweet Exile'. Again it's interesting to hear how the song started life, which in this case is very different - much less Rock FM, which is fairly obvious at this stage, with more of a shuffling beat and generally understated performance.<br />
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I think the Manics have tended to disown the final version of 'Love's Sweet Exile', and while this certainly isn't the best you can see how that album version was bent out of shape from this original idea. However, the final melodies remain even if the lyrics don't, 'ooh's replacing the words of the later title's chorus and a new refrain of 'Just can't be happy without you' taking the place of the 'Raindown alienation' parts. I really like this version as it motors along, the slightly out of tune singing, poor-by-James'-standards solo and the fact it sounds on the verge of falling apart being endearing rather than irritating. Or maybe I'm a little biased...<br />
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'This Girl's Got Nothing' has a raw yet jangly sound, showing the Manics are developing more of an edge, although the quiet, slightly out of tune bass lets it down a little. It's almost like a punk band has decided to cover a 60s Beatles-style hit. 'Sun-glass Aesthetic' (a contender for first Richey title anyone?) is fairly non-descript but shows that James' guitar playing is improving, perhaps as he becomes more confident with the recording process. It also highlights how low down in the mix the bass is in these recordings!<br />
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'Suicide Alley' is next up, a little looser than the single version with more of a live sound but not quite as much edge at this point. The build up to the chorus is more sedate, with less attitude than the studio take but overall it's not a million miles away from the 7". The most interesting song from a musical perspective is 'Behave Yourself Baby', containing an early trumpet performance by Sean, acoustic guitar, handclaps and 'ba-ba-ba' vocals (no sheep jokes please). It actually wouldn't sound out of place as an 'Everything Must Go' B-side and while that might not sound strange now I think your average 'Generation Terrorists'-era fan might have been shocked to hear 'their' band doing something that sounded so safe and, well, bland. Anyone looking out for more of those early signs of later songs will note the line 'All I want from you is the skin you live within' which would later become 'All we want from you are the kicks you've given us' from 'Motorcycle Emptiness'.<br />
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The last two songs from this batch sound like they may have been recorded at a different time from the others as they are sonically different. 'Razorblade Beat' starts off with a bass intro (with bass you can actually hear this time) followed by a mass of discordant squalls kicking into the song proper. With the benefit of hindsight this actually sounds like it could be an out-take from 'The Holy Bible' with its bass-led verses and slightly haunting feel before speeding up for a crazed ending. 'Eating Myself from Inside' is different again, being the most upbeat Manics song I can think of right now. I'm left with images of bands like The Wonder Stuff and Kingmaker, a throwback to the Manics' original indie roots.<br />
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These songs also feature on another bootleg, 'Turning Rebellion into Money' (minus 'Go Buzz Baby Go'), another CD I picked up in my Ebay gaps-in-my-collection-filling days. However, if you are on the look out for this set of demos it's worth hunting down 'Lipstick Traces' for the additional song.<br />
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So, to me, this phase of demos marks an interim period of moving out of the bedroom band phase to become more competent and on the verge of unleashing themselves on the big wide world of gigs and studios, a move that wasn't far away.....Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6319569013472777041.post-8333551211040994662011-10-10T12:25:00.000-07:002020-01-20T16:04:15.963-08:00Early Demos<span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">On this epic journey through the career of the Manic Street Preachers, where better to start than with the early demos, the launch pad for any band with serious ambitions of selling 18 million copies of their debut album (although they probably hadn't decided that yet). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">When I first came up with the idea for writing this blog I wondered how I should tackle songs which were recorded well before the release of the particular single or album that they appear on. Well, in true Manics style I decided that I should reserve the right to contradict myself, so while the majority of songs will be discussed with the release that they are featured on, bootlegs are an exception to the rule and so they will pop in and out as appropriate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">'Tortured Genius' is a veritable goldmine of early Manics material, a CD that I picked up (at a guess) in around 2002 when I first discovered Ebay. I already had a huge Manics collection at that point, but there were a few bits and pieces from the pre-'Generation Terrorists' era that had eluded me. The combination of an Ebay full of Manics rarities and the relatively new experience of a regular wage resulted in a fair bit of gap-filling and quite a few pieces of random memorabilia. But that will come later.....</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw88IM_iCoZz-QfWWkBH6ll9xgwZJvS1EwrB5B6yHkkpbkhAsI6HmKldAP8L8HNaY7u7PzpoHQuN3IZT1t6RiEH1vBNtU0g-LophnW66CNeVgu2JU2Q7eJyTu8oWc1NebcCGEBb36fiVnk/s1600/DSC00022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw88IM_iCoZz-QfWWkBH6ll9xgwZJvS1EwrB5B6yHkkpbkhAsI6HmKldAP8L8HNaY7u7PzpoHQuN3IZT1t6RiEH1vBNtU0g-LophnW66CNeVgu2JU2Q7eJyTu8oWc1NebcCGEBb36fiVnk/s400/DSC00022.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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Front and back cover of 'Tortured Genius' (with the Manics-friendly cat bed as background)</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKcVbTNdeq9y852uLt5en-eQT0abxULyPcPEF9R_pz-pPx-iTJnC-5SQrYVobEyIeNZeDzTw7jefdL_tkT2AoFzGEvfxo4_GRi2UNRlm5kd1p5zpNIBl4YM04tlmkMXFqKHnECVZUw334a/s1600/DSC00023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKcVbTNdeq9y852uLt5en-eQT0abxULyPcPEF9R_pz-pPx-iTJnC-5SQrYVobEyIeNZeDzTw7jefdL_tkT2AoFzGEvfxo4_GRi2UNRlm5kd1p5zpNIBl4YM04tlmkMXFqKHnECVZUw334a/s400/DSC00023.JPG" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
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The earliest songs on 'Tortured Genius' are listed as '4 track demo circa 1985/86', which would have made the Manics around 16 or 17. I have written and recorded songs (if you could call them that) since I was 14 and while they were just about passable at 16 I'm not sure I would want them made available on a bootleg to a mass audience. So I can understand the apparent horror James felt when he found out that their first stabs at songwriting were out there for all to hear.<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">It would take a very blinkered, diehard fan to say that the three songs from this time - 'Where Have All The Good Things Gone', 'Dying a Thousand Deaths' and 'Love in a Make-Up Bag' - were classics, however I certainly wouldn't say they're embarrassing. A little ramshackle, musically less proficient and very jangly, they don't bear much resemblance to the band they became, but which band did when taking their first tentative steps? James seems very restrained vocally, which is a common symptom of a first recording session, so everything comes across as rather polite, not a trait usually associated with the early part of the Manics' career. The recording also suffers from the instantly recognisable swirl associated with the fact that it is obviously copied from an old tape, however at least I'm safe in the knowledge that my CD is not going to unravel in a tangle of brown, shiny, er, tapeyness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">The second set of songs are listed as '4 track demo circa 1986/87' and show a definite improvement in songwriting and sound quality. The guitars fizz, James has woken up a bit more and Sean seems to have discovered that he actually has cymbals (or maybe he just bought some?). In fact both James and Sean seem to be pushing themselves beyond their musical limits at the time, some guitar leads and drum fills just teetering on the brink of collapse. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Maybe the increased urgency in the sound came as a follow up to the band watching a documentary on the 10th anniversary of punk, as referred to in Simon Price's definitive Manics biography 'Everything'. On 'Whiskey Psychosis' and 'England is a Bitch' it is still difficult to make out the words...but then again it always has been, even with a lyric sheet in front of you. There is even time for the guitars to pack in and start fading in and out at the end of 'England is a Bitch', which ultimately marks these songs out as a curiosity rather than any meaningful insight into the direction the band were heading.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7QQeZLJSYBhWdRar-koP6hR8Pre_KZgQFvLxuGRYc_VFdcXjFdzb7U3m_iZLuBSr1BPPQXhwMv3mZDYTkZyrCIwS4w8izyQe6NsVPAXhLsCobq6rs9LbEiy1FRkErXY9-v7n2mhATB0fK/s1600/DSC00025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" kca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7QQeZLJSYBhWdRar-koP6hR8Pre_KZgQFvLxuGRYc_VFdcXjFdzb7U3m_iZLuBSr1BPPQXhwMv3mZDYTkZyrCIwS4w8izyQe6NsVPAXhLsCobq6rs9LbEiy1FRkErXY9-v7n2mhATB0fK/s400/DSC00025.JPG" width="300" /></a></span></span></div>
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'In the Beginning' by Jenny Watkins-Isnardi</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">According to the book 'In the Beginning', which saw the light of day in 2000, this was around the time that the author Jenny Watkins-Isnardi temporarily joined the band as singer. For anyone that doesn't know, the book is about the author's time doubling up as singer of the fledgling Manics and girlfriend of Nicky Wire. I've only read the book once and I'm in two minds as to whether it's basically the truth (but embellished) or complete fantasy. I expect many diehard fans are likely to go for the latter and many arguments over the validity of the book will focus on how Richey appears very little, although if the contents of the book are true it is likely to have coincided with Richey being at university. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that it is predominantly based on fact, but obviously fleshed out with half-truths to cover what are essentially conversations that happened more than 10 years previously.</span></span><br />
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So, with more of a whimper than a bang, and still being essentially a bedroom band at this point, the Manic Street Preachers were off and running....a bit like this blog.<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span>Pyfhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11193608622745005042noreply@blogger.com1