Motorcycle Emptiness

Literally 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.

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.

 

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?!!

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.

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.....

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."

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".

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.

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).

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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....

Slash 'N' Burn

Around 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!

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.

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".

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.

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?

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.

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.



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).

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.

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.

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".

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!

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

So, after four major label singles and a double album, what next?  1992 still had plenty more Manics memories to come.

New Art Riot

After 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.

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!

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 more shambolic given that it's practically falling apart even when played well!

'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!

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).

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

'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?

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!

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).

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....

Suicide Alley

So 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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):

"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 ! !"

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'.

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.

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.

'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.

'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.

'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.

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.

More 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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

'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!

'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'.

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.

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.

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.....