I Know I Believe in Nothing but it is my Nothing...
This is an earlier version of the updated article
here
Manic Street Preachers
The Holy Bible 50 Further Facts
March 2016 (Updated Summer 2020)
Compiled By: Steve Bateman
Having recently added postscripts detailing 'The Holy Bible 1994 Studio
Equipment & Recording Sessions Gear' + 'The Holy Bible 2014 Tour
Gear' to R*E*P*E*A*T's interview
with 'Alex Silva On Engineering/Co-Producing Manic Street Preachers
The Holy Bible'. I then started thinking about some of the other
interesting facts which could perhaps be turned into a timeline-type
of feature and act as a companion-piece to that article (which is 5-years-old
this month), and although a number of these facts are well-known, others
may be surprising or even new to some MSP Fans. The bite-size pieces
of information were all written with help from, or sourced from, A Critical
Discography, BBC Radio 4 Mastertapes, Dazed, Guitarist Magazine, Manics
Promo Materials, Melody Maker, NME, R*E*P*E*A*T, Select Magazine, The
Face, Wikipedia and more - a very special thanks to all! Branded as
everything from "disturbingly traumatic" to "laceratingly
savage" to "a group in extremis" to "a triumph of
art over logic" by music critics, here are 50 Further Facts about
the dark and divine, one-of-a-kind and acclaimed album that is The Holy
Bible.
But just before this, although his best friends and bandmates, James
Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore, legitimately believe that
everything that happened to Richey Edwards, would most likely have eventually
materialised in whatever career path he chose to pursue in life. Now
older and wiser, they have accurately ascribed the dramatically sped-up
disintegration of his personal well-being, followed soon after by his
tragic disappearance, to the irrefutable harsh realties, sacrifices
and consequences of being a full-time member in a professional touring
group. Also putting an enormous part of his rapid decline down to having
a creative outlet / emotional sanctuary, whereby Richey plainly and
persistently suffered for his art. With both his worldly-wise inspiration
and wrath-filled meditations, plus the weight of incessantly and methodically
writing erudite / bookish words becoming all-consuming, to the point
where sometimes, he was unable to think about anything else.
Crucially though, and against all odds, this unholy outcome didn't
hamper or derail the group for long! And by carrying on, thankfully,
with the cream of the crop record that is THB, Richey's memory, his
heart and soul and his exceptional / captivating highbrow lyrics (bolstered
by the tantalising and mesmerising musical handiwork, provided by the
other three equally as cultivated, philosophical, sagacious and sincere
Manic Street Preachers), shall live on by virtue of a rather significant
and all-enveloping LP. Which, remaining in a league of its own, supplies
listeners with an unparalleled feast of engaging, exhilarating and enrapturing
auditory / mental nourishment. Executed with excellence, attack and
immediacy, and bearing all the hallmarks typically associated with a
cult classic album. Not only did The Holy Bible raise the stakes with
a collection of 13 instantly recognisable songs, when originally released
in August 1994, but it is now highly rated as a work of art, as a cultural
artefact and as a true masterclass in cerebral rock 'n' roll...
1. Recorded in late 1993 as a b-side for the Life Becoming A Landslide
EP, Comfort Comes famously set the tone for what fans could expect from
The Holy Bible. The foreboding track was even included on the Japanese
Faster CD single, most likely so that listeners could compare the similarities
shared by both songs. Also worthy of note and adding a brand new twist
to this fact, is that when readying the remastered 2020 Deluxe Edition
reissue of Gold Against The Soul, after "tidying his house, going
through MSP's archives, moving studios and finding a load of stuff that
he thought was lost forever." Nicky told NME: "The b-side,
Comfort Comes, is definitely the bridge to The Holy Bible, but interestingly,
the demo of the title track of Gold Against The Soul is very The Holy
Bible. Its got some Simple Minds-sampling guitar. When I found
that demo and played it to James, he was shocked as well at how it fitted
in with our later post-punk ideas."
2. Proof that the Manic Street Preachers certainly considered enlisting
Mike Hedges to produce THB, could originally be found in a July 1996
interview with Select Magazine, whereby Nicky elaborates on wanting
to "have him for The Holy Bible's more gothic punk side."
While in Kieran Evans' devastatingly brilliant and lauded 2016 Everything
Must Go feature-length documentary, Escape From History, James confirmed
for sure: "We tried to get Mike Hedges to do The Holy Bible, because
of The Cure and Siouxsie And The Banshees etc. He sent us a really nice
reply, saying that he would love to work with us but he was booked up."
3. Whereas the plush, opulent and luxurious residential recording environs
used for Gold Against The Soul, Outside Studios (later known as Hookend
Recording Studios) near Checkendon, Oxfordshire cost £2,000 per
day. By comparison, the since demolished, primitive and unheated, 16-track
recording facility rented for The Holy Bible, Sound Space Studios situated
in the red-light-district of Cardiff (with the area's scuzziness having
inevitably seeped into the LP's overall morose make-up), cost a mere
£50 per day. Sony did offer MSP the chance to record in Barbados,
but the band collectively responded with a resounding: "Fuck off,
no way - that's not us!" Now the stuff of legend, they instead
dismantled what the group had become, rewrote their rulebook, were focused,
well-rehearsed, determined, diligent, dedicated and chose not to use
"all the resources at their disposal" - also abstaining from
"all that decadent rock star rubbish" - while purposefully
staying under the radar. In a rare, archived 1995 American Q&A published
on The Quietus, James spoke candidly and straightforwardly about Sony
being unaware of the 'new and improved' group's plans after they had
used their initiative, as well as how they unfalteringly write songs
for themselves first and foremost: "'We've got this album, it's
nearly finished. Do you want to come and hear it?' And of course we
needed to mix it. But once the record company knew we'd gone and taken
control of the situation, and they heard what we were doing, and they
heard the directness, the energy and the attitude, they just went for
it. They thought: 'Ah well, that's okay.' We took charge of their own
destiny and I think they were almost thankful for that. It takes a lot
of work off their hands... We do it for ourselves first. There's no
prerequisites for what somebody's going to take from you. We just realised
at one point that we're in love with failure. Everything we love just
completely failed, whether it be an ideology, even religion. I think
that's our biggest achievement: we realised we don't want to be in love
with failure all our lives, and we want to do something about it."
In an interview conducted by PopMatters, when discussing MSP's work
shift patterns for The Holy Bible and gaining traction with recording,
James divulged: "It was kind of standard practice back in those
days. You go to a residential studio and you record a record. Residential
studios back then were really lovely places to create and record. But
we knew that it was just wrong for the music. Especially with the lyrics
that had inspired the music. We knew that it would be a wrong decision
to try and create this kind of music, which had threadbare emotions
and hard political intent and acute observatory historical references
in it. We knew that if we ended up trying to create this music somewhere
in Surrey, England, which had four poster beds and every technical specification
you could wish for, there would be something slightly off-message about
that. I suppose, in our youthful, delusional state, we thought there
should be some kind of 'method recording', our version of method acting.
We should immerse ourselves in a shitty environment to try and replicate
the edge in the music. And thats what we did. We hired a studio
which we had used before in Cardiff, which was kind of in the red-light-area,
and had no mod cons. It was a very, very monotone kind of experience.
And we decided we wanted that kind of utilitarian vibe to try and rub
off in the music, I suppose. It all sounds pretentious and I wouldnt
want to repeat it all now, but we were young." Commuting daily
(and starting each new day with engineer/co-producer Alex Silva, by
all having morning coffee together in the office next to the studio's
control room), Richey - who had just bought a flat in Cardiff Bay which
he was decorating and collaging - would pick-up James and Nicky by car,
while Sean travelled from Bristol (where his girlfriend was studying)
by train. With The Wire treasuring the fact that he could go home to
his wife / new house in the valleys every night and watch Sky TV after
a hard day's work. Tellingly, with a renewed sense of purpose, a galvanised
and revitalised JDB recalled: "I felt alive with something again,
whereas before that I was just fearing things - the end of the band,
the world not even wanting us to play some shit festival. As soon as
we stepped in the studio and started doing these songs, I felt alive
with something I hadnt felt for about six months... It did feel
great straight away." "James was the most feverish I've ever
seen him work" exclaimed Nicky. With JDB confessing to Uncut in
2011: "The genesis of the record was Nickys idea, and the
motivation. I really wanted to do a lot of my John McGeochisms, from
Magazine. I was getting fed up with trying to ape Slash, because it
was obvious the world only wanted one Slash and they didnt want
a five feet two bloke from Wales doing it."
4. Nicky's working title for The Holy Bible was The Poetry Of Death.
5. "Every single morsel of that album is us being in control, for
better or worse" once proudly pledged an unbridled Nicky, in adhering
to their unassailable beliefs / objectives. And prior to acclimatising
to / hunkering down in the back to basics studio, which had minimum
production wizardry and was somewhere that the Manics were already familiar
with, having previously recorded Suicide Is Painless (Theme From M*A*S*H)
plus an assortment of b-sides there, earlier in their career with Alex.
In realising Richey's dark visions as songs - who, as a compulsive and
prodigious wordsmith, had given great consideration to his educational
/ illuminating discourse with impressionable listeners, to verse-chorus
structures, to lyrical narratives, word selection, syntax, meter, stanzas
etc. And now, functioning with an almost innate survival mechanism,
was flourishing and reaching the peak of his powers as a compelling
songwriter and poet. With unique, profound, stimulating and more thought-provoking,
didactic, voluminous and literate lyrics than ever before, which showed
a marked progression in the courage, gravitas and genius of his inward-looking
and perceptive writing skills. Nicky: "I could tell he was in such
a rich vein of this stunning prose and poems. We knew it was going to
be pretty special." Although sounding nihilistic, grim and discordant
on record - at times, even crude and coarse - most tracks were actually
intuitively, meticulously and industriously written and sculpted by
James on an acoustic guitar at his Mum and Dad's house, with Sean also
writing the verse music for The Intense Humming Of Evil acoustically.
And though it may have been seen by scores of composers as a task beset
with great responsibility, JDB effused about how his recipe for success
was owed to his indefatigable stamina; fusing motivation with his tools
of the trade and chipping away at his songcraft. Which in turn, triggered
the organic, masterful, awe-inspiring and unmatched sonic actualisation
of (his songwriting foils) Richey and Nicky's torrent of words, bound
together with his distinctive singing diction / vocal delivery when
dispensing lines, his projection, venting and vocal hooks. On being
tasked and entrusted with this duty, relying on his acumen and feeling
emboldened after imbibing lyrics, he gushed: "I've got total interpretative
carte blanche to do whatever I want and that's really a privileged position
to be in... I think our musics just always been led by the lyrics.
Thats given credence and truth by the fact that I need lyrics
in front of me to write music. Nicky and Richey would always give me
lyrics, and 99 percent of the time I would always write music with the
lyrics in front of me, and I would try and let the lyrics inspire the
music. I was being given lyrics like Yes, Of Walking Abortion and Archives
of Pain. Looking at these lyrics, there were twists and turns in there.
Theres some kind of indecipherable, fucked up Iambic Pentameter
in there, and I knew that these werent normal kind of lyrics,
they werent even normal for us, really. And I just knew that the
music had to twist and turn and convulse with the lyrics, as the lyrics
were themselves. So its really as simple as that. I love the lyrics,
and I remember being given Die In The Summertime and I remember being
given Yes very early on, and thinking I must follow this muse that Richey
created. Richey had written 70 to 75 percent of the lyrics on this record,
and I was being given this stuff and I just knew I had to follow his
direction. Otherwise Id be betraying the lyrics themselves...
I dont really think we were reacting against anything. I think
we were just so secluded and so self-insulated against what was going
on with the start of Britpop and stuff that we didnt even pay
attention to it. Again, its that delusional state of just thinking
that youre right, and I think thats the place we were in.
By the time wed finished mixing Faster, we still thought it could
be a Top Ten hit, thats how fucked up and deluded we were! Everything
was led by the lyrics and they still are. On The Holy Bible, despite
the nihilism and despite the misanthropic bent, sometimes the lyrics
are so pleading to be understood." Much of James' expressive, beckoning
and committed playing on THB, was done using his favourite guitar -
a 1990 Gibson Les Paul Custom which he has since christened 'Faithful'
- although while laying down tracks, Nicky once accidentally snapped
the guitar's neck off! When recording, the band also managed to blow-up
a speaker and so had to loan some from producer, Greg Haver, who worked
in a nearby studio and had first met them while they were rehearsing
songs for the LP. On the long player's challenging / cauterising mercilessness
and brutal sense of impending doom - with the band beyond doubt that
the staccato nature of some of Richey's unpruned lyrics, is what was
the catalyst that helped to stimulate their creativity and generate
the constituent components of the album's stern musical framework. Severe
/ streamlined arrangements and jagged post-punk sound, as well as its
desolate and dissonant co-ordinates. One writer astutely noted: "In
1994, Edwards mind was a dark place and The Holy Bible has come
to be seen as the ultimate musical expression of this period in his
thinking. Reflections on the darker parts of life had long been a Manics
staple, but not like this... A purging of the whole bloodied wreckage
of the 20th Century. The words were raw and close to the bone, suggesting
a kind of rock that didnt just return to the bands punk
roots, but invented a whole new soundworld that dripped with a nihilism
and menace that histrionic heavy metal pretenders could only dream of.
The Holy Bible (seen not only as a work of art by many, but also as
Richey's epitaph) would be exposed, like a gaping wound uncovering the
ugly sides of humanity." Famously, as a potential follow-up, Edwards
expressed a desire to create a concept album which he described as "Pantera
meets Screamadelica." However, MSP's musical maestro and sonic
architect, Bradfield, has since countered with doubts over whether the
group would have produced such an LP: "I was worried that as chief
tunesmith in the band, I wasn't actually going to be able to write things
that he would have liked. There would have been an impasse in the band
for the first time born out of taste."
6. 4st 7lb - the threshold weight below which death is said to be medically
unavoidable for an anorexic sufferer - was the very first song to be
recorded for THB on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1994. Talking about
this ominous track and the complicated time-signature changes, JDB -
whose girlfriend had just called off their engagement - articulately
observed: "Of all the songs on The Holy Bible, it has the most
amount of words (This Is Yesterday is the simplest) and when I looked
at the main body of the lyric, I wanted to reflect the frenetic nature
of this vanity that keeps analysing itself and keeps trying to find
a reason for something which is so irrational. Then, I wanted there
to be a resolution in the end, I wanted there to be some kind of defeat,
because the lyrics at the end seem to have a self-knowing wry observation
about themselves, that they knew they were being irrational but they
couldn't stop it. The one song that I didnt enjoy writing the
music to. There are moments of The Bible where I felt as if I was being
really precarious about singing the thoughts of other people channelled
through Richey, but I felt slightly uneasy doing that song. I was glad
when I finished. I felt like I was prying when I wrote it. It was a
weird feeling."
7. A state of the nation address, partly comprised of ironic interpretations
of USA Patriotism with critical and stinging lyrical sideswipes at the
'Land of the Free' (themes previously touched upon in the Generation
Terrorists b-side, Dead Yankee Drawl). Musically, Ifwhiteamerica...
was inspired by West Side Story (James jokingly refers to it as "the
American Musical gone wrong") and as spotlit by 227 Lears - a blog
/ web project focusing on The Holy Bible - the gang rivalry between
the Jets and the Sharks, e.g. the call-and-response chorus: 'Conservative
say... / Democratic say...' With its title thought to have come from
a quote by controversial US comedian Lenny Bruce. In pre-production
rehearsals, the band almost gave up on this song, but Sean said that
he knew exactly what to do with it and went onto add one of his most
skilful, unrelenting and memorable drum tracks ever! "Its
me trying to be Topper Headon, in a strange sort of way. I remember
the quote at the beginning - I did all the samples. Richey would source
it and Id be the one dragging it off old VHS tapes. Its
one of those songs where it just happened, the ideas were there, the
little fast tom. I was thinking all the time of London Calling. For
us it was the end - third album, everythings bombing, fuck it,
lets do what we want." Recently, the eagle-eyed 277 Lears,
cleverly discovered how the unusual, compressed typography of the track
title, Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart,
might possibly be traced back to a song, Antiamericancretin, by McCarthy.
The site goes onto add how McCarthys leftist vision of an England
bowed beneath a baseball bat / Beneath an ice-cool Cola can,
a country sold on fast-food chains and trivial TV,
are echoed in Manic Street Preachers breathless attack on the
vacuity and violence of American life on Ifwhiteamerica
- a song
that in fact takes on American and British nationalism as twin menaces.
The well-researched and informative essay, also deconstructs previously
undocumented thematic links between Ifwhiteamerica
and Of Walking
Abortion, plus how key lyrical inspirations in the acerbic and castigating
Ifwhiteamerica... were derived from source material including Paul Gilroys
study of black identity and national identity, There aint
no black in the Union Jack - noting how the choice of conservative
(not republican) and democrat (not labour)
contribute to this blurring of the two nations. Yet, America remains
the focus from beginning to end. Among many other insightful and intertextual
lyrical studies, 227 Lears also explores the article, Gun control
in the USA, written by Kevin Young and published in the November
1993 issue of Living Marxism. In which Young argues against the implementation
of the Brady Bill, in a piece of writing that unquestionably shaped
Edwards contribution on the topic to Ifwhiteamerica... e.g. lyric
reference to the line: '"God made men, Samuel Colt made them equal"
so says the old Wild West proverb.' 227 Lears also perceptively spotted
and pinpointed how other Living Marxism editorials, more than likely
impacted Richey's thinking behind Of Walking Abortion ('Who's Next -
Hitler?' written by Joan Philips / published in LM No. 61 - November
1993) e.g. lyric reference to the passage: 'A burial took place recently
in a small country church in Kenderes, Hungary. But it wasnt any
old burial. For a start, the deceased (Horthy) had been dead for nearly
half a century. Even more bizarre, the spectacle was broadcast live
on government-controlled television in the manner of a British royal
wedding.' And, P.C.P. ('The right to be offensive' written by Unknown
/ published in LM No. 64 - February 1994) e.g. lyric reference to the
line: 'Bans are for bigots and Big Brother.'
8. It is crystal clear that these are not songs of faith and devotion,
and that The Holy Bible is an immutable and misanthropic 'Monument To
Misery' - with JDB stretching his pronunciation of words and avowing
that "matching the sounds with the songs was a very natural effort."
For example, the post-punk, metallic and eviscerating rhythmical guitar
riff on Of Walking Abortion - which bombards your ears - was influenced
by Magazine's The Light Pours Out Of Me: "I just went straight
to my memory file: 'If I can somehow have a modified version of the
riff...' So I just lengthened it, different notes and that was it."
The portentous, mordacious and barbarous song, also takes its name from
a passage and lifts one or two additional ideas (i.e. 'The male is an
incomplete female, a walking abortion, aborted at the gene stage') from
the radical feminist manifesto by Valerie Solanas, 'SCUM Manifesto'.
Something else also worth touching upon, is how Of Walking Abortion
- along with Mausoleum and Faster - all feature several more lines penned
by Nicky than he could initially recall from memory, which in preparation
for The Holy Bible's 20th Anniversary in 2014, he only rediscovered
after reinspecting pages from his and Richey's lyric / ideas notebooks
from the 1993-94 time period. With subject matter / imagery overlapping
across numerous tracks on The Holy Bible, the idea of hollow consumerism
present in Ifwhiteamerica..., can also be found in the incisive Of Walking
Abortion lyric: 'So wash your car in your X baseball shoes.' Which,
based on convincing suggestions, the MSP website A Critical Discography
believes to be a reference to the explosion in merchandising around
the release of Spike Lees Malcolm X biopic in 1992. ?Of Walking
Abortion is even connected to Archives Of Pain, as the lyric: 'Little
people in little houses, like maggots, small, blind and worthless' alludes
to the ruthless child serial killers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and
is based on a diary entry written by Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law,
David Smith, who Brady began trying to systematically brainwash and
aimed to recruit. Dictated to Smith by Brady, the original line in his
diary actually reads: 'People are like maggots, small, blind, worthless
fish-bait.' Smith is also the man credited with stopping the killing
spree of 'The Moors Murderers', after witnessing the couples fifth
and final murder in October 1965, before then going to the Police. 227
Lears also called to attention how the Valerie Solanas and Ian Brady
quotes had been referenced by the Manics in the past. Firstly, the full
Solanas text: 'The male chromosome is an incomplete female chromosome.
In other words the male is a walking abortion; aborted at the gene stage.
To be male is to be deficient, emotionally limited; maleness is a deficiency
disease and males are emotional cripples', was printed alongside Little
Baby Nothing in the Generation Terrorists sleeve artwork. While the
Brady line, popped up in a diary entry that Richey wrote while the band
were recording their debut long player in late 1991. Published in the
February 1992 edition of Select Magazine as 'Seven Days In The Life
Of... Richie Edwards Of The Manic Street Preachers', here is an extract
from Wednesday: 'Feel depressed. We leave Black Barn tomorrow. There's
thousands of pictures to be taken down. Breakfast is always sad on Wednesday
though. (Because) The music press arrives. Go back to bed. Stay there
until the Six O'Clock News. Rip down my bedroom wall. I don't want to
leave Keith, Johnny, Stalin, Flavor Flav, Axl, Liz Taylor to be as maggots.
People are like maggots. Small, blind and worthless.'
9. While in the first instance, it was Nicky who unpacked the idea of
not using "all the resources at their disposal" and hiring
a low-rent studio to record The Holy Bible in, before the Manic Street
Preachers distilled their inimitable music into its purest form. He
also tried to convince James that She Is Suffering could be MSP's Every
Breath You Take (The Police) and a huge 'Transatlantic hit'. Now however,
not only would Nicky "definitely take it off" the record,
but it is one of the Manics music videos he most despises (the promo
clip was directed by Adolfo Doring). Drafting in Generation Terrorists
producer, Steve Brown, as JDB simply "didn't know what to do with
the track," She Is Suffering has also now become his least favourite
song on The Holy Bible (after the Manics maligned Revol for years),
who humbly conceded: "That thing of using 'she' and 'beauty' as
a metaphor never really sat that well with me. I thought we were a bit
out of our depth and I didn't think it was one of Richey's best lyrics
(neither did Nicky or Richey). I wanted Ifwhiteamerica... to be the
single." Furthermore, The Wire has since aired his own regrets
of not going with Ifwhiteamerica... and instead having She Is Suffering
as a single choice: "I'm not sure why we chose it now." For
its European release, a 2trk and a 4trk tour edition CD single were
pressed, which both included the 7" radio edit of She Is Suffering,
as well as an exclusive acoustic version taken from a live performance
on MTV's Most Wanted. In terms of The Holy Bible as a collection of
songs and on people's emotional investment, with heartfelt enthusiasm,
James has acknowledged that he's "conscious of how many of the
album tracks are far superior and much more loved by fans, than any
of the singles released from it" - with the exception of The Bible's
vital ingredient and crowning glory, the invigorating Faster. Which
ultimately, is what has led to the LP's survival, prosperity and reverence!
10. 'Nothing turns out like you want it to.' 'Don't hurt, just obey,
lie down, do as they say.' 'Analyse, despise and scrutinise.' 'Life
is for the cold made warm and they are just lizards.' 'I've been too
honest with myself / I should have lied like everybody else.' 'The only
way to gain approval / Is by exploiting the very thing that cheapens
me.' Along with these jolting and transparent key lines and their lyrical
thread - words which are brimming with revulsion and revile - plus the
unforgiving onslaught of The Holy Bible's dyed-in-the-wool, hell on
earth, discontented, resentful and (never once rose-tinted) sour worldview;
'Life is lead weights, pendulum died / Pure or lost, spectator or crucified
/ Recognised truth Acedia's blackest hole / Junkies, winos, whores,
the nation's moral suicide.' Where 'Loser - liar - fake or phoney /
No one cares, everyone is guilty' for all that's wrong with the world,
which has transformed into nothing more than an unethical and unconscionable
'systemised atrocity.' With a sizeable quantity of The Bible's lyrics
using the fallibilities of the past, to illustrate the shortcomings
of our present (long a favoured Manics trope); the unwholesome underbelly
of society, taboos, having to sell yourself out, geopolitical misdeeds,
fragmented hegemony / democracy, capitalism / socio-economic issues,
virulent corruption, injustice, American/British nationalism, racism,
historical revisionism, political correctness and the inescapable /
unrecoverable loss of childhood innocence (the latter of which subject-wise,
is more than feasibly the reason why This Is Yesterday and Die In The
Summertime were positioned side-by-side, as a pairing, in the final
tracklisting). Other gritty, real-life and odious themes also subsumed
and saturated in spite on THB, include how anybody - on account of the
human condition - has the capacity to commit nefarious sins or evil
deeds - a microcosm of the whole record: 'The centre of humanity is
cruelty / There is never redemption / Any fool can regret yesterday.'
And, exhibiting the lyrical prowess of MSP's conceptualist and lodestar,
one of the bravest songs ever penned by Richey, is the chilling, jarring
and lurking Archives Of Pain - named after a chapter in a biography
of French philosopher Michel Foucault - which seemingly advocates the
use of the death penalty for maniacal, fascist war criminals and convicted,
unhinged serial killers, who have committed deranged and heinous crimes.
Yet are implausibly treated as celebrities by the media, or sinisterly
lionised and hero-worshipped; 'Pain not penance, forget martyrs, remember
victims.' 'Sterilise rapists, all I preach is extinction.' With JDB
adding: "To reiterate the fact, the lyric was about coming from
a left-wing perspective, but actually just saying that: 'Despite my
political leanings, despite the essence and the core of what I am, I
think I believe in Capital Punishment. I believe the punishment should
fit the crime.' Our songs are at their best when they're at their most
irrational or like three minute well informed news stories... The new
album's a lot more dense and obtuse - if it was a book, you wouldn't
say there were many sympathetic characters in it. We treated it almost
like an essay. We started off with the title, we didn't have one lyric
or one piece of music written... We've always been a band who wanted
something to believe in, but couldn't find anything and there's one
pivotal song on the album, Archives Of Pain. It started out as a riposte
to that line in Therapy?'s Trigger Inside ('Now I know how Jeffrey Dahmer
feels') and, even though I really like Therapy?, we just couldn't agree
with it, so decided to come up with a modern response. It went on to
become a Capital Punishment diatribe and by the time we'd finished the
song, we sounded like a bunch of right-wing cunts. It's basically O
Level Sociology, left and right eventually meet and they become impossible
to differentiate from each other. And I thought that's what we'd become,
when one side becomes totally fucked-up. We started out as such a traditional
working class band, and based all these situations on anywhere we could
find a strand of unfilled ideology, but we've drifted further and further
sideways. By the end of this song, I realised that we were just a product
of our times. We'd believed in so many things only to become disillusioned.
That was one of the first songs that we'd finished and it was then that
I realised, that the whole album would be quite ambivalent in terms
of its morals." And although Archives Of Pain was the track which
Nicky and Richey "worried about the most and did the most work
on." In the liner notes for the 10th Anniversary Edition of The
Holy Bible, the album is described by Keith Cameron as "a triumph
of art over logic" which James found flattering: "Its
always nice when somebody else says it, because you can never say that
about what youve done yourself, because it makes you an arrogant
fool if you make such a statement about your own record or book or film
or piece of furniture - whatever youve created. But I can see
some kind of logic in that statement. I dont really think a band
like us, that comes from a very left-wing area and place in history,
ever expected to write a song like Archives of Pain, which talks about
Capital Punishment and talks about it within a song - openly questions
it and openly investigates and doesnt condemn. I dont think
a band like us, from a working class area in South Wales, were ever
meant to write a lyric like Faster, that has ambitions of overcoming
everything with the power of your own will and your own self-made intelligence.
And I dont think that would be married to that post-punk influenced
music. So there is a natural ridiculousness of us coming from South
Wales, from a very working class, proud area; actually doing a record
like this was nothing anyone expected. We didnt either. So I kind
of accept Keiths statement, and Keith is one of the best music
journalists Britain ever produced, so Ill stand by his statement.
Its always better when somebody else says it." With James,
Nicky, Richey and Sean taking immense pride in the evolution of the
Manic Street Preachers, whenever questioned about treasured tracks,
JDB maintains that the apoplectic Archives Of Pain is "one of the
most important things we've done." Sonically, this song is also
renowned for boasting one of James' premium, undulating and piercing
guitar solos, as well as one of Nicky's finest and most pulsating bass
lines (his personal favourite), which sounds demonic and like it has
crawled out from the very depths of hell wrapped in barbed wire and
laced with malevolence! While in a 1999 interview with Rhythm Magazine,
Sean chose this particular track as having the drumming performance
he's most proud of, recounting: "It's something I wouldn't normally
do - it was one of those sudden rushes of blood. Even now I couldn't
really play it to you." Notably, JDB frequently "nagged"
Sean to put a harmonizer (studio effects processor) on the drums during
The Holy Bible sessions, in order to make them sound boxy / claustrophobic
and as Archives Of Pain was in the process of being recorded, Blur's
poptastic new single Girls & Boys hit the airwaves, causing Nicky
to fret: "It might not be our time." Similarly, James has
since disclosed: "I remember being in a taxi with Richey and we
heard Oasis' Supersonic on the radio. We felt a bit bowed by it, in
a strange commercial kind of way." Referring to MSP's more melodic
and accessible side, JDB's Mum, Sue, would even later ask him why they
no longer wrote "nice songs" akin to Motorcycle Emptiness.
11. In a 2011 NME Poll, the Manics themselves named Faster as their
'Best Single', which was labelled by the longstanding music publication
as "The most incendiary tour de force of their career, the band
on the point of glorious combustion. It is the dark heart of The Holy
Bible that emerges as Manic Street Preachers' Number One of their own
Top 40 hit parade. What else? A Molotov cocktail of post-punk guitars
powers along one of Richey's most freeform and barbed lyrical displays.
The result of one of the most intense compositions of all time and one
of the most exhilarating pop songs of all time." While in April
2018, as part of an 18-month long comprehensive, social media 'song
contest' run by the Twitter account, Every Manics Song; "All studio
tracks pitted against each other (nearly) to decide the most accurate
& unofficial complete song chart ever!" With votes coming from
genuine MSP Fans, it was announced that out of over 200+ tracks in their
back catalogue, Faster was once again in pole position after being ranked
and rated as the band's greatest song (The Holy Bible was also the most
popular era and LP - with or without singles included - by average track
score). Dissecting the furious urgency of the full-throttle Faster,
which was the last time that Nicky and Richey "collaborated lyrically
on an even keel," Nicky once stated: "A lot of it is all Richey
again and he told me it was about self-abuse... I think it's the most
confusing song on the album. I added some stuff about the regurgitation
of 20th Century culture, and the way that everything's speeded-up to
such an extent that nobody knows if they've got any meaning anymore...
It's not a post-modern nightmare number, it's more a voyeuristic insight
into how our generation has become obliterated with sensations. We could
deal with things, but we prefer to blank them out so that virtually
every atrocity doesn't have that much impact any more. I don't even
know if that's a bad thing, I don't know if we're not on some kind of
path to a super-being, where all emotions are lost and everyone finally
gets on perfectly because of that... It's probably the first time that
we've written a song and not completely understood what we've written...
It's my title. I think the outro: 'Man kills everything' is mine. 'If
you stand up like a nail...' is a Chinese proverb. So it's a perfect
synthesis of everything really. I think 'I know I believe in nothing
but it is my nothing' is the great catchphrase of The '90s. And for
Richey to actually write: 'I am stronger than Mensa, Miller and Mailer',
it shows an almost heroic self-indulgence. But it makes you great. Because
at the time, Blur's Girls & Boys went Top Five and I remember thinking:
'What the fuck are we doing?', just completely ostracised. But then
I remember having a moment thinking: 'This is brilliant.' We'd never
felt so alone and we really were distanced from everything else. And
that's why we were the biggest cult band in Britain. It was one of those
moments when you're never gonna do something that good again. You might
do something more commercial, more uplifting, which we have done. But
the cult-dom of it - I think it was once described as 'a heady mix of
Ace Of Spades by Motörhead and Anarchy In The UK.' When Richey
gave the finished lyric to James, it had no punctuation whatsoever,
who has since categorised this specific song as "One of Richey's
soothsaying lyrics. There's a lot of prophesy, in terms of the acceleration
of everything - joy, pain, death, consumerism... Also, I can see that
Richey perhaps wrote the lyrics for Donkeys, and then shortly afterwards,
he wrote Faster. Because where Donkeys is quite self-pitying, I almost
felt like he was riposting himself on Faster." Interestingly, the
line: 'Self-disgust is self-obsession, honey' was a phrase actually
coined by MSP's Press Officer, Gillian Porter, which she used when anatomising
Richey's scornful opinion / scathing critique of himself - "That's
the truest line on there, probably" he contended. Also echoing
the lyrical theme found in Archives Of Pain and the most logical reason
why a portrait of Soviet serial killer, Andrei Chikatilo, is placed
next to Faster in THB's CD lyrics booklet. Picked-up on by 227 Lears,
when identifying a lesser known aspect of Faster's message, JDB set
forth: "Were a civilisation where were constantly trying
to find a cure, cures for death, were constantly trying to find
cures for diseases. But also, were a civilisation thats
grown up with an obsession with death. Or, were a civilisation
thats grown up with an obsession with, like, mass murderers. How
the hell do we function when were obsessed with prolonging life,
and were obsessed with people who kill? Its about the strength
to believe in life and death." The title is rumoured to have a
double-meaning, based around the aforementioned idea of the acceleration
of society, as well as fasting, and was also the adopted name for the
first recording studio - Faster Studios - that the Manic Street Preachers
owned in Cardiff between 2005-2016. In terms of matching the sentiment
of the "cold voiced" words with a "disembodied vocal"
and sonic enhancements, James with his high level of artistry, wanted
the music to sound as if it was regimented, serrated, parallel-lined,
compressed, stark and in control of itself, although he "didn't
realise that Faster was going to be a single (let alone the lead single)
for a long time." And even though it went through 20 reworked overhauls,
apparently, the Manics' co-manager Martin Hall was never overly fond
of this track at any stage of its development, or indeed the finished
version either. The template for this song was Faith No Mores
From Out Of Nowhere, with Sean proclaiming: "It's us at our most
visceral best, spitting bile. The lyrics werent in the form that
they ended up in, but just that bit stronger than Mensa
was enough for us." With JDB admitting: "It was the hardest
one to write music to by a million miles (including Sean's drums in
the final section). I was worried, as I knew it was the key to everything
on the record. So I stomped around, and then put Never Mind The Bollocks
on and that was it. Sometimes the way Johnny Rottens voice goes
down the middle of a song and barely changes, its about the twists
and phrases and the commitment to the words. And thats exactly
what it needed, that straight line through the middle... It's something
that connected with the darker parts of all our selves and it's hard
to get a career out of those moments." "It was a defining
moment for us. That song laid it all out. It was like a band manifesto"
later mused Nicky. Faster was first played live in Thailand at Bangkok's
MBK Hall in April 1994 (MSP's first magazine cover feature for The Holy
Bible era also took place in Thailand for the NME), and whenever used
as the opener in set lists throughout that year, it had an extended
intro with James calling out to the crowd: "Hello, hello, hello,
hello, hello..." as a nod to John Lydon's greeting on the PiL song,
Public Image. At recent THB gigs, the group used Faster (Vocal Mix)
as their walk on music - just as they did in late '94 (when they even
sometimes had an Air-raid siren). Lastly, for history buffs, The Holy
Bible's centrepiece, the adrenaline-charged and primal Faster, was deployed
as the lead single on June 6, 1994, which not only officially signalled
the start of the promotional campaign for its landmark parent album.
But battle ready, also coincided with the 50th Anniversary of the Allied
Invasion of Normandy during World War II. It was MSP's very own D-Day.
Nicky: "When people got the first taste of Faster and P.C.P. they
just felt like: 'Oh, we've got our band back. This is the band we fell
in love with, almost even better than before.' I can't remember any
negative reaction, really." One music columnist was so taken with
the vortical Faster, that he eulogised: "As always, the music was
credited to James Dean Bradfield and drummer Sean Moore, but it was
Bradfield's contribution which clearly signalled the change in tack:
the sheet-metal-cutter tone, the skittish riffing, the new approach
to layering and texture, the sharp corners, the brutalism. Forty-five
seconds in, it was clear that now the Manics understood that subtlety
isn't the opposite of power."? Interestingly, some 8 years later
on November 18, 2002, at MSP's 'Carling Homecoming' Cardiff St. David's
Hall show (possibly taking their cue from Nirvana's now legendary 'MTV
Unplugged In New York' 1993 concert), Faster was reimagined as a much
mellower semi-acoustic track. The band continued to perform the song
this way during their 2002-2003 Forever Delayed Greatest Hits Tour,
and an official live recording of this version can be found as a b-side
on the extremely rare, alternative European CD reissue of Motorcycle
Emptiness - which was primarily sold in Finland.
12. A first draft of the irrepressible and imposing The Intense Humming
Of Evil (the sister song of Mausoleum and some of the earliest Holy
Bible tracks to be written, after the band had visited the sites of
former German concentration camps during their Gold Against The Soul,
European Tour in Autumn '93) was considered insufficiently judgmental
by Bradfield, who asked for a rewrite, explaining: "You can't be
ambivalent about the Holocaust." Notably, the only member of MSP
who can read music is Sean, and for this tense, unnerving and unvarnished
composition, his idea was to use the minimalist delineation of modern
song structures to make more out of less. Coupled with the propulsive
and grinding, looped industrial noises (possibly factory / piston sounds
sampled by Sean using his Akai S1000 Sampler, before then being programmed?),
it is unlike any other track in the band's entire body of work. As one
of his historical "obsessions," Richey was justifiably appalled
by reprehensible and intolerable Holocaust deniers, who deplorably and
unpardonly attempted to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide
of European Jewry: "It's the most horrific event in world history."
The title, The Intense Humming Of Evil, alludes to the sombre, eerie
and deafening silence that the Manics noticed while in the grounds of
at one-time death camps, where even birds don't fly over (Nicky mournfully
remembered: "All you can hear is this humming of nothing.")
Something which is also cited in the dour and festering formations of
Mausoleum's taught, gloom laden, ravaged and reverberating chorus: "No
birds - no birds / The sky is swollen black / No birds - no birds /
Holy mass of dead insect." Nicky: "The song was originally
going to be dubbed No Birds, but PiL already had a track with the same
name. Then, Richey said that he had a much better title, and I concurred,
Mausoleum sounded far more scary!" Unveiling to The Quarterly in
2014: "I wrote the original lyric ideas in my hotel room after
walking around Belsen. I was struck by the lack of creatures and the
silence. Theres greenery and trees, but it seemed to me even nature
couldnt face touching that horror. The first time we went to Japan,
we visited the museum in Hiroshima. Weve always faced up to universal
truths as much as is humanly possible and its been a good thing
for us, because truths about the only thing that has kept the
band going." JDB: "Touring does have an effect on you because
you experience different strains of ideology and failed ideologies."
With Richey once phlegmatically declaring that as a band, MSP "havent
got well-defined ideologies." In 2005, Nicky - who also believes
that these experiences may have subconsciously seeped into some of his
words for Of Walking Abortion - further elaborated to PopMatters: "I
find The Intense Humming Of Evil quite unlistenable. It reminds me of
our days off (from touring) Gold Against The Soul, when we visited Belsen
and Dachau, the death camps, which was in typical Manic Street Preacher
fashion. Most bands, on their day off, would look for a pile of drugs
or drink or whatever - we decided to visit the death camps on our days
off. We didnt go there for a laugh. We were driving and we felt
we should see this. Its our idea of forcing humanity to face itself.
They were pretty startling days. That was definitely one of the seeds
for it, really. In Germany, Gold Against The Soul wasnt selling
many copies, and we were travelling around thinking: 'Weve got
to regain our soul.' We were all on the same wavelength. We knew that
regaining control was the main priority. Going back to Cardiff and a
crappy little studio was the essence of that, really... I think James
just really rose to the challenge at this point. He felt a desire to
create something really original: sounds of our youth, and the darkness
and the melancholy of Wales, transferring that into all the places we'd
visited on tour and the death camps of the Holocaust. I think he just
loved the challenge of trying to make those words into tunes."
On May 28, 1994, MSP performed at the Anti-Nazi League 'Carnival Against
The Nazis'.
13. Revol (lover spelt backwards) and This Is Yesterday (which musically,
was loosely based on Ghosts by The Jam) were late additions to The Holy
Bible and were both written side-by-side. JDB told NME in 2014: "It
was in our pocket for a long time. That's why two other songs got recorded
at the end. We'd lived with it for so long that we realised just in
time that it wasn't balanced. Well, in its own fucked-up way."
14. Song titles nearly used include: Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'scountrywouldfallapart,
Walking Abortions and No Birds (Mausoleum).
15. A differently sequenced tracklisting of the 13 songs (obviously
later revised and re-jigged) also appeared on an early pre-release PR
information card
16. Sculpture Of Man is the sole b-side dating from this period, all
others were recorded later. Nicky called this "The darkest lyric
ever!" With James continuing: "That's completely Richey's.
But that just shows how bullet-nosed we were."
17. Although the rock-solid, unfiltered and explosive Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart
("one of the greatest titles of all-time" as claimed by Nicky),
plus the sedate, sentimental and tranquillising This Is Yesterday. A
winsome, tender, moving and fleeting breather amid the mental and emotional
bloodletting, which momentarily enables the outlying and unshrinking
Holy Bible to transfigure, were long thought to have been the sole work
of Wire. When putting together the pristine, exemplary and life-enriching
20th Anniversary Box Set for THB, on closer inspection, he actually
discovered that Richey had contributed more to both tracks than he remembered.
And, if you were to combine all of Nicky and Richey's traded lines and
wide-ranging lyrics together, unbelievably, there are over an astronomical
2,800 words across all of the songs included on the record! With Q Magazine
giving its affirmation and adulation by trumpeting: "The Holy Bible
is among the most lyrically ambitious albums any rock group has made!"
This long player also unequivocally demonstrates and validates 'the
power of words' and how they can permeate your mind. But due to the
vast amount of pre-internet information, knowledge and wealth of words
crammed into THB's unequalled lyric sheets - some of which could even
be classified as prose, or as hard-hitting investigative journalism.
And encompass everything, from cultural, historical, political and societal
connections, to weighty subject matter, to well-read literary references.
JDB - sometimes even without a moment to take a breath - recorded far
more vocal takes than usual (for comping) so that he sung every syllable
correctly, with his astonishing / incomparable voice, vox techniques
and outstanding approaches to singing, reacting perfectly to the array
of convulsing sonics, abrasive lead / rhythm guitar tones and counter-melodies
used on different compositions. Also making The Holy Bible on their
own terms, and by now, a well-oiled machine in the studio - when probed
about the rhythm section's listening habits, musicianship and contributions,
after chewing this over, Nicky marvelled: "It doesn't happen often
in a band's career when you all start listening to the same sort of
music and reading the same sort of things. With us, it was Wire, Magazine,
John McGeoch (PiL, Banshees, Visage) was a big influence on James, Jah
Wobble was a big influence on the bass sound and Gang Of Four were a
big influence as well. It was all the music we grew up listening to.
When we first started, Guns N' Roses came along and changed us for a
couple of albums, but this music was our natural habitat. Post-punk
was what we listened to the most, because we missed out on punk. Sometimes
in a band there is a telepathy and even in the rhythm section, with
me and Sean, that was happening on tracks like Ifwhiteamerica... it
was just like speeded-up Adam And The Ants! We didn't need to speak
about it. We just felt like we were doing the right thing." And
on the breakneck-paced, 2000AD & Judge Dredd, 'Be Pure! Be Vigilant!
Behave!' (a slogan uttered by Tomas de Torquemada, puritanical and xenophobic
villain in Nemesis the Warlock) referencing P.C.P. - a clever song title
that refers to Political Correctness (PC), to a Police Constable (PC)
and to the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). Although always much more
coil springed, jittery and venomous live than on record, Nicky raved
about this track's instant gratification: "You can hear a real
joy in our playing!" On a side note, Richey was a die-hard 2000AD
& Judge Dredd comic book fan - he even once had a drawing of the
character, Ace Garp, published in an issue when he was younger, winning
£3. Then, the ultimate dream of any comic book fan, Richey himself
was immortalised within its hallowed pages, when the long-running British
science-fiction comic anthology satirised the '4 REAL' incident in a
story. The character based on Richey was called Clarence from The Crazy
Sked Moaners, and in a different story, Zenith, a character named Domino
even wore a Manics t-shirt! Although never licensed or used, MSP originally
wrote and recorded the fluid and blistering Judge Yr'self, for the 1995
Judge Dredd movie starring Sylvester Stallone (Richey excitedly told
his father that a song might be featured on the soundtrack). But out
of respect to Richey after he had vanished and not wishing to dwell
on this, the track was put on the back burner and wasn't completely
finished until its poignant inclusion on the 2003 b-sides, rarities
and covers compilation, Lipstick Traces (A Secret History Of Manic Street
Preachers). As one of the final songs that the gentle Richey penned
before he went missing, lyrically and sonically, Judge Yr'self patently
has its foundations in THB (the music video is appropriately included
on the 10th Anniversary Edition). In a 2015 Q&A with Ultimate Guitar,
when disassembling the LP's splintered and fraught tension, JDB extolled
and reiterated about The Holy Bible: "In its own way, even though
it's regarded as an album which has a bit of indelible punk spirit in
it, it's quite a muso (musician's) album. There are some awkward little
time-signatures on there and the drums are very much linked in with
the guitars. The bass is very much linked in with the guitars too and
the bass is not always on the bass drum. There's a lot of post-punk
chords and effected bass on there, which weaves in and out of the music.
And it's quite a muso little record really. I'd say it's a post-punk
album influenced by bits of Rush. It's a very kind of infused album
and there's a hyper-reality about the lyrics."
18. Interestingly, James "never felt completely comfortable as
the lead singer of the Manics, until The Holy Bible" and
before then, would have "just preferred to have solely been the
lead guitarist, with either Nicky or Richey as the frontman, because
they had the cheekbones for it!"
19. In 2004, James unexpectedly admitted to Guitarist Magazine: "Sometimes
I've resented putting vocals over the music, especially on The Holy
Bible."
20. Carefully sourced by Richey and in-keeping with / highlighting the
songs' themes - sometimes adding a menacing and dystopian atmosphere
- every dialogue sample on The Holy Bible had to be cleared for usage,
in turn, costing Sony a lot of money. In reference to the mercurial
and diffusive sample used on Mausoleum, when talking to The Face in
'94, Richey expounded: "When J. G. Ballard wrote Crash, he said
that what he was trying to do was force humanity to look itself in the
mirror, then rub its face in its own vomit. That was what we wanted,
too." With Nicky additionally looking to write about the atrocities
caused by "the human capability to inflict pain on its own race,"
and an intransigent Richey reasoning in another interview: "Henry
Miller said 'At the edge of eternity is torture, in our mind's never-ending
ambition to damage itself.' That's what we would like to write about."
Arriving just over 14 months after its predecessor, Gold Against The
Soul, when later elaborating on The Holy Bible's concept, or through-line,
a perspicacious Nicky cogitated: "Theres an overriding philosophy
behind the whole album: evil is an essential part of the human condition
and the only way to get over it is recognising all hypocrisies, all
evils - recognising its in us all - which I guess is not a liberal
view."
21. Financially, with all band members existing on a low income at the
time - a teeny £250 per month each, later rising to £200
per week - which was an unfathomably minuscule amount of money for an
international act signed to a major label. JDB, who "didnt
have a pot to piss in," was still living at home with his parents
during the making of this long player, with the others 'clubbing together'
so that he could stay in a Marriott hotel one night a week. Notably,
part way through recording - after having seen them play live and been
magnetised by the Washington DC indie hardcore outfit, later purchasing
some of their LPs - one of James' morning wake-up songs and on repeat
studio favourites, was Learned It by Girls Against Boys. "I really
latched onto that song and I think they had a small bearing in the music
I wrote for The Holy Bible, so its a good memory for me"
he revealed on BBC Radio 6 Music. However, not everyone in MSP recollects
Bradfields choice of alarm call so fondly. "I remember James'
obsession well," laughed a mystified Nicky of hearing the song
a lot... "To my pain!" With regard to the unpleasant setting
and the seedy side of where Sound Space Studios was located in the red-light-district
of Cardiff. Late at night, both JDB and Alex would be aware of prostitutes
prowling the streets outside, who even sometimes performed sexual acts
with clients in their parked cars.
22. While refining the Manic Street Preachers' sound / twisting melodies
into new shapes, and at the same time, managing to make atypical song
lyrics scan and rhyme. Although the THB sessions involved long hours
for James in the studio, along with engineer/co-producer Alex Silva
- 16-hours per day, sometimes more, 7 days a week for 1 month - who
also ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together, he has described it as
"one of the best times of his life." Elaborating: "Brilliant
memories. All the dark humour around that time makes it seem happier
in retrospect than maybe it actually was. Regardless of the lyrics,
I remember Richey as being quite cuddly at that point (who was regularly
holed up in the studio's Gaffer-esque office with his Olivetti portable
typewriter, typing lyrics, and also went to the odd nightclub in Cardiff
with JDB). He didn't seem in the perpetual motions of darkness as the
lyrics might imply. It was a happy period, recording that album, even
though it was done in bleak surroundings. It felt like we were all pulling
in the same direction. I remember thinking if this is our last album,
it's a fucking brilliant album to finish on. We felt it was our final
riposte." And in spite of the fact that "some bands wouldn't
have even used Sound Space Studios to record demos, even though it had
an amazing drum room" in the opinion of Nicky - the studio, vicinity,
environment and 'method recording' to stay on-message, proved to be
advantageous as it fortuitously suited everything about the lo-fi and
stylised Holy Bible perfectly! JDB: "Gold Against The Soul was
slightly hollow. I think we're a band best following our own lead. We're
a band best following an idea or we have a little mini-manifesto before
a record. With that record we didn't. We just kind of knew we had to
do a second record and keep the momentum going and we fell into that
very clichéd trap. I think the record has some good guitar work
in it but it's not enough. It's holding up a bit of an empty fortress.
The Holy Bible was a rearguard action against ourselves to a certain
extent. We knew we'd failed ourselves and fallen into the biggest rock
'n' roll cliché in the world: the difficult second album. So
I kind of think to create something that was born of a big idea I suppose.
Sometimes you need some creative failure to spur you on. On the first
and second album we'd had all the trappings of being a newly-signed
act for Sony, we just felt we had to strip ourselves and disavow ourselves
of all those trappings of being a signed act to a major record label.
It was definitely the best thing we could have done. We actually recorded
on smaller tape; we didn't record on conventional tape. We recorded
on tape you'd use for demos usually and recorded on very small 16-track
decks. Working within those limitations made everything so vital."
With The Wire (who habitually wore a football manager-style coat, loaned
from his Dad, to keep warm in the "freezing studio") recently
reflecting: "It makes you realise the power of youth, feeling fearless
and, in blunt terms, not giving a shit. Which obviously dims with age
and having kids and responsibilities, and all that. It does make you
realise the power of the four of us locked away from mainstream Britain
in the early 1990s, and how glorious that feeling was... It just felt
like a brilliant environment, to create what felt like some sort of
piece of art." James: "I think it's a snapshot of the time
and it's a snapshot of Richey to a certain degree as well, in terms
of the lyrics and the tone that it set. I associate it with those times
and all of the information that Richey was digesting, and then Nick
trying to balance things out a bit." DJ Huw Stephens noted: "The
album's subject matter didn't darken the mood in the studio, when four
friends got together to record what would become one of the band's most
celebrated works." Nicky: "At that time, we'd still be sitting
down and watching rugby or football as well... We were getting chips
from Canton, reading the NME and watching crap telly." James: "It's
true, being in the studio wasn't like the Marlon Brando scene from Apocalypse
Now or something. It wasn't backlit with shadows everywhere. We were
going to Servini's Café in Cardiff and still getting excited
about eating half a tuna melt!" At the end of making THB, James,
Nicky, Richey and Sean bought Alex a bottle of Champagne, among other
gifts, as a thank you for all of his hard work. However, when he arrived
home that day, his long-term partner announced that she was leaving
him as he'd spent so little time with her! With Alex jesting that the
Manics had "left him with a bottle of Champagne and a broken heart!"
Also clarifying to Wales Online: "The last day alone was a straight-through
36-hour session and when I got home my girlfriend of five years, with
whom Id just bought a house, said shed had enough and walked
out. Thats still James favourite topic of conversation whenever
he talks about me - in the nicest possible way, of course." Discussing
the mixing stages of The Holy Bible with Mark Freegard, and then, its
critical reception, Nicky imparted: "That year in particular, obviously,
was the year of Nirvanas In Utero and everything else - it was
a pretty bleak year and it just seemed to all come together at the same
time. I remember we were in Britannia Row, which was where Joy Division
recorded Closer, we were there when we heard that Kurt Cobain had killed
himself. We were mixing The Intense Humming Of Evil, or some other really
bleak track. It was a pretty bleak moment - it actually felt like a
lot of connections were falling into place... In terms of the press
in the UK, I think the difference was that it was the album theyd
always wanted us to make. When we first started, I guess theyd
been not disappointed, but you know, Generation Terrorists was so cosmetic
and glam, and Gold Against The Soul was this cavernous, empty and miserable
stadium rock. I think the fact was that the band that theyd wanted
to love, all of a sudden they could love. Wed always been a band
to cherish critically, but I dont think wed ever made the
record - maybe with the exception of Motorcycle Emptiness - that people
wanted... It's certainly one of those cult albums, that if you liked
it, I think you love it forever!" In a Quietus editorial entitled,
There Are No Horizons: The Holy Bible At 20, one penman contemplated:
"The Holy Bible has what British groups always used to have over
everyone else: a kind of mobility, a liveliness, an aversion to wasted
space. It's still hard rock, but it's hard rock coarsened and enriched
with the urgency of post-punk and the mordancy of metal. Aside from
anything else, it suited the band a whole lot better: the Manics were
always capable of generating power, in a seething, pummelling kind of
way, but in strict stylistic terms they never really rocked. Sean's
drumming was too rigid for that, Nicky's bass lines nailed to the beat
- they always sounded like punks at heart. The Holy Bible finds a way
to harness that and elevate it. They'd never sound this sharp again...
Almost all these songs view their subject through a prism of disquiet,
but only three or four are purely introspective... The Manics understand
their medium so well, they rarely sound less than totally convincing.
Out of the babel and the noise comes a truth, or a set of truths, which
have seldom been expressed so abstractly yet with such intense immediacy."
Also worth mentioning and something which is a little known fact, is
how MSP's longstanding producer, Dave Eringa, had a minor role in the
making of The Holy Bible. Although uncredited, he did a recall for the
final mix of She Is Suffering as Mark Freegard was unavailable: "I
wind James up by saying that that means I worked (in however stupidly
small way) on The Bible! The song's atmosphere and texture, was created
using a synth pad that runs in the background through the entire track."
Dave also mixed Faster/P.C.P.'s bone-rattling and driving b-side, Sculpture
Of Man, as well as demoing Judge Yr'self in its original form before
the final 2003 mix: "We did a more programmed version of Judge
Yr'self during the January 1995 demo session. It was the same arrangement,
but more electronic in the drums. It was just a case of finding what
worked best for the song. We were just demoing as a tester for the Judge
Dredd movie, so it's quite normal to try out a couple of different treatments!"
23. After his initial concerns as to whether or not he'd be capable
of even turning some of Richey's lyrics into singable songs: "You
crazy fucker. How do you expect me to write music to this!?!" As
pure year zero and the "most natural thing" that MSP have
ever done, JDB later revealed: "Other than Lifeblood, The Holy
Bible was the only other time I've had to re-design what I do. That
album gave me so much confidence. Once I'd done that, I knew that -
in terms of pure musicality - writing a song to whatever words I was
given, there was nothing for me to be scared about any more." When
asked which Manics lyric has been the hardest to put music to, Sean
answered: "Yes was a challenge, hence the time-signature of the
song" - with its melody and repeated verse guitar riff / note pattern
motif, also rooted in The Penguin Orchestra Cafe's Music For A Found
Harmonium, as at the time James was writing the music for Yes, he kept
hearing this instrumental track being played on the radio. 227 Lears
- a fansite of collected writings about The Holy Bible - even noted
how in addition to the television material sampled, the lyrics excerpt
fragments from a newspaper article. As Wire indicated in an interview
with Metal Hammer in September 1994: "Yes, for example: we had
just read this article about prostitutes in Nottingham and it was written
around that. Prostitutes are derided by society as a very low form of
human life, but most people do the same thing every day of their lives
- they just dont do it in a sexual way. But in all honesty, the
lyrics are about being in a band and prostituting yourself every day.
It completely is. Theres one line in there, 'Theres no part
of my body that has not been used.' We feel like that really, being
in a band - theres not much left with any purity." 227 Lears
also unearths how the article, Children for sale on the streets
of UK cities, written by journalist Nick Davies appeared in The
Mail on Sunday in November 1993 and could equally have suggested the
songs key opening phrase. Edwards used other elements to help
shape his startling vision. Davies first reports on the harrowing activities
of two boys, Jamie and Luke, one of whom recounts the first time that
he was asked to T somebody, explaining that this stands
for toss. Edwards in turn elaborated on this: I T
them 24/7 all year long. Later in the piece, Davies quotes a senior
official of Notts County Council who says of the difficulties faced
in confronting the issue of child prostitution: Our community
homes now contain a combination of the most damaged, deprived, depraved
and delinquent children, and they are incredibly difficult to work with.
And our problem is that we are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
We pick up the pieces when they have been damaged. At best, we may find
a remedy. At worst, we are just running a damage-limitation exercise.
The report also features references to old ladies, a young
girl evading 24/7 watch by her social worker, a child being
conceived of a pimp and prostitute, a boy being raped on
video.
24. Career-wise and despite having tasted some success, the group still
felt like failures, with Richey pondering: "In maybe twenty years
we might have an impact on somebody because of what we believe or what
we say, but were not important now." Placing his first love
of penning lyrics way above performing, travelling and doing press -
while aware that the extremely high calibre and depth of MSP's vocabulary,
was what elevated them to another plane and massively separated them
as sui generis, from their peers also operating within the rock sphere.
Even postulating in a 1992 interview with Siren magazine: "I can't
see any way that music can go forward, we always thought that the only
way that rock music could go forward was with the lyrics." Irrespective
of people's acceptance or understanding, Richey (who was incapable of
'switching off' and now devouring a book a day / using references that
sometimes JDB and The Wire couldn't even grasp), constantly strove "to
write a flawless lyric that would scan rhythmically with James' music,
and summed-up exactly how he felt about himself and the world around
him." Always treating songwriting as an artform and never aspiring
to be compared to any other lyricists - he was especially proud of Archives
Of Pain and Die In The Summertime. Nicky (enjoying domestic bliss, preferring
instead to concentrate more on his bass playing and "not so much
on his game" with lyrics and reading, concluding that his songwriting
partner's creative flow and contributions were perfect anyway), even
perceptively noted that with THB, Richey invented "A new lyrical
language." Infused with intent and ideas, and containing a multitude
of searingly memorable, honest and endlessly fascinating words, one
of the greatest, most quoted and famous lines of them all remains: 'I
know I believe in nothing but it is my nothing'. This was also nearly
used as the title for the long player that became known as Journal For
Plague Lovers, which in many ways, is a companion-piece to The Holy
Bible - with some fans and music scribes even affectionately referring
to them as 'Richey's albums', or as 'Richey's Old and New Testaments'.
Renowned for their love of strong LP and song titles, with regard to
tracks on THB, Nicky's suggestions for Yes and Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart,
mean that these are some of the shortest and longest titles ever in
the Manic Street Preachers' song index!
25. Speaking about trying to connect with, then convey, the complexity
of the lyrical content (which refused the brevity typically associated
with the concise nature of most song lyrics), James unveiled: "It's
just about believing it as much as the author believes it. Sometimes
it really was not about questioning anything in the lyric, but just
going along with it because you knew there was this militancy here that
would only work if you're 100 percent committed to it. For me, it just
feels like something that could only ever have been done in Europe.
There's a morass of remains. We went through two world wars, and it's
man's greatest achievement that we now live in Europe in peace. But
the record says that there are ghosts there: it's built on blood, bones
and rubble and we still live with those things." Sean has since
described the topics tackled in these lyrics as being "as far as
Richey's character could go." And even though Nicky has revealed
Richey's oft gallows humour, i.e. when handing him the lyric sheet for
the macabre Archives Of Pain, how he had a big smile on his face and
announced: "Here you go Wire, you'll like this one!" Then,
with Revol which covered the sexual peccadilloes of Totalitarian leaders:
"You'll love it!" Nicky has still expressed fears that having
put so much of himself into his words over the years, that towards the
end of 1994, Richey had finally become "an empty shell inside."
JDB has even talked about the immense amount of pressure placed on Richey
by some people at the time, who after scrutinising the extremities dredged
up and ingrained within his lyrics and believing his words to be prophetic,
would ghoulishly urge: "If he truly means all of these things,
then he'll do something drastic to prove that he is '4 REAL'."
When interviewed in '94, Richey was "certain that the group's visit
to Belsen, Dachau and Hiroshima, influenced their entire perspective
of the role of themselves as individuals and as a band." While
James reflected: "The title, The Holy Bible, seems like a very
good metaphor for a lot of things. We took the Ten Commandments and
realised that they had contradictory failures in Western terms. The
album is designed to challenge complacency at all levels. It sounds
really pompous and it is, but it gave us a good sounding board for all
of the lyrics. It's a sarcastic Valentine to religion itself."
However, he was later taken aback after Richey "persuaded him that
there's no catharsis in art." "We made the new album without
the record company's permission, laid down our own money for it. It's
completely uncompromising in every sense, and it's our best album yet.
I really hoped Richey would find some kind of redemption in it, but
he didn't. And that's upsetting." With regard to Richey's more
personal lyrics, when playing Yes live, James is now understandably
sometimes unable to sing the tormented line: "I hurt myself to
get pain out," which deals with Richey expressing frustrations
about his need to self-harm, as he "can't shout, can't scream."
With JDB adding: "People will say to me: 'Do you think you did
everything you could to stop Richey doing this?' I say: 'Yeah.' Then
they'll go: 'Are you sure?' And at that point I just want to fill their
faces in." On a lighter note and in relation to the extensive cultural,
historical, political and societal signposts + literary references used
throughout The Holy Bible, over the years, an inexhaustible amount of
MSP Fans, bookworms and English Lit students have all been led to discover
a variety of texts, which once caused James to label this long player
as "one of the great reader albums." In fact, in February
2017, an unofficial academic book entitled, 'Triptych: Three Studies
of Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible' was published. Whereby three
authors "reconsider The Holy Bible from three separate, intersecting
angles, combining the personal with the political, history with memory,
and popular accessibility with intellectual attention to the album's
depth and complexity." 2019 will also see the publication of a
pair of brand new MSP tomes, kicking off in January with 'Withdrawn
Traces: Searching for the Truth about Richey Manic' (which includes
a foreword by Rachel Edwards and is the first book written with the
co-operation of the Edwards family, testimony from Richeys closest
friends and unprecedented and exclusive access to Richeys personal
archive). Then, in April, the long-running title, 33 1/3
(a series of short books about popular music, focusing on individual
albums) will be exploring The Holy Bible.
26. Length-wise, The Holy Bible clocks in at 56:17, with Revol being
the shortest song at 3:04 and The Intense Humming Of Evil the longest
at 6:12. On completion, JDB was convinced that the record was a "positive"
artistic statement and would do well, as although even sometimes 'speaking
in tongues', when people did hear the messages in the songs, they would
think: "Finally, the truth!" Elaborating: "We're quite
an academic band and when we start recording an album, we treat it like
an essay almost. We start with the title, then we write the songs. So,
the title of the album is like a question for us and then under that
title, we try and answer all of the questions - only for ourselves through
all of the songs. The inspiration for the title, The Holy Bible, came
from this little news bite we read that said: 'There are more holy wars
going on in the world one time last year, than at any other time in
recorded history.' That kind of set our minds off and we just looked
at the Ten Commandments and they have all failed and contradicted themselves
in Western terms. If you compare Christianity with Islam, Christianity
has failed in its own eyes. Whereas Islam, is still strong in its own
people's eyes. I'm not expounding any kind of religion, that's just
a fact. So basically, we just thought that we'd try and give our version
of the Ten Commandments, or Thirteen Commandments. You know, The Holy
Bible, divine truth - well, this is our divine truth! It was just a
good framework to work under." James even once summarised the LP
as "A Holy Chalice burning through everything it touches."
The meaning behind every lyric was also printed in track-by-track notes
for journalists (subsequently published in The Holy Bible tour book),
with all explanations by Richey and thus further emphasising the ferocity
of his mind / intelligence. Echoing James' thoughts, Richey judiciously
commented: "If the Holy Bible is true, it should be about the way
the world is, and I think thats what my lyrics are about."
Adding: "I went to church for 13-years, I've read most holy books
there are, but I don't find much in it apart from cruelty. That's the
centre of human existence. It's not a religious album, but the imagery
is very important to us." Interestingly, even though Edwards began
carrying a book of biblical quotes on tour with him in late '94, when
commenting on Richey's fixation with organised religion and his misgivings
about the church, Nicky once divulged: "Hes always had this
thing about it. Ive never really talked to him about it, but hes
always made out that it really pissed him off and fucked him up."
However, Richey's sister, Rachel, has since gone on record to dispute
this theory.
27. The now iconic album cover, designed by Richey while hospitalised,
features a 1993-94 oil on canvas triptych by British artist Jenny Saville,
depicting three perspectives on the body of an obese woman in her underwear
and is titled Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face). After seeing
the painting in a weekend Independent Sunday supplement magazine, Edwards
contacted the Saatchi Collection to buy it, but was put off by the £30,000
asking price. Saville originally declined the band's request to use
the artwork, but changed her mind after a 30-minute phone call from
Richey in which he described every track on the record in detail, giving
them permission to use it for free. Nicky: "I don't think it was
until The Holy Bible, that we probably hit our stride in terms of artwork.
We both saw the picture in the Independent Magazine on Sunday first
off, and I remember I phoned Richey up and said: 'That's brilliant!'
and he went: 'Yeah, I loved it!' He phoned her up the next week and
it was a marriage made in heaven. The painting seemed so striking and
the album seemed so messed-up at the time." 227 Lears noted how
in 2010, Wire reiterated this fact to writer Dan Richards: "I remember
the day vividly... because in the magazine, was a special on Jenny Saville
- the first time wed been exposed to her - and we both phoned
each other up and said, Those paintings are amazing. It
was a sort of psychic thing that me and him had." 227 Lears also
adds that the article was written by critic David Sylvester and published
on 20 January 1994, with Saville explaining to Richards: "The first
time I did the Manics thing, I was living in Glasgow. Id just
done the show at the Saatchi Gallery and Richey Edwards called me up
and we had a conversation about anorexia and I wasnt initially
keen on doing an album cover but then, after talking to him, I really
wanted to do it because we had a lot of interests that were similar
- about technology and the body, writers we liked - and he faxed me
the lyrics to 4st 7lb and I read that and said: Ill do it.
Use the triptych, you can have it." This particular painting
showing a confrontational image of obesity, was chosen by the Manics'
aesthetes, Edwards and Wire, because of its portrayal of 'beauty in
perceived ugliness'. And, as is the case with all MSP artwork and sleeve
quotes, it complements the character and lyrical / musical inspiration
of the album within - also adding to the total immersive experience.
The back cover features a photograph (painted on by the late artist,
model and stylist Barry Kamen) of the group in military uniforms and
a quote taken from the introduction of Octave Mirbeau's book, The Torture
Garden. This long player is also the first instance of the Manic Street
Preachers using Gill Sans typeface with a (Cyrillic-style) reversed
'R' in their album art. The font would be reused on later LPs and has
become an easily recognised motif of Manics' artwork. The typeface is
similar to one used on 1980's Empires And Dance by Simple Minds, one
of James Dean Bradfield's favourite records (coincidentally, the band's
third LP and also recorded in Wales), with the sleeve's warfare visuals,
sophisticated / clean minimal design and white background, another obvious
likeness to The Holy Bible's cover. JDB: "Yes, we did plagiarise
the sleeve art for The Holy Bible. A little nod." An additional
element worth mentioning, is that of all MSP's albums, this is the only
one to incorporate the tracklisting on the front (as did each of THB's
accompanying singles) - which with sleeve art, is generally quite a
rarity in itself! Finally, when originally released in '94, both The
Holy Bible's title and its cover, caused controversy due to the religious
overtones of the long player's name and the image of the obese woman
in her underwear, which some people called "morbid and grotesque."
When interviewed by Music Week in April 2018, Nicky ruminated: "Calling
our third album The Holy Bible was brave in retrospect, but when Richey
suggested it, I didn't even think about it, it just seemed totally natural.
I remember there was one territory in Europe that wouldn't release The
Holy Bible because of the title - perhaps a Catholic country, I don't
know - and that was the first time I thought: 'Fuck me, it is a funny
old title.' But at the time, it wasn't a debate at all. Fair play to
Sony/Epic, they never said a word. It was a much freer time in terms
of artistic license."
28. The CD lyrics booklet (which unusually, has the songs in non-running
order) features various images each relating to their corresponding
tracks: Of Walking Abortion = A photograph of Margarete Clark, who has
a Siamese twin appendage growing out of her belly (originally taken
at the James Strates Shows in 1949 and later published in Daniel P.
Mannixs 1976 book, Freaks: We Who Are Not As Others)*. She Is
Suffering = An illustration of Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns.
Yes = An abstract piece of fine art of a cum shot. 4st 7lb = A picture
of an apple. Faster = A painted portrait of Soviet serial killer Andrei
Chikatilo - the Butcher of Rostov as it appeared in a series
of True Crime trading cards, released by Eclipse in the US in 1992*.
This Is Yesterday = An illustration of the Sacred Heart (religious iconography).
P.C.P. = A photograph of British Police Officers in wartime (WWII) gas
mask training. The Intense Humming Of Evil = A still of the gate at
Dachau concentration camp. Mausoleum = A plan of the gas chambers at
Belsen concentration camp. Die In The Summertime = Photographs of each
of the Manic Street Preachers as children. Archives Of Pain = An engraving
depicting an execution by guillotine in Revolutionary France. Ifwhiteamerica...
= A skewed version of Richey's US handgun image. Revol = A photograph
of Lenin's corpse, the first Soviet Union leader who was embalmed in
1924. The booklet also contains black & white portraits of James,
Nicky, Richey and Sean, images of crosses / gravestones, album credits
and a Buddhist saying from the Tripitaka alongside a dedication to the
band's co-manager / publicist, Philip Hall, who had died of cancer on
December 7, 1993. In 'Withdrawn Traces: Searching for the Truth about
Richey Manic', it is revealed how Edwards had designated A4 folders
filled with ideas, pictures and scribbled notes etc. for each MSP album,
including The Holy Bible. As well as scans showing design layouts and
lyrics being proof-checked by Richey in early July '94, he had also
asked Sony's legal department to check for permission to use the Octave
Mirbeau, Torture Garden quote. Also of interest, is that at one stage,
it would seem that the record was going to be dedicated to the memory
of both Philip Hall and to Richey's close friend from University, Nigel
Bethune. We even learn how Edwards had penned instructions for James
when composing the finish to Of Walking Abortion: 'Maybe end like Rage
Against The Machine - Killing In The Name Of?' and how JDB had a revised
lyric sheet for The Intense Humming Of Evil, as requested.
*Details courtesy of 227 Lears https://227lears.com/
29. All artwork for the front covers of The Holy Bible singles was licensed
(relatively inexpensively) from German artist Martin Kippenberger, and
each picture is oil / mixed media collage on canvas dating from 1982-83.
Part four of the five-part, Fliegender Tanga (Flying Tanga), was used
for the first single and tri-fold Digipack, Faster/P.C.P. Sympatische
Kommunistin (Nice Communist Woman), appeared on part one of the two-part
single Revol. And, Titten, Türme, Tortellini (Tits, Towers, Tortellini)
- credited under its French title, Des tètons, des tours, des
tortellini - was the cover artwork on both parts of the two-part, third
and final single She Is Suffering. The limited edition part ones for
Revol and She Is Suffering (7" radio edit), are housed in Z-cases
with spaces to hold CD2, which were released a week later (at one time,
a record label tactic to try and keep singles high in The Charts). Both
have additional inner and back cover artwork, including a D-Day stamp
and a Joanne Celnik painting, Balance, respectively. CD2 for Revol (which
has a front cover featuring a live photograph of James performing at
Glastonbury '94) and She Is Suffering (which has a front cover featuring
sections of Des tètons, des tours, des tortellini, with modified
colours in a row of circles), are each packaged in maxi single slimline
cases. All CD sets have 'hype stickers'. Notably, an MSP Fan once detected
that the sleeve design for the 1961 LP, The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time
Further Out, may have possibly influenced Richey's own design ideas
for the Revol and She Is Suffering front covers. Opting for a different
aesthetic approach on the limited edition numbered 10" vinyls,
these instead feature a montage of Manics tour pictures (P.C.P./Faster)
and music video stills (Revol, She Is Suffering). Every format - CD,
vinyl and cassette - also comes adorned with a customary related literary
sleeve quote and has extra tracks. Faster/P.C.P. was the only single
to be issued as a 7" and there is also a 3trk 12" DJ promo
of The Dust Brothers (now known as The Chemical Brothers) mixes, in
a grey sleeve tagged with the sticker 'M.S.P. done & dusted' (a
revamped alternate version was issued for RSD 2020). The 1994 UK release
dates for The Holy Bible singles were: Faster (June 6), Revol (August
1) and She Is Suffering (October 3). In Europe, only CD1 for Revol and
She Is Suffering (available as either the aforementioned 2trk or a 4trk
tour edition), were issued and came in maxi single slimline cases.
30. Having first begun to outline their intentions for The Holy Bible,
lyrically and musically, to management / reporters from late 1993 onwards
- songwriting had already commenced in the summer of '93 with tracks
including Yes (the very first song to be written for THB) and Die In
The Summertime. The record's title / tracklisting and August release
date were officially announced in mid July '94, but on July 19, following
a particularly alarming bout of heavy drinking and self-mutilation,
after going missing for 48-hours and locking himself away in his flat.
A vulnerable and sapped Richey - who had long been prone to bouts of
crying - was admitted to Whitchurch Hospital in Cardiff, then to The
Priory Clinic in Roehampton on July 28, for 10-weeks of rehabilitation
to help him overcome and recover from his self-destructive problems
(depression, cutting himself, alcohol dependency, drug use and borderline-anorexia
nervosa). While also still mourning the deaths of the Manics' mentor
Philip Hall and his best friend at University, Nigel, who had hung himself
earlier that year. By this point, he weighed only 6st and was teetering
on the edge. James: "Richey's a very academic person, he loves
routines and timetables. When we were working he always had timetables
that he had to follow. But then we had some time off and he'd spend
his time taking drugs and drinking and doing a bit of slashing here
and there and that's how it all started really. We've always been a
very clinical band because we've always believed in creating some kind
of self myth. We've always admitted that, but then it went way beyond
that and got to a point where it became really irrational. Before, everything
he did was quite rational, he always did things to make a point which
we weren't ashamed of. Then he started doing it in private." Long-believing
that "There's a certain kind of beauty in taking complete control
of every aspect of your life. Purifying or hurting your body to achieve
a balance in your mind is tremendously disciplined." Briefly emancipated
from this 'redeeming' thought process, with regard to his breakdown,
Richey eventually unassumingly elucidated to the NME: "I wasn't
coping very well, and I thought my body was probably stronger than it
actually was. My mind was quite strong. I pushed my body further than
it was meant to go." Though addressed by Hall or Nothing as "nervous
exhaustion" in a press release, some supercilious, disrespectful
and detestable detractors insensitively and shamefully revelled in reporting
this as a suicide attempt or astringently pontificated that it was all
part of an elaborate publicity-stunt. But the band, though self-confessed
press junkies and appreciating 'dirt dishing' sensationalist scandal,
were mortified by the distasteful, flagrant lies and obscene misinformation
printed in accusatory, inflammatory, exploitative, unkind, slanderous
and harmful stories, which were anathema to both them and to Richey's
family. And, although for the duration of The Holy Bible era MSP were
the subject of a slew of headlines, column inches and write-ups. Because
of his susceptibly to being perceived as a 'tortured artist', music
magazines/papers later began to single-out Richey on front covers for
his saleability, much to the group's irritation and indignation who
took umbrage at this. Amid rampant rumours and growing / gnawing media
speculation that MSP wouldn't continue without Richey (who abstained
from doing interviews for some time after this), a frustrated and reproachful
JDB retaliated: "If he hurts himself then he hurts us too, not
professionally but personally. There's certainly more than a 50 percent
chance that we would've split up if he'd left the band. From the band
side of things that's the only time resentment ever came into it. Actually,
it's not really resentment, it's more that now and again I was thinking
'being in a band just isn't any good for him, we should just pack it
in' but he didn't want that to happen at all. That was the only time
when things became compounded to such a degree that it felt like they
were going to explode." Tenaciously soldiering on regardless (thanks
to their Protestant work ethic) and playing as a three-piece in the
throes of these circumstances, to honour their remaining summer festival
commitments - Nicky: "Reading '94 was the peak of anger-worry and
disillusionment, but still great" - and to pay for his treatment.
After visiting Richey during his stay however, although naturally worried
and distressed, James, Nicky and Sean sceptically called into question
how beneficial the 'Twelve-Step Programme' treatment actually was to
his mental health and well-being. With a despondent Richey, himself
even swiftly deconstructing and deciphering its inherent faults, as
well as the therapy's over-reliance on, and liberal use of, antidepressants:
'Pass the Prozac, designer amnesiac.' After having spent 6-weeks there,
on September 8, Edwards discharged himself early from The Priory Clinic.
JDB theorised about his inner-turmoil, emotional oversensitivity and
the burden of adulthood: "I think he just feels things so fucking
intensely. He always had this vision of purity or perfection, a kind
of childlike vision, that became completely obliterated." Adding:
"A psychiatrist is always going to pick a target to establish the
problem and we were scared that the target would be us. In the end,
thank God, it was something else." Later conceding that upon leaving
the psychiatric clinic, Richey had "come back a completely different
person," even as far as wanting to be called Richard. A riled,
disgruntled and dejected Nicky, even accused The Priory Clinic of "ripping
the soul out of him." Upon reflection however, with deep-seated
antipathy, James bemoaned and vehemently asserted his utter disdain
for anyone who judged or denigrated Richey: "The only thing that
perhaps pissed me off in terms of what's happened to him, is in relation
to the terms that people are gonna view Richey. They'll think that he's
a walking capital letter 'I' - all ego. And yet on the new album for
me, his two best songs are written from his point of view, but through
other people, not himself: Ifwhiteamerica... and The Intense Humming
Of Evil. I think he's maybe deflected attention away from the way he
can write about other people and turned it all on himself. It's the
only thing I'm angry about, because that makes him look very vain."
Also speaking in defence of his best friend and favourite lyricist,
Nicky posited: "As a kind of physical and internalised hatred and
dissection of humanity, The Holy Bible is pretty untouchable... We thought
about delaying it until September or October, but Richey was insistent
that it should be 'business as usual' and we're just hoping that he'll
be fit for the tour." And, although he could have easily corroborated
JDB's assumption about his unsung qualities. Instead, not wanting to
wallow, an unembittered Richey - who by now, had penned such staggering,
heart-breaking and contemplative clear-cut lines as: 'I don't know what
I'm scared of or what I even enjoy.' 'The only certain thing that is
left about me / There's no part of my body that has not been used /
Pity or pain, to show displeasure's shame / Everyone I've loved or hated
always seems to leave' (Yes). 'I wanna be so skinny that I rot from
view.' 'I want to walk in the snow / And not leave a footprint / I want
to walk in the snow / And not soil its purity.' 'Choice is skeletal
in everybody's life.' 'Self-worth scatters, self-esteem's a bore / I
long since moved to a higher plateau.' 'Yeh 4st 7, an epilogue of youth
/ Such beautiful dignity in self-abuse / I've finally come to understand
life / Through staring blankly at my navel' (4st 7lb). 'Scratch my leg
with a rusty nail, sadly it heals / Colour my hair but the dye grows
out / I can't seem to stay a fixed ideal.' 'Childhood pictures redeem,
clean and so serene / See myself without ruining lines / Whole days
throwing sticks into streams.' 'The hole in my life even stains the
soil / My heart shrinks to barely a pulse.' As well as: 'I have crawled
so far sideways / I recognise dim traces of creation' (Die In The Summertime).
Measuredly, modestly and felicitously averred: "I'm not really
worried what people think about me. Because I judge myself harsher,
and on more strict terms, than they ever could probably... I have a
very childlike rage and a very childlike loneliness... I guess I identify
with victims." Likewise, the THB era saw the rise of an infamous
fan collective / obsessional subculture known simply as 'CoR - Cult
of Richey', who themselves identified with Edwards. James: "Around
the time of The Holy Bible, it was slightly disquieting the kind of
stuff that would be attached to us in terms of some fans. I was never
comfortable with that." This period would also later become the
marker for Manic Street Preachers' pre / post Holy Bible phases (first
act before second act) and fanbases (old fans vs. new fans). Nicky has
even termed fixated and loyal THB devotees, who are extremely precious
about the long player, as 'Bible Ites'.
31. By way of promotion and based on Rob Stringer's (currently Chairman
of Columbia Records) suggestion, every word from every song was reproduced
as a centre-spread advertisement in the music press (and the Reading
Festival '94 programme), in the lead-up to the release of the album
- although all explicit words were blacked out. Mirroring the printed
lyrics theme, each single - Faster/P.C.P., Revol and She Is Suffering
- also had its own full-page and mini press adverts. NME even gave away
a free 4trk flexidisc 7" sampler entitled, 'Verses From The Holy
Bible', which was sellotaped to the front cover of their August 27,
1994, issue. The excerpts were: 1. She Is Suffering 2. Yes 3. Archives
Of Pain 4. Ifwhiteamericawastotellthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart.
The latter song is erroneously titled. Also of interest, is that whereas
advertisements, promo, reviews etc. used to remind buyers of new releases
out on a Monday, as The Holy Bible's release date coincided with a Bank
Holiday Weekend, it was instead available from most record shops on
the Tuesday.
32. THB was put out on the same day as Oasis' Definitely Maybe: August
30, 1994, just as Britpop was really starting to take-off. The long
player (issued via the Epic label and MSP's "most complete album
by a long way" according to Richey), reached No. 6 on the UK Albums
Chart and remained in the chart for 11-weeks, but didn't chart in mainland
Europe or North America (as an import). It did however make a tiny dent
in the Japanese marketplace, where it was released on September 8, 1994
(with 3 bonus live tracks recorded at Glastonbury '94), peaking at No.
50 on the Albums Chart. Also of note, is that whereas some parts of
Europe - including Bulgaria, Poland and Spain - had cassettes produced
exclusively for each country. Conversely, as a devoutly religious country,
Italy ostensibly refused to sell the LP at all based on the grounds
that the title, The Holy Bible, could be construed as deeply offensive
or even sacrilegious by Italians. The record also had a small-scale
release in Australia (featuring an explicit content warning CD jewel
case sticker) and Asia (where unique Indonesian, Israeli and Thai MCs
were manufactured for the latter), although in China, was only available
as an unofficial bootleg CD. Though widely-praised by critics upon release
and having a Sony Music Entertainment Global Marketing Plan, it sold
poorly. A 'radio-friendly unit shifter' this was not.
33. Advance Holy Bible promo cassettes, limited edition CD / vinyl picture
discs with 'hype stickers' still intact, the UK MC, the aforementioned
Japan-only CD, official out-of-print Thai album / maxi single cassettes
and an Indonesian MC (all featuring artwork variations). An original
withdrawn CD pressing of the US Mix of THB (a small number crept into
circulation and surfaced in Canadian record stores in March 1995, but
the pushed back date of July for the full, widespread North American
release was eventually scrapped). All singles and promos - including
the Faster/P.C.P. promo CD which has an infrared coloured sleeve - and
live bootlegs. Along with highly-coveted ephemera, such as the above-stated
pre-release PR information card, press releases, a Japanese-only promo
postcard set, posters, flyers, record shop display standees (including
a jumbo reproduction of Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face)
by Jenny Saville), tour itineraries, AAA laminates, hand-written set
lists, ticket stubs and magazine/newspaper/fanzine clippings etc. Plus
of course, any items signed by all 4 members, remain some of the most
prized MSP collectibles amongst ardent fans!
34. In America, Faster had an exclusive promo CD featuring an action-packed
live shot of James on the front cover, plus an alternate music video
cut from live footage filmed at The London Astoria, December 1994. Directed
by Tony Van Den Ende, it contains some of the final released footage
of Richey and was the last promo video that he would be captured on
film for. In relation to other alternate music videos, in early 2008,
the director of the UK promotional clips for Faster and Revol, Chris
D'Adda, posted 'Director's Cut Versions' for each of these videos on
his (now deleted) official YouTube channel, with the supplementary notes:
"Faster - The original cut of the video before the record company
had their way with it! Revol - Original edit of Revol containing various
still images which do not appear in the TV release version. Richey came
up with pages and pages of ideas for this video including the two blood
drenched girls in UN uniform but as usual, it was all a big compromise
mainly due to budget restraints. That snow-drift in the corner is made
out of salt by the way and I think I remember the flying over mountains
bit being archive footage from one of the Superman films!" Both
'Director's Cut Versions' can be viewed here https://vimeo.com/manicstreetmania
35. While touring in early 1994, the group visited army
surplus stores and bought clothing / medals to wear onstage, in homage
to The Clash and Echo & The Bunnymen's camo apparel / battledress.
This military image / impeccable restyle (which later extended to how
MSP's gigs and dressing rooms were lit and decked-out) "represented
the control and discipline that they were trying to get back" after
becoming too 'rockist', as well as "reaffirming their existence"
and symbolising "a metaphorical war against everything around them."
Nonetheless, at the time, some music hacks / news correspondents did
query the mix 'n' match / mismatched approach to the band's uniforms,
and also, the hypocrisy of adopting this new look after they had previously
written a song, La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh), which sympathised
with the plight of war veterans and featured the lyric: "I sold
my medal / It paid a bill / It sells at market stalls / Parades Milan
catwalks." Unperturbed, Nicky is confident that this is "the
best that any band has ever looked" and has since rhapsodised:
"I remember when we had The Holy Bible era, just being able to
go to army stores and buy all that military regalia and feeling like
it was us against the world. Defined within a uniform, if you like -
and James sailor suit and stuff. That was really fucking cheap.
They used to love us in the Army & Navy stores, especially the one
in Cardiff. Theyd be like: Oh, here you are, weve
got some new camo in
" With JDB disclosing how Sean
would inevitably buy the most expensive medals, who himself once joked
that rather than being the Manic Street Preachers, they had actually
metamorphosed into the Manic Street Army. This attire and strengthening
aesthetic was used consistently by the group during the promotion of
The Holy Bible, including in their press shots, music videos and television
appearances. A sneering and enraged performance of Faster on the BBC's
Top of the Pops in June '94, resulted in a record number of complaints
- over 25,000 - and was extremely controversial at the time. Even making
headlines around the country, including in the local newspaper for Blackwood
(e.g. 'MANIC THREAT TO THE NATION'), which thrilled Nicky and Richey,
due to the Malcolm McLaren-esque scandal after Bradfield wore a paramilitary
'IRA-style' balaclava. James was absolutely right, Faster was infamous
"Top of the Pops Gold" and eyeball spinning, retina searing,
whiplash viewing - although the next day, Sony were sent into flurries
of panic and warned MSP: "You'll never get on Top of the Pops again!"
36. Talking about wearing the balaclava (which is now a far less intimidating
tea cosy at Faster Studio), James later pondered if subconsciously,
this was perhaps his own way of "daubing actor's paint" to
help distance himself from the personal nature of the lyrics that he
hadn't actually penned.
37. Many of Mitch Ikeda's (Manic Street Preachers official photographer)
favourite photo sessions and pictures that he's taken of the group date
from The Holy Bible era, due to the band's striking look. Visually -
and because of the strong symmetry they had onstage with Richey as well
- James, Nicky and Sean also believe that this is the Manics at their
peak!
38. Beginning in late September 1994, the Manics supported Therapy?
in France for 11 gigs, followed by 16 of their own UK / Ireland headline
shows (with special guests Sleeper + Dub War) throughout October. Before
a further 22 European dates supporting Suede during November and early
December - which by all accounts, with a general air of malaise, was
somewhat of a tainted and gruelling slog for MSP and their crew (especially
as they were having to keep a cautious eye on Richey round the clock).
A plaintive, ailing and yearning Nicky, who himself was languishing,
aching and underweight due to anxiety, confessed: "It wasn't making
me happy anymore. It was a long tour. Nearly breaking point for the
band." With JDB lamenting: "It was the first time I'd thought
we weren't all reading from the same page. Richey was marking gigs then
(having previously marked every day out of ten) and not a lot of them
were getting very good marks. We were enjoying them and he was giving
them shit marks. I just thought: 'This ain't making him happy.'"
And, while Richey would recurrently take naps on the couch at Sound
Space Studios as The Holy Bible was in the process of being recorded,
touring was a whole different ball game. Nicky: "He just lived
in his bunk the whole time, it was like a rabbit hutch. He was on 60
cigarettes a day, 20 cups of coffee and then he'd complain that he couldn't
sleep! He'd stand under this vent on the bus just puffing away."
Sean: "He was always trying to get me to teach him how to play
Come As You Are by Nirvana. He was obsessed by nailing that. Never did,
mind." The band were offered an extended run of gigs across Europe
by their concert promoter, but due to the strains on their relationship
with Richey, his continued self-harm, anorexia, alcoholism, idiosyncrasies
and deteriorating mental health. Who surprisingly, was keen to carry
on with life on the road and had been practising guitar more / learning
new chords, since his stay in The Priory Clinic. It was ultimately decided,
that twinned with James, Nicky and Sean's crumbling morale / exasperation
and the fact that on the morning of December 1, Nicky found Richey outside
the group's hotel in Hamburg, Germany, repeatedly banging his head on
the wall with blood streaming down his face, pleading to go home, that
this wouldn't be a wise-decision. Therefore, 3 of the Manic Street Preachers'
own shows in Linz, Prague and Vienna, which were booked to take place
on December 6, 7 and 9 respectively after the Suede tour had finished,
were cancelled (the rescheduled dates for February '95 would also later
be axed). A moment of comic relief did come one night however before
this nix, assuaging some of the psychological unease, when JDB's white
sailor suit which he bought because he thought Richey looked amazingly
cool in his black one (though later joked that although this annoyed
Richey, it wasn't nearly as attractive on himself anyway). After gradually
rotting away over the course of the tour and smelling nauseatingly horrid,
embarrassingly and revealingly, split all around the crotch area as
he was jumping onstage! Favoured cover versions in set lists from this
era, included Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (Burt Bacharach) and
Pennyroyal Tea (Nirvana). James: "I think that we perhaps interpreted
the song in a different way. It was to do with an old abortion potion,
but the way we took it was like a pun on Penny Royalty (Monarchy) because
that's the way we've been forced to look at ourselves at times. We've
put a bit more into that cover than others we've done. We thought we'd
pick something a bit more contemporary, something that's a bit more
relevant to us in its essence."
39. After one particular European date with Suede in Autumn '94, well-documented
events and pressures with Richey, who, racked with agony and pangs of
helplessness / hopelessness, bedevilled by demons and with a storm brewing
inside, was becoming a danger to himself and had once allegedly acquired
a meat cleaver intending to chop off his fingers, so that he didn't
have to play onstage (it was taken away from him). Then, backstage,
following a gig at the Amsterdam Paradiso on November 24, cut himself
vertically down his chest - an injury which required 36 stitches according
to some reports - had taken their toll on an emotionally drained, conflicted
and crestfallen Nicky (who even wrote about the ill-fated Thailand trek
on the potent 2001 Know Your Enemy b-side, Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel).
To the point where he told James that he could no longer brush these
emotions aside / envisage proceeding with this type of lifestyle and
wanted to leave the, by now, impaired band. JDB fully understood, but
then went out and got drunk later that night and by the next morning,
had completely forgotten that this conversation had ever taken place.
On that same tour, the acoustic guitar (Fender F-5-12) which most of
The Holy Bible was written on was lost. At one time, due to his reservations,
a pining Richey did consider not touring anymore but soon changed his
mind, as he didn't think that by shirking the toughest part of the job
which made being in a group feel like a routine, would be fair on the
others. When broaching the subject, James, Nicky and Sean had considerately
provided him with other options / "exit routes" and never
pressurised him to tour. But although not requisite, as an integral
member, Richey didn't want to ever feel that he was betraying the band
or letting them down in anyway. In a 1996 interview with the glossy
Japanese music periodical, Crossbeat, James recollected: "When
his condition worsened, the first thing we told him was: 'We're satisfied
to end things here. It's quite dignified, as a band, to end now.' If
we were just going to suffer more, we were happy to have The Holy Bible
as our last album. But at the time, belonging to the band was something
irreplaceable to him, by all means he wanted to remain in the band.
So we decided to go on." Around early autumn, Richey also had some
new tattoos inked and in 'Everything (A Book About Manic Street Preachers)',
Simon Price clarified: "There were two intricate circular diagrams,
one with the words Hemisphere, Jerusalem, Of Land, Of Water, Hemisphere,
Hell, and Mount Purgatory (apparently derived from the seven concentric
circles of Hell as depicted in Dante's Inferno). The other bearing the
Caina, Antendra, Ptolomae and Judecca, with the condemning additions
'Traitors to their Lovers, Traitors to their Guests, Traitors to their
Country, Traitors to their Kindred'. Obscure biblical/classical references,
and more fuel to the rumour that Richey had found God in the Priory.
The third tattoo read 'I'll surf this beach', a quote from Apocalypse
Now." This latter inking, was due to the fact that Richey had become
obsessed with the iconic war motion picture and in particular, identified
with Dennis Hopper's crazed photojournalist character. He even began
wearing the same make of one of the cameras (Olympus) used by the actor
during filming. Another classic movie name-checked by Richey, owing
to its interconnected themes of abject enmity, resentment and repulsion
at the black-hearted cesspit of depraved / fiendish vile sickness, and
the ungodly putrefaction of a numbed human race 'in these plagued streets
of pity.' While at the same time, seeking universal panaceas and wanting
to inoculate mankind, waking it from a 'dulling' and diseased 'morality
obedient' coma in order to cleanse society and rid all ills, was Taxi
Driver. With Travis Bickle's 'June 29th Journal Entry' played over the
PA after gigs, as it mirrored Richey's own complete control / self-improvement
mindset and strict, disciplined fitness regime which included 1,500
sit-ups a day! Funnily, MSP's Tour Manager always moaned about the weight
of Richey's suitcase, as it contained both his Olivetti portable typewriter
and dumbbells. Along with his tattoos and newly-dyed ginger hair, Richey
also started etching words onto the fingers of his right and left hands,
such as LOVE and HUMILITY. Delineating: "I write something on my
fingers every day. Mostly LOVE. I never write HATE, because I don't
hate anyone. I'm more negative about myself than anyone else. I don't
want to waste time. Even though I have terrible experiences with people,
I can forget them. I just think 'Fuck off' and that's the end of it."
On The Holy Bible's perennially unnoticed positive slant, JDB mulled
over: "I think what people miss out, is the actual overpowering
sense of victory that you get sometimes when you listen to it. And of
course that's overlooked because people think that, with the way things
ended for Richey, that there's only ever a negative thing to see. I
feel a sense of empowerment. I remember playing it on the road when
we were supporting Therapy? in France and I came offstage feeling great
every night."
40. Only accepting this offer because they were firing on all cylinders
and in such robust, fine form live-wise. Between December 19 - 21, 1994,
the Manic Street Preachers played three Christmas shows at The London
Astoria, which would be the last time that Richey ever performed with
the band - who 'tattered and torn' was unravelling and "peaking
in his weirdness" according to Nicky, in turn, adding to the all-embracing,
dispiriting and punishing "misery." Having all suffered from
spontaneous nosebleeds after soundchecks, due to an unknown problem
with the venue's sound system frequencies (every night the crew turned
the speakers and monitors down, but there was no change), making JDB,
Nicky, Richey and Sean "paranoid that this could lead to brain
haemorrhages." On the final night, and as a release of inter-tension
(unusually the group hadn't really been getting on for the past few
days), the combustible and "edgy" gig ended with the Manics
smashing up not just their equipment to smithereens, but also saw them
destroying the venue's lighting, causing £26,000 of damage - which
could have potentially bankrupted the band! Nicky: "I was so nervous
going on every night, that the end was just a relief." And, knowing
that they were "on top of their game and stupendously tight"
at each of these intoxicating, thunderous and molten shows - MSP in
excelsis! In the aftermath of their appetite for destruction at the
last gig and laying waste to the Astoria, which "felt brilliant
and meant more than any of the songs... until we saw the bill"
joshed an emphatic Nicky (who has since unreservedly declared that "much
of The Holy Bible era was instinctive"). On that fateful night
- as a harbinger of what was to come - he even cannily predicted the
symbolic and long-term repercussions: "Something's stopped, something's
changed here." In the wise words of Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese
philosopher: 'The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.'
Chatting to The Guardian in 2009, Nicky also reflected: "From Thailand
to the smashing up of the Astoria, it was hospitalisation, no money,
drudgery, hateful, miserable, awful. It felt like Richey was drifting
away. I'd just lost him. Couldn't talk about rugby or cricket or football.
He'd call you up at strange times about some documentary he'd just seen
or something he'd tracked down. It was hard work, it was baffling at
times. He was finding it really hard to sleep. When people talk about
the wounds or the blood, the only real tragedy is when you lose someone
kinetically, someone you've known since he was five, you've done all
those things with and you feel you can't communicate. It was terrible.
But in the last three weeks, there was a serene calmness to Richey,
he was laughing more, the pathos and the irony were back. Maybe that's
because he had reached some conclusions and he just felt some inner
peace. We did a recording session and came up with some great tracks.
So the Daily Telegraph and the Mars bar, I just saw it as a little 'Things
are going to be OK.' Which maybe, in his mind, that's what it was. But
different meanings of OK, I guess." Whenever quizzed about MSP
as a live entity during that time - who were always turned-up loudly
and along with their last gang in town mentality / individually assembled
army fatigues and combat garb, felt at their strongest onstage - James
often wistfully remarks how "powerful, united and unbeatable"
the band were. Touchingly adding: "If I can be so bold as to say
it was our peak, in terms of the way we looked, it's painful to look
back at yourself when you're thinner and you're just younger. It makes
you realise that that indestructibility of relative youth, gives you
such an armour and it gives you such an identity. People don't actually
realise, that it's so much easier to be in a band when you are younger
and when you've got the ability to wear certain clothes and not feel
like a dick. It gives you an armour plating and it makes everything
much easier. You're not just only standing behind the music, you're
standing behind an image too! And that makes being in a band much easier,
because you feel as if you're part of something and there's more than
one answer to all of your questions or your accusations - you've got
the way you look to fall behind as well and it's a complete armour coating!
So, it's kind of painful sometimes, because it's something you can't
reclaim and you've got to let that go with the onward march of age."
And, when reminiscing about the shows: "I do remember so much about
the actual mood that prevailed at those Astoria gigs. There were just
lots of little things that were happening at the time, that seemed to
add up to the feeling that you felt as if you were part of a bit of
'a moment in time.'" Also of note, is how photographers Pennie
Smith and Mitch Ikeda, captured the final ever images of James, Nicky,
Richey and Sean onstage together. JDB: "The pictures of us at our
last gig at the Astoria with Richey, are really prophetic. Because obviously,
something had broken inside of us at that point and we'd broken everything
up onstage that night, and things after that gig, were never quite the
same." In a moving and revealing radio documentary interview entitled,
'My Brother Richard' (uploaded to SoundColud on March 27, 2020), Rachel
Edwards spoke to Ray Meade about life in the 25 years since the disappearance
of Richey. And, when remembering the final London Astoria date on December
21, 1994, she recalled: "I absolutely agree that it was Richey's
goodbye, because I found out later that on that gig - unknown to me
at the time - he had invited all key people from his life that had meant
something to him to that gig. And people that he cared about, he rarely
spoke about the band to them, because he didn't - he was a person outside
the band. So, for example, he'd invited me, he'd invited a friend he
had met in hospital, he'd invited a University friend, all people he
would not normally have invited - all to be there that one night! I
believe that whatever he had chosen to do, he had already decided. He
knew that was the last gig. I had already seen him on that final tour
at the Cardiff Astoria, but the fact that he invited us all to that
final night on the 21st of December, to me, speaks volumes now. If I'd
only known that then. What he had decided, I don't know, but he'd decided."?
The London Astoria and Sound Space Studios shall always be entwined
with Richey's memory and The Holy Bible, and yet eerily, each building
has sadly long since been knocked down. In 2015, James apprised NME:
"(Making The Holy Bible) was like the calm before the storm, but
we felt like things were changing. So everything is indelibly etched
on our hearts and in our minds and in the music that you hear. It's
a time that I vividly remember - and more so than any other time in
the band, except for the very start you know? It is just indelibly etched
on our souls. So in a sense, it is an album that I can still smell,
I can still hear it, I can still see the places we recorded it in and
that makes it special in it's own way I think... The Holy Bible worms
its way into you and gets its hooks into you, and it becomes a challenge
to play it in the right manner."
41. A limited amount of temporary transfer tattoos depicting the face
of Jesus Christ and the band's logo, were also handed out at these dates
to fans queuing outside the venue on a first-come-first-served basis.
42. Other notable merchandise from this period, includes a balaclava,
a beanie hat, dog tags, a stunning tour programme and some of the Manics'
most popular and enduring t-shirt designs, such as the CCCP soviet logo,
the repeated face pattern of Jesus Christ and 'WHO'S RESPONSIBLE? YOU
FUCKING ARE'. There are also t-shirts featuring the Faster/P.C.P. front
cover artwork with a Faster lyrics backprint, as well as multiple CCCP
soviet logo t-shirts that have different backprints. These include the
"They are deceived..." 1854 quote from Solomon Northup (as
seen in several of Mitch Ikeda's MSP THB press shots), and the rather
provocative, 'I AM HYPOCRITE WHORE-STUD SLUT CUNT-COCK ARTIFICIAL PIECE
OF C2Oth MOTHERFUCKING SHIT'. Most short / long sleeve garments came
in an assortment of colours; black, blue, burgundy, grey, olive green,
white etc. and some even have backprints with tour dates. Unofficial
bootleg t-shirts mainly used Jenny Saville's painting, Strategy (South
Face/Front Face/North Face) - either as a triptych or as a sole Front
Face figure - with Manic Street Preachers The Holy Bible for frontprints
and the UK Tour advertisement as backprints..
43. Following Faster/P.C.P., Revol and She Is Suffering - which entered
the UK Top 40 at No. 16, 22 and 25 respectively, during June, August
and October '94. Yes was purportedly set to be the last single lifted
from The Holy Bible (with Richey's TSB bank aping 'MSP the band that
likes to say YES' artwork, possibly intended for use as the sleeve...
perhaps there would have even been a promo video compiled from live
footage shot at The London Astoria?). This idea was binned however after
the mysterious disappearance of Richey (who'd not long shaved his head
as his 17-year-old dog, Snoopy, had recently died and because he also
wanted to "shed himself of all vanity"), cementing his place
in rock 'n' roll mythology aged 27, on February 1, 1995 - the day he
and James were due to fly to the US on a promotional tour. Only leaving
behind some personal belongings in his London Embassy Hotel room (Room
561) that gave scant clues as to Richey's whereabouts. Such as a carefully
wrapped box of parting gifts for his friend, Jo, which had small quotes
stuck to the side and a three word note saying: 'I Love You' (eerily,
and arguably symbolically, one of the items contained inside this box
was the Russian novella, Novel With Cocaine, whose author M. Ageyev,
handed over his manuscript for publication then fled without trace,
never to be heard from again). The next day, Martin Hall filed a 'Missing
Person Report' on Richey with the Metropolitan Police and Richey's family
also placed an advert in their local paper, which ran for three days
and read: 'Richard, please make contact. Love Mum, Dad and Rachel.'
The events that took place around this time, both in the lead up to
and in the aftermath of Edwards disappearing, are well-documented. And,
although JDB fulfilled the American promo trip alone, as the weeks went
by and fears grew - with everyone accepting that the seriousness of
Richey's vanishing may not be resolved in the short-term - this meant
that all upcoming North American and Asian shows were cancelled. Having
long had a frosty relationship with Sony in the States, who'd previously
changed artwork / tracklistings and remixed songs without MSP's consent,
much to their chagrin. It was genuinely thought that the buffed and
shined - which removes the dank decay but never sounds antiseptic -
US Mix of The Holy Bible (how many classic albums can you think of with
an alternate mix?), which for once, the Manics were really pleased with.
Greater label support and audience-focused alternative radio airplay,
plus the ample / lengthy North American dates, would help the group
to raise their profile and make serious headway Stateside for the very
first time. But spookily, Nicky, who always packed weeks in advance
of every Manics tour didn't on this occasion, as something inside him
told him that they wouldn't be going. MSP were grilled about this by
Crossbeat in '96 - James: "It was supposed to be a huge tour of
about 40 dates, but the decision to cancel was an easy one. We reached
that conclusion one week after Richey's disappearance." Nicky:
"We had no hesitation cancelling it. It was a relief. I didn't
want to go to America anyway." James: "I didn't feel any resentment
about that at all. But after two months without any contact from him,
I started to feel anger. Probably because of the distress his family,
and we as his friends went through. But as a band, professionally, there
was no resentment. The only anger that surfaced was a personal one,
I couldnt care less about the American tour." In due time,
the US branch of Epic then decided to pull the plug on the entire THB
release / marketing campaign, citing the Manics' inability to properly
publicise the LP by completing their touring commitments as the key
reason for this - meaning yet again, that the band were to remain virtually
invisible and unknown across the Atlantic. In relation to Richey's vanishing,
during the build up to this catastrophic, horrendous and devastating
occurrence, he had long been enamoured with the 1970s sitcom, The Fall
And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, as well as the 1983 film, Eddie And The
Cruisers, whose central characters both disappeared. Edwards was even
intrigued by Marlon Brando's reclusive lifestyle. As a voracious reader,
Richey had also read numerous books and articles about people disappearing
and there were also several links to / parallels with other troubled
figures / tragic icons, who he had an affinity with and empathy for.
These included some of his favourite writers, Arthur Rimbaud, J.D. Salinger
(both famed for living lives of isolation in self-imposed exile) and
Sylvia Plath, plus the rock stars, Brian Jones, Ian Curtis (who committed
suicide in May 1980 - coincidentally on the eve of Joy Division's US
Tour) and Kurt Cobain. Not only did Richey purchase the exact same type
of 'Converse One Star' trainers that Kurt was wearing when he shot himself
in April 1994. But, giving this notion further credence, he even had
death camp-style striped-pyjamas which matched those once worn by Cobain
as a stage outfit (Richey was photographed in these and the trainers
during his final interview on January 23, 1995, with the Japanese magazine,
Music Life). He also had a similar jacket to one of Kurt's - as pictured
in Richey's 'Missing People' campaign poster - and Nirvana's In Utero
was found in the stereo cassette player of his Vauxhall Cavalier at
Severn View (formerly named Aust) Motorway Services, which was reported
as abandoned on February 17, 1995, just a couple of days after the South
Wales Police had issued a public statement about Richey's disappearance
from the London Embassy Hotel. Richey's father, Graham Edwards, had
appeared on Cardiff's Red Dragon Radio to appeal to his son to get in
touch and the Manic Street Preachers had also released an official band
statement. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight however, JDB,
with typical integrity, has admitted that himself, Nicky and Sean should
have really picked-up on the intensifying anguished content within Richey's
words as a warning sign or as a red flag. Indubitably deducing that
during the notorious, blood-stained and unsavoury Thailand trip in April
'94, MSP caught a 'bug' - figuratively speaking - which symptomatically,
they were unable to shake off from that moment onwards. This is also
where the cracks first started to show with Richey, who enveloped by
darkness, emaciated and scarred, had reached a low ebb and was trying
to come to terms with the once latent realisation, that being in a band,
along with the non-creative aspects and the ongoing / fatiguing album-tour-album
treadmill - which he clearly struggled with, as it was becoming less
and less enjoyable and greatly contributing to his blackened mood, chronic
insomnia and illness - would never cure any of his plights or his debasing
/ fatalistic outlook on life. Having also voiced his dissatisfaction
with the potential musical direction for some of the Manics' next LP
(i.e. "I don't want my words to sound like that" after hearing
JDB's demo for Kevin Carter), and with nothing outside of the group
/ knowing that he wouldn't want to simply live his life as an ex-rock
star. Upsettingly then, for Richey - even with medication - it really
was a case of from despair to where... If one grain of comfort can be
taken from this sad situation and Richey's all-engulfing descent into
desperation however - which will always evoke outpourings of grief,
as he was a deeply affecting and prolific lyricist whose words continue
to be pored over (amusingly, sometimes handing over lyric sheets to
James who recalled: "There would be a sly little grin at the corner
of his mouth: 'See what you can do to that, ya prick!'") - it's
that he once stated: "In terms of the 'S' word, that does not enter
my mind. And it never has done, in terms of an attempt. Because I am
stronger than that. I might be a weak person, but I can take pain."
JDB: "Towards the end, Richey became very obsessed with some kind
of victory over himself. He really didn't want to be a loser."
And, although worrying if he ever really knew Richey, or if he even
liked the band as friends anymore, Nicky optimistically opined: "Personally,
I still think he's alive, although I've got no physical evidence or
reason to think that he is. But I do... how can you accept that he's
dead, when there's no body, no evidence whatsoever? It's irrational."
Compassionately adding: "I can't help thinking: 'Richey, if you
could have held on a little longer, maybe then you could have had all
these things you wanted. You might have been happy.'" In a detailed
2019 Wales Online editorial entitled, 'The new clues that suggest missing
Manic Street Preacher Richey Edwards staged his own disappearance.'
The website scrupulously covers 'Withdrawn Traces: Searching for the
Truth about Richey Manic' and how the book delves deep into Edwards'
family tree. Noting how the stories about his Great Aunt Bessie living
as a hermit for more than 80 years and his Uncle Shane going 'off grid'
for five years, after embarking on a voyage to America in the early
'60s to gain his professorship at the University of Austin, Texas, may
have influenced his own disappearance. As well as these mysterious figures
and other new evidence, insightful discoveries and theories about Richey's
obsession with the perfect disappearance, the tome also unearths an
early fascination with going missing and starting a new life in Richey's
schoolwork. With Wales Online enticingly writing how the hardback "sheds
fresh light on events surrounding his disappearance - a story that,
24 years on, still endures as one of the ultimate rock n
roll mysteries."
44. Shockingly, The Holy Bible wasn't nominated for the 1995 Mercury
Prize - which to this day, remains a source of frustration for Nicky
in particular.
45. Although in '94, Nicky wilfully wanted to embrace the "freedom
of commercial failure" again with a reactionary mindset. By resetting,
revamping, refashioning, repositioning and reclaiming what MSP were,
the group only discovered as late as 2014, that in the mid-nineties,
their record contract was in serious jeopardy and at real risk. Following
their rise from obscurity and building a core fanbase from the ground
up, 'the biggest cult band in Britain' came extremely close to being
dropped by Sony due to The Holy Bible's low sales. But Rob Stringer
(at the time, Managing Director of Epic and the reason why THB came
out on this imprint rather than Columbia) voiced his belief in the band.
And at his behest - confident in both MSP's fortitude and that there
was plenty of mileage left in them - with a casting vote at the record
company's 'pick up its option' stage, helped to make sure that this
didn't happen. Having never once hankered the Manics for radio hits
or chart smashes during the making of The Holy Bible - a monolithic,
remorseless, energised, splenetic, gripping and unforgettable album
that lures you in, and which people are still reckoning with to this
day! As an instrumental long-term supporter (they were the first signing
of his music career), Stringer fought their corner by arguing: "Sometimes,
you've just got to give art a chance." Nicky: "We trusted
him as an A&R man and a friend. I couldnt ask for a better
bloke... I dont think The Holy Bible reflected the consensus.
It was the same time as Blurs Parklife and Oasis Definitely
Maybe and Britpop. We definitely werent part of that. We were
delving into something much deeper. Those albums were celebratory, whereas
ours was analytical and internalised, and without any celebration at
all. Apart from the power of knowledge, I guess. To quote Nick Cave:
'We were kicking against the pricks.'" And, when grilled in 2015
by PopMatters: 'How hard was it to get Sony to release the album in
1994? Was putting it out through a major label a triumph in and of itself?'
JDB replied assuredly: "Id love to give you the usual corny
story, where the musicians saying: 'We fought tooth and nail with
our hearts bleeding to get this record out on a major label,' but our
experience was nothing like that. Our label, Sony, didnt question
the fact that it was obviously a record that was very dark and that
didnt have any natural singles on it - the lead-off single from
The Holy Bible was Faster. The record company didnt once question
that, which is remarkable, really. Were living in this day and
age where record companies are even more conservative than they used
to be. If a record doesnt sell after one album, theres a
very good chance that you dont get a second shot. This was our
third record, and the record company never once questioned the artwork,
the content within the lyrics (even 'cunt's' in Yes got through unscathed),
the way it was mixed, the way it was recorded - which was in quite a
lo-fi way. And a lot of that has to do with our A&R man at the time,
Rob Stringer, who is now the head of Sony in America. He gave us complete
artistic freedom. So thats a strange story really. When youre
hearing people talk about such stuff, talk about the battles they go
through with the record company, about how there was just some kind
of insipid censorship within the record company - but our experience
was utterly the opposite. So, theres no sob story there. It wouldn't
happen today, and to be honest, it didnt happen as much back then
either. We just had somebody that was extraordinary in charge of the
record label, and that was Rob Stringer. He had a vision for the record
too, not just us. Not all band stories are the same, I dont think."
Nicky: "I remember when we brought him down to hear some rough
cuts from The Holy Bible, he heard Archives Of Pain and started jumping
up and down with excitement. There's a line in it that goes: 'Tear the
torso with horses and chains', and he was saying: 'Horses and chains,
I love it' - which is kind of insane for a record company guy."
Speaking frankly to Select Magazine in January 1999 about MSP's unpredictable
and unbowed approach to creating music, which resulted in diminishing
returns between the years 1993-94, Nicky insisted: "The one thing
that I am proud of about The Holy Bible is that we didn't do it on the
back of success. If you look at Pulp and Blur, they've only made an
artistic statement after they've had giant success. That isn't quite
as good as doing it when Gold Against The Soul hadn't sold much at all
and commercially we were at quite a low ebb." Also revealing to
NME.COM in 2014: "There was a post-Gold Against The Soul emptiness
and a realisation that we hadnt got as big as we thought we would
have. There was a kind of empty hole that needed to be filled... Shortly
before The Holy Bible's release though, we realised what we'd made and
we had to play it every night. When we'd been making it, it was our
own fucking private universe. But then unleashing that onto the world,
from then on, it just felt like a long summer of calamity. Things starting
to fall apart, and the more exaggerated and more tabloid and bigger
Britpop got, the more weak and on the edge we started to feel."
JDB agreed with humility: "Suddenly, it went from feeling we were
an impenetrable division, to it just starting to drift away. Richey
started doubting everything, absolutely everything." However, in
reference to the Manic Street Preachers excelling themselves and confounding
expectations with their blended alchemy, talents and gifts, to the sheer
magnitude of the accomplished, venerated and seminal Holy Bible, to
its finessed cohesiveness, to its aggressive careening fury and unyielding
rhetoric, to its worshippers and its unsurpassed, ever-growing importance
after standing the test of time. Singing their praises, author John
Niven once deservedly baptised this impressive, inspired and iconic
long player - which bleeds character, has now infiltrated / firmly implanted
itself in many people's psyches as a first-class, quintessential '90s
rock album and really couldn't be improved upon in anyway - as: "The
most extraordinary record of their generation... A record without peer
at the time and now widely regarded as a career best." Pertaining
to its superiority, and immune to any inhibitions / unafraid in his
steadfast stance that this long player outclasses countless others,
when alluding to the high-water mark that it set and its elite status,
James once spewed: "The Holy Bible pisses over so many albums!"
When asked by The Quarterly in 2014, about one of the most talked about
and written about records in recent memory, which a combative MSP poured
every last drop of themselves into: 'The albums themes include
genocide and anorexia, and everyone from Lenin to Pol Pot is name-checked.
Is it the most intellectual album ever made?' Nicky (who has distinguished
the defiant and iconoclastic LP as "gothic with a small g"
and as "completely other," replied: "I think it is, actually.
I wrote about 25 percent of the lyrics and Richey wrote the rest. He
was devouring all the culture he could and was really on fast-forward.
Its mind-blowing to think what he could have done in a digital
world. As it was, he never had a mobile phone or a computer - he just
wrote on an old portable typewriter." Also telling KERRANG!: "He
can be remembered in different ways. As a brother, a son, an amazing
writer, a forensic intellect and a phenomenal, brilliant rock star,
the like of which we simply don't have anymore." Richey will forever
be frozen in time. Idolised, unfading, immortal.
46. In addition to Sony Music's 'Nice Price' mid price reissues of The
Holy Bible for the UK, European and Japanese markets, the 10th Anniversary
CD/DVD set, 2009's Japan-only CD mini replica of the '94 picture disc
vinyl LP and 2011's Original Album Classics package. 2014 marked the
release of a deluxe / remastered 20th Anniversary Box Set, which included
THB on heavyweight black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve for the very first
time (also now available separately in a jacket sleeve). The Box Set
went onto win NME's 2015 'Reissue Of The Year' Award. For collectors,
the first 1000 copies of the 40-page booklet included were autographed
by the band, when purchased directly from the Manic Street Preachers'
Official Webstore. Also, with these vinyls, the first run has 4st 7lb
listed as the last track on Side A on the centre labels, but it is actually
pressed at position B7. This alteration was communicated by email to
those who had pre-ordered the album: "Information regarding The
Holy Bible 20th Anniversary Edition: To improve and enhance audio quality,
the song 4st 7lb has been moved to track 1 on Side 2 of the LP. It was
a last minute decision, so those lucky people receiving the first run
of Holy Bible Box Sets, will be getting a rare collectors edition where
the tracklisting shows 4st 7lb as the last track on Side 1 (as per the
original 1994 vinyl cut)." From a purely graphic design perspective,
another detectable difference with the 20th Anniversary Box Set and
vinyl, is how the dots situated in the spaces between the songs on the
'94 front cover tracklisting, have all been extracted. However, the
unneeded apostrophe in Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'scountrywouldfallapart
has stayed put (this conspicuous and oft-spotlighted punctuation mark,
was actually erased on the 1999 MiniDisc version of The Holy Bible).
All of THB's singles have also been featured on a myriad of music compilations
over the years, including MSP's very own Greatest Hits and Complete
Singles collections, Forever Delayed and National Treasures. Although
even when scrambled across compilations, The Holy Bible's otherness
shines through!
47. Interestingly, Jenny Saville's painting, Strategy (South Face/Front
Face/North Face), is printed the correct way round on 2014 editions,
whereas the image was flipped the other way on all previously-released
versions. The only exception, are the paper sleeves that were made to
house the promo discs pressed for the 10th Anniversary CD/DVD set, which
also have the triptych reproduced exactly as it was painted.
48. A commemorative tour in 2014 and 2015 - which included 11 UK / Ireland
dates, 7 North American dates and 1 final date at Summer Sonic Tokyo
in Japan - saw the pivotal, impactful and predominantly 5 star and 10
/ 10 reviewed Holy Bible being played live in full, for the very first
time ever, complete with army camouflage netting stage production and
dark, atmospheric lighting (MSP had rejected several lucrative offers
in the past to put on THB shows). And when the first batch of UK / Ireland
dates for The Holy Bible Tour were announced, fans rejoiced, with a
titanic 20,000 tickets being sold in just nine minutes - proof positive
that people's attachment to The Bible and their ardour, devotion, fondness,
relish and adoration for a record that stands apart, is inextinguishable
and undying! Also reviving their military image once again for complete
authenticity, James, Nicky and Sean openly acknowledged the technical
challenges and heavy emotional burden of performing such bleak, graphic
and tortured songs effectively. Doing their homework by listening to
the retrieved master tapes from Sony in preparation, in confronting
both band and audience when played live, as part of an NME Inside The
Live Rehearsals commentary, Nicky brought to light: "I guess the
power of it did actually really resonate with me and made me think with
a slight tinge of sadness, just as a band, it'd be impossible really
to be that brave, with that much conviction, ever again... I don't know
if you can ever, for sheer kind of single-mindedness, beat The Holy
Bible. Certain records make you feel redundant, like Never Mind The
Bollocks and Unknown Pleasures, and it made me feel a little bit like
that! It's probably a good thing." JDB also spilled the beans on
The Holy Bible's blitzing 'feeling of becoming' and attested: "I
think if there ever was a time when we felt we wanted to do this, it
would be on the 20th Anniversary; I think that subconsciously seeped
into the battered and bruised frontal-lobe readings of our brains, they
switched on... I want people to actually think: 'Fuck, these guys can
do this a long time after.'" The much celebrated and nostalgic
gigs (as documented / preserved in amber in both BBC Two Wales' BAFTA
Cymru Award-nominated 2015 Cardiff Castle homecoming TV coverage, and
Kieran Evans' 2016 concert film: BE PURE. BE VIGILANT. BEHAVE - which
has a deliberately 'lo-fi DIY ethos', with footage filmed over multiple
nights and a faithful live sound recording by Guy Massey / audio mix
by Dave Eringa) were only booked after much deliberation. "It's
a complete state of mind," said Nicky of the band's approach to
the shows. "You have to be so well drilled; you have to literally
hate your audience." Excitingly, each night before the set started
and by way of an introduction, James would say: "We're the Manic
Street Preachers and this is The Holy Bible," with a heartfelt
dedication to Richey always preceding the concluding song, P.C.P. Statistically,
prior to these gigs, the tracks most performed to least played (in order)
from THB in set lists were: Faster, This Is Yesterday, Yes, Revol, She
Is Suffering, P.C.P., Die In The Summertime, Of Walking Abortion, Archives
Of Pain, Ifwhiteamerica..., 4st 7lb, The Intense Humming Of Evil and
Mausoleum. Another fact worth noting, is how James affectionately refers
to a hardcore contingent of MSP Fans who invariably crave hearing tracks
performed from The Holy Bible, as 'sick puppies', and there is also
an unfailing bond / transcendental synergy between the group and crowd
- who hang on every word - when these songs are played live! On impassioned
disciples who have taken THB to their hearts, assimilated its intent
and ideas (often going to great lengths to proselytise, popularise and
promote the merits of their favourite album), absorbed its aesthetic
and still dress-up for shows. Which even now, gives some zealous fans
a sense of 'belonging' and without exception, whose effort eternally
boosts MSP and they find imperishably gratifying - with oodles of admiration
for this fandom, deep connection and special kinship, JDB wholeheartedly
proposed: "The Bible is the pinnacle of that tribal aspect."
Some brand new memorabilia was also manufactured for THB 20, including
a combat cap, a metal cross pin, dog tags, a lanyard, a limited edition
lithograph of Richey's US handgun image (which was also printed on a
North American tour t-shirt), as well as other t-shirt designs featuring
related imagery such as camouflage, crosses, gravestones and rosary
beads. On the infinitely transfixing, all-consuming, deeply satisfying
and fabled Holy Bible's legacy, which seems to somehow magically get
better with each and every listen - from its beloved bookends, Yes and
P.C.P., to its singles and deep cuts. To Richey's self-loathing / pervasive
world-weariness, to his abhorrent, caustic and lambasting assessment
of life, in which lyrically - almost like an exposé - he decries
the wrongs of the 20th Century world and our seemingly unchallenged
conditioned existence. With wisdom and clarity - and now distanced from
the trials and tribulations of 1994-95, which were waning and wilting
for all of MSP - Sean pertinently stated: "Playing the songs now,
strengthens the belief that we had back then. It shows us the reason
why were in a band. Its probably a lot less about the musicality
and more about the message. We threw every bit of anger and bile that
we had contained in us. It was cathartic in a way, because we were almost
cleansing ourselves and putting it on tape. We had a pleasurable experience
when recording it. We didnt feel like we were under any constraints
and I think thats possibly why the album has been revered for
its honesty - even the darker elements that are a bit hard for people
to digest. But for us, we were just happy with the fact that we could
actually express ourselves as truly as we could. Weve come to
terms with a lot of things. This is a celebration of those times in
which we felt complete. The sad thing is how the album affected a friend.
At the time, you could see him disintegrating and there was nothing
you could do about it. So, I think weve had enough time to come
to terms with those things. As you grow older, you become more understanding
- not accepting - but understanding. For us to go back and revisit those
things (when aged 24-26), all you can do is appreciate the personal
sacrifice of some people and the fact that we were honest as songwriters
and that we didnt hold anything back. There are a lot of chapters
that have closed in our story as a group. I think after this, we wont
be revisiting The Holy Bible. This is the reason why we did the full
album shows in the UK and North America: to say that this is the end
of this chapter and that we wont be going back and revisiting
it in the future. Out of our first three albums, this was the most honest
and intense expression of how we felt as young men isolated and alienated
in our hometowns and wanting to get out and break free. To have an understanding
about ourselves personally, as well as mankind. For me, this album is
the antithesis of that particular time." James: "I knew it
would be intrinsic to a very large minority of people that the record
would connect to, and that it would mean something to them, it would
be tangible to them. The album was so locked in to dissecting certain
politics, certain events, certain histories, certain psyches, that I
knew the record would mean something to somebody out there. For want
of a better phrase, I kind of felt as if I was part of something that
could become a cult classic, definitely. And then all that kind of rational
thinking went out the window when Richey went missing. I stopped thinking
about the record after Richey went missing, because it was indelibly
connected to something which was quite a traumatic memory. So I think
we kind of parked The Holy Bible in our psyches somewhere when we carried
on with Everything Must Go, and we kind of tried to protect him, we
tried not to touch it. But then ten years later, we realised that The
Holy Bible had sold so many more records post-Richeys disappearance
than it did while he was around. It wasnt much of a surprise to
me, but it kind of crept up on us because we tried to protect ourselves
from analysing it because it seemed like such a pure thing that we didnt
want to sully it with anything." With Nicky waxing lyrical when
concluding: "It is quite uncomfortable, let's be honest, but there
is a comfort there, in some respects. Having to play those songs every
night... but the reaction of the crowd, really, is what made it easier.
Just hearing them sing songs like Mausoleum back to you, three or four
thousand people in London just singing those words. Never been a gig
like it, really. That kind of communal thing, and of something so dark,
made it all worthwhile... When we play songs from The Holy Bible, it
feels good those words are breathing. They are a living entity, those
words... I think it's true artistic expression, musically and lyrically.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's my favourite record, but it's the
truest expression of the people we were at that point. It's just so
brutally honest. The scary thing is the relevance it still seems to
have. And thats what makes a timeless piece of art, really. And
when youre going through every little detail of it, you realise
that its presence is undiminished, and its topics just havent
seemed to change - theyve just come round in a full circle.
And thats when you realise that youve actually made something
really brilliant, that the whole album has taken on this... this life.
Sometimes music is diminished or bands memories are diminished,
but theres something about The Holy Bible. I think there are certain
albums that form part of my life and everyone else's life that you go
back to every few years, and I think it has become one of those records.
It has become like Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division) which sells copies
every year. The Holy Bible sells 5-10,000 copies every year to the same
sort of people; the sort of people who are interested in that secret
history of finding the cult classic album. That is what it has become
and I'm quite happy with that, because I grew up on records like that.
Every band needs an album like this. We've really enjoyed the gigantic
commercial success that came later, but if a band doesn't have an album
like that, it's a hole in their armoury."
49. As part of 2015's 'Record Store Day' (and as a nod to the 1994 12"
picture disc), a pair of limited edition Holy Bible 12" picture
discs were issued in the UK and North America. Both featured unique
designs, with the United Kingdom getting the US Mix and the Original
Mix being sold exclusively in North America. The UK release charted
at No. 1 on the Official Vinyl Albums Chart.
50. With no commercial concessions - from the artwork to the lyrics
to the music - The Holy Bible has reportedly now sold more than 600,000
copies worldwide. A classic album from start to finish and a true masterpiece!
Postscript
With MSP's other classic album and masterpiece, Everything Must Go,
celebrating its 20th Anniversary on May 20, 2016. Here's an extract
from Vice's excellent 2015 'Rank Your Records' editorial http://noisey.vice.com/blog/rank-your-records-manic-street-preachers
in which James Dean Bradfield ranked the Manic Street Preachers albums
in order of importance to him. Sitting at the top of the list was Everything
Must Go followed closely by The Holy Bible, with James discussing the
creative / recording process for each long player and elucidating how
"the biggest influence on Everything Must Go is The Holy Bible"...
2. THE HOLY BIBLE (1994)
You are currently touring this album. How has that been going?
Its been brilliant. I said to you earlier that the closest we
ever got to having Richey back in the band was writing and recording
Journal For Plague Lovers. I think there is a misapprehension on other
peoples part that in playing this record we will feel like were
closer to Richey, but thats not the experience Ive had.
I just enjoy the technicality of playing this record. The Holy Bible
is steeped in some kind of proto-punk spirit, but its got quite
a few different time signatures, everything is interlocked, the musicality
is based on being tight and knowing what youre doing. The amount
of lyrics I have to sing on this record means I never get to be carefree
up there. A lot of the songs have this push and pull to them. My solos
are very atonal and go in different areas, and sometimes the bass is
just completely connected to itself and nothing else. So youve
got to commit to playing the music. You cant fuck around with
it. People ask, Is it upsetting trying to connect with these lyrics
again? Is it upsetting looking to your right and not seeing Richey there?
Im sorry to disappoint people but Ive been so busy with
the technicalities of playing these songs that I never get wrapped up
in those things.
What about when you were recording this album? Was it difficult to
sing Richeys lyrics, considering how dark they were and what he
was going through?
For me it was more about the technical challenge. It was more a challenge
of trying to match the ferocity of the music as the music was trying
to match the ferocity of the lyrics. So once youve got the lyrics
in front of you and Ive written the music for the lyrics, and
have all of the vocals on top, it really was a physical battle for me.
The game kept getting higher and higher. You look at the lyrics and
youre like, Fuck me! Then you write the music for
them, and youve done it. Then you try and record it, and you go
Fuck! Then you try and sing it, and its Jesus
Christ! This is like an endless game of Jenga. Thats what
it was like recording this record. I remember having to ask Richey about
some of the references lyrically. There were some things in there that
I didnt get at the time. Especially in a song like Of Walking
Abortion, which had two names I didnt know about. So I had
to go do my own research. I remember asking for some clarification on
some things, but 90 percent of the time it would be our message within.
Thats the experience I remember making this record. It was a battle
because these songs have so many words in them, but a really cool, sporting
battle. The strange thing about us, even Richey, is that were
all massive sports fanatics, which is kind of an indie transgression
to a certain degree. This was like, Lets get ready to rumble!
Its time for a fucking fight! Which was good. I liked it.
I liked the sporting element of making a record.
Do you understand the rabid fascination with this record?
I understand it completely. Its a snapshot of a definite period
in time. A lot of people think that the qualifications of a classic
rock record has got to be that it transcends its time. Well, I disagree.
I think that sometimes a classic record is a snapshot of its time. It
doesnt transcend the ensuing years, it just stamps that place
and time, and thats what The Holy Bible does. We were young men
coming out of the back end of fucking Reaganomics from across the pond.
Ten years before we were fucking obsessed with American politics. There
was some pretty terrible stuff going on that we found enthralling to
watch from a distance. Youre getting stuff like that in Ifwhiteamerica
after the fact, of course. Youre getting stuff like Of Walking
Abortion that is steeped in post-war American history, which Richey
was a particular student of. And youre getting stuff like Archives
of Pain, where the left and right throughout 1990s Europe were
becoming indiscernible from each other. Just all of those subjects were
locked into that time. Some of it might miss its target now, but thats
how we viewed things then. I wouldnt ever say weve made
anything as good as The Clash, but the first Clash album never transcends
the time that it was made in. That album just sounds brown, it sounds
like the 70s. And The Holy Bible has that kind of discordant confusion,
that post-ideological fucked-up-ness of the pre-mid-90s. And I really
appreciate the fact that it is an album that does that.
1. EVERYTHING MUST GO (1996)
I wasnt sure if youd pick this or The Holy
Bible.
In a strange way, its kind of hard to separate Everything Must
Go from The Holy Bible. Thats why I put them beside each other.
You could say that Everything Must Go was the last record we did with
Richey. Obviously youve got Kevin Carter on there
that is quintessentially Richey, isnt it? Youve got The
Girl Who Wanted To Be God, which is half of Richeys lyric.
Youve got Small Black Flowers, which is pretty much
all of Richeys lyrics. Removables, which is pretty
much all of Richey. And Elvis Impersonator, which is at
least 50 percent Richeys lyrics. There are so many ways to look
at this record. Would Richey like this record? Im not sure. I
dont know. But I know that the last song me and Richey listened
to together in the basement of the Embassy Hotel on Bayswater Road before
he went missing, after we came back from doing demos in Surrey, we listened
to No Surface All Feeling and Small Black Flowers.
And as we pulled into the carpark Small Black Flowers faded
and I asked which was his favorite and he said Small Black Flowers
by a mile. So I knew that he really liked that song, and there were
five songs on that record he was involved with. So there is an argument
to say this was the last time we worked with Richey, even though he
wasnt in the studio when we did it.
Theres an abiding, bittersweet feeling to the ensuing success
we had with Everything Must Go. There was a bit of serendipity in that
even though we werent Britpop we got co-opted into Britpop, which
I didnt give a fuck about. It didnt bother me. To some degree
people even saw A Design For Life as the epitome of that.
But Kevin Carter was a song that Richey could have seen
how it was possible to be a hit single. Which is a crowning achievement
itself: A photographer who killed himself and who actually saw how important
real war photography was, and how it led to his destruction. I wish
Richey couldve seen that it was possible to have a hit single
with something that traditionally wouldnt fucking get near the
top ten. I wish Richey could have been part of that success and seen
that you didnt have to sell out or whore out yourself to do that.
A Design For Life definitely stands in its own right in
terms of lyrically wielding how the celebration of class has triumph
in it. The first line of one our biggest ever songs is Libraries
gave us power / Then work came and made us free / What price now for
a shallow piece of dignity. Theres no selling out with that
lyric. Its saying what we want to say just in a much more succinct
way. And like we said before, the biggest influence on Everything Must
Go is The Holy Bible. We decided that we couldnt go in the same
direction as The Holy Bible because we would have fallen into self-parody.
It would have been comic abyss, comic gothic. And we knew we had to
go somewhere else and let the music breathe. We had to try and say what
we meant but with less words. And with some more oxygen in the music
and the words. Everything Must Go owes as much to The Holy Bible as
it does to any records in our collection.
PPS
Extracts from 'BBC Radio 4 Swansong - Stuart Maconie
presents the story of The Holy Bible'
Stuart Maconie: "The album pioneered a use of sampling, in a way
that was totally distinct from its use in hip-hop. Richey Edwards decided
to precede each track with found samples, extracts from TV or film and
found snatches of conversations. It immediately gives the album a sense
of reaching out beyond popular music, to a broader cultural canvas."
Nicky: "I think come The Holy Bible, the idea of using all these
snippets to kind of illuminate and illustrate the words, just felt really
natural."
Nicky: "I remember Yes specifically, because it was absolutely
brilliant and perfect! The sample is just drama and it's the first thing
you hear from a band, who have just made their stadium album and then
come back with this... I think Yes always felt like an opening track,
as it's really energised and poetic!"
Nicky: "The sample on Archives Of Pain scares me." James:
"I don't mean this in a black humorous way, but it is probably
just about my favourite song off The Holy Bible." Nicky: "Just
thinking about that song now, after recording it and then actually listening
to it back, I thought: 'I don't know if this is right for the world,
really?'"
Nicky: "Maybe the manifestation of Richey's disintegration, was
just unbelievable artistry. There's such a long tradition of that and
because he was writing so much, you just felt that whatever happens,
it may be that he writes the best novel ever - maybe he'll find lyric
writing too easy or something? It just felt that his writing had become
to such a level and he was writing so much of it, that in that sense,
maybe he'd kind of found himself as an artist. It felt like being around
a novelist." Keith Cameron: "I think the sheer welter of ideas
on The Holy Bible is one of its strongest assets. Its avalanche of ideas
and words, is a band finally unleashing themselves fully on the people,
on their listeners and on everyone who chooses to listen."
Nicky: "I think 4st 7lb is one of Richey's most truly terrifying
lyrics and expresses the internalisation of himself. In a very strange
kind of way though, the security of Richey being in control of himself,
was less terrifying than what I said about in Thailand with the knives,
where he seemed to be out of control." Simon Price: "I interviewed
Richey not long after The Holy Bible had come out, and I was really
struck by his ability to kind of take a really clear view of himself
and to act almost as doctor and patient. You can see that on the lyrics
for 4st 7lb." Nicky: "You could say it's written out of gender,
but I think it's pretty plainly autobiographical, especially that amazing
line: 'I long since moved to a higher plateau.'"
Stuart Maconie: "The cover might've provided a clue to the contents.
A triptych by the artist, Jenny Saville, showing three views of a half-dressed,
obese middle-aged woman, looking blankly yet challengingly out of the
record sleeve. It's about nakedness, surface impressions, notions of
beauty and ugliness. At a time when politics was fighting for the attention
of 'Mondeo man', here was an album calling out to those on the margins.
Those seeking some extremity and passion, amidst the banal regularity
of our public space and discourse. It's not comfortable, it's not politically
correct."
James: "I think Die In The Summertime is a real personal moment
of genius. I don't think I've really ever seen such brutal and acute
images of childhood brought into a lyric." Nicky: "The lyric
is beyond disconcerting, I find it pretty uncomfortable."
Nicky: "I think it's impossible for us to judge if The Holy Bible
was written as the last thing. I'm not convinced and I don't find anything
that definite in the album to kind of portray that, because I think
the worst was to come, really." James: "In a strange way,
it almost feels like the opposite of a swan song for me, because I think
as a lyricist, Richey had suddenly reached a peak that he could have
stayed at for a long time. In terms of the lyrics on the album, he was
looking inward and internalising in a complete focused fashion. But
also, when he turned out this view to the rest of the world, it was
so vicious and so concise, but so precise as well - it was just everything!
So, he could look at inwards and outwards in equal measure and you just
knew that he was hitting the target every time. I think he'd just reached
that peak for the first time ever!"
Stuart Maconie: "It's impossible with hindsight, not to look back
at The Holy Bible and see the seeds of Richey's breakdown. But Nicky
Wire chooses to look at a song like Faster and see in it more triumph
than tragedy." Nicky: "I find it a really self-empowered song.
I love it, because when I read it, I just thought he's kind of defining
himself and if no one else is going to define him, he's defining himself
as an artist and a writer! I think his acceleration, you can feel it
in that song. It's almost like I can devour and 'I am stronger than
Mensa, Miller and Mailer.' To actually not just read all the books he
read, but to come out the other side, use their influences and actually
think: 'I'm a match, if not better than them.'" James: "It's
arrogant, but it's cool." Nicky: "Yes!"
Simon Price: "The Holy Bible's a rock record and a history lesson.
It's actually the sound of a band who've lost all faith in humanity
- it was a doomsday judgement and a kind of cold eyed tally of the 20th
Century's worst sins." Keith Cameron: "It's a 50-minute rock
record, but it's a whole day's worth of the library and that again,
is commendable! Especially during the climate of the times in 1994 -
it was the year that Kurt Cobain died and there was a certain yearning
for escape, I believe, and here come the Manic Street Preachers with
a record that challenges people's intelligence."
Nicky: "Obviously, Richey is someone's son and he's people's friend
- there's so many facets which never get explored and which are really,
deeply saddening in every way. But, if you're just talking about his
abilities as a lyricist - I'm not saying he's reached a peak, because
I think he could have been even better - but in terms of being in the
band, then it's kind of an unrivalled peak that I can think of."
James: "As the last piece of work that he did with us, it's something
amazing to be judged upon in eternity, definitely!"
PPPS
Extracts from 'Classic Album The Holy Bible By Manic Street Preachers'
- Q Magazine (November 2019)
They recorded at the tiny £50-a-day Sound Space
Studios, in a seedy locale near Cardiff's Brains Brewery. "Pete,
who owned the place, had this baseball bat," Bradfield later remembered,
"because there were always people trying to break in, glue-sniffing,
shagging against the door. He would come out with the bat: 'I do not
want any fucking discharge on my door!'"
Comfort Comes was a bridge to The Holy Bible. "That song haunts
me," said Wire. "It's so fucking minimal and miserable, so
bare and raw. And honest."
Late in 1993, they had visited Philip Hall and played him demo recordings
of two new songs, Mausoleum and Die In The Summertime... "Oh cheery!"
the ailing Hall said. "Thanks for that!" With just weeks to
live, their manager approved the new direction. "He was slumped
in the corner, and wasn't really with it," Wire recalled. "It
was sad. But at the end, he said, 'Yeah, this rock 'n' roll has got
to stop - this sounds like you're doing the right thing.'"
The first three songs recorded for The Holy Bible - 4st 7lb, Faster
and Of Walking Abortion - were broadly representative of the record's
musical and lyrical preoccupations: didactic bulletins from an existential
twilight zone. Faster built on Comfort Comes' geometric template, albeit
permitting the occasional heroic flash, like cymbals. Bradfield spent
three weeks trying to write the music to a lyric that he considered
the best he'd been given, finally nailing it at the 21st attempt. "I
thought, 'This has got to be a single, it covers so much in one lyric.'
So, of course, as soon as I decided that, it wouldn't happen. I was
at my mum and dad's house, a Friday night, they were out, my mum was
playing darts, and I was thinking I would have to hand this one over
to Sean. Then, I just thought, 'Let the lyric speak to you.' I looked
at the rhyme and metre of 'I am an architect, they call me a butcher',
and thought it's got to be regimented. 'Long live regimentation', that
quote from Saul Bellow's novel Dangling Man came into my head. I thought,
'Yes! We can do this!' All the songs were marching towards something,
and it just became more aggressive. Straighter. Strycnined. Angular.
Colder." With Skids Stuart Adamson and Magazines John
McGeoch his twin post-punk guitar pillars, Bradfield stoked the furnace.
"James was the leader," said Wire. "His musical vision
dictated the tone of the whole record. People say it's Richey's album,
but James was unbelievably driven. Richey was too, of course, but James
seemed the one with the more personal agonies at the time."
Faster would be the last song the pair wrote together: Edwards took
six lines from a song Wire had been writing based around the lyric:
"So damn easy to cave in / Man kills everything", and finished
it off. Nicky suggested the title. "I felt it in him. I remember
saying, 'I can't keep up with you, it seems like everything's speeding
up in your head...' The acceleration of culture to a point of no return.
When he gave us the lyrics to Yes, for example, I said, 'I can't add
a single thing to that'. It was a perfect piece of prose. The genesis
of Ifwhiteamerica... was mine but we only used four of five lines because
Richey's stuff was so brilliant. His masterpiece, 4st 7lb, I didn't
touch at all. I looked at that and thought, 'I can't relate to it. I've
no experience in those feelings.'"
Although Edwards would be guarded with regard to some of the inspiration
for his increasingly internalised writing, he discussed 4st 7lb with
Bradfield. "Obviously he's into his personal battle with eating
and vanity at this point. He conveyed to me - as the lyric did - the
chatter of that vanity as the result of anorexia and bulimia: 'I must
pass a mirror without looking at myself', 'Do I look as cool as Johnny
Depp?' He was saying to me, 'Yes, it sounds nasty when I say it out
loud but it is a genuine thing that goes on in my head and other people's
, which leads to a very bad place.' So I wanted the first part of the
song to convey the freneticism of that vanity. And then, the resolution
was the supposed self-control, the defeat you suffer from getting control
over yourself and not eating, that's the coda at the end. I remember
doing a couple of heroic guitar bits in the coda and Nick popping his
head round the corner of the control room. 'Steady on, Slash! This is
not the record!'
For all the material's bleak intensity, the atmosphere in the studio
was upbeat. Wire's photographs of the session are full of smiles. When
Edwards finished the lyric to Ifwhiteamerica... - Sean Moore's drumming
masterclass and a critique of US racism that contentiously advocates
more liberal gun laws - he pronounced: "Charlton Heston'll like
this one!" "There was genuine good humour recording that album,"
Wire said. "It was very cohesive, everyone was really gentle with
each other. You knew the right things were coming together."
In the pre-internet age, the effort required to research the litany
of obscure philosophical and political references in songs like Archives
Of Pain and Of Walking Abortion was prodigious. Whenever the band was
in London, Edwards would frequent the hallowed Reading Room of the British
Museum, following in the footsteps of Karl Marx, George Orwell and Virginia
Woolf. He also made regular pilgrimages to Compendium on Camden High
Street, the capital's pre-eminent independent bookshop. "Richey
must have bought well over 150 books from there, it was a running joke
in the band," says Bradfield today. "They also sold academic
research papers. He'd have a suitcase on the road, just filled with
books."
"By that Suede tour, we were absolutely shit-hot," said Wire.
"We only played for 35 minutes each night and we were blisteringly
brilliant. But the record was dead as a dodo. No one cared. I was very
close to leaving the band. I was having chronic stomach pains. James
was pissed out of his mind, you wouldn't see him until the evening of
the gig, all the rest of the time he'd be sleeping and drinking. Poor
old Richey. I didn't feel I was in the greatest position to be the shoulder
to cry on. The only thing that kept us going was knowing we'd made the
right record."
Bradfield: "People forget that the album wasn't always associated
with Richey's disappearance. It was associated with his being as creatively
heightened as you could be."
As a group, the Manic Street Preachers havent played
any of its songs live since 2015. "The reason is, you cant
fake them," Nicky Wire says today. "They are not entertainment,
they are a state of mind - a uniform rejection and examination of humanity.
A brutal poetry of disgust."
PPPPS
'The Holy Bible According To Nicky And Richey'
is archived on the R*E*P*E*A*T website here
But, as an extension to this article, in January 2020 an MSP Fan living
in Japan - 'J on Twitter' - thoughtfully translated this rare editorial
from Japanese to English. 'Richey James Talks About The Holy Bible'
- Music Life (September 1994)
The Holy Bible
There will certainly be people criticising the title as blasphemy, to
me the Bible is a representation of truth. But looking at organised
religion lately, theyre not teaching anything that they should.
The Bible is written based on free interpretation. Therefore, this title
can be also freely interpreted, at times I feel like were even
closer to the truth than any other religion. Looking at religion these
days, it all just seems very contrived. In Britain theres a lot
of churches that are lavishly built, and it angers me to think it was
all paid by the common peoples contributions. You could very well
preach at a roadside. The New Testament had no meaning to me, because
it's too mild compared to the Old Testament. When I read it at home,
I was interested in it in my own way, but when I went to church and
heard all of these strange doctrines, I lost interest immediately. The
pastor was only forcing his own personal interpretation on us. Its
essential to let the reader have the freedom to interpret. You could
also say that about education. Theres no rule saying that an older
person is wiser.
Yes
Yes is the most positive word. Regardless of liking or hating
it, people have to work, and continuously buy things, consume, in the
endless pursuit of the ultimate thing. But they probably
never find it. Thats the rule of consumer society. People say
all kinds of things about morals, but I think people who do things like
spit on prostitutes are disgusting. Misfortunes can happen to anyone.
The theme of this song is that people aren't always weak, but they become
liars.
Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart
The US Constitution is said to be the most liberal in the world, but
that is a myth. Only with the assassination of a leader on the level
of JFK do they notice something. That is frightening. I think Americans,
more than any others, still chase their dreams. For example, when Brits
stay at a hotel, at breakfast they just sip their coffee with a blank
expression, while Americans are always smiling and wishing you a nice
day. That may only be said for politeness sake, but they seem
to still have some optimism left, probably because the US is still a
new country. They still believe in the path to success. In Japan and
Europes long history, there was a time when they used to say were
the best in the world. But now America is in that time. Were
the most superior in the world, our morals are above any other,
and that is affecting the world. Its a threat, because they are
powerful. At the end of the song, the Brady Bill is mentioned. Everyone
thinks they can be John Wayne because it's a free country, but there
werent any gun regulations for the last 20 years. However, the
times have changed, and as black people have moved into white neighbourhoods,
theyre claiming gun control is necessary because the children
are unsafe. At a first glance, you may think the Brady Bill is something
good, but thinking critically, its a bill only made with consideration
for the white people feeling theyre unsafe. In other words, the
white-dominated society remains unchanged.
Of Walking Abortion
The bleakest song in the album. Fascism is growing stronger in Eastern
European countries now. People are despairing about all sorts of things.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, rivalry between nations has
not diminished. Every country has to develop naturally, as have western
nations, but with the collapse of Soviet Union these countries are about
50 years behind in setbacks. Perhaps its obvious that the only
one that should be reviewed is the strong-willed Juche ideology. But
with the nostalgia that the past was better, fascist ideology is being
revived.
She Is Suffering
I went to church until I was 13. There, if you were late even by 5 minutes,
they would harshly scold you. I realised that had nothing to do with
religious teachings. Also being told off if I wore torn jeans. I always
questioned this, shouldnt they be teaching about the truth
in the Bible? We never knew anything other than western religion, but
when we went to Thailand and Japan, we got interested in eastern religions
and picked up some books on it. It was all so simpler and written in
a way that was easy to understand than what I was used to. I found it
much better than the Christian Bible. According to these teachings,
in order to become someone who has the abilities to judge and accomplish
things on their own, a person must first start from nothing.
Then, I was thinking about the high rates of divorce in western countries.
People are placing more and more value in financial aspects and outward
appearances. I want to sleep with him because hes good-looking
or I want to fuck my girlfriend - theres no way a
relationship can last when its based on that. Ive been single
for 26 years, because I know I couldnt spend my whole life with
a partner if theres no passion.
Archives Of Pain
As western society advances, its important to create an appropriate
penal system within it. For example, a very 60s humane thought
is that a murderer or someone who commits a particularly cruel crime
doesnt always have to be punished, and I think at times humanity
can be very cruel. Long ago, someone said that, Punishment is
extremely necessary. It clearly demonstrates to children that if you
do a bad thing, you get sent to prison. But in Britain today,
it doesnt seem that bad to get locked up. You get a meal every
day. I think punishment should be more visible to people. In the past,
criminals would get sentenced to public dismemberment. There's also
the opinion that sentences should be televised. Jeremy Bentham designed
a glass prison, where people could have a look inside. That way, the
people inside would realise theyre like caged birds. They would
see people walking outside in freedom, instead of being stuck inside
a stone fortress, oblivious to outside affairs. In 2 or 3 weeks, people
easily adapt to prison life as it is. But if they could see whats
going on outside, I think anyone would want to get out of there. They
would regret their actions.
Revol
Short for Revolution. And Lover if read backwards.
From a democratic perspective, Stalin and co. seem very liberal. But
with many failed calls to revolution, each time the people wished for
a more extreme leader, and the long history of the world shows that
such a leader always appears. For example, Trotsky(Russian politician/revolutionary)
was a genius, but his influence on the country was small. Stalin became
Lenins successor, when in reality it should have been Trotsky.
The reason was that Trostky was an ideologue, while Stalin seized that
position by force.
4st 7lb
A song about anorexia. The number of people with this condition is growing
in the west, maybe its also happening in Japan, they become apathetic
and even lose perspective on life. It is said that we now live in an
era of gluttony, but they refuse food, sometimes so extremely that it
ends in death. They have no reason to refuse food. They dont have
to starve to death
When theres television documentaries
about this, most people probably think thats silly.
Really, it is excessive vanity. But there are people who have such ideas.
For me, vanity does not include death.
Mausoleum & The Intense Humming Of Evil
These are sibling songs, so I will explain them as one. Both were written
after I visited concentration camps and Hiroshima. When I saw the concentration
camps, I was shocked by how systematic it was, and the way it operates
like a typical capitalistic business. When I went to Hiroshima and visited
the museum, it was forbidden to take photographs. A reasonable request
of respect for the dead. But there were American tourists there who
kept saying things like Hey, look at this dead childs fingernails,
and applauding. When I saw that, it made me so embarrassed, Dont
you have any fucking respect? They had zero interest. I felt the
same about the souvenir shops. Also photographing as proof theyve
been there. The people of Hiroshima faced such suffering only 50 years
ago. History tells us to ignore anything except for what is fact. There
are two levels to history, one is history thats been made into
myth, and the other is the sole truth. People place their opinions within
the truth and try to make it mythical. If you ignore the accounts of
the Hiroshima victims, then what is the point? Its so sad we're
unable to learn anything from history.
Faster
This song is quite complex. I wanted to write about how people control
their emotions. So far, I have done so many things and there were times
I was called a fool. But I know what Im doing. If I cant
do what I want, then I have to sit around depressed for days or weeks.
I think Ive become better at controlling my pain, and as much
as possible, I try to think positively. If the weathers bad today,
then I'll think it will certainly be better tomorrow. Id rather
not have someone tell me Im foolish for that. Most people turn
to alcohol, but that just shows we havent progressed from the
Stone Age. Arent there other ways to deal with it? Even now, there
are times when I still get in a rage, but other than that I know different
means I can control my emotions.
This Is Yesterday
Why do we choose to forget things, at all? With drugs or alcohol. Westerners
think those are recreational, but the truth is that they do it because
they want to forget whatever. Social drinking is a lie. Alcohol is escapism.
Just go to any pub, therell be people drinking in silence. When
they leave the pub, theyre pissed. An extreme action just to forget.
Then they hug each other like long-lost friends, or get into fights
like enemies. Pathetic, right?
Die In The Summertime
An ageing person in their 60s or 70s, wishing they could
be a child again, looks back at pictures of their childhood, reminiscing
about these times, realising the last time they had fun was when they
played in the street. For the last 25 years they have been preoccupied
with paying loans, not happy at all. So, this person wishes to see the
fallen leaves in autumn and the snow one last time before they die.
P.C.P.
Named after a drug and as well as Political Correctness.
Both are related to the working class. PC is essentially the search
for and censorship of politically incorrect words. Some people think
they can attain power by censoring language. In fact, if you repeat
certain controversial words 20 times, they lose their impact. In England
theres page 3 (Editor: The Sun newspaper always publishes
a female nude model on its third page) being cited as an example of
gender inequality, but the biggest example in this country is actually
the gender inequality in employment conditions, being male-dominated.
Page 3 is merely a visual representation of this inequality. The nonsensical
part of PC culture is the torture over insignificant words. What a boring,
petty sense of values.
http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/home
http://www.facebook.com/manicstreetpreachers
https://twitter.com/manics
"You're obliged to pretend respect for people and institutions
you think absurd. You live attached in a cowardly fashion to moral and
social conventions you despise, condemn, and know lack all foundation.
It is that permanent contradiction between your ideas and desires and
all the dead formalities and vain pretences of your civilization which
makes you sad, troubled and unbalanced. In that intolerable conflict
you lose all joy of life and all feeling of personality, because at
every moment they suppress and restrain and check the free play of your
powers. That's the poisoned and mortal wound of the civilized world."
- Octave Mirbeau (The Torture Garden)
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