Manic Street Preachers by Owen

sufi said:

Owen Hatherley, Mislaid Plans — Sidecar

On the Manic Street Preachers.

newleftreview.org

@owen has no shame, i can honestly say i was never a seventh day adventist and am still not one,

for some reason he doesnt mention Datblygu, Welsh barely-rockers with Politics who were a few years ahead of MSP but are now very forgotten


but he does entertainingly invoke various local talismans 🔥

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... said:

I saw Manic Street Preachers in Singleton Park in 1993, the free Heineken Music Festival, when they were very unpopular in Wales and the hordes of Swansea thugs reacted with a shower of glass bottles aimed at their heads. One hit Nicky Wire and he was concussed. The band went off and the festival organisor came on and swore at the crowd before eventually talking the band back on stage. They came back on and immediately played Motorcycle Emptiness at punk rock speed, glass still flying, and Richey pulled a crucifixe pose before diving into the crowd. All around me, fights were breaking out. I was 15 or 16, found it amazingly exciting and rock and roll and expected every gig I went to to be as good. It was a big, long letdown.

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... said:

Yeah, in Swansea in 1993, you might have been clobbered, but nobody was going to bring out a gun. It was a bit dicey, but not deadly. I like to tell that story, though, it's an interesting one. I'm not a Manic Street Preachers fan by any means, but that is still the best gig I've ever seen. It's unthinkable that any of the British bands parading around these days could either provoke or deal with such an experience.

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... said:

It was the peak of their Glam Metal / drag phase, by the way, when they went around spouting Marx and Plath and slagging off Wales.

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