50 Twelve Inches #29

A Design for Life (Stealthsonic Remix) – Manic Street Preachers (1995, Epic Records)

“Do libraries give us power?” this is my daughter talking after hearing me play ‘A Design For Life’ by the Manic Street Preachers.  Before I can answer though she is off again, answering her own question in her own unique kind of way.

“Because, the library at Teignmouth isn’t really very good.  It has a lot of books but none of them make feel powerful.  There are too many books on poetry and Minecraft and not enough on things like World Domination”.

I nod at this sagely statement and tell her she is right.   The library at Teignmouth, does have a stupid amount of books on Minecraft and very few on how to achieve World Domination.  It is however, our local library and therefore should be supported because otherwise the thieving Tory government will take it away from us and replace it with luxury houses.

I sometimes forget that my daughter is eleven and probably doesn’t really care about the thieving Tory government.

She changes tack a few seconds later.  “When they talk about getting drunk, when they’ve finished doing that, will they lie on the sofa complaining about having a headache like you did last weekend and not take their children to the cinema like they promised?”

Ouch.

Last weekend (although it’s a few weekends ago now), I met up with some of the other long-suffering dads in my village.  A couple of quick pints turned into a rather lengthy session in which the world, its wife and everything in between was put right by seven middle aged men who don’t get anywhere near the sleep that they should.  By the end of the evening, the table we were sat on resembled a scene from Angela’s Ashes without the fug of cigarette smoke hanging over us.  After that most of us ended up back at the house of one of the dads, where, as his wife and four children slept soundly upstairs, we polished off a bottle of banana infused rum that he’d had in the cupboard since 2018 and then stumbled home.  I may have fallen into a hedge at least once.

Saturday morning was difficult.  It felt like someone had picked my house up and stuck it on a carousel and then switched that to hyperspace mode.  Every noise felt like I was stood next to the speakers at a warehouse rave, something which my wife and daughter picked up very quickly.  My daughter decided to practice her cello right next to me, so I could see how she was progressing (which for the record is excellently) and my wife decided shortly after the cello practice had finished that the rug that I had my feet on, really could do with several hoovers.  Even my cat, decided that today was the day to meow as loudly as possible in my general direction, every few seconds.  

The record chosen this morning was ‘A Design for Life’ by the Manic Street Preachers, but it’s the promo twelve inch version, which is slightly different from the standard twelve inch in that you didn’t get the two other B Sides, here they are if you need to hear them – the second one is excellent

Dead Trees and Traffic Islands – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

Mr Carbohydrate – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

The CD singles came with two other tracks as well, here they are

Dead Passive -Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records) – which was only available on CD one.

Faster (Vocal Mix) – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records) – which was only available on CD Two.

The cassingle (yikes!) also featured another track that being this

Bright Eyes (Live) – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records).

Here, finally is the original, you’ll know that, a song about working class struggles, and about rising up, solidarity and one steeped in socialist conviction.  Which is why I suppose the Manics went with four different formats with different tracks spread across all four. 

A Design For Life – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

Here is the no more than five word review.

“Libraries give us books”

And here is this weeks eleven year old recommendation, which is taken from the soundtrack of Wonka. A film that I eventually took my daughter to see the day after my hangover had gone away, she also got a slap-up meal at Five Guys as well for her troubles.  

Scrub Scrub – Cast of Wonka (2023, Watertower Music)

The Best 40 Crossover Tracks (25 – 23) – A Bleeping Mass of Beats and Tweaks

In late 1993, the NME tried once more (and they would try again two years later) to try and convince its readership that indie and dance music had always been the best of friends.  To do this, they grabbed an up and coming dance duo named The Dust Brothers, and got them to produce a mixtape of their favourite songs on a cassette which they then stuck on the cover – they called it “The NME Xmas Dust Up”, which again at the very least showed that the NME could still write a headline or two.

The ‘Dust Up‘ cassette was really rather good, it featured (amongst others), one of the bands tracks (An early version of ‘Leave Home’), a Leftfield Mix of a Renegade Soundwave track, A Prodigy Track and in a deliberate attempt to appeal to the NME’s target audience, a specially done remix of a Manic Street Preachers track.  That remix didn’t appear on the official release of the track and I didn’t hear again until around two years later, when a computer game called ‘Wipeout’ stuck it on its official soundtrack (that soundtrack by the way was pretty much staple indie disco crossover music and got dragged out of the box on a regular basis)

Which was handy because the Dust Brothers remix of ‘La Tristessa Durera’ is about nine hundred times better than the original.

25 – La Tristessa Durera (Scream to A Sigh – Dust Brothers Mix) – Manic Street Preachers (1993, Columbia Records)

The remix tape was good and bad for the Dust Brothers, it was good because it made them massive stars, pretty much everyone wanted them to turn their indie guitar records to a bleeping mass of beats and tweaks designed to slay all types of dancefloors.  Literally everyone.

See Also – I Think I’m In Love – Spiritualized (Chemical Brothers Mix) (1997, Dedicated Records)

The bad thing was that the relatively well known American producers The Dust Brothers, took umbrage at their name and forced them to change it but even that wasn’t such a bad thing because it lead to the birth of the Chemical Brothers and the rest is pretty much history. 

It wasn’t just bands like the Manics and Spiritualized getting in on the remix act.  By the late nineties you were pretty much a nobody if you didn’t have a superstar DJ, or a high profile producer or remixer queuing up to give your tunes a once over so that they appealed to a wider audience.  Of course, it didn’t have to be a superstar DJ…..

24 – Buzzin’ (Dylan Rhymes Mix) – Asian Dub Foundation (1997, FFRR Records)

See Also Chinese Burn (Lunatic Calm Mix) – Curve (1998, Estupendo Records)

Of course, I love ‘Buzzin’ by Asian Dub Foundation, and if I got the chance early on in the evening, just after the doors had opened, I might have chucked it on and bopped away in the DJ Booth on my own whilst the punters dripped in from elsewhere.  Then Dylan Rhymes got his hands on it (or rather I flipped the record over and realised there was an incredible remix on the over side) and turned it into a sort of Big Beat monster that everyone danced to.  The same can be said about Lunatic Calm, no idea at all who they are, but their remix of ‘Chinese Burn’ the lead track from Curve’s underwhelming third album ‘Come Clean’ brought about all sorts of insanity.

Regardless of whether indie music was getting into bed with DJs and such like, there was always a crowd on the dancefloor who wanted and expected to hear the likes of Nirvana, Metallica Rage Against the Machine and such like and usually we had a sort of thirty minute rock bit all set to go until one night Johnny, who owned one rock CD compilation, was taken ill and I had to diversify slightly to appease the sweaty hair brigade.  Enter Tricky, and his rather barnstorming cover of a Public Enemy track, which allowed us to go in a sort of sideways direction into angry hip hop and back again.

23 – Black Steel (Been Caught Steeling Mix) – Tricky (1995, 4^th & Broadway Records)

See Also Bang Your Head – Gravediggaz (1995, Island Records)

The Best 44 4th Albums of All Time #6

Everything Must Go – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

“Tribal scars in Technicolor”

Points 115

Highest Rank 1^st

Kevin Carter – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

Today’s guest posting comes from Mr L and he is going to tell us about why ‘Everything Must Go’ is his favourite 4^th album. About seven years ago Mr L and I went down to the Eden Project and saw the Manic Street Preachers celebrate 20 years of ‘Everything Must Go’ and rather fittingly, it poured down.   Anyway, to make up for that that Mr L has written this from his sunbed on the Turkish coast, where I am told he is doing a passable impression of Ray Winstone in ‘Sexy Beast’.

A guest posting from Mr L

I wasn’t a massive Manics fan, I liked some songs like ‘Faster’, ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, ‘Theme from MASH’ & ‘La Tristessa’, but the Manics whole albums didn’t push my buttons fully.

The Manics were in the news in 1995 when band member Richey Edwards was reported missing. I was interested in the NME coverage & really hoped Richey was found. But as 1995 passed by, with no positive news, Richey was presumed dead, with his car found parked near a well know suicide spot the Severn Bridge. Richey was the main song writer along with Nicky Wire, so I honestly thought the Manic were finished. I could not have been more wrong!

In early 1996, I was looking for a new sound, my go to bands (Prodigy, Suede, Underworld, Orbital, Radiohead, Supergrass, Beastie Boys) all seemed to be between albums, and I had just moved into a new flat in Wimbledon in April 1996.  When I heard ‘A Design for Life’ on the radio for the first time, I instantly fell in love with this song.  It seemed to become the soundtrack to my new flat and I was really forward to the album being released in May 1996.

A Design for Life – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

‘Everything Must Go’ didn’t disappoint me and it’s an album, that just touched me at that moment in time. It was full of interesting tracks, subject matters and crowd pleasing singalongs. With an anthemic rock style sound, which was more commercial feeling, that fitted with the Britpop movement, that was prevalent at the time. It was a stark contrast to previous Manics material with the drums, being crucial to the new sound and with Mike Hedges (The Cure/Siouxsie & The Banshees/U2) on production, they produced something truly exciting and uniquely sounding at the time.

Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

The opening track ‘Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier’: Is truly one of the best album openers. It is written about how the UK accepts American culture and worships it. Brilliant!  Elsewhere on the album you get songs that are named after quotes from by American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath (‘The Girl Who Wanted to Be God’) and it is an anthemic track again & I adore it!

The Girl Who Wanted to Be God – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

You also get ‘Kevin Carter’ which is about the life of South African photographer, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his photograph depicting the 1993 famine in Sudan (images which eventually overwhelmed him to the point that he took his own life). Despite the tragedy that surrounds the song, the Manics make it upbeat, and it contains the best trumpet section you will hear on an indie/rock track. Please let me know if you have found one better (Lazarus? – swc).

‘Kevin Carter’ was one of a number of singles taken from ‘Everything Must Go’ – the lead track was obviously ‘A Design for Life’ which explores working class identity in Britain.  It’s still a relevant track today & was the anthem of summer 1996 on the radio & MTV. It is a track that I never get tired of listening to.

What I feel was unique about this album, was that so many tracks sounded like big singles and only a few like ‘Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky’, ‘Removables’ & ‘Interiors’ are just great album tracks.

Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records)

‘Everything Must Go’ ends with ‘No Surface, All Feeling’ which a giant sprawling guitar screeching monster, with James Dean Bradfield’s vocals totally on point. Utterly amazing ending track. Listening to the album again, it’s hard to think that the material is 27 years old. The album doesn’t seem to have dated at all & I regularly revisit the album.  Fair play to the Manics for producing their finest material (ooh, that’s debatable, ‘The Holy Bible’ is a better album if you ask me – SWC) and a classic album, after such tragedy, losing a close friend and band member. They still place 25% of their music royalties in an account for Richey!

Excellent stuff, thank you so much Mr L. 

Tomorrow, we reach the Top Five and here is a lyrical clue to tease what album starts that Top Five

“Lost my shape”

Alternative Versions – #11

Kevin Carter (First Rehearsal) – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Sony Music, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go 10^th Anniversary Edition)

Kevin Carter (Album Version) – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Sony Music, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go’)

Kevin Carter (Live) – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Sony Music, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go 10^th Anniversary Edition)

When the Manic Street Preachers re-emerged in 1996, somewhat nervously as a trio with sensible haircuts, armed to the teeth with string laden epics and minus their eyeliner pencils, very few people seriously thought that they would by the end of the year be one of the biggest bands on the planet.  But that is exactly what happened, because the album that contained those string laden epics and had their clean faces with sensible haircuts stuck on the cover, ‘Everything Must Go’ was huge, easily the bands most successful record.  Finally, eight years or so after they promised they would, the Manics had realised their ambition and conquered the mainstream with a (now slightly diluted) tonic of rage, punk ethos and brilliant songs.  It was ace as well and no one really begrudged them a second of it all especially when they had songs as good as this to throw about at festivals.

A Design for Life – Manic Street Preachers (1996 Sony Music, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go’)

Of course, whilst the fans lapped up the Manics and their festival slaying anthems about libraries giving us power, their record company Sony, sat back rubbing their hands with joy and starting filling their swimming pools with pound coins and lighting their fires with ten pound notes.  After about eight years, the record company executives started running low on ten pound notes and convened a quick meeting, where they came up with a brilliant plan of reissuing the million selling ‘Everything Must Go’.  They sumptuously repackaged it, stuck a bunch of live tracks on the first CD to pad it out and then dug out a load of old rehearsal tracks from the early sessions of ‘Everything Must Go’ and flogged it as a ‘Ten Year Anniversary Edition’. 

Which kind of brings us to the track randomly selected today, which is the first rehearsal of ‘Kevin Carter’ a track that sounds raw and garage-y – and by that, I mean that it sounds like it has been recorded in Nicky Wire’s garage and not like the Sonics or the Velvet Underground.  It’s not a patch on the version that would later appear on the album (with added trumpets) and be released as a single, but then again why would it, it’s a rehearsal and probably wasn’t even supposed to appear on a sumptuously repackaged version of a million selling album.  The same can be said of this version of ‘A Design for Life’ as the audio is truly awful.

A Design for Life (First Rehearsal) – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Sony Music, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go Tenth Anniversary Edition’)

So that makes it Alternatives 5 – Originals 5

Tomorrow – Billy Bragg

League Two Music #15 – Newport County

As we speak Gillingham are continuing their meteoric rise up League Two (one defeat in seven) towards safety.  There is an air of quietly confident optimism surrounding the team.  An air which before was tainted by hatred and bitterness from all sides.  One of the teams that have shimmered into sight as the Gills rise up the table is Newport County, a team who rose, then collapsed and then rose again and here to talk about them and Newport in general is exiled Devonian and honorary Welshman, The Robster.  This folks, is excellent and the music selection is second to none.   Thanks Rob.

Languishing in the bottom half of League Two is lowly Newport County. For some reason, The Exiles just cannot put a string of favourable results together this season and as a result, they’ve put themselves in danger of relegation, a situation they haven’t found themselves in for a few years.

It’s the latest chapter in the colourful history of Newport County, the second most popular sports team in the city (the first being the Gwent Dragons rugby team). Formed in 1912, the club started out in the old Southern League but became mainstays of the Football League Third Division South between 1920 and 1939 when they were finally promoted to the second tier. WWII interrupted their maiden Division 2 season, and on recommencing post-war, they were promptly relegated.

A further relegation followed in 1963 to Division Four where they remained until promotion in 1980. Their team that year included a young John Aldridge (who would later become a league title winner with Liverpool) and legendary lower-league striker Tommy Tynan (who later would become a legend at Plymouth Argyle – SWC). Both would be with the club during their most successful period. County won the Welsh Cup in 1981 which qualified them for the following season’s European Cup-Winners Cup. They made it to the quarter-finals where they met Carl Zeiss Jena F.C. of East Germany, drawing 2-2 in Jena before narrowly losing the home leg 1-0.

Sadly, it all came crashing down before the decade was over. County were relegated in 1986, and a second-successive relegation followed in 1987. They were now a non-league team and they never recovered. Financial mismanagement at the hands of their American owner Jerry Sherman led to the club being unable to fulfil their fixtures, being expelled from the Football Conference and ultimately folding in 1989.

From the ashes, a group of supporters reformed the club later that year. Being appointed to the Hellenic League, they were forced to play their home games in Gloucestershire over the border in England as Newport Council, who owned the team’s previous ground Somerton Park, refused to allow them back owing to the old club’s unpaid debts. Promotion to the Southern League followed, a return to their homeland at the newly built Newport Stadium in 1994, and a High Court ruling in their favour which prevented them from having to play in the newly reformed Welsh National League, meant Newport County were on their way back up. Their ascent was completed when they were promoted back to the Football League’s fourth tier in 2013.  Since then they forced an FA Cup replay against the mighty Tottenham in 2018, beat Leicester City in 2019, also in the FA Cup, and came close to promotion to League One (as well as also narrowly avoiding relegation again in 2017). Mike Flynn, manager and local hero, masterminded those giant-killing exploits, but lost his job at the helm after County’s dismal start to the 2022-23 season. Now managed by Graham Coughlin, they haven’t improved that much…

Newport’s music scene has also fluctuated, but it has its fair share of VIPs.  One of our best known sons is the legendary Jon Langford of Mekons and Three Johns fame. Now based in Chicago, his latest project has been an annual release of triple 7” singles with various collaborators.

Down from Dover – Jon Langford  (from ‘Songs of False Hopes & High Values’)

Benji Webbe is one of Newport’s biggest characters. My eldest daughter can testify to that as she got to know him through the gym she worked at. He is the frontman of globally-famous ragga-metal band Skindred, but SWC has specifically requested something by his former band Dub War, which to be fair, is a very good call.

Murder – Dub War (from ‘The Dub, The War & The Ugly’, 1993)

Some bands from the Newport area also became rather huge. The Darling Buds, from the neighbouring old Roman city of Caerleon, found themselves a part of the so-called ‘blonde scene’ alongside the Primitives and Transvision Vamp.

Burst – The Darling Buds (from ‘Pop Said…’, 1988)

While just up the valley, four make-up wearing upstarts crossed the Sex Pistols with Guns ‘n’ Roses and caused a storm. Well, several storms, actually.

Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers (from ‘Generation Terrorists’, 1992)

Of course, the 90s was a huge time for British music, Welsh music particularly, and even more so in Newport in which the Cool Cymru scene centred around the great TJs (now sadly no more). 60 Foot Dolls cut their teeth there.

Stay – 60 Foot Dolls (from ‘The Big 3’, 1996)

The scene also thrust the likes of Feeder, Novocaine and Flyscreen in our general direction. In fact, it’s here we can link back to our football team:

Carl Zeiss Jena – Flyscreen (from the ‘Size Five Leather’ EP, 1996)

But it’s not all loud rock & roll. Rap music’s greatest pioneers also hail from Newport, and are still going strong and have a unique link to Newport County AFC themselves:

(This link will take you to a video of Goldie Lookin’ Chain and Newport County launching the team’s new third kit inspired by the GLC themselves)

Hurtling back to the present… Bug Club don’t hail from the city of Newport itself, but are from the wider Newport county region, or the town of Caldicot and the neighbouring village of Magor to be precise. Everyone I spoke to about bands to include in this piece mentioned Bug Club. You may well have encountered them if you’re a 6 Music listener – I know Marc Riley is a fan. If not, well think what might happen if the Velvet Underground held a party and invited the likes of Steven Malkmus, J Mascis and Kim Deal. A lot of fun would be had, nearly as much fun as listening to Bug Club’s debut album ‘Green Dream In F#’ which came out a few months ago. To my shame, I never latched on in time to include in my 22 In ’22 rundown. Had I been a bit more on the ball, ‘Green Dream In F#’ would definitely have been on that list. They’ve released a couple EPs and singles prior to the album, but here’s the brilliant opening track from the LP.

Only In Love – Bug Club (from ‘Green Dream In F#’, 2022)

It’s amazing really how many rock heroes have links with The’Port. Donna Matthews of Elastica is from Newport. The guy who plays keyboards live with Saint Etienne is from Newport. And a bloke who was once in Bush is from Newport. Impressive, eh? And let’s not forget the cover of the Stone Roses single Love Spreads depicts a cherub on Newport’s Town Bridge (true).

I also ought to mention a certain fella called Joe Strummer. Heard of him? Back in the early 70s, this unruly ragamuffin worked as a gravedigger at St Woolos. He formed a band here and played his first ever gig at a long-gone place on Stow Hill. Apparently he became quite famous when he moved back to London. One of his mates at the time went on to have a son who is not only called Joe but has a band of his own called Idles. You may have heard of them too…

As is customary in this series, we finish with a band you (probably) won’t have heard of before but might do soon. The Nightmares make what they term “noir pop” and sound like they are influenced by their parents’ collections of 80s records. They’ve so far released a 6-track EP and a couple of singles, but their debut album is due this year.

The Falling Dream – The Nightmares (single, 2020)

(This link takes you to a news story all about Joe Strummer and it’s a cracking read)

. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/joe-strummer-newport-clash-idles-24769677

Told you it was excellent – Next Week Tranmere Rovers

A Month all about Names – #11 – Elvis – or Why I agree with Chuck D

Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Epic Records, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go’)

The second to last time I went to Margate would have been about 1989 when a class trip to the beach was organised, which was all good fun until one of the more erm, friendly girls in the class copped off with a local lad and things got a bit heated when her current boyfriend took exception to it and we had to leg it for the train as the local lads threatened to ‘stripe us’.  Apparently, this means cut us with knives, which I doubt they actually had, but I didn’t really want to wait and find out.

So when one summer during my University years, my old college mate, Dave phoned me and said he was driving down to Margate to catch up with another old college buddy named Dylan* and did I want to come along I was sceptical that it would be a good fun.  Saying that it was a Thursday in the Medway Towns and I had nothing better to do.

Margate is about an hour’s drive from my dads, in good traffic, you hit the M2 and then the Thanet Way and keep driving until you see the Scenic Railway of Dreamland shimmer into view.  Dreamland is basically what Margate is famous for (apart from Tracey Emin and her bed that is) a Victorian Amusement Park crammed full of rides, slides and arcade fun.  The rest of the place is pretty much what you expect from faded seaside towns.  It is full of rundown bedsits, closed up shops and greasy chippies.  Seedy looking blokes hang around on street corners, and heroin it appears is the biggest draw in town. 

Dave parks up his car in a car park and we wandered down the road to where Dylan lives.  I haven’t seen Dylan since I left college, some three years ago, it will be great to see him, I didn’t realise he’d moved to Margate.  Dave tells me that Dylan had met a girl and worked in a local pizza takeaway or least he was last summer when they last spoke.  Since then Dave had joined the army and this was literally his first week off since Christmas.

The street is not the nicest part of town, there is rubbish all over the pavement and at least two cars have their windows smashed.  Dave glances back up the road to the car park.  We open the gate leading to Dylan’s place.  He lives in flat 4, Dave says and rings the doorbell.  A voice crackles over the intercom. 

“Is Dylan there?”

“Who wants to know?” comes the reply. 

“Couple of old mates” says Dave.

“Wait there”.  We wait. About four minutes later the door opens and no word of a lie, Elvis Presley steps out of the house. Well, Elvis if he grew about a foot, lost a few pounds of fat, replaced them with muscle and started carrying a rather large bat that is.  Otherwise everything is the same, sideburns, white jump suit, gold chain…Elvis has left the building and he is pissed off.

“Shit” was I think the first word I uttered.

“You mates of Dylan’s?” Elvis says.  Oh yes, Elvis has an Estuary English accent, gone is his Yankee Doodle American drawl that he had.

“Well, not really…” I squeak – for some reason when I was younger when confronted by bat wielding Elvis Impersonators my voice tended to go a bit higher. “I’ve not seen him in three years” I offer in the hope that Elvis actually knows Dylan better than I do.

Dave has bulked up a bit since he joined the army and he seems utterly unfazed by this bat wielding Elvis in front of us.  Far less fazed than the Belle & Sebastian fan standing behind him anyway.

“Is he in?” Dave says. 

Elvis lowers the bat and walks up to Dave so that they are almost toe to toe, you can smell his cologne, which is lucky because his breath is terrible.

“He’s inside” he says.  “Doing ten for a robbery.  He owes me three months rent and three grand in cash, so any friends of his are not welcome, I thought you boys might have been sent round by some Scouse wankers that Dylan worked for, but…” and he looks directly at me here, with my long hair and my Sleeper Tshirt, “I’m thinking probably not…” and with that Elvis re enters the building and Dave and I leave.  About five minutes later, sat on the relative safety of the beach, we laugh, one of us very nervously.

There are three other Elvis tracks in the music library (plus two albums with ‘Elvis’ in the title), one of which I didn’t even know was there.

Elvis’ Flaming Star – Pond (2015, EMI Records, Taken from ‘Man It Feels Like Space’)

Elvis – Longpigs (1996, Island Records, Taken from ‘The Sun is Often Out’)

Morning Elvis – Florence & the Machine (2022, Polydor Records, Taken from ‘Dance Fever’)

* Dylan is not his real name.  Just in case Elvis is reading.

Tomorrow rather appropriately David/Dave/Davey who might be down the front with the coppers.

Retrospective Musical Naval Gazing – #6 (1996)

1996 was another great year for music.  It was the year where Britpop was still just about king but a whole host of new and exciting acts who prefers keyboards to guitars were having massive hits.  It was the year when even bands like Oasis invited acts like the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy to support them.  Events like Brighton’s much missed Essential Festival saw line ups deliberately designed to appeal to an increasingly less fussy crowd.  It was a summer where indie, dance, hip hop and on occasion rock all sat comfortably together and right then music was interesting, varied and regularly exciting.

Yet despite all that it was the return of a band who many people thought would simply fade away given that one of their members disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again.  However, this was the Manic Street Preachers and they, as usual, did things their way and when they returned, at what was absolutely the right time, clean shaven, reflective and with a songbook full of incredible songs it was like we had a new band to celebrate, which in some ways we did.  They rather predictably topped my end of year top ten with song about libraries giving us power.

A Design for Life – Manic Street Preachers (1996, Sony Records, Taken from ‘Everything Must Go’)

At number two in my Top Ten was a remix of a song about being an alcoholic that originally started life as a B-Side (to the original unremixed, instrumental version) and then had its chorus of “Lager, Lager, Lager” catapulted into everyday speech thanks to its appearance in ‘Trainspotting’.  A chorus apparently dreamed up by Karl Hyde when he got frustrated at continuously losing his place in the queue at a bar.

Born Slippy Nuxx – Underworld (1996, Junior Boys Own Records, Taken from ‘Trainspotting OST’)

And for once I think I got the top two spot on. 

It wasn’t all Britpop and amyl house round my way though.  I still loved a slacker anthem or two and one of my most listened to albums of 1996 was Beck’s supreme (and spoiler, coming to a Nearly Perfect Album Series near you pretty soon) ‘Odelay’.  Something that was recognised by the fact that ‘Where’s It At?’ placed at Number 3 in my Top Ten.

Where’s It At? – Beck (1996, Geffen Records, Taken from ‘Odelay’)

The rest of the Top Ten would make a decent hour of music if you played them back to back, the Prodigy sat at four with ‘Firestarter’, the Super Furry Animals completed the Top Five with their brilliant swearing anthem ‘The Man Don’t Give a Fuck’.   Number six was ‘Trash’ by the newly exciting and pumped up Suede, and at seven was this splendid hip hop blunt from the Fugees who by the end of the year would be one of the biggest acts on the planet.

Ready Or Not – Fugees (1996, Sony Records, Taken from ‘The Score’)

At number eight were a band who should have been the biggest band on the planet by the end of 1996 but weren’t.  A band whose unique selling points were that they had two keyboardists, really bad haircuts and liked wearing jumpers that had been made by their nans.  Sadly the indie record buying public disagreed with the critics and instead of filling their collections with excellent songs about puppets, roses and hiding in woods, they all went and bought some guff by The Lemonheads and the Fun Lovin’ Criminals instead of the tremendous ‘Race’ by Tiger.

Race – Tiger (1996, Island Records, Taken from ‘We Are Puppets’)

100 Songs with One Word Titles (100 – 96)

I was going to count these down individually but when I broke this news to one member of the musical jury the other day, he told me to ‘not milk it’.  So in order to avoid over filling this particular musical bucket with cow juice, I will reveal five songs a day until I get to number 50 and then the bucket will overfloweth.  It also means that this series should be done and dusted before the start of September (hopefully).

It seems fitting and probably justified to start by planting a knee firmly in the balls of the establishment. 

100. Repeat – Manic Street Preachers (1991, Columbia Records, Taken from ‘Generation Terrorists’)

The Manics just about scraped into the Top 100, needing a last day shove in the back from the final jury member whose votes came in some 20 minutes before the deadline door slammed firmly shut.  ‘Repeat’ is classic Manics and they are at their most provocative as they yelp rudely about what they want the “Queen and Country” to do, as an electroclash backdrop bounces around your speakers.  It should have done better folks, maybe I chose the wrong song?

99. England – The National (2010, 4AD Records, Taken from ‘High Violet’)

The National started well but rather like Derek Redmond in the 1992 Olympics, they rather limped over the line, whilst sobbing into the arms of their loved ones. Although that maybe more to do with the fact that have rapidly turned into America’s version of Elbow.  Saying that ‘England’ is a marvellous track, easily a highlight of ‘High Violet’ especially the piano bit.

98. Stay – Shakespear’s Sister (1992, London Records Taken from ‘Hormonally Yours’)

I’d forgotten just how successful ‘Stay’ was.  In the UK it topped the charts for eight weeks.  Eight Weeks.  I would imagine that Ms’s Fahey and Detroit would gladly swap that for a slightly higher place in this rundown, but there you go. ‘Stay’ is extraordinarily good. A tale of two worlds, one all spooky and claustrophobic and full of danger, the other seemingly safe and full of flowers.  Also, Siobhan Fahey’s throaty growl as the chorus kicks in remains one of the finest moments in pop music.

97. Hoppipolla – Sigur Ros (2005, EMI Records, Taken from ‘Takk’)

‘Hoppipolla’ is a beautiful track, an ode to mucking around and “Hopping in Puddles”.  It was and remains Sigur Ros’ most identifiable song, largely because the BBC have had it written into its Charter that any programme that features ice, cold climates and anything resembling a tundra must be soundtracked by ‘Hoppipolla’.  Something that as it happens I would gladly pay an extra £2 a year on the licence fee to hear.

96. Deceptacon (DFA Mix) – Le Tigre (1999, Mr Lady Records, Taken from ‘Le Tigre’)

Or you can just have the normal version if you like.  Personally I much prefer the remix because it hits like a bomb and takes that line ripped from a novelty song and twists it inside out adds, a load of bleeps and yelps and squeaks and just drips adrenaline.  It’s also the best song in the world named after a bad robot from Transformers.  Until Jason Pierce writes a song called ‘Optimus Prime (in my heart)’ that is.

Music Found in Charity Shops – #8

Lipstick Traces – Manic Street Preachers (2003, Sony Records)

Bought Oxfam, Exeter for £2.49

Spectators of Suicide – Manic Street Preachers (2003, Sony Records)

There is only thing worse than the stench of a major label flogging a Greatest Hits Package to diehard fans of a particular band.  That is the stench of a major label flogging a B Sides and Rarities Package to diehard fans of a particular band.  There are very few compilation albums of this type that appear to be worth getting.  This one is no different.  Sort of. To misquote some pundit somewhere, its an album of two halves.  The first CD is excellent, the second is not.

The first CD of this album contains 20 songs that saw a release as a B Side to one of the singles that the Manic Street Preachers released from their first six albums.  Not taking away anything that the band have released since their sixth album, but that was pretty much the bands golden period, for the first four at least, the Manics mattered and I for one would have travelled a great distance to see them play.  Hell I would have stood outside with an ear trumpet if it mattered.  Like all great bands, Manics B-Sides were at times as good as the A -Sides and this collection of songs are just that.

For starters, the opening track ‘Prologue to History’ is superb, a smashing slice of piano led punk pop.  The piano intro sounding uncannily like the opening to ‘Wrote for Luck’ but it hinted very early of what might be to come.

Prologue to History – Manic Street Preachers (2003, Sony Records)

There are other highlights too, ‘Dead Trees and Traffic Islands’ for one, which I think was the B Side on one of the ‘Design for Life’ singles, sounds like a track that should have perhaps made it on to an album because its great.

Dead Trees and Traffic Islands – Manic Street Preachers (2003, Sony Records)

Its when you get to the cover version CD that things go downhill very quickly.  Sure there is a rather lovely version of ‘Bright Eyes’ and the bands version of ‘Wrote For Luck’ is superb but the rest are either live versions that sound like they were recorded from the car park or just not very good. The version of Nirvana’s ‘Been A Son’ sounds flat and I rather wish that they hadn’t bothered.

Been A Son – Manic Street Preachers (2003, Sony Records)

Bright Eyes (Live) – Manic Street Preachers (2003, Sony Records)

If you see this in a charity, keep the first disc, ditch the second.

Nearly Perfect Albums – #21

The Holy Bible – Manic Street Preachers

For a band that once stated that they wanted to become the Welsh Guns ‘N’ Roses, ‘The Holy Bible’ is a world away from that.  In fact its two worlds away.  Its an album that is absolutely shaking with fury and rage at just about everything.  It’s also a record that the band could only make once, and in fact very little that the band recorded after this went anywhere close to it, both musically and lyrically.   It is a work of genius, albeit, a bleak and claustrophobic work of genius. 

Musically, ‘The Holy Bible’ is an incredible listen, it took the stadium dynamics of ‘Gold Against The Soul’ and hissy fit mock punk histrionics of ‘Generation Terrorists’ and ceremoniously chucked them in the nearest dustbin.   After doing that the band embraced, new wave, avantgarde art rock, industrial soundscapes, and most surprisingly, goth.  What they created bristled with energy, anger, and ferocity.

Faster – Manic Street Preachers (1994, Epic Records)

Yes – Manic Street Preachers (1994, Epic Records)

Of course, the dark heart that runs through this record is that of Richey Edwards.  Edwards was at the time, alongside Kurt Cobain, probably the most brilliant lyricist of his generation.  In 1994, whilst this record was being written and recorded Edwards was ravaged by depression, alcoholism, anorexia and self harm and ‘The Holy Bible’ is in some way his method of documenting his final breakdown. 

A key example of this is ‘Archives of Pain’, a song that is intended as a tribute to the victims of murder, which appears to request the return of the death penalty, lyrics are choked out about “redemption” and “regret”.  Elsewhere in the aforementioned ‘Faster’ James Dean Bradfield venomously spits out “I am an architect; they call me a butcher” as self harm is tackled amazingly.

Archives of Pain – Manic Street Preachers (1994, Epic Records)

Knowing what happened after this record was released, it seems almost ghoulish to revel in its brilliance, effectively we are applauding the misery of a breakdown.  It also feels weird to heap praise on a record that seems so intent to wallow it such bleakness, but its impossible to not do so. 

I sometimes find it difficult to talk about something that comes from genuine anguish, its easier, perhaps, to just leave it.  But, on occasion that anguish is so vividly described that portraying it as anything other than beautiful feels just wrong, but conversely saying its beautiful also feels wrong.  ‘4st 7lbs’, Richey Edwards’ own personal struggle with anorexic is exactly this. A song that is so harrowing and complex that it almost feels superior in its stark beauty, particularly when James Dean Bradfield sings “I want to walk in the snow and leave no footprint”.  I mean its such a beautiful line, but just so tragically sad at the time.

4st 7lbs – Manic Street Preachers (1994, Epic Records)