Manic Street Preachers

Manic Street Preachers Billed $46,000 For Concert Chaos

27 Sep 1999 04:55:00 EDT

Manic Street Preachers "You Stole The Sun From My Heart"

The Manic Street Preachers have been earning praise during their recent North American tour, which is scheduled to end after a two-night stand at the Troubadour in Los Angeles this week, though raves won't help pay the bills awaiting the group when it returns to its U.K. homeland.

Organizers for this past summer's T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland have sent a bill for a £28,000 (almost $46,000) to Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire for his onstage tirade at the end of the July 11 show.

The Manics headlined the second day of the two-day music festival, and after finishing the set, Wire, dressed in a pink skirt, proceeded to bust up his bass, the band's gear, and some of the stage's P.A. equipment.

MTV News caught up with Wire when the Manic Street Preachers rolled through New York City, and he talked about the hefty bill he had just received for his Who-like outburst.

Wire said of his T in the Park experience. "All the lights, the P.A. The manager's pretty worried about it. It was really funny. [Drummer] Sean [Moore] pushed his kit over, but then restrained [himself]."

"[Guitarist] James [Dean Bradfield] and Sean then walked off, and about 15 minutes later," he added, "I was still out there smashing everything, screaming hysterically. I gave my bass away to the audience. I gave Sean's snare away, and I came into the dressing room and Sean goes, 'That's good. I pushed my kit over, but I didn't break anything.' And I went, 'I think you did. Not only did you break it, but I gave half of it away.' That was amazing." [RealAudio]

Management representatives for the Manics in both the U.K. and the U.S. had not returned calls seeking comment on the matter by press time.

Meanwhile, the Manic Street Preachers recently premiered the video for their new U.S. single, "You Stole the Sun From My Heart," and the band is set to finish its fall tour of North America on September 29 in Los Angeles.

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Manic Street Preachers

Manic Street Preachers Get Universal, Plan New Year's Single

17 Sep 1999 05:00:00 EDT

Manic Street Preachers

The Manic Street Preachers recently had to cancel a club date in New York City after frontman James Dean Bradfield came down with laryngitis, but the band is continuing on its American trek in support of its current album, "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours."

It took a bit of divine intervention for the Preachers to release the album in the U.S., as the group had to extricate itself from its previous American label and find another one, a process that delayed the record's Stateside release by almost a year.

Despite these obstacles, the Preachers have been anxious to return for an American tour in support of "This Is My Truth," and its first U.S. single, "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next," [RealAudio] a song which bassist Nicky Wire thinks is among the group's best efforts.

"I think it's the most universal song we've done," Wire told MTV News. "Even though it's inspired by the Spanish Civil War, everywhere we've been, people just look at it as a generational thing. They really do see that humanity is at a crossroads."

"Every country has just sort of degenerated," he continued. "Human people are just not doing the right thing's anymore."

Because of the time between the record's U.K. and U.S. releases, the Manic Street Preachers have already laid down a few new songs, including one which the group plans to issue in the first week of the new millennium.

"I think it's difficult with us," Wire said of the recent sessions,

"There's one song we've done called 'The Masses Against the Classes,'" he said, "which is kind of 50 percent recorded, and which we will hopefully release as a one-off single in the first week of the year 2000." [RealAudio]

This weekend, the Manic Street Preachers' U.S. tour is scheduled to roll into the Metro in Chicago on September 18 and the Quest in Minneapolis on September 19.

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Manic Street Preachers

Manic Street Preachers Reschedule U.S. Dates

22 Jul 1999 12:30:00 EDT

Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield

After a slight delay, Brit Award-sweeping band the Manic Street Preachers is finally headed for the States.

The Manics have rescheduled the U.S. tour they were forced to cancel when singer James Dean Bradfield was called home to Cardiff, Wales, to be with his gravely ill mother (see Manic Street Preachers Nix Summer Tour").

The cancellation was the second time the group has been thwarted in its attempt to tour the U.S. The band's first scheduled American jaunt was to take place four years ago, but it was called off when guitarist Richey James Edwards disappeared, leaving the remaining Manics to regroup and continue as a trio.

Although the left-wing band is wildly popular in its native U.K., it has yet to make a dent in the North American market. The long-overdue U.S. tour may help boost Stateside sales of the group's latest album, "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours," which was released here in June.

"This Is My Truth" has already been out for nine months elsewhere in the world, however, and the band is already recording new material, according to a BBC interview with Manics bassist Nicky Wire.

The North American tour dates scheduled so far are as follows:

9/6 - Atlanta, GA @ Cotton Club
9/8 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
9/9 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of Living Arts
9/11 - Toronto, ON @ Warehouse
9/14 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
9/15 - Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
9/17 - Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
9/18 - Chicago, IL @ Metro / Smart Bar
9/19 - Minneapolis, MN @ Quest Club
9/22 - Vancouver, BC @ Rage
9/23 - Seattle, WA @ Aro Space
9/25 - San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo's 365 Club
9/27 - San Diego, CA @ Cane's
9/29 - West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour

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Manic Street Preachers

Manic Street Preachers Nix Summer Tour

13 Jul 1999 10:00:00 EDT

Manic Street Preacher James Dean Bradfield

The Manic Street Preachers have pulled the plug on its scheduled three-week tour of America with Remy Zero because of an unspecified illness to the mother of Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield.

Reached in the U.K., management for the Manics confirmed that the North American outing, which was scheduled to kick-off in July 15 in Atlanta and conclude on August 4 in West Hollywood, had been postponed and that the Welsh trio was hoping to reschedule the dates for later this year.

The Manics were launching the tour to support the belated U.S. release of the "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours" LP, which was issued on June 8, some nine months after first being released in the U.K. and Europe.

Over the weekend, the Manic Street Preachers closed out the annual T in the Park music festival in Kinross, Scotland, an event organizers estimate drew some 50,000 audience-goers.

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Manic Street Preachers Ink American Deal With Virgin Records

22 Mar 1999 11:45:00 EST

Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield

While former Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey James remains missing in action, all does not appear lost for the revered British group's hopes to (finally) earn widespread recognition here in the U.S.

The Preachers, who have cut a pair of albums since James' mysterious disappearance more than four years ago, just signed a deal with Virgin Records in America to issue the group's most recent studio effort, "This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours," some six months after its release in the U.K.

The Brit-based group has been without an American record deal since Epic Records dropped the Manics after releasing 1996's "Everything Must Go," the band's first without James. "Everything Must Go" and "This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours" earned the Manic Street Preachers Brit Awards for "Best British Album" in 1997 and 1999, respectively, with the latter being awarded just last month.

According to a statement from Virgin, the label plans to issue "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" as the first U.S. single from the new record, which the Manics hope to have in stores by late spring.

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Manic Street Preachers

Brit Awards To Williams, Preachers, Imbruglia, Fatboy Slim, Beck Among Others

16 Feb 1999 07:15:00 EST

Beck

The Brit Awards have wrapped up in London, England tonight without surprise orcontroversy. The evening's biggest winner, as predicted, was former Take Thatsinger Robbie Williams, who walked off with three awards after making aspectacular James Bond-style entrance into the London Arena by helicopter. Williams took Best British Male Solo Artist, Best British Single and Best BritishVideo. The Manic Street Preachers, who will finally see a U.S. release for theirnew album this Spring, won for Best Group and Best Album, the same prizes theygarnered in 1997.

Beck took the prize for Best International Male Solo Artist. Australian-turned-Brit resident Natalie Imbruglia took home two trophies for BestInternational Newcomer and Best International female artist.

The Best British Newcomer award went to Glasgow's Belle & Sebastian. Des'ree wasthe best British female artist while The Corrs won for best international group.

Fatboy Slim, a.k.a. Norman Cook, who was celebrating his Valentine's Dayengagement to British DJ and TV star Zoe Ball, took Best Dance Act.

As previously announced, The Eurythmics' Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart receivedan Outstanding Contribution to the Music Industry award. The show featured amedley from the reunited duo, who were introduced by Stevie Wonder. Performances also included appearances by the Manic Street Preachers, Boyzone,Whitney Houston and a tribute to Abba medley with artists including Steps,B*Witched, Tina Cousins, Billie and Cleopatra.

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Massive Attack, Manic Street Preachers Trade Remixes

13 Aug 1998 10:00:00 EDT

3D of Massive Attack

Massive Attack and the Manic Street Preachers are trading remixes on their new singles.

England's "New Musical Express" reports that the Preachers' "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next," due out in Britain August 24, sports a remix by Massive Attack. Their version will appear as a B-side for CD2 which also features a David Holmes' remix of the same song.

Manic Street Preachers' singer James Dean Bradfield in turn has remixed Massive Attack's "Inertia Creeps," scheduled for release September 21. This is Bradfield's first project involving another artist's material.

Massive Attack apparently asked Bradfield to do his remix first, and the singer responded by requesting that the band do a remix of his band's song in return.

The last Massive Attack remix single was supplied by Blur.

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Manic Street Preachers To Resurface Soon

10 Jul 1998 12:30:00 EDT

Manic Street Preachers "Design For Life" 700k QuickTime

The Manic Street Preachers are ready to return with a new single, video and album this fall in the U.K. The record, "This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours," is set to drop September 14. The first single, "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next," should be out August 24. The band recently shot a video for the song in London with director Wiz, who also worked on the band's previous singles, "Everything Must Go" and "You Love Us."

Bassist Nicky Wire told Britain's "New Musical Express" that he wrote the song about the Spanish Civil War and that it pays homage to the Clash's "Spanish Bombs." Wire says on the band's official website that it's also about standing up to evil, a common MSP theme. Prone to topical lyrics, the band's new effort is following that same route with other titles like the "South Yorkshire Mass Murderer" and themes like England's Hillsborough soccer tragedy.

This will be the fifth album for the Manic Street Preachers, but only the second without their long-missing guitarist/lyricist Richey James Edwards. Following Edwards' still-unexplained disappearance in February of 1995, Wire drummer/trumpeter Sean Moore and guitarist James Dean Bradfield eventually continued as a trio.

The group bounced back with the album "Everything Must Go" in 1996. They walked off with the Best British Album and Best British Group Award at the national Brit Awards in 1977.

The band's British label, Epic, has told "NME" that "absolutely and without a doubt," the record will be the label's most important release this year. However, it doesn't appear that the States will be in for the same treat, at least not anytime soon. A spokesperson for Epic in the U.S. says there's no scheduled release date or promotional plan at this time for North America.

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