Difference between revisions of "Cutting Edge - Time Out, 7th December 1994"
(9 intermediate revisions by one user not shown) | |||
Line 7: | Line 7: | ||
| Date = Wednesday 7th December 1994 | | Date = Wednesday 7th December 1994 | ||
| Writer = Peter Paphides | | Writer = Peter Paphides | ||
− | | Photos = Barry J Holmes | + | | Photos = Barry J. Holmes |
}} | }} | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
− | { | + | {{ConcertTableHeader}} |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
<CENTER> | <CENTER> | ||
− | [[Image:Timeout94 (1).jpg|frameless|250px]] | + | [[Image:Timeout94 (1).jpg|frameless|250px|link=http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/msppedia/images/a/a2/Timeout94_%281%29.jpg]] |
− | [[Image:Timeout94 (2).jpg|frameless|250px]] | + | [[Image:Timeout94 (2).jpg|frameless|250px|link=http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/msppedia/images/5/50/Timeout94_%282%29.jpg]] |
− | [[Image:Timeout94 (3).jpg|frameless|250px]] | + | [[Image:Timeout94 (3).jpg|frameless|250px|link=http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/msppedia/images/e/e5/Timeout94_%283%29.jpg]] |
</CENTER> | </CENTER> | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
{{ConcertTableClose}} | {{ConcertTableClose}} | ||
− | { | + | {{ConcertTableHeader}} |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
'''From South Wales to 'Top of the Pops' via alcoholism and self-mutilation, Manic Street Preachers have lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle with a vengeance. As they prepare to play in London, Peter Paphides picks the scabs of their past.''' | '''From South Wales to 'Top of the Pops' via alcoholism and self-mutilation, Manic Street Preachers have lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle with a vengeance. As they prepare to play in London, Peter Paphides picks the scabs of their past.''' | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
Line 77: | Line 72: | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
− | "That's right. It's the arbitrary factors that determine your life. 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. I've been hit lots of times for no reason, but I've never thrown a punch back. If I refuse to do that then I might get beaten up badly, but I would feel still feel better than the person who's doing it to me. There's a Latin quote which I can't remember - it's actually in 'Green River Rising' - that strength is restored through | + | "That's right. It's the arbitrary factors that determine your life. 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. I've been hit lots of times for no reason, but I've never thrown a punch back. If I refuse to do that then I might get beaten up badly, but I would feel still feel better than the person who's doing it to me. There's a Latin quote which I can't remember - it's actually in 'Green River Rising' - that strength is restored through wounding. |
<BR> | <BR> | ||
<BR> | <BR> | ||
+ | What a lot of people don't understand though is how you suppress the actual physical pain that comes with cutting yourself up. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | "It's not something that you train yourself to do," explains Richey matter-of-factly, "like walking on hot coals or something. You just get to a point where if you don't do it to yourself, you get a feeling that something really terrible is going to happen, and when that moment comes, it's the logical thing to do. It doesn't hurt. You're not screaming and shouting. A couple of days later you feel like a sad fuck, but that's part of the healing process; after that you feel really good. People that harm themselves, be it through anorexia or razors, know what they're doing. Which is why I get annoyed when Lord Justice Templeman, presiding over the Spanner trial, says that 'cruelty is uncivilised'. How can any member of the ruling classes say that when you consider the backgrounds they come from?" | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | It's this unerring commitment to self-determination that's led Manic Street Preachers to upset numerous feminists, despite their explicit admiration for commentators like Andrea Dworkin and Valerie Solanas. '4st 7lbs', ostensibly a frightening love song to anorexia is possibly the most disturbing track on 'The Holy Bible'. Set against an off-kilter staccato riff and extruded through James Bradfield's pained delivery, like like '' 'I want to walk in the snow/And not soil its purity' '' seemed a little too evocative to dismiss as casual guesswork. The Manics' detractors failed to realise that the anorexia one falls prey to in trying to become a supermodel is symptom of the same urge; the urge to reclaim what little control you have. Bother are symptoms of the same thing. You can't condemn supermodels yet defend people who fuck up in the attempt to become one. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | "Political correctness is more sinister than anything anyone can ever accuse us of," counters Richey. "It's all about language. It's all aimed at the working class. I read The Guardian and The Times. I also read The Sun - it uses language which is accessible. Lenny Bruce said being scared of words is also what gives them their power. The word 'nigger' is not frightening. You know, his famous quote where he just says, 'Nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger'? PC just builds more walls." | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | 'PCP', the first single taken from 'The Holy Bible', deals exactly with this. It's the last song that Manic Street Preachers perform on tonight's radio session, and it sets the place alight. Bradfield doesn't so much sing it as detonates it. Sean punctuates lines like 'PC caresses bigots and big brother' with an unholy tantrum of percussive thunder. And Nicky ominously removing his bass from his person, hesitates for just a moment before deciding not to destroy his second guitar in two consecutive nights. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | "That's an important song in understanding what we do," sighs Richey between sips of Coke. "It could be construed as quite a right-wing point of view, but then at the same time, every left-wing party seems to be advocating censorship of some kind. Which I can really agree with. Like that Ken Loach film 'Hidden Agenda'. That got pulled off Channel 4, after the Warrington bombing but then it gets shown a month later! Now I don't think that's even being sensitive." | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | James stirs into action, his head slowly emerging from beneath his leather jacket, just as a congenial French floor manager enters to tell him that he's on in five minutes. His eyes meet Richey's but they don't speak. The implicit trust between Richey and James is possibly the strongest bond in the group. It's Richey, after all, who entrusts the anxieties of his convoluted mind to James's voice. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | This month Manic Street Preachers return to London at the end of their most traumatic year. Somewhere along the line, though, they also made on of the greatest rock 'n' roll albums of recent years. For a band who set out to be rock 'n' roll's epiphany, they're just about the only thing keeping it alive. When James Dean Bradfield walks onto the stage at the Astoria and starts his unlikely solo version of 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head', watch his face when he sings '' 'I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining/Because I'm free/Nothing's worrying me'. '' He has more cause to mean it than most. | ||
+ | {{ConcertTableClose}} | ||
+ | {{ConcertTableHeader}} | ||
+ | '''Preacher Men: Ten Magic Manic Moments''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''1. The Michael Stipe Incident''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | In December 1992, Nicky Wire casually announced between songs that he wanted Michael Stipe to 'die of AIDS'. He was, in his way, being playful. REM fans were unimpressed. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''2. Reading 1994''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | Richey was absent in hospital. So the Manics amply compensated on the entertainment stakes with a ritual equipment trashing spree. Mr Wire, again, destroyed his bass and proceeded to rub his crotch whilst mouthing 'You Love Us' in a decidedly saucy manner. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''3. 'Top Of The Pops', June '94 ''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | They performed 'Faster' resplendent in balaclavas and terrorist attire, and to this day, they still await a return invitation from unamused 'TOTP' bosses. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''4. 'She Is Suffering' '''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | The Manics' last single contains re-workings of their awesome 'La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)' by impossibly-fashionable dance darlings The Dust Brothers. Manic Street Preachers are oddly hip in many techno circle. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''5. The John Lennon Incident''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | Legendary among US music industry circles and often cited as the reason the NY record industry is distrustful of UK bands. At an important New York showcase gig, Nicky Wire 'controversially' declared his wholehearted delight at John Lennon's murder to a stunned audience of NY record execs. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''6. The 'We're Splitting Up!' Scam''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | Eager young situationists that they were, in 1991, Manic Street Preachers announced their intention to dissolve unless their debut album 'Generation Terrorists' outsold Guns 'N' Roses. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''7. The Glastonbury Incident''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | Almost an entire day of peace and love went by unabated until yer Manics strolled on stage an expressed their 'controversial' view that someone should 'build a bypass over this shithole'. Nicky again, by the way. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''8. 'Motorcycle Emptiness''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | In its way, a single as important to the last five years as 'Rebel Without A Cause' was to its generation. One day someone will make a film of this song. And it will be the greatest film ever. Your adolescence, your ambitions, their ultimate frustration and debilitating influence of sound-bite culture in five handy minutes. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''9. 'Little Baby Nothing' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | The Manics, feeling that they too have been pimped by their industry, have always empathised with porn starlets and supermodels. Imagine their delight when soft porn queen Traci Lords agreed to duet on a 'Generation Terrorists' track after Kylie Minogue refused. | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | '''10. 'Suicide Is Painless (Theme From 'M*A*S*H')''' | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | <BR> | ||
+ | Their contribution to the 'Ruby Trax' compilation was perhaps an unsurprising choice. It was also their biggest hit. | ||
+ | {{ConcertTableClose}} |
Latest revision as of 17:22, 15 July 2019
Title: | Cutting Edge |
Publication: | Time Out |
Date: | Wednesday 7th December 1994 |
Writer: | Peter Paphides |
Photos: | Barry J. Holmes |
|
From South Wales to 'Top of the Pops' via alcoholism and self-mutilation, Manic Street Preachers have lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle with a vengeance. As they prepare to play in London, Peter Paphides picks the scabs of their past.
|
Preacher Men: Ten Magic Manic Moments
|