Imagine: You are in a band with three other musicians you have known since their childhood. Then in 1995 suddenly one of your friends, the guitarist and the writer of the group disappears. Traceless. Even three years later, you're not even sure if he committed suicide, or maybe left for a country like India far from pop music. And then, o irony, it appears the first cd you take without him - Everything must go out '96 - another great success too.
It came across Nicky Wire (29), textwriter and bassist of the British rock band Manic Street Preachers. He has given up all hope that his lost friend, Richey Edwards, ever appears somewhere. There is no reason for that. For example, after his disappearance, Edwards has not used any of his credit cards. Nicky Wire sighs. How loud it sounds: life continues, just like its band.
However, the tragedy will always be like a dark cloud Manic Street Preachers continue to hang. "If you do this, you see that success is very relative. It does not mean as much for us as it might have been in other circumstances. There are more important things in life than the sales figures of your CDs. we are deeply penetrated.
"We knew from the very beginning that starry in pop music is an empty sleeve. A dream without content. We've always been tied up over the years, no collection of individuals but a band. We already know each other long, we have grown together, two years ago, we broke into the United Kingdom with the single A Design for Life. Simply a matter of the right song at the right time. I personally have not changed much since. still living in the same place in Wales, where I do exactly the same things as before. I still do not have a driver's license. My money still goes on the same things as at the time: CDs, clothes and books. more of.'
Manic Street Preachers has always been a part of the trend-directed British pop music.
They began as four youngsters from Wales who made known their political ideals through robust rock. The cushions of their CDs stopped them with quotes from the literature, so they were portrayed as pretentious by the English music press - all too easily. "Well and?", Nicky Wire says now. "We learned to live with it. Rather pretentious than habits, I think so."
"It's still not fashionable to believe in principle," James Dean Bradfield sings. This is my Truth tell me yours, the recently released new CD of Manic Street Preachers. As regards social and political positions, the group is unchanged. The single If you tolerate this, your Children will be next is about the Spanish Civil War, one of Nicky Wire's major interests, now the sole responsibility for the lyrics of the band.
"That war was a struggle between socialists and fascists," he says. "Many people from Wales joined the International Brigade at the time to help the Socialists. I think that's a big gesture: fighting in another country for the good cause.
"We would not do that today. Almost no-one has really attracted all those conditions in Bosnia, even the UN did it five years before it actually took action. When it comes to it, young people are much more interested in the World Cup than in a bloody war involving thousands of victims. Understand me well: I'm not much better either. That song is also a criticism of my own attitude. It's a warning to anyone who wants to hear it. do not really realize what's going on in the world, you're very soon the toy of the authorities.
"I think certain social issues are so important that they should be heard. My texts must turn people into thinking. The goal of music is to reach as many people as possible. Music is the beginning of a dialogue. We only write songs about subjects that interest us, which sounds like an open door, but you should not forget that most bands only find music fascinated by guitars or drums. I do not think so at all. I do not even consider myself a musician. I'm a copywriter who accidentally holds a bass."
The position may then be unchanged, over the years the music of Manic Street Preachers did indeed change. Noisy rock plays the band on the new CD just sporadically.
Strings and keys determine the tenor in the often-carried long numbers. Nicky Wire has to gniffle. "It's partly due to getting older, I think. Many other groups will not dare to give it. We all walk to the 30. Then you're just not old, but still ... Getting older gets its When I woke up ten years ago, I felt like I was buying the whole world. Now I would love to sleep again. No wonder your music becomes less rough."
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