  Do you think Nicky's got over the glitter and stuff or do you think he's still got it. James: When he was in college, when we were all in college and stuff, Nick would turn up you know, on a Monday with a new outfit, red bondage trousers and a pink glitter Miss Selfridge t-shirt and his hair would be dyed blonde, secretarial blonde and all the girls would go "oh, only Nick could get away with those colours". I don't think any of that has changed really. I've been looking at his legs all week in rehearsal and they're still the same. So no, I don't think he's gonna be mutton dressed as lamb or anything like that. I think he's still got it. James, just a question on fashion and styling. I've had my own fashion disasters, I've been through the bubble perm, pedal pushers, rara skirts etc. And equally you've been through the... you've not been adverse to a touch of eyeliner... James: I haven't been involved in the maquillage disasters have I? Then of course we had Nicky's dress at Glastonbury. Who is it that influences your style or what influences it. And what�s the biggest fashion disaster you think you've had. James: Mine was, I think we did a gig at [James tells the audience to shut up] Mine was a gig at the Diorama, really early on and I was wearing a pair of silky tight white trousers and I was wearing one of my Mums - what do you call that - yeah a bra, I was wearing a man bra at the time. And kind of like, it was like a cardigan but it all had holes in it kind of thing. A black one, and it was my ma's. That was my biggest fashion disaster with a pair of size 10 Dr Martens because I wanted my feet to look bigger for obvious reasons. That was my biggest fashion disaster. But like y'know I quickly learnt after that, I know this sounds a wee bit soppy but my Dad is definately one of my role models because he always used to wear everything so simply just like a T shirt and a pair of jeans. He always looked like a mini movie star to me, my Dad so... after that disaster I think I took my Dad's path.  Nicky Wire tells BBC's Sport on Five about the joys of upsetting Mark Hughes' mother-in-law on a tumultuous night for Welsh football last Wednesday. Manic Street Preachers bass guitarist Nicky Wire has performed in front of a few wild crowds in his time. And he has been known to get quite passionate about his art. Not least when he threw his bass into a stunned audience of hardy revellers at the Glastonbury Festival a few years back. But nothing apparently beats the buzz of performing your greatest hits in front of an expectant Millennium Stadium crowd. The Manics did just that on New Year's Eve 1999, but according to Wire their reception on Wednesday before the Wales-Italy game was even better. In Mark Hughes he believes the current side have a manager capable of guiding them to the European Championship finals. "I was sat by his mother-in-law on Wednesday night. I think I embarassed myself by going so mental. I had to keep apologising for my language all the time" Nicholas Allen Jones takes care of the telephone in the London hotel at 11h of the morning. Shortly afterwards, he is interrupted by room service. "British breakfast" not? "No - continental. I am on diet" laughs. "In the United Kingdom we had 28 singles and it was now or never. The choice process was difficult, we all have favourite songs, some of which had not arrived on the collection - like 'Roses In The Hospital' - but we did not have space. Many people thought that we only existed after [the album of 96] 'Everything Must Go'. We wanted to count our history. It was difficult to reduce for the 20 chosen songs." "It's most important to reach many people. We obtain to give a different perspective to them. We spoke of things that through other bands they never would have heard. Certainly not boy bands." "I try to write lyrics that say something valid. I value the words. I consider this my art... To write lyrics is very important. When the words and the ideas flow..." The four members of the band are welshmen, from the small mining town of Blackwood. They had always had a complicated relation with their native land. "Wales is a very small country, 3,5 million people. A village mentality. But I continue to live there. I walk on the street and the people are likeable. We played in the Millenium Stadium for the Championship of Europe with Italy. To be honest, ten years ago no-one would speak of Wales, they would say England or the United Kingdom. Now already we have a proper identity. The people feel better with themselves" One is with the notion that the great projects, the great ideologies, always fail due to human nature. Communism as theory could save many people, but... I am a socialist existencialista. One mixture of Jean Paul Sartre and socialist Clement Atlee [British prime-minister after II World-wide War] Who is thus defined cannot belong to a normal band... "People in the United Kingdom find that we are pretentious... We are different..." Still he has time to speak of sport. "I was always a fanatic. Cricket, soccer, rugby" Also he has time to be a father and to be in a band. "Am always full of homesickness... Now I want to come back home" Of Forever Delayed and the thirteen years of Manic Street Preachers their main lyricist and recent papa [!!] Nicky Wire speaks to us from London. You have not included Suicide Alley. We considered that the band really began its trajectory [I guess that's career] with the second single, Motown Junk, that closes this album. For us it was incredible to be able to record it in conditions in London, in the same studio where the Clash recorded some of their better pieces. Still I feel all the passion and the energy that we put in when we recorded it. We tried to move away from everything, from Wales, from the baggy scene, to construct something new recovering the subversive sense of pop. We have put it at the end like saying: "It is from here where everything arose". What is left of that punk band that wanted to be the Clash? There are lost friends and things in the way, but other questions remain unalterable. We maintain our sense social... we are open to new influences. I like the idea to be a band that nobody knows what it is doing. And we have known [learned?] to grow without betraying ourselves: still we recognize ourselves in our old songs. Which would be the most special moment in the history of MSP? The concert of the Millenium in Cardiff, to play in Cuba before Fidel Castro... In terms of sensations and personal satisfaction, I suppose the concert in Cardiff, but also I keep a great memory from the performances in Wales before twenty people. We enjoyed much being hated everywhere. Cuba was different: interesting, but very suffocating because they continuously asked questions of integrity and policy to us. We know that Fidel Castro used us, but not more than Tony Blair when he invites Oasis to Downing Street or any other famous musician. You're going to go on tour with this album? Yes, our families are going to hate us. Next year [he may mean during the next year] we will go to Europe and we will pass by Spain. One of the best moments of our recent history was to see 3,000 people in Barcelona singing with us This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours.  And what sort of crowd do you get now, do you get a bigger crowd in Europe or is it back here in Britain that your biggest following is. James: A couple of years back it was said you could divide our crowd into Mr Mondeo and "out come the freaks". So I'm not quite sure what it is these days. Do you think that's old Manics versus new Manics fans. James: That's supposed to be the concept yeah. I think there's a bleed between the two. I think there's a kind of mix. James: I dunno, I don't think you're going to see a young girl with a feather boa on snogging a bloke with a ralf lauren shirt on. I don't think you're going to see that. Do you like all your albums. James: No I do actually grade em. Which is the worst album. James: I can't because then I'm just... Oh for goodness... James: Oh come on, because, no... because my marketing plan will be all... Alright then, here we go. Everything Must Go - 1. Holy Bible - 2. This Is My Truth - 3. Know Your Enemy - 4. Generation Terrorists - 5. Gold Against The Soul - 6. I did it. And I thank you for that. James: And now nobody will buy Gold Against The Soul because it's 6. My retirement plan's gone now. [they play Motorcycle Emptiness] You see that's a riff [sings the guitar riff] Is that how you write them, you hum it like this. James: How did I write that one. I kind of didn't have sex for 6 months and I just thought it up. Good lord, completely un-necessary explanation and let's face it, completely untrue, we can tell. James: It was true, nobody would have me. Ahhh... I can understand that from the drummer but... James: What you talking about mate, that's my cousin, that's my gene pool. I can't help it, he looked like Benny from Crossroads. It's that cap he was wearing. [me: Sean's prettier than Jonathan Ross] The track we just played, and a lot of your stuff, it sounds like it's almost designed to be played loud in a big space like that. People say you're stadium rockers and often that description is used because you're a band that can sell out a stadium. But I think in your case it makes sense because the sort of music you write seems to play very well to a big crowd. James: We've just never been apologetic in any kind of way. We came from the Valleys and there was a lot of antagonism because we were Welsh and we were coming up to London, we'd buy a beer at the bar and suddenly you'd hear "baa". So therefore, we were never apologetic and we were always really confrontational and I think that just bled into the music. And now, is it still that thing, you don't get people bleeping behind you in bars now. James: No, not anymore... I think people have stopped treating Wales like one of those news reports, "a forest the size of Wales has been burned down in South America". I think people have stopped treating Wales as if it's a county. They've started treating it like a country. Of course you've met Tom Jones many times. James: Yeah, yeah. And recorded with him. When you record with Tom, that must be, I would've thought, for a younger singer, a daunting challenge. James: It was yeah. He came into the studio late and he was sweating... Had he been up late, because he still loves a late night. James: Yeah, the pictures from the evening before were in the Evening Standard. We could see some young nubile lady was sat in his lap. Was it Catherine Zeta Jones by any chance. James: I think it was. You see, Welsh people, when they get together, it's cool. James: Anyway, he turned up and he was sweating, you could smell the brandy just coming out of him like cologne. I thought he wouldn't be able to sing and then he just did it in 2 takes and he went "your turn Jimmy boy". I remember him saying, "I knew you'd be able to sing, you've got that short man complex haven't ya". You've lost quite a lot of weight haven't you. James: Er yeah. You've got fitter, not that you were getting big. James: I was. I was getting gigantic. Just food and booze? James: It was just potatoes and beer. And what's your diet regime now. James: No potatoes and beer. That's it you see, it's as simple as that. James starts talking about his diet in the background: Pasta's fine, beef, lamb... You don't have to tell us everything. You guys used to be a bit more flamboyant than you are now didn't you. James: Nick and Richey did, the 2 wingers. The 2 lyricists. Yeah they were very androgynous. But now they've cut back on the nailvarnish. James: Well kind of like y'know, Richey hasn't got the chance to. Nick's just had a kid so he's kind of toned it down a bit. That's ridiculous. You know what, he's going down in my estimation. James: But he's just going out on tour so he might have a few blouses ready. I want to see at least one formal evening gown. James: I'm sure he's got a couple of blouses ready. [Forever Delayed] will do tremendously well at Christmas. Is that the thinking? James: I don't know. If you want, I'll do the voice over for your Christmas album. James: I think we got Sean Bean. Jonathan Ross starts doing an advert for Forever Delayed. James: Sean Bean's done it. We don't need... "Everything you want and a man in a dress". James: Look, if we want that, we'll get Windsor Davies [which is what he sounded like]  James: The top bed was mine and the bottom bed was Sean's. It was our band headquarters. Nicky: It's one of my favourite pictures of us. There's a real harmony there between the four of us. And I don't think Sean's hair ever looked any better than that ever. Sean: It's my Keith Moon/surfer boy look. James: I like the fact that there's a half drunk bottle of whiskey and the fully drunk bottle of whiskey next to it too. Both lies, both tipped down the toilet. And the Public Enemy and Guns N Roses records casually strewn across the floor. Sean: Normally it would be the Sunday dinner gone green and a half-drunk cup of tea. But we thought we'd better make an effort for the photos. Nicky: I've got great memories of that room. It's where we made all our plans, played music, formed a lot of ideas. I was always a bit envious that Sean had a girlfriend, though, and could just leave when he got bored of us blathering on and on and on. Nicky: Who the fuck is that? Oh yeah, it's Zoe Ball. Oh dear. Sean: I remember thinking, "What is Zoe Ball doing here, giving us an award?" Then I thought, "What am I doing here?" James: I was just very, very pissed. It was quite bittersweet, but I can't deny that winning was a massive relief. Nicky: I remember making this very nervous speech about comprehensives which was pretty out-there. It was right in that Britpop/Spice Girls glamour period. James: Yeah and I'm wearing a brown cord jacket. Nicky: I was wearing my Welsh flag, pretty glam I think. Sean: That was only cos Geri was wearing the bloody Union Jack with her tits spilling out all over the shop. James: It felt like we'd really all found our place within the band just then. I remember thinking we all looked like cartoon characters. Nicky was at the height of his can't-control-arbitrary-health-forces-paranoia. I was whiskeyed out of my mind. Richey was trying to be the ultimate voyeur in every sense and Sean wasn't speaking to any of us. Sean: I was just going through my combat phase. I'd reached my zenith there. I was quite comfortable with those clothes, as opposed to the blouses. I always had Action Man as a kid as opposed to Barbie. James: We're all looking militaristic and Richey's not totally with the programme. He can't quite do it. Nicky: We just peaked with our look out there. Kevin [Cummins, NME photographer] should do a book just from that trip. Unfortunately, he only took about 40 pictures - the lazy sod! James: He was more pissed than me and Richey. Nicky: It was the weirdest trip. I never got over it. I'm still not over it even now. All I ate out there were apples and they were the size of footballs. I ate even less than Richey did. Everything freaked me out. I barely left my room. Sean: We went to the Golden Temple and you were wearing Chairman Mao badges. I thought they were going to arrest you. James: I remember waking up really hungover and sitting down to breakfast and Richey came bouncing downstairs. I asked him what his night was like and he said, "It was the most romantic night of my life". But he wouldn't say why. Nicky: We all knew why, though. He just emanated vodka the whole time. He just sweated vodka constantly. The gigs were insane, it was like Beatlemania, police whacking the front row with truncheons. Amazing. James: None of us are certain but we've always imagined that we're banned from going back because Nicky did his "Fuck the king" bit. Nicky: I couldn't believe they all took it so seriously. We had to stand up for the king every bloody meal. Sean: I'm glad we can't go back. It was like 'Nam. Once you've seen combat there, you never want to go back. Nicky: It was my first dip into dresses. I got it in a Dorothy Perkins in Southend. I remember walking to the gig in it and it smelt like an old woman's dress, you know, sort of pissy. It was in the bargain section. But it felt liberating, without trying to be pretentious. And to this day I feel more natural wearing a dress. Especially onstage. James: That was one of your best dresses too! Nicky: Oh yeah, stayed with me throughout Gold Against The Soul. I liked it because it was a good cut for someone like me, someone with child-bearing hips. You'll note that Kurt Cobain stole those glasses off me too, stylistically speaking. James: What was it one review said? "More Dot Cotton than Dorothy Perkins?" Nicky: Just jealous. Have you seen what journalists wear? Nicky: I think he's just saying, "You're not leaving here you Welsh bastards!" James: Well, he was. He said, "You must stay and visit the country with me". "But we'll miss our flight!". "We will hold the plane". Sean: I'd have been happy with that. I could've stayed for a couple of months. I really felt comfortable there. James: We really enjoyed it for the first five days and then the last two days or so we kind of felt like we were being corralled into something. Nicky: When Me and Sean went to meet Elian Gonzalez it felt very forced. It was just a bit... we've got pictures of all that but we've never used 'em because it felt unreal. Sean: We didn't go out there to meet Fidel Castro. We didn't go out there to visit Elian's school. We went out there to play a gig and it did feel strange the way it escalated into like a diplomatic visit. James: This picture is unreality. We're all in a complete state of shock. Nicky: The best thing about the whole trip wasn't meeting Castro. It was the gig. It was like a 70's gig, The Eagles or something. Everybody standing up in their seats, clapping, screaming. Mega. Castro looks good for a man his age, though.  Nicky: I think really Motown Junk is the defining moment. We stopped being friends and we started being a band. Sean: We just wanted to annoy people and then hopefully convince them afterwards. When we were young we sort of blatantly modelled ourselves on The Clash. We wanted to try and bring back a bit of the pizazz, a bit of the hollywood dreaming sort of idolised rock star type thing, that's what we were looking for ourselves. Nicky: [on the stencilled slogans] It was hugely important and me and Richey nearly killed eachother with the car spraypaint. It was purple, I remember the colour, and we had 10 white school shirts and 10 white jeans. Coming from Wales made everything ten times as hard, there's no point lieing about it. We intended to look like aliens and we had to seem 10 times larger than life. Sean: Probably would have lasted about 2 seconds in Blackwood High Street but we wanted to annoy people, we wanted to rub people up the wrong way. We wanted to be the total opposite of everything. A lot of people sort of laughed at us and went "oh they're sort of provincial, they come from Wales", you know, "that's a joke place" James: I think we really thrived off it, we were like some strange alien in a star trek episode, gathering anti- matter and gathering every bit of energy from a new found galaxy and just using it and spitting it out kind of thing. We were like something from a really dodgy 50's science fiction film. We didn't feel sorry for ourselves, didn't feel picked on, we just actually thrived on it. Sean: One of the things that we did try to create was that you either love us or you hate us but at the same time you still know what we're about. Whatever press there is, good press, bad press, it's still good press. So we tried to manipulate in a little way with the little power that we had. James: I think the main motivation behind saying stupid things like "we're going to sell 70 million records and then split up" was that we just completely and utterly wanted to show that we weren't scared of the lure of money and all that was wrapped up with that; the ambitions, temptation, being corrupted, we wanted to show we weren't scared of any of those things, just for the reason we had to get our point across, we had to have these songs heard. Sean: [on their broader influences and the quotes they used] the fact that it was written down... we used to totally believe in everything that was in written print, it was like gospel to us. We just used it as reference and took from the past and tried to turn it into the future. Nicky: Right from the start it was like it must be on every record, I think William Burroughs was the first one on Suicide Alley, Carl Marx I Am Nothing And Should Be Everything was on New Art Riot. James: I love La Tristesse as well because again it's a very unfashionable sentiment in the actual lyric itself. There was a story about a chelsea pensioner getting spat on by some people selling some rag in the street in London. It was just a song about that really, that you just can't... George Orwell was right in the sense that pacifism can be the greatest barrier to peace sometimes. And I liked the way the single was reviewed, "the last great baggy single", even though we were seen to be the anti-baggy, suddenly we'd done the last great baggy single. It is one of our only songs people can vaguely dance to.  Nicky: [on his Brits 97 acceptance speech] "This is for all the comprehensives that produce the best art" then I said something really bad like "and the best boxers". It was very important that, winning the Brits, none of us would say we regret doing it or it was corporate. It was what we'd always dreamed of; selling millions of albums, saying something about comprehensive schools, James drinking with the Spice Girls all night. What more could you ask for. Nicky: [on Tolerate] I think it's a difficult thing, people might say "oh the Manics come back with a political song" but at the end of the day nobody else is doing it. I think it was really important that we had to come back saying something different. It's what we're all about. Nicky: [on the lyrics] The point I was making, that was directed at myself as well, I wouldn't have gone and joined an International Brigade to fight in Bosnia, to try and help the side, it's very much self critical. It's just the malaise of young people, we're more interested in our trainers than we are in real issues. Sean: We thought it was going to be a b-side, we thought it was going to be an extra track, we didn't know that it was going to be a number 1 single. I think we found out... we were in Dublin at the time. Then when we found out we just couldn't believe it and there was a great release of emotion because for us we'd always pushed... that was the one thing that we wanted more than anything was just a number 1 single. It seemed like the impossible task then, that was the holy grail. We still can't believe it now. Sean: How can a song with a title as long as that, with a reference to the Spanish Civil War, get to number 1. I think, even to this day, it's probably one of the strangest number 1 singles there's ever been. Probably the only song [laughs] political song that we've ever written that wasn't overtly obvious but at the same time people just go "oh that's the Spanish Civil War song". Probably be the last political single ever. James: I just think we just felt as if we couldn't be shy and we couldn't be blushing number 1 artists, and not gloat on it but show that our ideas had worked. I think we were just eager for one night to have a good time, as simple as that. For that, that's a big idea for us, we've never contemplated doing something so frivolous. Sean: A totally unreal experience, I walked on stage and the stage was so big that it felt like a gig in itself. The people out there, it was so vast, I just didn't feel like it was myself, I was looking at something that was bigger than us. The fact that we were playing a concert was irrelevant almost in a way that we were like superfluous in a way. Nicky: We hate to think that we got 63,000 people and we lost about 50 grand on the whole thing. And that's what makes it even better... at the time it was rip off Britain of the highest order. There was things in the Ice Rink going for �100 a ticket. I remember even the Sun, bizarrely enough writing a little piece on us going "the Manics are good value for money, their socialist ideals" and stuff. It was just fantastic. Nicky: I feel unbelievably misplaced in todays pop climate, which I guess means we are important. That has always been the case, other great bands always remain on the outside darting in and back. Sean: [on being political] I think if we were overly political then I think we would have turned people off straight away. I think they would've just slammed the door straight away and that would've been it. Whereas we've tried to change it from within. But even by doing that sometimes we were a little too obvious and people still didn't get it. Nicky: [on being "the last political band"] I think that's a fair point. I think a lot of people attempt to dabble within it but there's nothing as concise as Design For Life or If You Tolerate This, nothing that really goes for the jugular like we have. I think the bands that do make a hash of it because it's way too literal and too shouty. Sean: Everything that we were doing was a total kick against the way the world was becoming. We try to make a difference but I don't think one band can do it, it takes a whole generation. 
If I can throw these random questions at you. What's the most amusing rumour that you've ever heard about yourselves, about the Manics. J: They're none of them that amusing they're all pretty hardcore to be honest. Most spent on an outfit - Nicky? N: How much do Claire's Accessories charge these days? Not very much. Feather boas, they're �1.99. N: I just get them sent all the time, still. Ever had any showbiz tantrums? J: I think we had a bit of a tantrum about red onions in our sandwiches. N: I can't stand red onions, it's just a London thing. Why do they exist. And golden wonder crisps, walkers crisps are just hideous. If we don't get golden wonder the gig is off. So what is going to happen with the Manics over the next couple of years. What's the situation. J: Nick was saying the other day he's got about 14 lyrics that he wants to shove in myself and Sean's direction. So that kind of says that we'll be writing some more songs. N: Just want to do an album like Nebraska, really acoustic cheap, just something really organic, just something sparse and winter-like. That's sounds very good. You've just had a baby did you say? N: Yeah well, 10 weeks ago now, 11 weeks ago yeah. So tell us about it, how's it feel? N: Yeah great, she's beautiful. What's she called? N: Clara. What about Sean? N: Well you know Sean he's Mr Responsible, he's a great Dad. OK tell us what he's had as well. N: He's had a baby girl, yes. There's girls everywhere. There's a little Manics girl band going to be sprouting up in 20 years time. That would be gorgeous. N: Yes [sounds pleased] Enjoy the tour, I hope it's fantastic for you. J: It's gonna be cool. You're doing encores and stuff, any surprises. N: We've never done an encore and we've never sold our soul or done a tv advert like all the other bands who play either. J: So no. N: No. I got my answer then. N: Some bands still have principles, we're one of em. Are there many bands around that have principles these days? N: No. Who do you like actually out of interest? N: I think The Vines are great, The Coral, brilliant. Idlewild. James? J: That's enough innit? Alright yeah top 3 that'll do alright. Thank you very much, it's always a pleasure, cheers. J: Take care, bye.  During this interview it is officially announced that Sean and Nicky are Dads and that's why they're not there. What do you think of the new Nirvana track we just played? Cos I know you're a big fan. J: It does sound like a bit of an In Utero after thought to me. I love Nirvana, but I'm not getting that one. Thanks for coming in. Now you are alone, obviously. No Nicky and Sean. Is it because they've just become Dads? J: Er kind of busy in their hotel rooms poring over their polaroids of their lovely kids. I believe Nicky's baby's a couple of weeks old and Sean's about a month now? J: Yeah they're both a wee bit older than that basically. Are they coping alright with the sleepless nights? J: They're loving it. Absolutely loving it. They've got an excuse not to go on tour now. Has it made you broody? J: Made me broody? You're full of good questions today aren't you. No, it hasn't made me broody, no. I've been looking at the Appreciation Website. Have you seen that? J: Yes, there's some sick pupsters on there definately. Actually James one thing I do have to say is all the fans who've been emailing questions say they love the new record. You should know that. J: Thank you for the market research. Will the sailor suit make a return on the greatest hits tour. J: I don't know I'm going to be a wee bit mutton dressed up as lamb if I wear it at this age I think. The old one I used to wear, I only had one of it and it was split in the crotch and it really smelt badly because it never got cleaned. It doesn't bring back good memories for me. Maybe that's the one on that Appreciation website actually. The slit in the trousers. Goodness me. Don't look at that yet. Will you play another track for us now. What are you going to play. J: I'll play Design For Life. [Design For Life] James Dean Bradfield on XFM. James I'm going to fire on because I have a million more questions to ask you is that alright with you. Making you work very hard today. What's the story with you guys smashing your guitars especially last year on the Beach Festival in Belgium. Is it frustration or is it rock n roll. J: Usually it's frustration, usually it's trying to take it to an art form but that gig is because it was just shite. Are you planning another album as you said you'd written about 16 songs or something and this would answer a lot of peoples questions about the rumours about you guys splitting up and stuff. J: Considering what I said before about a greatest hits closing one chapter and perhaps opening another, yeah we definately want to do another album and we've got a lot of songs written at the moment. Ok are you planning on doing any solo stuff while the other 2 are off being Dads. J: What the James Bradfield Blues Explosion? I don't think so. Are you looking forward to touring the album first of all in Europe in November and coming home in December culminating in what I imagine will be 2 amazing nights at Cardiff Arena. J: Yeah I'm looking forward to it, I'm looking forward to Nicky Wire's review of different dresses for each different song which he's promised which won't happen but I'm sure he's going to have a wee bit of a Diana Rossesque change in the middle of the show. Will he have a wind machine to go with it. J: I think he might be going the way of the suit at the moment. I think he's putting his legs away. Oh really? They've gone into retirement. It's becoming a Dad. Ok so what are you going to finish with today? J: I'm going to do You Stole The Sun From My Heart. [You Stole The Sun] James thank you so much for coming in. Give our love to the boys and their little uns. J: I will. 
J: Forever Delayed is an actual lyric from one of our songs Roses In The Hospital and for us the phrase Forever Delayed always summed up a lot of what our songs are about and that is that kind of in our songs there are probably many more - many more - questions than answers. Sometimes it's just as important just to ask the questions even if you haven't got the answers. It doesn't mean you've got to find all the right answers, it just means you've got to try and ask all the right questions. James Dean Bradfield my guest today, the album Forever Delayed. New single as well, which we'll touch on now actually. The single is one of the new tracks on there isn't it. There are a couple of new tracks. What was the thinking behind putting together this sort of best of collection plus a couple of new ones, is this to underline the fact this isn't the end of the Manics - this is the direction we're going to be taking. J: Two new tracks on there does signal you've obviously got something left in you as a band but also I think we were slightly uncomfortable with the notion that a greatest hits is all about nostalgia. I think we wanted there just to be a hint of something else. Yeah obviously a greatest hits is about nostalgia but we also wanted perhaps a couple of pointers towards the future too. It's just giving the record a bit more of an edge perhaps rather than it just being a big nostalgic trip. What would be the one highlight for you in terms of Manic Street Preachers career, I know you're particularly proud of the Cuba gig. Would that be the one great big highlight for you. J: No I've got to admit, perhaps the best memory for us as a band so far is when If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next came out and it went to number 1 for us that was our best memory so far because that song encapsulated everything we'd ever been trying to do. Obviously there was the bonus that it got to number 1. Quintessentially that is such a typical song for us, lyrically and musically and we also got our point across on a very large scale because it went to number 1. So we felt as if we'd achieved everything we wanted to achieve since we'd been 15 with that single so that's a really good memory for us. There's been a lot of talk recently about the state of the charts what with pop idol and pop stars and everything else. How do you see things at the moment in terms of how music is and the charts. J: Perhaps if I was a younger kid now, I would find it hard to define myself by my anger. When we were younger when we were 15 years old it was so easy to define our ambitions or ourselves by what we were angry at, and it was so easy to find an outlet, find that expression. Today if I was perhaps the same person but I was 15 years old I would feel pretty hopeless in terms of having an outlet for that expression in terms of my anger or whatever, to articulate that. So sometimes when I do look at the charts it kind of makes me feel sorry for somebody who might feel as if they have something to say but they have no way of finding a forum or platform to do it. OK fingers crossed for you, hope it goes really well. Great talking to you today. J: Cheers, thanks.  Where are ya today? N: I am home stuck in the valleys. Where I usually am. So what's new around the house, have you been doing any home improvements. N: I've been growing my hair. You've been growing your hair? N: Yeah. It's really long. Is it gonna be a pony tail? N: It's kind of Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen kind of look. Excellent. Have you got a velvet jacket to go with it. N: I have from my younger days, yeah. Smashing. Is it good weather where you are. Do you sunbathe? Is Nicky Wire allowed to sunbathe? N: You've seen my complexion. It's from the bottle that white, I think. [the album�s] called Forever Delayed which suggests a degree of reticence. I suspect that the young Nicky Wire would have thought this was an abhorrent idea - greatest hits albums - wouldn't he? N: It's a fair comment. But after lasting all this time it just seemed the right thing to do, made a bit of peace with ourselves. How did you go about choosing the order of it because it's not chronological is it? N: It's just been a nightmare. We had 28 consecutive Top 40's and we had to whittle it down to 18. Why couldn't you put em all on, do a double album. N: Well if we did a double cd they'd just charge loads of money for it but we can always do that in 10 years time when we need the money. Listening back to all the singles is there some you thought "I'd forgotten how good that one was" or the reverse "ooh I'm not so keen on this after all this time" N: Little Baby Nothing is a song I really adore. I forgot how wonderfully Fleetwood Mac/AOR it sounded. Revol [Nicky pronounces it Reevol] still sounds like a dirge, a very confused dirge. We'll all vote for Revol first. Is there a definitive Manics single do you think? N: I think Motorcycle Emptiness probably sums everything up of us. Unfortunately it was 6 minutes long and in those funny old days, in 1992, it didn't get played so much really. The obvious other question; is this then the end? [you could guess they'd ask this] N: I don't think so but then I don't know. I'm not sure. Non committal then? N: It's been much more pleasurable... we've also done a book and I've gone through 20,000 pictures. It's a nice feeling of nostalgia which like you said the young Nicky Wire would have probably thought as a revolting prospect. But we all get old, we all change our points of view, it's allowed. N: Yes. It's a bit of mellowing. Can't save us from ourselves Victims with the saddest hearts Passing by the grace of god There by the grace of god [Chorus] With grace we will suffer With grace we shall recover There by the grace of god There by the grace of god Lay down all your guns Give them up and then move on It doesn't mean that you are dead Passing by the grace of god There by the grace of god [Chorus x2] With grace we will suffer With grace we shall recover There by the grace of god There by the grace of god There by the grace of god... And all the drugs in the world... [Chorus x2] With grace we will suffer With grace we shall recover There by the grace of god There by the grace of god And all the drugs in the world Can't save us from ourselves Victims with the saddest hearts Passing by the grace of god There by the grace of god (lyrics transcribed from the radio)  What have you been up to then recently, just taking it easy, just working? J: Just like this year we've been writing lots of new songs so we could choose 2 new ones to go on the Greatest Hits. Because it's kind of a bit harder just trying to write 2 singles as opposed to writing an album. Obviously you've just got to write 2 singles, you can't say "oh this is an album track with longevity" and all that kind of stuff. So you're working on a batch of songs then rather than just a couple. J: We've finished now, we're done now. Yeah that's what we've been doing this year really. So what you doing with the leftover songs will that comprise the next album or not. J: I think we'll use some of them on bsides. There's definately some stuff in there which we would start our new album off on definately. Later next year? J: Yeah hopefully yeah. I suppose as opposed to going out and playing a new album then working on a setlist that comprises the Greatest Hits must be great musn't it; playing your favourite songs and the songs that are going to be appreciated by the audience and all the rest of it. J: It kind of is but you've got some howlers in there as well; like we've got a song called Love's Sweet Exile, which still to this day we don't know why we wrote it or recorded it or even played it live. So like you know mostly it's good and mostly it does bring back lots of good memories and bad memories which we don't mind. When you actually come up against the actual situation where you've got to play a song which you think is absolute dogshit then it's not so good. Could you spot any particular periods that you thought "I quite enjoyed that". J: All the stuff from Everything Must Go definately. In a strange way we were in a funny position at that point in time because obviously the Richey thing had gone on and you can actually tell that we were just trying to live through the music man, we were trying to free ourselves up a bit. In a strange ironic way it did sound as if we were strangely liberated because obviously we were backed into a corner and we had to try and save ourselves. You did, you came out fighting, you're re-established, if you needed to re-establish yourselves, and it was a big album for you and established you as a major force. You may begin recording a new album next year, are you up for that. J: Yeah definately. Obviously we start touring in November for the Greatest Hits, the middle of next year after we do some festivals and stuff we'll just see how we feel but at the moment, because of all the recording we've done this year we definately feel as if we've got a great album left in us definately. So the new year will begin completing that... J: We'll still be touring in the new year and doing stuff off the back of the Greatest Hits. You seem suitably rested anyway James. J: Well I am but I've definately got some angst inside me still. Well we need a bit of that.  Speaking from his home in Wales where he is compiling a new book of images by Manics photographer Mitch Ikeda due for release to coincide with a Greatest Hits album in October, Wire told NME that, contrary to rumours that this will be the band's last hurrah, "no decision" about their future had been taken. Speaking about the album "Forever Delayed" Wire said: �Greatest Hits albums are something I've always loved. It's an excuse for us to wallow in a bit of nostalgia� Speculation has been rife that the album and tour would be the big send-off for the band before they split. "That's understandable, because our history's been up and down. We haven't made a decision about the future. We've always been judged by the public. We shall have to wait and see. You're always nervous, no matter how many records you've sold in the past. If by Christmas we've sold about ten records and there's two people at the gigs, we might not be around. So until that time comes... It's quite nervewracking" Commenting on the album title he added: "It's actually a line from one of our singles, Roses In The Hospital. At that time [1993] we didn't even know if we'd get far enough to get a greatest hits, but it was just a title that always stuck. I think it will be 20 tracks - like Erasure's 20 greatest hits. And Steps!" Despite the uncertainty about their future, Wire insisted the Manics have been prolific. Wire himself spent a fortnight in Tenby last November writing lyrics, although he also admitted to a lot of time spent "gardening and composting". "We've written 14 songs, so there's plenty of B-sides and quite a bit we can hold back" Of the tour Wire said: "It's going to be a total Springsteenesque, historical trawl through our career. Even if you're a Manics fan just for The Holy Bible or the glam phase at the start or if you're middle of the road into This Is My Truth there's going to be something for everyone, for glitter girls and mondeo drivers" |
