How I got into the Manics

Inspired by the Facebook Meme "34 days of Manic Street Preachers", here's the the story of how I got into the band which is one of my favorites nowadays.

As mentioned before, I first heard MSP around 2001 or so on a mixtape made by Amy Ducky Visel. But the song did nothing for me. That same year MTV would play the videos for “So why so sad” & “If you tolerate this then your children will be next”, but they didn’t do much for me either. Although I kinda liked “So Why So Sad”... & “The everlasting”, which I downloaded probably after someone’s recommendation. I had that burned onto one of my own mix CDs. I probably heard “Faster” at some point too bc I’d read the line “Self-disgust is self obsession honey & I’ll do as I please” somewhere & liked it so much I think I searched for where it was from & downloaded the respective song.

As far as I remember, from the start I was familiar with Richey’s story & found it intriguing but apparently not intriguing enough to read up much.

Fast forward to July 2008. I was in Paris but going to Prague for a few days & browsing CouchSurfing.com. That’s how I found Danny Creer (originally from the UK but living in Praha) who would be my host. It said on his profile that his favorite album was THE HOLY BIBLE by the Manics, who he was a huge fan of. In fact his email started with “dannymanics@” : )

So I went to stay with him for a few days & one of the nights, I think it was the 2nd one, I asked him about the Manics. I love hearing people talk about things they love, things they’re passionate about. & I also love music. So hearing people go on about their favorite musicians is a pleasure for me.

Basically Danny gave me an introductory course to the Manics : P
We listened to The Holy Bible while he cooked dinner.
He showed me videos such as “Stay beautiful” & “Little baby nothing” on YouTube. & also when they performed on Saturday Night Live wearing terrorist masks : P
He had their entire discography so he played me a bunch of songs & told me the story behind them
I was fascinated with the lyrics...it seemed there was always a story behind them
& they were full of references to art, history, politics. Presidents, soccer players, famous crimes, female issues. Prostitution, concentration camps, abortion, pop culture...
Someone once said listening to the Manics makes them go on “scavenger hunts” to find out what they’re talking about.

He also told me a bunch of anecdotes. If I remember correctly, he attended over 10 Manics shows & was there @ Richey’s final gig. & well, they’re his favorite band, so he knows a lot of stories : )

I was hooked. The next day I couldn’t get “Motorcycle emptiness” out of my head. & “Prologue to history”. He copied the discography onto my pendrive. When I got back to Paris & later back home to Buenos Aires, I mostly listened to The Holy Bible @ 1st which was fitting bc it was a very ~dark~ time in my life : P

& in the following months/year I began to listen to the rest of the stuff & well, I became obsessed. A song I associate a lot with the time following my return to Buenos Aires is "Dead trees & traffic islands". & the upcoming summer was full of "Never want again". Although I must admit their discography is so extensive that there are some albums I don’t really “know” yet. But I have heard them all...if I didn’t stop to listen to them over & over enough to know them it’s bc they didn’t captivate me enough the times I did listen, get me? Perhaps it’s just a matter of timing, when you listen to each album.

I also became obsessed with Richey Edwards & to a lesser degree, Nicky Wire.

Wow this is long, sorry! But anyways I am so thankful that Danny (re?) introduced me to this band...I probably would have continued ignoring them if it weren’t for him! & thinking their repertoire was full of songs that did nothing for me, like the ones I’d heard.