Manic Street Preachers’ lyricist and bassist Nicky Wire speaks with Neil Collins about the agony of second place, football songs and nostalgia.
It’s April 1996 and Manic Street Preachers are anxiously awaiting the chart position of their new single A Design For Life.
The song is bassist Nicky Wire’s most definitive summation of what the band are all about, and it encapsulates everything they’ve been trying to say since forming in Blackwood in the mid-80s.
His words convey a heart-on-sleeve tribute to the resilience of the working class spirit in that no matter how much it’s cheated, manipulated and belittled, it will always fight back and prevail.
Reflecting 20 years later, Nicky still believes it was the band’s finest moment: “I probably had that initial confidence, even more than James did. The first time he sang it down the phone to me, and the first time we rehearsed it in a little rehearsal room in Cardiff (Sound Space Studios), everything just clicked into place.”
Most crucially, it was the band’s first release since the tragic disappearance of best friend and lyricist Richey Edwards, who vanished from London’s Embassy Hotel in February 1995 and was never seen again.
Initially, A Design For Life stormed to the coveted No.1 slot, but its first week sales of 94,000 saw it agonisingly miss out on top spot by 7,000 to Mark Morrison. Yet, for the band it was a relief that they were still going and making such an impact; albeit tinged with such sadness.
“It does kind of hurt me that it wasn’t a No.1”, Nicky sighs. “But we’ve been plagued by it throughout our career with four No.2 albums and four No.2 singles. I think people remember A Design For Life more than Return of the Mack though!”
The Manics recently celebrated the magnificence of that single with its reissue on 12” vinyl for Record Store Day, and now they’re also set to release a deluxe version of its parent album Everything Must Go packed with B-sides, rarities and live tracks. Plus, there’s the forthcoming UK tour where the album will be played in its entirety much like the band did with The Holy Bible last year.
“It was massively hard work to play The Holy Bible” he says. “I know that sounds a bit sad, but it’s such a riddle of an album to play live. It takes a load of concentration. There’s not much freedom to it, and you have to get into that mind-set and intensity, whereas with Everything Must Go you can wallow in the glory of it. Its pores stretch out, and it gives you that uplifting melancholia that the Welsh are good at.”
The curtain comes down on the UK tour with a huge gig at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium. Despite vowing never to play in the city again after an infamous appearance at Singleton Park’s Heineken Festival in August 1993 when the band were heckled and pelted with bottles by a drunken crowd, Swansea generally holds treasured memories for Nicky.
“The magic of being in university there tumbling around with Richey, various nightclubs and pubs, kebab houses and Derrick’s Records. Playing at the Mandela (Swansea Students’ Union bar) and playing for the first time as a four-piece when Richey got onstage with us to do Sorrow 16. That was amazing, as was Brangwyn Hall when I belatedly got my degree presented in 2005.”
As well as the tour, another thing making Nicky immensely happy at the moment is the Welsh football team and he’s looking forward to the Euros, but this time without the usual sense of detachment.
“I think if we get our best team on the pitch, we’re going to be really hard to beat and could get through to the second round or quarter-finals. Then anything can happen. But for the first time in my lifetime I can celebrate and sit back this summer and think ‘God, we’re actually part of it all!’”
The Manics will also be celebrating qualification with the release of the team’s official Euro 2016 song Together Stronger (C’mon Wales) on 20 May with all profits going to the Princes Gate Trust and Tenovus Cancer Care.
Everything Must Go 20th Anniversary, Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Sat 28 May. Tickets: £39.50-£55. Info: www.manicstreetpreachers.com