POSTS TAGGED : Manic Street Preachers

(Video) Manic Street Preachers – Rewind The Film (ft. Richard Hawley)

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Yesterday the Manic Street Preachers unveiled the title track from new album Rewind The Film, which comes out in September. 

The album is one of two the band have apparently been working on simultaneously; one gentle acoustic and one spiky, with lots of guitars. Based on the evidence of ‘Rewind The Film’, we’re getting the acoustic one first. The Welsh rockers sound like their in a more reflective mood on this occasion, with Richard Hawley trading vocals with James Dean Bradfield. Hawley lends more than his voice to this brooding and cinematic number. Opening with delicately plucked guitar and the whisper of violins, it has his mark stamped all over it, before Dean Bradfield enters the fray with his impassioned vocals. A rather stirring lament which bodes well for the forthcoming new record. 

News of new Manics’ material also provides the perfect opportunity to share this little gem, which the band gave away recently. It’s another collaboration of sorts, with Gruff Rhys teaming up with The Manics for a rendition of ‘Let Robeson Sing’ at the O2. It’s slightly off the point but sure what’s not to like about Gruff Rhys teaming up with The Manics? Consequently (and controversially I’m sure) ‘Let Robeson Sing’ is taken from my favourite Manics’ album, Know Your Enemy.

You can check out the tracks below. The Manic’s will play Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on September 20th, days after the release of the album on September 16th.

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Welsh Wizards | Mixtape

This is a quite odd post even by my standards. This day ten years ago I upped sticks and moved to Wales, Wrexham to be precise, which explains all the Wrexham related tweets for anyone who follows me on Twitter.

Although I’m back in Ireland a few years now, it was one of my smarter moves & I retain a fondness for Wales as a country and the music it produces (although I don’t get over half as much as I’d like these days). Welsh music features quite prominently on the blog, something regular visitors are probably aware of. Apart from anything else it got me thinking and I decided to knock together a mixtape/compilation of some Welsh favourites from the past few years, with one or two older tracks thrown in for good measure.

So, without further waffling, here it is, some mighty fine weekend listening. Diolch. Mwynhewch.

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Video: Manic Street Preachers – This Is The Day

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Manic Street Preachers have unveiled the video of their new single ‘This Is The Day’, a cover of the 1983 track by The The.

The single is taken from the Manics’ forthcoming best of album, National Treasures, which features 37 of the bands previous single releases from a career spanning the past 21 years. The video includes wonderful footage of the band from the early 1990s right up to the present day.

This video pretty much sums up the reasons that make The Manics such a special band; combining boisterous rock and roll with often flagrant pretension and left-wing politics.

The band will perform all 38 singles at a special one off not to be missed show at London’s O2 Arena on December 17. It seems this will be their last activity for at least two years too.

Oxegen 2011 – Sunday – Ocean Colour Scene, Manic Street Preachers, Alex Metric and Primal Scream

Sunday was by far the weakest lineup of the weekend but still had a lot to offer. Over at the Heineken Green Spheres tent a sizable crowd was gathering for 90’s indie rock stalwarts Ocean Colour Scene. They have always had a big following in this country and the crowd enjoyed it, clapping and singing along perfusely as they ran through fan favourites like ‘Riverboat Song’ and ‘Profit and Peace’. It just all seemed a little tired and jaded, perhaps old father time is catching up with them.

There was a distinctly ’90s fervor to Sunday’s proceedings with the Manic Street Preachers next over on The Main Stage. This slot summed up everything I hate about the Main Stage at Oxegen. The Manics arrived on stage opening with ‘You Love Us’, ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’, ‘(Its Not War) Just the End of Love’ and ‘Everything Must Go’ before launching into a set full of classics. It was met with indifference from the majority of the crowd who seemed disinterested. For their part The Manics sounded exceptional and would have been much better suited to a later slot somewhere else.

It was a completely different story for Alex Metric who had drawn the largest crowd of the weekend into The Electric Ballroom and this time they were fully in tune with the storm being brewed from behind his turntables. Metric had the audacity to drop his Sabotage Remix, sending the place into a air-punching-frenzy, the highlight of the day.

How many bands can get away with playing a full album, a 20 year album in fact, at a festival? Probably just Primal Scream especially when it’s Screamadelica. The crowds may have been elsewhere but the atmosphere inside the Heinken tent was wonderful, warm and loved up. We were immediately treated to fully fleshed out versions of ‘Higher Than The Sun’ and ‘Moving On Up’ with mesmerizing gospel backing. It was clear Bobby Gillespie was as unworried about the numbers as the crowd was, spending the set strutting and swaggering, a superb frontman.

While it kind of waned a little during the middle finishing off with ‘Come Together’ and ‘Loaded’ almost lifted the roof off the Heineken tent with just enough time for ‘Country Girl’, ‘Jailbird’ and ‘Rocks’. Freed from the constraints of Screamadelica they seemed more comfortable in their rock persona sending people home happy in the cool night air. A joyous climax to a surprisingly amazing weekend.

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